What I’m Focusing on this Plastic Free July

It’s Plastic Free July again and whilst I’ve been focusing on reducing my waste for a while now, there are still lots of ways I can improve. Today I thought I’d share what I’m focusing on this Plastic Free July, and I’d love to hear your thoughts as well!

What I'm Focusing on this Plastic Free July | I Spy Plum Pie

Plastic Free July

For those of you that haven’t heard of Plastic Free July, it’s a movement that has been running for a number of years now and is all about reducing the amount of single use plastic used around the world. It can be an overwhelming thing to tackle, but they recommend you start with the top four worst offenders – plastic bags, water bottles, coffee cups and straws. Focusing on those items is an excellent place to start, cutting them out makes such a positive impact and all of them have pretty simple alternatives!

What I’m Focusing On

These days I’m pretty good with the top four offenders, but not perfect of course. I’m putting in an extra concerted effort this month to avoid all four of them completely, by now I know it’s definitely achievable for me, I just have to make sure I’m prepared!

I’m also generally pretty good at avoiding pre-packaged fruit and veggies, although I have been struggling recently with pre-wrapped pumpkin and bagged spinach. The produce bags I have are perfect for pretty much everything else, but I’m going to go out of my way to find alternatives to pre-packaged veggies this month. Plus, I’ve got spinach growing in my garden now so that should help too!

Lightweight plastic packaging is one area I have some room for improvement, and whilst I collect them up to be recycled I’d prefer to have a lot less of them if I can. For me it’s mainly things like crackers, potato chips, baking supplies and nuts. I can easily get the nuts and most baking supplies at a bulk food store, so that’s high on the list of priorities this month.

The other area responsible for most of the plastic in my home is skincare and makeup. I’m going to keep using what I’ve got for now, but every time something comes up for replacement I’m going to look for alternatives with either non-plastic packaging (like glass or cardboard), make my own or at least see if I can return the packaging (like at Lush). This is a longer term aim for me than just Plastic Free July, but now seems an excellent time to start!

Are you taking part in Plastic Free July? I’d love to hear how you’re going!

Join the Weekly News & get my Meal Planning 101 Guide!

1 Comment on What I’m Focusing on this Plastic Free July

  1. Moni | Thoughts of a Moni
    July 5, 2017 at 10:35 am (7 years ago)

    We’ve become much more conscious about how much waste we generate. We are pretty good with recycling now, and it helps that our local council let’s us recycling soft plastics in our recycling bin, but we still try and use less rather than recycle. We’ve definitely cut out most large plastic shopping bags, but smaller produce bags are much harder. I shop at the market, where they always mark down produce at the end of the day and package them in smaller bags, so I’m not sure how to avoid this.
    On a different note, both my sister in laws (who are also plastic conscious) have birthdays in June, so we have them enviro presents – one got an awesome lunch box and one got a keep cup! And to make it better, we wrapped them in Who Gives A Crap toilet paper packaging and used glue instead of sticky tape (mainly because we didn’t have wrapping paper and tape!). I’ve decided that for future presents I might use tea towels or beeswax wraps…
    Moni | Thoughts of a Moni recently posted…Our Wedding Weekend Part I – The Bengali Wedding

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Moni | Thoughts of a Moni Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge