HELENA’S TOP 10 TIPS:
1. Shopping for perishables— Prioritise nude food— loose fruit and veg and meat and cheese. Keep some small reusable mesh bags in your cloth shopping bag instead of grabbing a plastic one. And shop at the deli or butcher for meat, fish, and cheese— you can bring your own container for this.
2. Buying takeaway food— This often comes in plastic and on top of that some outlets offer to add a plastic bag as well. Take your own container (leave a couple stored in the car as well as a small container with knives, forks and spoons) Pizza is a great option, as it comes in
cardboard. 3. Plastic water bottles— Lots of people have water filters at home, and even if you don’t, buy a stainless steel or glass bottle and simply reuse. This will also save you a lot of money
4. Takeaway coffee/tea— There are some really good stainless steel or glass (mostly) travel mugs out there now. Keep a couple in the cup holders in the car, and take one in to the cafe for your drink of choice 5. Bin liners— The biggest stumbling block tomaking the change seems to be the smelly, runny food aspect. The best advice I’ve heard is to either have aworm farm for your household perishable waste (Western Bay of Plenty District Council offers free worm farms when you take their worm farming course) or bury your waste in the garden and add a commercial micro organism mix which speeds up decomposition in the soil. The bin can then just bewashed out and has very little odour if bags are rinsed before disposal 6. Household and personal care products in plastic bottles— These are now readily available in small concentrated blocks that don’t need plastic packaging.
7. Snacks— Make a small change by buying one large packet of loose chips, rather than buying lots of small ones.
8. Cereals— Look for products like Weetbix that, while having a plastic wrapper, go a lot further in servings.
9. Driving— Keep a bag in the handbag or glovebox that folds up for when you are unprepared. 10. Small number of purchases— If you are only picking up one or two items say no to a plastic bag, and just load items back into the trolley or basket, and empty into the boot.