Where to start ?
When I first decided that I wanted to live a plastic free/zero waste life I began to look around the rooms in my house at what I could change without spending a fortune, and if you know me personally you’ll know that I love to make lists, give me a scrap piece of paper and i’ll write a list on it.
The first room on my list was the kitchen. I’ll talk about this room to begin with on this post and then talk you through other rooms in the next post.
What went on my list ?
Drinks bottle, Coffee cup, Tea strainer and loose tea, Shopping bags, Terracycle group (I’ll tell you about this further down the post)
It doesn’t seem like a massive list but I didn’t want to overwhelm myself by writing a huge list and failing before I even start. I already had a drinks bottle that I got bought by my lovely friend Elizabeth at work, its one of those infuser ones where you can put pieces of fruit in it, its for cold drinks which is great. As it was winter I did prefer one that I could use for a warm cup of tea (my other downfall, give me a cuppa any day) and I refused to buy a hot drink in a disposable cup. Where to find one, that was my next dilemma. I visited my local TK Maxx and found 2 one for Mr EGR and one for me. Yay we had started our on journey, (lets call it that) to plastic free. To be fair they were not very expensive at all and they’re still being used now. Mr EGR tends to use his more as he travels for a longer time than me. I use mine more when were going out.
My coffee cup is an ecoffee one in black, love the colour black I don’t know why. It doesn’t get used that often to be fair as I tend to always drink tea and forget to take it out. Hey I’m not perfect.
After endless tries to find loose tea that didn’t come in foil packaging I found PG Tips, yay and it tastes so good too. I purchased quite a few tea strainers if I’m being honest, ones that you swirl in your cup, ones that hang over the rim of your cup. I have my favourite one, sad I know but I do get attached to little things that work well for me.
Bags for life, oh I hate those plastic ones, strong word, maybe dislike, I don’t have any of them though so that's good, years ago I bought myself some hessian jute ones from Tesco's, you know when everyone went mad over the Orla Kiely designs. I still use them to this day when shopping but prefer a small one for if I’m just going to get loose fruit and veg. Even though back in January 2018 there wasn’t much of a choice of the fruit and veg you could find plastic free to what there is now (I used to go to the greengrocers and market every Saturday morning). Anyway back to bag situation. I found turtle bags and how wonderful these are, so impressed with them and everyone comments when I use them (positively I hasten to add).
Last but not least Terracycle, What’s this ? I hear you ask. I can’t remember how I found out about this group, probably spent way too much time on Google and before you know it, you’ve found something and haven’t a clue how you found it. Anyway Terracycle is a website in the Uk and the US helping people and companies eliminate waste, well the things that you cant seem to recycle (coffee capsules, pens etc). It is basically is trying to help by not sending waste to landfill. It offers collection programmes. I joined the cracker and biscuit wrapper recycling programme. (because we all know you cant recycle biscuit wrappers). Im trying not to eat biscuits one because of the plastic but also they seem to contain palm oil. I have found a biscuit in Aldi that is palm oil free in a box but the biscuits come wrapped and in a black tray. Here's the link should you want to have a look for yourself and see what it is all about. https://www.terracycle.co.uk/en-GB
That's a quick round up of how I started, catch you all soon
Suzanne