Happy weekend y'all! If you're in Australia, I hope you have some indoor activities planned because it looks like a cold front is on it's way...
I have a reasonably uneventful weekend planned so I'm going to continue with my latest activity, to eliminate as much plastic in our life as possible. Why? The simple answer is, because we don't know what plastic is doing to our bodies AND our environment is too important to be contaminating it with plastic that doesn't degrade.
How am I going to do this do you ask, because as you know, most things are plastic or come in plastic wrap. Simply, I'm going to try to avoid plastic where I can (find an alternative).
Last weekend I started in the kitchen which is where our biggest consumption of plastic is. Instead of plastic enviro bags I'm switching to jute which are 100% biodegradable (and they look heaps prettier!)
All the plastic containers, jugs, and bowls (bar a few) got replaced with glass and stainless steel. Actually, I didn't even have to replace as much as I got rid of. I used to have a whole drawer dedicated to the kids plastic bowls, cups, forks, lunch boxes etc. I've simply got rid of the lot and now the kids use the same bowls, forks etc that we do. Simple (and I've got a whole drawer back to use for other stuff).
Pyrex (and even Kmart) have glass containers which have only plastic lids. Much better for heating up foods in the microwave. For fridge storage, I'm using these (above), ring lock jars (also from Kmart) which have no plastic other than a rubber seal or I keep the food left overs in a ceramic bowl or plate with a bit of aluminium foil (or another plate) over top.
For cakes and biscuits, I've gone back to my good ol cake tins (you know, the ones your Nanna always used). For kids lunches, I haven't yet found that I've completely got rid of the plastic but I have got rid of 50% of it. A stainless steel water bottle and paper bags/cloth lunch wrap if I send sandwiches or muffins. Yoghurt still goes in a plastic container, mainly because the daycare have a no glass policy.
Toothbrushes are now bamboo (100% biodegradable). Did you know that Australia puts 30 million plastic toothbrushes into landfill every year. Crazy!
I'm going to reduce the amount of fruit and veg that I freeze every year by preserving them into Fowlers jars instead. This is because I have to freeze everything in plastic. There's two bonuses to changing this way that I preserve, the first is that I'm not using as much plastic and the second is that I should be able to get rid of the second freezer, hence saving myself money by running it. I've already been increasing my Fowlers jar collection after buying a stack more from the local op shop this week.
I've also put a no junkmail sign on the letterbox. It was long overdue, I was getting millions of catalogues every week and I'm not much of a shopper so it was too much waste to bare.
And the last thing I've been doing is changing my shopping habits. I've been taking my own glass containers to the butcher and fishmonger who puts the food straight into that instead of into plastic bags. I've also been buying more unpackaged products from the bulk store/health food shop and again, taking my own containers/drawer string bags or using their paper bags (which I can put in the compost once I'm done). I even took my own jars to purchase honey and tahini from the bulk store by filling the jar from their big vat. That's two less containers that needs to be manufactured. Whoop!
The feng shui is amazing. I'm gaining more storage space back in my kitchen cupboards because I'm simplifying. Yes I need to be a little more organised but that's not a biggie (just another routine to add to the other million I have as a mother!)
Anyhoo, the kids will be home in a sec from their hair cut so I'll wrap this up. Have a good weekend and maybe think about how you can cut down your plastic consumption. I'll put some links below of products I've been using that can be purchased online. Have a fun weekend!
Toilet paper: http://au.whogivesacrap.org
Toothbrushes: http://www.floraandfauna.com.au
Shoes: http://www.toms.com/australia
Jute shopping bags: http://www.bangconsortium.com
Pyrex Australia: http://www.pyrexware.com
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