Adventures without plastic

Eek, this is becoming more normal! And we’re starting to see the fun. We got some junk mail today in a brown envelope with a see through window. We assume the window is plastic so we’re sending it back in the helpful self addressed pre-paid envelope! Because we’re running low on yeast, mum has made a sour dough starter which is ace because we love sourdough bread. And it’s easy. You just whisk a cup of flour and a cup of warm water together and then leave it until it starts to bubble then you add another cup of flour and another cup of warm water. I’ll let you know how it goes. We’re getting worried about pet food now. We had already gone to using tins of dog food but it’s cheaper to buy them in packs of 6 but they come wrapped in... you guessed it, plastic :-( I don’t get why or even how it’s cheaper to buy 6 cans with plastic than 6 cans without. How does that make sense- you pay less to get something extra that you don’t want?! We also have hens to feed and their food comes in ...

Day 15 This may be a different size text but that is just because I am writing this on a phone and I can't change the text size. But today we are now starting to run out of the things packaged in plastic that we already had, such as pet food, pasta and yeast. Because we have been making so much of our own bread, we’re running very low on dried yeast which comes in a metal tin but with a plastic lid and fresh usually comes in cling film and isn’t so easy to get. Another thing is frozen peas as they only come in a plastic bag but if anyone knows of somewhere that sells loose frozen peas, that would be very helpful to know :) That is all really for today.

Hooray, we've made it to 2 weeks without, or nearly without buying any plastic. It's made us and it's making others think about how much plastic we use and throw away. We are blessed with kerbside rubbish collection and recycling which is fantastic - can you imagine carrying your dustbin to the tip every week?, but means we don't have to think about what happens to it all once it's left our house. Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me... So, you may have guessed, we've had a birthday. It turns out that only one shop in Kendal (after looking very hard) has some birthday cards not wrapped in plastic. 😳 only one! It also turns out that you can't buy ice cream without plastic anymore. Mum says it used to come in a cardboard box and you could cut slices off of it. Now, the best you can get (when you're thinking about plastic) is a cardboard container with a plastic/paper seal. Still, I got excellent presents and home-made cards and dinner out and mum ma...

Yesterday was Sunday and we had a lovely walk in the South Western Lake District. A quieter part of the Lakes, and yet we still encountered McDonald's drinks containers and broken straws, needless to say we picked up what we found and deposited it in the bin. But that only partly solves the problem. It removes the immediate risk of the wild birds and rodents or the sheep or cattle grazing from eating the litter and coming to harm. But the plastic will end up in landfill where it won't ever break down and has the potential to make our soil toxic and harm animals and people in the future with goodness knows what unforeseen unintended consequences. We have also had some really great news. Mum has been trying to find beeswax (that isn't packaged in plastic) so she can help others make beeswax wraps. She got in touch with our local beekeeper a association who've said they think they can help which is brilliant. Thank you Kendal Beekeepers :) Mum hasn't been able to get c...

I thought I'd get mum to share some recipes as she is doing lots of extra cooking I don't know about you but we love wraps. We love fajitas, enchilladas, burritos, wraps with houmous and grated carrot for packed lunches, wraps to mop up leftover curry, wraps with sausages and ketchup for a picnic tea snuck into the cinema, wraps with banana and chocolate spread for an emergency breakfast... Wraps, tortillas, flat breads, chapatis... They're cheap, quick and versatile. They also come wrapped in, you guessed it, PLASTIC (and they're usually filled with unnecessary additives, but that's for another challenge!) Wraps are not only quick to fill, they're easy and quick to make: INGREDIENTS: * Some flour (plain is best for flour tortillas, wholemeal is good for chapatis, masa harina is difficult to get fresh but if you can, it'll make corn tortillas) * Some water * Natural Yoghurt (if you want chapatis) about 1tbsp per cup of flour. * A pinc...

Day 10 all done and dusted, well nearly. We have finally found a place to get honey that doesn't cost £6 or more and peanut butter which has no plastic lid. We thought we'd managed to buy cheese without plastic too but... Even though we had a long conversation and specifically said, "please could we have it without plastic" and it looked like it was being wrapped in brown paper, it is actually wrapped in plasticised paper 😖. So in Kendal, there are 4 supermarkets: Aldi, Asda, Booths and Morrisons. (Sainsburys hasn't opened yet). Morrisons suggested we get a piece pre-wrapped cheese and they'd dispose of the plastic; Asda don't even give you that choice; we haven't checked at Aldi but assume it's much the same as Asda as they don't have a cheese counter and Booths use plastic coated paper. Sadly we don't have a cheese shop. The other things we noticed today: * weetabix looks like it's still wrapped in paper but if you look closely, it...

Every day that we live this adventure without plastic, I'm forced to think about the repercussions of a plastic-free life. The world I grew up in had very little plastic. (Yes I'm that old). The supermarkets gave you paper bags. Meat got wrapped in wax paper, strawberries came in cardboard punnets and mushrooms were sold in big cardboard baskets with metal handles. My gran used to cut worn sheets in half and swap the halves over and re-stitch them. Everyone (or at least most people) used handkerchiefs. Plastic was reserved for hazelnut yoghurt unless we got loseley (which came in glass jars) and mousses that came frozen with paper lids. Fish and chips were sold in newspaper. Polystyrene was only used in packing expensive electrical goods. Bottled water didn't exist. Today, bottled water sells in individual portion bottles in packs of 6 wrapped in more plastic. I went out in the rain today and I was hugely grateful for my waterproof coat- made of plastic, barring my t-shirt,...