Could YOU live plastic-free to save the planet?
HANNAH BRITT starts an environmental crusade but discovers it’s more difficult than she imagined
AS I wrestled a raw chicken out of its packaging, the shop assistant looked at me as if I had two heads. Trying not to grimace as the cold meat juice dripped down my arms and on to my shoes, I handed over the plastic wrapping.
“Can you recycle this for me please?” I asked. As the shop assistant nodded, I gave her a smile and left the store, carrying the chicken in my hands.
I have always been interested in the environment, recycling where I can and never using products that contain ocean-polluting microbeads.
But when I heard that one truck of plastic enters the ocean every minute and it is estimated there are already 150 million tons of plastic in the ocean, I was determined to do more.
And as Will McCallum, head of oceans for Greenpeace UK, says in his new book How To Give Up Plastic: “Plastic pollution is the environmental scourge of our age, but you can make a difference.”
So, in the spirit of doing just that, I set out to live single-use plastic-free for a fortnight.
Single-use plastic is exactly that, plastic items such as food packaging and coffee cups that are thrown away after just one use.
In my new plastic-free existence I soon discovered that some things were easier than others.
Arming myself with a canvas tote bag so I wouldn’t need to use a plastic one for my shopping was straightforward.
And carrying around a reusable coffee cup for my morning takeaway latte was fine.
BUT trying to cook dinner without binning mountains of plastic was another thing altogether. After a quick recce to check out which of my local shops sold loose fruit and veg, I set out to buy ingredients for a Sunday roast.
In the store I was pleased to discover the only thing I couldn’t buy plastic-free was the chicken.
Most shops will recycle the packaging for you (their facilities are much better than we have at home), you just have to ask.
So despite being eyed suspiciously, I paid for the chicken, unwrapped it and carried it home through the streets of Hackney, east London. Not only can living plastic-free be a touch unhygienic (I put my shoes in the washing machine when I got home) but it requires a lot of forward planning. One morning, in a rush to get out of the door, I left my canvas bag and coffee cup at home. Cue no delicious latte and chaos later in the evening when I lost my grip on the shopping I was carrying sending lemons, apples and a box I’d filled with rice flying down the road. The next day my boyfriend made me a sandwich to take to work but because I couldn’t use cling film to wrap it in, I made a makeshift envelope out of paper. When I got to work, I discovered the sandwich had leaked tomato juice into the lining of my handbag.
But despite living plastic-free being a pain at times, I ploughed on knowing that I was making a difference, however small, to the environment.
At the end of the fortnight I was pleased to see that our normally bulging bin was almost empty.
I felt proud to see how much I’d cut back and it spurred me on to continue.
However, next time I cook a roast, I’ll take something to carry the chicken home in.
To order a copy of How To Give Up Plastic by Will McCallum (£12.99, Penguin Life) call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562 310 or visit expressbookshop.co.uk