Back to plastic?
- 31 Aug 08, 03:21 PM GMT
My plastic-free challenge is almost over.
In part, I'm relieved, as it's been hard work to deal with such a big restriction on what we as a family can buy and eat.
I'm looking forward to little things like yoghurt (yoghurt pots are polystyrene, I never did find it in glass), crisps and celery.
My husband is particularly keen to see bin bags making a reappearance in the kitchen. And, truth be told, so am I, but will I revert back to all my previous plastic-wrapped ways tomorrow? I don't think so.
I will be writing a piece about my conclusions this week (look out for it on the Magazine index) but until then - and barring any plastic blowouts in the final few hours! - here is the full list of plastic I accumulated this month:
- 62 Disposable nappies (made with bio-plastic)
- 15 Nappy bags
- 4 Small juice bottles and 1 big one
- 5 Lids to glass bottles
- 4 Drinking straws
- 1 Packet of nappy wipes
- 1 Plastic cup
- 1 Fork
- 4 Containers from takeaway meal
- 1 Strawberry punnet
- 1 Carrier bag
- 2 Milk bottles
- 1 Lid to a jar of chilli sauce
- 1 Wrapping from a wooden toothbrush
- 4 Pieces of sticky clothes cleaning paper
- 1 Paper / polystyrene cup
- 1 Balloon stick
- 2 Takeaway tea lids
- 4 Beer widgets
GRAND TOTAL: 116 items
For comparison, the previous month's tally was 603 items including 120 nappies, 68 cups or lids, 33 milk or drinks bottles, 22 food trays / pots, 37 carrier bags and 67 other food packets.
So although I found it impossible to give up plastic completely, I have cut my plastic waste by 80% this month.
Finally, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on the blog.
The views, experiences and knowlege you have shared are far wider than any one person could muster and you have illuminated the complexities of this topic enormously.
Top tips from plastic-free bloggers
- 30 Aug 08, 10:10 AM GMT
There is an internet community of people blogging about reducing plastic in their lives (see blogroll) and they have all been at it far longer than I have.
So I asked some of the most prolific non-plastic bloggers for their top tips for easy ways to reduce plastic consumption.
Californian environmentalist Beth Terry writes Fake Plastic Fish, a comprehensive and witty blog.
Her tips are:
- Quit bottled water and opt for a reusable aluminum or stainless steel bottle (I use a Klean Kanteen, which is stainless steel) filled with tap water.
- Quit taking plastic bags from grocery stores and carry your own reusable bags. This can be hard to remember if you're thinking of those big canvas bags. But little nylon bags can fold up tiny and fit in a purse or briefcase or backpack so one never has to be without a bag.
- Quit taking plastic produce bags from grocery stores! It's okay if apples and oranges touch one another. If you don't need a produce bag, don't take one.
- Keep your own tableware at the office (cup/mug, plate, utensils, bowl, etc.) to wash and reuse.
- Bring a to-go container/utensils with you when dining out to bring home leftovers. Yes, it takes some getting use to to remember to do it. I use the little metal tiffins from To-Go Ware and also have a cute set of their bamboo cutlery that is lightweight and comes in its own little carrying case.
She adds: "The biggest thing I do to avoid plastic is to shop natural foods stores that have bulk bins where I can fill up my own container, but I hesitate to put that on a list of easy things to do because many folks don't have access to stores like that."
Sustainable Dave is another Californian and the author of 365 Days of Trash - not, in itself a non-plastic blog but one which chronicles his family's attempts to limit all their waste.
He advises:
- Think differently - make decisions ahead of time and pre-think your needs/purchases. Simply training yourself to bring a re-usable bag to the store will save you a ton of plastic bags
- Carry around a re-usable water bottle, coffee mug, silverware set, and foldable bowl. It sounds like a lot, but seriously, how much stuff is in your backpack/bag/briefcase right now that you don't need? [See Dave's great video on this topic]
- Head back to glass bottled milk - it's the way it was done for a long time and there's a reason for that, it works!
- Ask yourself, what did they do 50 years ago before plastic was around. The answer is usually there.
- Recognize that disposable is a word made up by businessmen whose only criteria is that you will throw an item away and buy another one.
- Finally, acknowledge that just because it's the way everyone does it, doesn't mean it's good. Examine your lifestyle, investigate the consequences of your actions, and ask yourself "Is this something I really want to be a part of"?
Life Less Plastic echos the above points and adds some extra ones of her own:
- Do Some Baking: Lots of baked goods that usually come packed in plastic can be made easily at home. Favorite examples include cookies and bread. Note that breadmakers turn baking bread into an easy task and are simple to find at local thrift stores and garage sales.
- Enjoy Slow Food: Among the many ills of fast food, it's almost impossible to avoid plastic packaging when eating at a place like McDonald's. That means it's time to slow down and start cooking your own meals. If you're new to cooking, Allrecipes.com has an amazing collection of user-reviewed recipes.
- Kick Your Soda Habit: We consume billions of bottles and cans of soda each year (note that aluminum cans are lined with plastic to prevent the aluminum from leaching into your soda). To avoid this waste and possible health consequences, pour yourself a glass of agua from the tap.
- Use Natural Cleaning Products: Products like baking soda and vinegar don't have to come packed in plastic and are multi-purpose and effective. Learn more about natural cleaning products to reduce your plastic consumption.
And my own top tip? I've said it before but it has to be the reusable water bottle - such an easy habit to get into, cheap and simple.
Once a month
- 29 Aug 08, 11:17 AM GMT
As several people rightly pointed out on yesterday's post, I have neglected to tackle the issue of sanitary protection. I meant to write about it in the bathroom post but forgot - so here goes.
It is an important waste issue, as women in the UK throw away 4.3 billion items a year - which either go to landfill, incineration or get flushed away and risk ending up on beaches or in the sea.
Thankfully, this last problem has significantly reduced since the Marine Conservation Society and other bodies launched their Bag It and Bin It campaign. But it has yet to be eliminated.
The average age for onset of menstruation is now 12.5 years and a woman can expect to continue having periods until she is about 50, meaning 37.5 years of using sanitary protection (with a year or so off for each pregnancy).
According to a report by the Women's Environmental Network (pdf) it's estimated that this adds up to 12,000 tampons and towels in a lifetime.
Modern slimline sanitary towels work in much the same way as a disposable nappy. The core of the pad contains sodium polyacrylate gel crystals which absorb moisture. A plastic backing sheet protects underwear and a porous top-sheet keeps the wearer feeling dry.
Tampons are largely cotton but tend to have a proportion of rayon - a cellulose-based fibre which is man-made but not synthetic. They may have plastic or cardboard applicators, while non-applicator tampons tend to be individually wrapped in plastic and have plastic wrapping around the box.
There are plastic-free tampons, such as Natracare, which are 100% organic cotton (and plastic-free towels), but these still have to be disposed of. If landfilled they will be subject to the same problems as any other biodegradable material.
However there are also a range of reusable options, such as washable sanitary towels that fasten into underwear with poppers or Velcro.
After use, they are soaked and can be washed along with a normal load. Many stockists of cloth nappies also sell reusable sanitary towels such as the Minx Pad, pictured right, and instructions for making your own can be found here.
Menstrual cups such as the Mooncup or Keeper are another alternative. These are made from silicone or rubber and are worn internally. They are emptied after a few hours, washed and put back in place.
Finally, natural sponges can be used, although the Women's Environmental Network does not recommend them.
Any of the above options would take some getting used to and experimentation to find the one which suits best but it's worth knowing that alternatives to disposables do exist.
This week I have accumulated:
- One lid from glass fizzy water bottle with plastic lining and ring around it
- Two drinking straws in a restaurant - I asked for no straws but the drink came with them anyway
- 12 bio-plastic disposable nappies - we did well early in the week, until our son fell ill on Wednesday night and this precipitated a switch back to disposables
- One bag of nappy wipes - while made of paper, the packaging is plastic. I have been using washable wipes, but not all the time
- Three small juice bottles - one from London Zoo (which has recycling facilities) and two from coffee shops
On Sunday I will post a full list of all the plastic I have got through in the month.
London bans plastic water bottles
- 28 Aug 08, 03:19 PM GMT
London, Ontario that is. The Canadian city's council last week voted to cease sales of bottled water at municipal buildings and facilities including parks and community centres.
The restrictions will begin on 1 September but will only apply to locations where water fountains or other easy ways of accessing drinking water are available.
Councillors, who voted 15-3 in favour of the move, say it is aimed at cutting the 40 million plastic drinks bottles sold in the city each year, of which only half are recycled.
The ban follows similar initiatives in other North American cities including Seattle earlier this year and San Francisco last year. In January, Chicago added a 5 cent tax to bottled water sold in the city.
This side of the pond, Liverpool council voted for a similar ban in 2007.
The new mayor of London, UK, Boris Johnson has promised to look into "a new era" of public water fountains in the city and the previous mayor, Ken Livingstone, launched a campaign to get customers in restaurants to ask for tap water, rather than bottled.
One of my new habits which I do think I will continue once September comes is to carry an aluminium water bottle around with me.
It really is just as easy as buying a new plastic one each time and at £2.99 for the bottle, it has paid for itself within a few refills from the tap.
Aisle be there
- 27 Aug 08, 10:22 AM GMT
It may seem from my posts about farmers' markets, local butchers and fruit stalls that I have shunned supermarkets this month. This is not the case.
I have managed to find a decent amount of non-plastic goods in several major outlets, from naked cucumbers and boxed rice in Lidl to lasagne in cardboard and crackers in paper at Sainsbury's.
That said, my choices have been extremely limited and if I want the convenience of one-stop shopping come September, I will have to go back to plastic.
Every food retailer is aware that packaging is a hot issue, and plastic packaging is arguably the hottest.
Waste Minister Joan Ruddock says at least a third of her postbag is about excess wrapping, much of it railing against plastic pollution.
But more than half of our food is now wrapped in the stuff: is this for consumers' benefit or that of the retailers?
Both, argues Marks and Spencer's head of packaging, Dr Helene Roberts. Lightweight plastics, she says, enable the customer to get their food protected in the optimum way for the least cost - both environmental and financial.
"Plastics are hugely efficient and on a carbon footprint basis they're very effective. They also provide a range of options: I could put meat into one [type of] plastic wrapping and it wouldn't last a day. I can put it into another and it will last 21 days."
The 21 day example she cites is vacuum packaging for steaks and joints as an alternative to the usual rigid plastic meat tray with a film lid.
It is not recyclable because it is made from seven layers of different plastics - but it is, she says, 69% lighter than the tray option, meaning there is less to transport and less to landfill at the end.
However, to aid recycling, the company is also looking to simplify its plastic packaging across the board so that in general terms it will only use three types: PET, HDPE and polypropylene (PP).
But, says Dr Roberts, consumers "should not have to be material scientists" and sort plastic packaging at home, a mixed plastics infrastructure needs to be in place so all trays and bags can be thrown in together by the householder and sorted at recovery facilities.
Under the 2005 Courtauld Commitment the UK's major food retailers pledged to halt packaging waste growth by this year (achieved in July) and reduce packaging waste by 2010.
Tesco says it is saving over 1,000 tonnes of plastic a year by doubling the concentration of its orange squash so the same amount of diluted drink can be obtained from bottles half the size.
Meanwhile, Morrisons has introduced new bags for cauliflower and broccoli which it calculates will save 85 tonnes of packaging per year; Asda has focussed on cutting the weight of its glass jars and bottles and Sainsbury has introduced recycled bottles and compostable food bags and trays.
Marks and Spencer is next week launching a new range of packaging for its pizzas which will cut out almost 500 tonnes of cardboard and 83 tonnes of plastic.
I am not defending the big food retailers in all their packaging choices - I doubt I will ever understand plastic-wrapped lemons for instance (didn't nature do that job rather well?) - but the Courtauld Commitment efforts are beginning to feel like the top goal of the waste hierarchy: to reduce first, then reuse and then recycle.
In the bathroom cabinet
- 26 Aug 08, 01:59 PM GMT
My fridge is a plastic-free zone but the bathroom is a different matter, with plastic bottles and tubs, disposable razors and even products containing plastic.
Hygiene, personal preference and regard for anyone who comes within 10 feet of me all dictate that giving up toiletries is not an option, so, what's a girl to do?
Well, the first thing to point out is that bottles for shampoo and similar products are often easily recyclable.
They tend to be made from HDPE or PET, the same plastic as milk or water bottles, and can be recycled in the same way.
Furthermore they can also be made from recycled plastic. The Body Shop has just announced that its Wellbeing range will be packaged in 100% post consumer recycled plastic.
But hang on, doesn't the Body Shop (now owned by French beauty industry giant L'Oreal) offer refills of its products?
Once but no longer, according to a spokeswoman for the firm. Uptake was reportedly poor as customers found the hassle of remembering the old bottle inconvenient and the policy was ditched in 2003.
One non-plastic option is to lather up with a shampoo bar - a solid version of the liquid stuff. These can get a little messy to transport if you're going on holiday but Lush sells a tin to keep its round bars in.
A more hardcore alternative espoused by some other bloggers such as Life Less Plastic and Fake Plastic Fish is to abandon commercial shampoo completely and use bicarbonate of soda with a vinegar rinse.
Apparently this "no 'poo" regime (as it's known) starts to work after a couple of weeks of greasiness. I am sceptical but I have to admit being too chicken to try it so far.
Bicarbonate of soda is also hailed as an effective deodorant by some. Again I have my doubts but I had my doubts about the wool nappy too and that does work so maybe when my current roll-on finally runs out I will dare to try it.
There are also BO-bashers available with mainly glass packaging or a small amount of plastic although some of the more "natural" ones have received mixed reviews.
Shaving is without plastic is tricky. Men can go for an old school cut-throat razor but I'm not taking one of those to my ankles although I am willing to give a metal safety razor a go.
My usual product is a pack of 10 disposable razors, packed in a plastic bag with two plastic holders, none of which is currently recyclable.
In the US, Recycline offers disposable razors made from recycled plastic and will take back the used razors.
Wax strips suffer from the same problem as throwaway razors in that they are designed to be discarded after use.
But hot wax or sugaring can be done using reusable cotton strips (although some products wash off better than others).
Finally, skin care and cosmetics. As well as being packaged in plastic, products such as exfoliants can contain microscopic plastic beads, as this article from Slate Magazine explains.
Nail varnish contains synthetic polymers and lengthening mascara can achieve its effect by adding polyester fibres to lashes.
And then there's the packaging - almost all cosmetics are largely packaged in plastic although some companies are experimenting with card and metal combinations.
It's all hugely difficult to navigate. But there are some easy changes: I've ditched cotton wool (packaged in plastic) and gone back to a flannel for cleansing my face. Not an exfoliating micro-bead in sight.
Soleful
- 22 Aug 08, 01:28 PM GMT
Cheap buying is dear buying, as the old Lancashire saying goes. But I ignored it earlier in the summer when I bought a £15 pair of sandals which have now, unsurprisingly, fallen apart.
They are definitely uncobblable so I'm on the hunt for another pair - and I do need them as I'm not a shoe queen with hundreds stashed in the wardrobe.
The old pair had leather uppers with plastic heels and soles, a popular and economical combination for High Street shoes.
You can get footwear made totally from leather, but, as with many of the other non-plastic products I have looked at, this in no way equates to being "greener".
Leather tanning tends to be an environmentally taxing process, involving large amounts of hazardous chemicals and chromium salts.
However, some eco shoe manufacturers now offer leather which has been tanned in other ways.
London-based Terra Plana uses chrome-free and vegetable tanned leathers.
Under its Worn Again brand, the company also recycles materials from as diverse sources as seat belts, parachutes and blankets and turns these into new shoes.
US company Simple sells shoes soled with old car tyres and tied with recycled polyester laces.
And earlier this year sports shoe giant Adidas brought out its Grun range which makes use of recycled materials and easily renewable fabrics such as bamboo and hemp.
Natural rubber (latex) is also popular with several shoe firms. London-based Ethletic claims to the be the first in the world to use fairly traded Forest Stewardship Council certified rubber for its flip-flops and canvas shoes.
As for unwanted pairs of old shoes, those in reasonable condition can be recycled either at council shoe banks or by donating them to charity shops.
But for a more radical approach, Nike's reuse-a-shoe scheme gives cast-off trainers (of any brand) a new lease of life as playground and sports track surfaces.
But my broken pair of cheapo sandals are not suitable for reuse or even grinding down so they will have to be binned. Cheap buying is indeed dear buying.
Plastic I have accumulated this week:
- One disposable cup at a picnic
- One fork at a barbeque
- Two drinking straws (child's drink)
- One punnet of strawberries and a carrier bag. My husband went out for a paper last Sunday morning and came back with these. I almost didn't let him back in the house! He did look very sheepish and said he had simply forgotten.
- Four takeaway trays. We ordered from our local Thai place which used to use foil cartons. Turns out they have switched to plastic. They also threw in a plastic bag of prawn crackers and a free soft drink (bottle of water). It was all very delicious however.
- 13 disposable nappies containing corn-starch based plastic. An increase on last week and seems to indicate that I probably didn't buy enough reusable nappies in the first place as I am still having trouble getting them washed and dried. Maybe mix and match is the best I can do on this front.
Junk raft meets Savage boat
- 20 Aug 08, 12:45 PM GMT
A tale of serendipity and human ingenuity has emerged on two blogs being updated from the Pacific.
The two-man crew of a raft made from plastic bottles and a British woman rowing solo across the Pacific have managed to meet mid-ocean for dinner and a vital sharing of water.
The sail-powered Junk raft, steered by Dr Marcus Eriksen from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation and film-maker Joel Paschal, met up with rower Roz Savage, 600 miles east of Hawaii.
Each found out about the other's proximity via avid readers of their respective blogs and, over many days, engineered a rendezvous for a meal of mahi mahi and a good old chin wag.
Roz Savage's two water makers had both broken so the Junk pair were able to help her out from their own supply, and, as the weather has since turned hotter she now says this may have even saved her life.
After some difficulties with satellite phones and timezones (were they on Hawaii time, 11 hours behind UK time or Pacific time, eight hours behind?) I managed to speak to Dr Eriksen.
He said it was "wonderful" to meet up with Ms Savage in the middle of the ocean and added that the achievement was "one of the highlights of my life".
Read the full story here.
Dr Eriksen and Mr Paschal are making the voyage to draw attention to the plastic pollution in the North Pacific gyre - the circling ocean currents which concentrate debris (you can see a sample of seawater from the "plastic soup" in the North Pacific below).
He said: "There are nine gyres in the world and we assume that every one of them is hoarding plastic.
"We can find plastic on every beach around the world. All the oceans are linked and they are all exchanging nutrients and debris.
"Plastics have been found in or around the bodies of 267 species. Entanglement is a huge issue for marine mammals and also many sea creatures eat plastic.
"Plastics in the marine environment are like sponges for toxins like DDT, other pesticides, PCBs, another group called PAHs that come from the burning of fossil fuels.
"They stick to plastic and what happens is a plastic particle becomes a toxic pill.
"So the animal consumes these plastics or debris thinking they are food and those toxins will likely come through plastic into the animal's body. They can then appear up the food chain and potentially onto your dinner plate."
It's just not the Pacific which is affected by plastic debris, the UK's Marine Conservation Society says plastic is the number one litter item on British beaches too.
Non-plastic picnicking
- 18 Aug 08, 12:16 PM GMT
Avoiding plastic is all very well when it just impacts on my own choices but trying to keep it up in company is more difficult.
Some friends organised a picnic on Saturday which was lovely - we even had sunny weather.
I had made sure that the food we contributed was plastic-free: two pizzas from a bakery, paper bags of cherries and tomatoes, a wax-wrapped cheese and drinks in glass bottles.
But I fell down on the receptacles: I forgot to bring any cups and our hosts had plastic disposable ones. I didn't even realise what I was doing until half way through the first "glass" and I wasn't going to be so churlish as to protest.
Everyone had metal cutlery and paper plates so we were "safe" on that score.
There are, however, many other non-plastic options for disposable tableware.
Plates can be made from bamboo, cassava starch, reed starch or bagasse - the waste fibre from pressing sugar cane.
Wooden cutlery is available as well as bio-plastic versions made from corn or potato starch mixed with vegetable oil.
The manufacturers claim that their products are compostable or biodegradable under the right conditions.
However, as with all biodegradable products, the challenge is ensuring they end up in a composter (whether home or large scale) or anaerobic digester rather than landfill.
When biodegradable matter breaks down in the low oxygen environment of a landfill site it creates the powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
Some of the methane is captured by a system of pipes and can be used as fuel but the rest escapes into the air.
Latest government estimates (2007 provisional) put the amount of methane emissions from UK landfill at 0.96 million tonnes, 41% of the UK total of 2.3 million tonnes.
In an anaerobic digester the same biodegradation process occurs but because it is a closed unit, all the biogas (methane and carbon dioxide) can be trapped and used for energy.
Composting works aerobically and so does not create methane.
But Friends of the Earth's senior waste campaigner Mike Warhurst warns against assuming that just because something is bio-degradable it's "greener".
"I'm seeing a lot of confusion happening where people are using disposable items and then implying that they're good because they're biodegradable.
"Whatever it is it required energy to make it. So if you're in a café, you're far better off having a cup which is washed up than having so-called biodegradable cups.
"There's not much point in stuff being biodegradable if it goes in your normal rubbish bin and ends up in landfill or in an incinerator."
Which is also where that non-biodegradable plastic cup I used at the picnic is destined.
Beefed up
- 15 Aug 08, 02:00 PM GMT
The butcher was a little bemused when I asked him to wrap the chicken breasts in greaseproof paper but said "yes of course" and went to get some sheets from a hook on the wall.
I had brought my own just in case, as I wasn't sure butchers even used paper any more.
He confirmed that plastic sheets and bags had been in use for at least 20 years but said that he would still sometimes wrap a joint in paper.
I got some minced beef which he parcelled up in the same way, with a warning that I should transfer it to a container when I got home so it didn't dry out.
So I made sure I used the mince that evening and put the chicken straight in the freezer as letting meat (especially beef) go off is not only expensive, it is environmentally wasteful because of the amount of resources required in raising the animal.
Meat packs bought from a supermarket shelf last longer than those from a butcher's counter because they are contained in "modified atmosphere packaging" in which some or all of the oxygen from air is replaced with carbon dioxide and nitrogen.
This inhibits rotting and bacterial growth and means the meat has a longer shelf life.
Some producers also use vacuum packaging for meat which slows the rate at which it goes off by removing all the air.
Buying my meat from butcher was more expensive than grabbing some packs from the supermarket but the quality was very high.
The editor of the Meat Trades Journal, Ed Bedington, said that while the number of high street independent butchers had fallen dramatically in the past 30 years, the decline appeared to have levelled off and customers appreciated a good butcher.
"The key reason that butchers have kept in business is if they are good. If they have great service, top quality and a good choice of products then they have survived."
Mr Bedington added that the number of farm shops where farmers sold direct to the customer was growing fast, raising the choice for rural shoppers.
But back to my plastic tally. This week I have accumulated:
- 1 litre bottle of milk as the doorstep delivery didn't turn up (the dairy have apologised and say I should receive my order tomorrow).
- 1 lid from a jar of chilli sauce - I had already started cooking when I realised that the jar had a plastic "overlid" which contained the spice mix powder.
- 1 small piece of plastic wrapping from the head of the wooden toothbrush.
- 4 crown caps from bottles of beer. I was interested to read comment #42 from Oceaneer in Australia on this post who said that the plastic from this type of cap gets eaten by marine life who mistake it for young jellyfish.
- Several sheets of sticky clothes-cleaning paper on a tear-off roll. This was needed because I put a couple of nappies in with a dark wash - big mistake, everything came out covered in a fine layer of white fluff.
- 11 disposable nappies made with bio-plastic. Mainly used at nursery although they have now offered to use the cloth nappies. Plus, to my complete surprise, I managed to get the wool nappy to work. My son looks like he's wearing a Victorian bathing costume but he has had 100% dry nights in it so far.
Pop goes my drinks choice
- 14 Aug 08, 02:58 PM GMT
That aluminium can is not only metal, your cardboard drinks carton is more than just cardboard and a disposable coffee cup is unlikely to be mere cardboard and wax.
Given that plastic is very good at being waterproof it is perhaps unsurprising that many drinks containers have a plastic lining - although this knowledge is making it very difficult for me to get a drink when I am out and about.
In the case of aluminium fizzy drinks cans, the lacquer lining is to stop the acid in the beverage from eating into the metal which would weaken the can and taint the drink.
As shown on the website of colourful US television science presenter Steve Spangler, it is possible to dissolve the outside of the can to reveal the thin polymer (resin) inner.
However, this does not affect aluminium's status as one of the most fully recyclable materials.
Furthermore, the lacquers are burnt off in the recycling process and the resulting gasses used to help power the furnace.
Cartons used for juice, milk, soup and other liquids are made up from layers of paperboard and low density polyethylene (LDPE).
Those which need a long shelf life also have a layer of aluminium foil to protect the contents from light and oxygen.
In the past, this mix of materials has made cartons problematic to recycle but the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (Ace UK) has funded a £1.5 million recycling programme across the UK.
Most local authorities do not allow cartons in doorstep recycling collections because they do not have the sorting facilities to deal with them.
However, 85% now have recycling points where residents can take their cartons - although this may mean extra car journeys.
The Ace UK website has a map showing which councils collect cartons, as well as details of a postal scheme.
The collected cartons are baled and shipped to a Swedish paper mill for recycling - a process in which the cartons are mushed with water to form a grey sludge which is used to form new paper. The polyethylene and aluminium are used to help power the mill.
The UK's leading carton manufacturer, Tetra Pak, says it offsets the carbon emissions involved in shipping the bales to Scandinavia.
A paper mill in Fife which used to take cartons, closed at the end of 2006 but a new British facility is currently under discussion.
Finally, waxed paper cups. These do still exist, made from cardboard with a paraffin or microcrystalline wax coating.
However, many cups, especially those used for hot drinks, are coated with a thin layer of polyethylene.
In a recent development, some manufacturers have started using a bio-plastic - corn-based polylactic acid (PLA) - instead of polyethylene.
This means the cups can be composted although this is not necessarily a preferable option to recycling.
Environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth also argue we should be cutting down on disposable items, no matter what material they are made from.
All of which leaves me with limited options for drinks on the go: at the moment, it's water, water or water.
I'm starting to miss plastic...
- 13 Aug 08, 02:29 PM GMT
Especially bin bags as the kitchen bin is starting to pong and I have a pang of dismay each time I open it and realise I can't just scrape what I like in there without wrapping it first.
The milk situation has also soured: the delivery didn't turn up this morning. It's not clear if this was a mistake at the depot or whether it has been nicked but so far it's looking like the former.
The last remaining pint from the previous delivery had been sloshed across the kitchen floor by the youngest member of the household who is used to plucking plastic bottles from the fridge with impunity.
So this morning I had to go and buy some more before any of us could have breakfast.
As I said in my previous post about milk, it is a close run thing as to whether glass or HDPE milk bottles have the greatest overall environmental impact.
But buying that bottle of milk this morning certainly breaks the terms of this experiment which is to attempt to live without buying new plastic for a month.
The aim of doing so is to look at the pros and cons of the way that we use and dispose of plastic.
I think I found another downside to going plastic-free this morning when I bought a loaf from the baker.
The woman offered to slice it, I accepted and then realised it would have to go in a paper bag, which I suspect will mean it goes stale more rapidly than in plastic (or an unsliced loaf in paper).
I have wrapped it in a reusable shopping bag to try to extend its lifespan.
And the cloth nappies which I put on the line to dry have been rained on twice today.
Yes, I am definitely missing plastic.
Toothy grin?
- 11 Aug 08, 01:47 PM GMT
The apparently innocuous plastic toothbrush can turn into a wildlife hazard if junked improperly.
Scientists studying seabirds in the North Pacific have found toothbrushes (and many other plastic objects) in the stomachs of dead birds.
And founder of the Blue Ocean Institute, Carl Safina, describes in his book Eye of the Albatross how he watched an albatross on Hawaii trying to regurgitate a toothbrush as food for its chick.
Dentists recommend changing your toothbrush every three months so that's about 12 per year for our three-person household.
Admittedly, our dozen are unlikely to end up as ocean pollution but they will still go to landfill along with our other plastic waste.
My plastic toothbrush was looking a bit dog-eared so I searched for an alternative and found a wooden toothbrush with natural bristles (aka sterilised pig bristles) which technically could be composted at the end of its lifespan.
The head was wrapped in a little bit of plastic but nothing like the all encompassing packaging for a normal toothbrush.
At £3.99 it was, however, about double the price of a normal toothbrush.
It is designed for a toddler but feels very similar to a basic adult toothbrush. And, once I'd got over the slightly odd idea of putting pig bristles in my mouth (although I'm not sure why it felt odd seeing as I'm not a vegetarian) it was fine.
Another option would have been to use a "chewing stick" - a traditional African and Asian way of cleaning teeth using twigs from certain plants such as the neem tree.
Toothpaste also comes in plastic packaging: even those brands which are available in a metal tube have a plastic lining and cap.
We haven't run out of paste as yet but I have tried making my own dentifrice (as it's properly known), with bicarbonate of soda, salt, peppermint oil and glycerine.
It is, I have to say, disgusting. Maybe I got the salt levels wrong but it was like taking a mouthful of the Dead Sea.
Janet Clarke of the British Dental Association warned that the concoction "does not offer the same oral health benefits" as paste which contains fluoride, including (worryingly) protection from bad breath.
She added that if the wooden toothbrush doesn't dry out properly it could become unhygienic.
I hope I manage to get through the month without losing too many friends.
Sunday reading
- 10 Aug 08, 07:05 PM GMT
I had thought I would find it difficult to buy a Sunday newspaper without plastic as the supplements - and sometimes the whole paper - always appear to be encased in polythene, in London at least.
However, we have spent the weekend in Stafford and at the newsagents round the corner from my parents' house this morning, I was hard put to find one that did involve a plastic bag.
The shopkeeper said only the supermarkets in this area receive the plastic-packed versions.
I do not know why there appears to be a variation in policy for different shops and different locations but I will let you know if I find out.
Cheese and ale
- 9 Aug 08, 05:26 PM GMT
As several people pointed out on yesterday's post, one way to avoid widgets in canned beer is to buy bottled ale.
My home county of Staffordshire is renowned for its brewing and, visiting relatives there today, I found a large range of bottled beers in the shop at Amerton Farm near Stafford.
But even bottles with crown caps are not entirely plastic free - the liners to the caps are generally made from ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) or polyethylene.
However, it does amount to a tiny quantity per bottle and is required to form an airtight seal between metal and glass.
According to the Crowncap Collectors Society International, caps were invented in Baltimore by William Painter in 1891 and sealed with solid cork until about 1915 after which composite cork was used, followed by plastic.
The same farm shop had unpackaged frozen ready-to-bake pastries, loose eggs and fruit and veg.
But earlier on at the farmers market in Stafford, I drew a blank when trying to buy local unpackaged cheese.
Father and son John and Tom Heath at the Bertelin cheese stall explained that local environmental health policy meant that their cloth-wrapped Staffordshire cheese had to be sold in vacuum-packed chunks.
Tom said trips to markets in neighbouring counties suggested this was not a uniform policy. "One woman at a Cheshire farmers market was cutting slices for customers off a whole cheese, it meant that it looked like her product was more traditional than ours."
One week in
- 8 Aug 08, 11:46 AM GMT
So ends the first week of "no new plastic". We haven't run out of things to eat, I have remembered my lunch each day and the kitchen bin hasn't turned into a stinking mess, yet.
However, I am aware that the transition has been eased by the fact that we did still have a fair bit of food from before 1 August. Ditto toiletries.
Things may start to get a bit tricky next week as these run out (toilet paper is a particular worry).
And let's not forget that I did fall off the plastic-free wagon several times this week:
- 1 paper cup with polystyrene outer
- 1 balloon stick
- 1 lid to paper cup of tea bought on train as the man in the buffet car would not let me go without in case I spilt it on another passenger
- 1 small bottle of apple juice for my son as I couldn't find glass and had forgotten to bring extra with me
- 4 beer widgets (the device that gives canned bitter its head on pouring).
I am annoyed with myself about this, as I had carefully removed the cans from the four-pack "yoke" that held them together before purchase. It was only later that I realised that the widget in the cans was bound to be plastic - a quick attack with a tin opener confirmed my suspicions (pictured) - 19 "eco-disposable" nappies. Major addition to the plastic pile although they contain mainly "bio-plastic" rather than the oil-based stuff. I really didn't get my nappy-washing schedule right this week
Nappies: A messy situation
- 7 Aug 08, 10:48 AM GMT
When I collected all my rubbish for a month, I calculated that my son used about 120 disposable nappies, a fifth of our household's total plastic waste.
Added to that were disposable wipes (usually made from polyester, although sometimes paper) in plastic packets, individual plastic bags for the smelliest nappies and liners for the bin.
Disposable nappies are made from absorbent wood pulp fluff, held between layers of synthetic fabric.
The fluff contains a super absorbent polymer (crystals of sodium polyacrylate gel that swell to contain moisture) and the nappy is backed with a thin plastic sheet.
According to the Environment Agency, the 2.5 bn disposable nappies sold in the UK each year become 400,000 tonnes of waste in landfill, or, to put it another way, 2-3% of all household rubbish.
Reusable cloth nappies avoid the problems of landfill although the Environment Agency found in its 2005 lifecycle analysis report (pdf) that they do have other environmental impacts, especially related to washing.
This, said the agency, means that the overall environmental impact of disposable and reusable nappies is equal - although "Real Nappy" campaigners dispute the findings.
To avoid plastic waste, however, it was clear I would have to switch to reusables.
With the help of The Nappy Lady website which gives personalised nappy advice, I even found a totally plastic and polyester-free option - tie-on organic cotton nappies with knitted wool pants over the top.
My advisor, Susanna, warned that this was not a nappy she would normally recommend and suggested I bought some of the popular "shaped" cloth nappies as back-up.
This turned out to be sound advice. Not only have tying the nappies onto a wriggling, independent 18-month-old been very difficult (a customer on the website described it as "attempting origami on an escapologist") but the wool pants have been a nightmare.
To make them waterproof before first use, they require soaking in lanolin overnight, rinsing and then drying, which takes the best part of 36 hours as you can't tumble dry them.
Furthermore, I hadn't realised that I needed to do this three times for the lanolin to take full effect.
In short, he has worn them once and I have spent the rest of the week hand-washing, lanolinising and drying wool pants. I shall persevere, however, as I don't feel I have given them a fair trial yet.
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The other reusables have been more successful so far. They do contain some plastic but, as I bought them before the experiment started and will not be throwing them away, they do not break the terms of the challenge.
They comprise a 90% cotton, 10% polyester towelling nappy of roughly the same shape as a disposable nappy, which fastens with Velcro-style tabs.
The nappy soaks up the moisture and a paper liner is meant to catch the poo for flushing away (although this is much less straightforward and more messy than it sounds).
A polyurethane / polyester "wrap" over the top keeps the wetness from reaching the outside world. Used nappies and cloth wipes are stored in a lidded bin and then washed at 60 degrees.
However, I must admit to needing a fallback to my fallback.
As a cloth nappy novice, I have yet to get my washing routine in sync with requirements so we have run out of clean, dry nappies several times.
Plus the first two days were a write-off as even the towelling nappies needed washing and drying before wearing in order to make them absorbent.
In these instances I have been using Nature Babycare disposable nappies, which contain bio-plastic made from corn-starch and claim to be 60% biodegradable (although as with all biodegradable materials it depends on what conditions they end up in.)
However, even bio-plastic counts as plastic - so I will have to add them to my monthly total.
The alternative - going without a nappy at all - was not something I was willing to contemplate. Maybe early potty training is not such a bad idea.
Bin there
- 6 Aug 08, 11:40 AM GMT
Cutting out plastics has slimmed our kitchen bin considerably but it is very strange getting used to living without black polythene bin bags.
The bin has an inner unit so, in theory, we could put food waste in there unwrapped, tip it into the dustbin when full and wash out the inner bin with the garden hose. In theory.
In practice I don't fancy this at all so I am trying to protect my inner bin from the worst of the slops.
This has involved lining it with newspaper, wrapping food waste before chucking it and putting all my raw fruit and veg scraps on the compost heap.
But a knock-on effect of this is to divert newspaper from our recycling bin into the normal waste stream - which is destined for landfill.
This has major drawbacks: creating paper requires a lot of resources (wood, water, energy) so throwing it away is very inefficient. It also takes up a lot of space in landfill and biodegrades slowly.
And then, like all biodegradable material in landfill, when it does break down, it does so in anaerobic conditions, creating the powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
Wrapping waste in paper may also just be impractical. With rubbish collection day (today) looming, I started to worry that our waste-parcel-filled dustbin would be rejected by the bin men, so I called the council.
At first they were unsure. The woman on the "Cleaner, greener borough" hotline told me it would "ruin" my dustbin to put un-bagged waste in it and advised strongly against.
However, when I rang the recycling team they agreed, after some discussion, that the bin men should be able to tip the dustbin straight into the collection lorry.
As to whether the guys on the ground know about this policy, I will find out when I get home this evening.
If not, I'm going to have to apologise to my neighbours for a stinky bin and find some other solution.
Waste not, shop not
- 5 Aug 08, 11:26 AM GMT
An interesting side effect of giving up new plastic is that, so far, I am wasting less food.
This is because I, like the majority of the human race, am inherently lazy and if I can foresee that something is going to cause me extra effort, I will avoid it.
So when I was staring at the contents of the fridge last night - half an onion, half an aubergine going puckered at the edges, the last remaining pack of plastic-wrapped chicken - I made sure that I used them all up in a curry.
Not that I would have deliberately wasted them in the past (especially not the chicken) but I may well have ended up neglecting the veg for so long that they became unusable.
But now the difficulties of plastic-free shopping are foremost in my mind. Waste food? No chance, that means having to find some more.
In fact, I went one stage further and deliberately bulked up the curry with chickpeas and some spinach (from a kindly colleague's veg patch) so that I could take another portion to work for lunch and freeze the rest.
This is hardly breaking news - I'm sure Stone Age woman thought "That deer and bilberry stew will do another day" - but the point is that while I have always known this was a sensible thing to do, I haven't actually done it. Until now.
Milking it
- 4 Aug 08, 01:45 PM GMT
There is something pleasingly old-fashioned about a doorstep milk delivery, the clink of the glass bottles and the hum of the electric milk float.
Maybe it's because when I was a child in the 1970s, the television series Play School seemed to show a milk bottling plant "through the round window" practically every week.
So, I am excited that our first delivery will arrive on Wednesday.
I had no idea whether there was a milkman who delivered in our area but a quick look on findmeamilkman.net confirmed that there was.
I even placed my order online and, should I ever need to vary the weekly order, I can tweak that too - a virtual note in the empty bottle.
As a nation, we do get through a lot of the white stuff: according to Defra, the UK produces between 13-14 billion litres of milk a year, of which almost half is processed into liquid milk.
Almost 80% of milk sold by retailers is in plastic containers, with only about 11% of milk sold in glass bottles and the rest in cartons.
However, while getting milk delivered feels more environmentally friendly than picking up a plastic bottle at the supermarket, the case is not clear cut.
Milk bottles are made from HDPE and, along with clear PET drinks bottles, are very widely recyclable in the UK with 92% of local authorities collecting them.
Plastics recycling experts Recoup say that this has resulted in 35% of all plastic bottles discarded in the UK last year being recycled, compared with just 3% in 2001.
And whereas in the past, much of the HDPE from bottles was "downcycled" into lower-grade uses, the recent development of bottle-to-bottle processing plants means that recycled plastic (rHDPE) can now be used in new milk bottles.
Marks and Spencer trialled the use of 10% rHDPE in its four litre bottles of organic milk in 2006 and plans to increase that to 50% recycled material across all its milk range.
Packaging giant Nampak says it expects to have 30% rHDPE bottles in production in 2009.
And Defra in its Milk Roadmap (yes, really) has set targets for all milk bottles to have 50% recycled content by 2020.
Furthermore, the tall wire cages, or "roll containers", on which milk bottles are stacked in supermarkets mean the bottles can be transported directly from processing plant to store with no extra packaging.
It is even possible to buy milk in a bag which cuts packaging further.
However, the big advantage to glass bottles is that they can be rinsed, sterilised and reused almost instantaneously, rather than having to go through a lengthy recycling process.
Dairy Crest, which will be making my delivery, say their bottles are reused a minimum of 20 times before being crushed and used as hardcore.
The biggest question remains however: will my pintas be safe from the scourge of milk drinkers - the blue tit? I'll keep you posted.
Trip, stumble, fall
- 3 Aug 08, 08:17 AM GMT
Barely three days into my challenge, I've taken a couple of accidental tumbles from the plastic-free wagon.
Yesterday, we squelched along to the somewhat muddy Garstang Agricultural Show, near Preston in Lancashire.
It was a grand family day out with heavy horse displays, marquees full of prize rabbits, chickens and ducks, WI cake competitions, food stalls and craft demonstrations.
After a busy morning of inspecting tractors and patting rare breed sheep, I was more than a little pleased to find a plastic-free lunch: jumbo sausage in a (not so jumbo) chunk of baguette.
But after that we fancied a coffee so I queued for some, diligently asked them not to put lids on the paper cups and then recoiled when I realised they weren't paper at all.
There was a paper core to them but the outside had a layer of bubbly polystyrene. Excellent for heat-insulation, and I didn't burn my hands carrying the coffees, not so excellent from a non-plastic point of view.
I have kept my cup and will save it, along with any other plastic I accumulate in August, so that at the end of the month I can compare it with my normal plastic consumption.
The second deviation from my mission was in accepting a free balloon for our 18-month-old son.
The balloon was natural latex (which biodegrades, at least on land) but the stick to which it was attached was plastic.
However I did not feel I could deny him this fantastic toy, which he then happily trailed through the mud.
Elsewhere at the show, I had some small success at plastic-free food shopping, buying a "bomb" of Lancashire cheese encased in traditional wax, which was being sold alongside the now more familiar clingfilm-wrapped chunks.
At £5.50 it was far from cheap, and certainly not something I would buy weekly, but I was assured it would last for another two years in its protective coating "as long as you don't let the sun get on it". Quite.
And as the weather had warmed up, we headed over to the beer tent for a refreshing half of local ale. But I was not able to slake my thirst as all the drinks were sold in disposable plastic cups. Back to the metal water bottle for me.
On the way home, however, I serendipitously heard a solution for this problem. Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie, broadcasting from the Cambridge Folk Festival for BBC Radio 2, were chatting to a man who had brought his own tankard to the beer tent.
It was made from 100% leather: no plastic required.
In search of the naked strawberry
- 2 Aug 08, 03:55 PM GMT
I decided to pick an easy target for my first foray into plastic-free shopping: fruit and veg.
Should be very simple, after all, supermarkets sell plenty of fresh produce loose and market stalls are also an option.
But what seemed straightforward at first was more complicated on closer inspection.
Yes, I was picking up loose carrots and popping them into my trolley but the big box which they were displayed in had a layer of plastic on top.
This doesn't break the rules of my experiment - I'm not trying to cut plastic out of my life entirely, just to not add to my personal plastic mountain - but it did make me wonder where one draws the line with packaging.
Dick Searle, head of the UK Packaging Federation is not surprised that I'm scratching my head: "You may give up plastics in terms of what you buy in the stores, what you don't see of course is how they've got to the stores and a considerable amount of packaging is used to get goods into the stores.
"Even if you buy fresh produce, apples which are loose, they have been packed and then unpacked to be sold."
It's no coincidence that Mr Searle has chosen to highlight apples: an environmental "lifecycle analysis" on selected Marks and Spencer apples in 2003 found that loose fruits created more waste up to the point at which they were sold than a four-pack of apples on a biodegradable tray.
This, says the packaging industry, highlights the difficulties for consumers in trying to discern which products have the least environmental impacts.
Green campaigners, however, say it shows why we should buy locally-produced food where possible, so that food does not need to be transported all over the country - in packaging - before arriving in the shops.
But, back to my shopping list. It is still soft fruit season and our household has been getting through strawberries and raspberries by the punnet-load - the plastic punnet-load.
Could I find the berries in their naked state on the supermarket shelves? Nope. And it was the same story with lettuces, celery and cucumbers (although Co-op does sell an au naturel cucumber).
So I tried the market stall around the corner but once again the strawberries and raspberries were encased in plastic.
Now I understand why this might be - soft fruit is by its nature, crushable - but plastic punnets are a relatively recent development so what, I asked the stallholder, Alf, did strawberries used to be packed in?
He thought for a while and said: "Cardboard, and we used to do them loose too, by the scoop, they didn't used to get squashed."
"But they were a luxury in those days," his female colleague added, "you had them once a month, not all the time like now".
"Now she's the strawberry queen," chipped in Alf.
Neither knew where I could find a naked strawberry in a shop, however, but it is my mission to find one.
I may have to visit a pick-your-own farm for the first time since childhood.
The etiquette of the non-plastic tea run
- 1 Aug 08, 11:02 AM GMT
I clunked and clanged my way to work today, weighed down by a bag (reusable of course) containing a sandwich tin, an aluminium water bottle and enamelled camping cup.
The novelty of preparing my lunch the night before is bound to wear off - I'm a far from organised person ordinarily - but maybe having a few spare quid at the end of the week will make it feel worth it.
But even before midday, going plastic-free has thrown up its first conundrum - what to do about the office tea run? Can I accept colleagues' offers of a hot beverage, knowing that it would be in a polystyrene cup from the tea bar?
Obviously not, as my rules state I cannot buy or accept anything packaged in plastic.
But equally this means I can't buy a round either. What to do? Well for today, I will just have to hope that a day of stinginess won't make me a pariah; and as of next week I will be bringing in mugs, teabags and a kettle. Radical.
Goodbye plastic (for now)
- 1 Aug 08, 09:44 AM GMT
I am starting an experiment to see if it's possible to give up plastic for a month. By "give up" I mean not buying anything containing plastic or wrapped in plastic.
So no more water bottles, take-away coffees or pre-packed sandwiches. No quick trips to the corner shop for a pack of chicken and some yoghurts for dinner. And I'll be switching to reusable nappies for my toddler.
I will, however, be able to keep the plastic I already own but even so it is going to be very difficult.
Synthetic plastics have been around for a century and widely used for just 50 years but in that time they have become integral to our modern lifestyles.
But despite plastic's usefulness, we also throw it away in huge amounts. Most of the UK's plastic waste ends up in landfill where it will take hundreds of years to break down.
Environmentalists and cash-conscious councils who have to pay for landfill are calling for consumers to reduce their use of plastic where possible.
I will be seeing what happens if I try to take that to the extreme.
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My name's Chris Jeavans. For one month I am attempting to live my normal life with one main change - no new plastic. That means no bags, no packaging, no plastic to hang around in landfill. In this blog I'll keep you updated to let you know how I'm getting on.
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