plaThere’s just so much of it - right? I’ve read a few articles this week and it is so overwhelming and depressing. You don’t ever want to touch the stuff again. The thought that plastic in the ocean could outweigh fish by 2050 is just crazy. More plastic in the ocean than fishes!! Whaaat?!
Plastic now pollutes every corner of Earth and we can’t just carry on as normal. But what do we do? The stuff is everywhere. There are a huge number of people who are doing amazing things - going completely plastic free. Erin Rhoads has blogged about her two years of living plastic freeand Bea Johnston has written a whole book on her not just zero
stic but completely zero waste lifestyle!! Amazing and inspiring reads. Right - no problem. We will no longer use plastic. Ok then.
We try to do most of our shopping once a month. So off we go to the shops. I am traumatised. Here’s me - shopping carefully, aware of every bit of plastic packaging and when we get home and unload out reusable shopping bags the amount of – now useless – plastic is still overwhelming. It’s at this point that I start to feel depressed about the whole thing. How on earth are we going to do this?
Although we buy loose veggies, the few we don’t get in our veggie box from Nitarah once a week, I look for bulk bags of whatever I need (still comes in plastic, just less), I’ll choose glass over plastic bottles, I’m buying ingredients instead of ready-made meals, sauces, pickle and preserves which cuts down on the number of bottles and packets I buy – and still we have a heap of plastic. And I can’t figure out a way to get rid of the plastic layer I have to add to my upcycled products I make either. It makes it stronger and makes the product last so much longer – but still. It’s there.
It’s all hopeless! What’s the point! We’re all going to die in a heap of suffocating plastic anyway!!
DON’T let this happen to you. We have a long way to go and I have to remind myself that every little bit helps. We are trying to change a generation or more of habit and lifestyle. We have to stop and think each time we purchase something or think about supper. We are all working full 9 to 5 and who has the time, we can only do the best we can. And a little bit is better than nothing. It will get better, it will get easier and with the more people trying, the easier it will be to carry on. It’s not impossible to cut plastic from our lives – it’s just damn difficult.
We have started by making small changes at home. The first habits we try to break are the ones where we automatically accept plastic. So we take our reusable shopping bags with to the shops, and if we forget to take them inside - we have to buy a new reusable bag or more often than not carry everything in our arms. It’s easier than you think to juggle milk, eggs and a bag of cat food. Buy products that come in glass instead of plastic. Buy in bulk, thereby reducing the quantity of plastic we consume and sometimes avoid it completely if you can bring your own container.
What we can’t avoid we try to recycle. I use most of our snack wrappers, etc., in my Upcycling work. I have also started using the thicker plastic packaging from cat food or washing powder bags as materials. We have limited recycling options in Grahamstown but we do what we can, we are about to sign up with a new, all local, company called Eco Bins Solutions and they should be able to take care of almost all our recycling needs. Oh, and just today, we started a facebook group for the people of Grahamstown to swop and sell thier excess homegrown fruit and veg, free range eggs etc. so that should be package free.
So the bottom line is - Never give up! Never surrender! Don’t let the immensity of the problem overwhelm you. Every little thing counts and it’s better to slowly change everyday habits than make huge temporary gestures. Next time I’ll share a few easy and effective ways in which we have been able to cut down our plastic use. Hopefully you’ll find it useful.
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