Shopping: we're still online grocery shopping partly because our local shopping centre is undergoing renovations that make shopping there a very depressing experience with shop closures due to the renovations limiting what we can actually buy and partly because walking around the shops is hard work for me. The downside to this is that due to the on-going pandemic the shopping is left at the front door in reusable plastic bags. While I'm not happy about this I don't see another option for us at present and at least these bags can be reused.
Cling wrap: I haven't used any since the beginning of July and Pisces finally seems to be realising that we have a cupboard full of reusable containers so has used very little, too, which I'm very pleased about.
Tea and Coffee: I've been using recyclable coffee pods and loose leaf tea for many years but we still have tea bags for the peppermint tea I like to drink. After hearing that most tea bags contain plastic I was even less keen on using them although as the peppermint ones do decompose in the compost they at least must be plastic free. Even so I would like to find a supplier of a loose leaf version of this tea but have had no luck. I do grow some peppermint but don't have the space to get a large enough yield to supply the amount we use. This is disappointing but I'll keep trying.
Recycling: I've been finding new places to recycle since our local council recycling is somewhat limited in what they accept. They won't take bottle tops for instance and are now refusing certain hard plastics. I've found a couple of locally charities which collect a wide range of items the Council doesn't and there's a whole bunch of 'stuff' ready to go there. I've also found a charity that takes old electronics so all that will be heading there. As well my decluttering has produced a pile of still usable items which are gradually making their way onto our local Buy Nothing site.
Could I have done better? Of course. Have I achieved something? Also yes - and, as I will be continuing these practices and adding to them I hope, I feel reasonably satisfied and intend to keep doing this into the future.
2 comments:
What you are doing is very commendable, Helen, and I should take a good deal of satisfaction from it if I were you. If everyone made an effort to reduce, and ultimately eliminate plastic, it would make a huge difference. It is simply not good enough for people to conclude that their "little bit" won't make a difference. And it is the very effort of trying and seeing the results that spur us on to even greater efforts. You are nothing less than a conservation hero!
Thank you for those kind words, David. I am trying to do my bit - and you're right that what each of us does is important. Having small grandchildren and worrying about the world they will have to live in is quite an incentive.
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