Meat Free May Fail!

I'm halfway through this month's "Eco Challenge" - Meat Free May - and I've failed already!

Well, I don't actually consider it a fail... You be the judge.

My housemate was going through the fridge before she went on holiday, offering me all her perishables, and throwing away things that were already growing fur. I accepted a square inch of Marks and Spencer Extra Special mature cheddar, a pot of pesto, some tomatoes and lettuce (both wrapped in plastic) and... a pot of bacon lardons.

Now if I hadn't taken them, they would have gone in the bin. She couldn't have donated them to a food bank, because they don't accept perishable food. And anyway, the bacon was already past its use by date.

So I consider it a save, not a fail. It's the same with disposable plastics.

A couple of times since I started avoiding plastics, I have gone to a takeaway food outlet or a bar, and asked if I can have the food/drink without the plastic fork/straw. The friendly server says, yeah, no problem, and then out of habit puts it in anyway. Then they realise their mistake and go to take the plastic fork/straw out of my food/drink to throw it in the bin! So the "single-use plastic item" becomes the "zero-use plastic item".

In this case I always stop them and use the plastic fork/straw, but take it home with me and wash it and use it as many times as I can.

So in giving up meat for May I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint. But if the pig has already been raised, fed, watered, slaughtered, drained, chopped, smoked, packaged and shipped, then I see no sense in not at least getting some "use" out of it. And that I did.

My vegetable stew (with bacon lardons)

FOOD WASTE

Did you know that on average each UK household throws away about a quarter of all the food and drink they buy?! That's like getting home from the supermarket with 4 bags full of food, and throwing one straight in the bin. 

I've just signed up to volunteer for FareShare - a nationwide charity which takes excess food stock from supermarket distribution centres and redistributes it to food banks, schools, etc so I've been thinking a lot about food waste. 

Lunch at the Thali Cafe in Southville - who said vegan food was boring?

FLEXITARIANISM
I think I am going to adopt a "flexitarian" diet permanently, even after Meat-Free May is over. Flexitarian means eating a mostly plant-based diet, and eating less, and better quality, animal-derived products.

I plan to not buy any meat or dairy, and only eat local free range organic eggs, and local honey. I will however eat meat and dairy if (like the other day) it will be thrown in the bin otherwise. I think all food is too precious to waste.

Currently I m still buying milk and butter, but slowly cutting down. I've already given up buying cheese, which I would never have thought possible, but I just found it too much of a hassle to find it without plastic packaging. And although I still crave it occasionally, I am discovering some great new flavours to add excitement to my cooking, instead of always relying on cheese (and meat). It's making me a more adventurous cook.

SPONSOR ME

I want you to sponsor me, but I DON'T WANT YOUR CASH!!

Instead, I want YOU to pledge to make a change in your life too.

Why not join me for a meat-free May? Or pledge to stop buying food in plastic packaging? And you don't even have to go down the same lines as me, you could challenge yourself to stop using your car, to give up smoking, save water, or whatever you fancy. There are loads of suggestions on the DoNation website, so have a look around.

Whatever you choose, I look forward to hearing about how you get on! Good luck!

Never mind the election, I just won a year's supply of ice cream!

It all feels like doom and gloom after the Tories slipped back in to Downing Street yesterday. So here's some good news for you:

I just won a year's supply of Ben & Jerry's ice cream! 

And the best news is, I don't even like ice cream! So I'm going to give it away to the people who pledged for me on the Do Nation website!

I won it for getting so many pledges on my Do Nation page. Did you sponsor me in April? Would you like a tub (or two) of Ben & Jerry's as a thank you? (I honestly don't want it, it has plastic packaging after all!). Email me your address, and I'll post you a voucher. lovebristolhatewaste@gmail.com

My challenge to live a Zero Plastic Waste April is now over, and I can report that it was very difficult. However, I now have some interesting new habits, many of which I did not expect or foresee, all of which I will be continuing with:

• I'm eating lots more fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds;
• Flossing my teeth (giving up toothpaste in plastic tubes has made me more careful about how thoroughly I brush and has made me start flossing daily);
• Avoiding palm oil (inadvertently - it seems that most products which contain palm oil, are also usually in plastic packaging);
• Eating less cheese (I did used to eat cheese on everything!);
• No crappy snacks like crisps;
• More excellent snacks like this nom nom Proper Welsh Chocolate flame roasted hazelnut chocolate...nom nom indeed.

HELP ME WIN AGAIN!

I have been sponsored by 10 pretty special people so far, who have pledged to give up everything from driving their cars, to smoking; and from overfilling the kettle, to eating meat and dairy. In total so far we have saved 

3820kg of CO2

My target is 10000kg, so we're already more than a third of the way there! Good work!

 If you haven't had a look at the DoNation website yet, here's a link to the (ever growing) list of things you can do to "sponsor me" http://www.thedonation.org.uk/doactions. And they've released this fab new video explaining how it works: https://vimeo.com/36015150

Feel like your small contribution won't make a difference? Well 42% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions are a result of individuals' actions, at home and in personal travel. And you can save yourself time, money and get fit at the same time! Why not give it a try? CLICK HERE TO SPONSOR ME.

If you have sponsored me already, thank you! And please do let me know how you are getting on, and what new habits you have formed. You can email me at lovebristolhatewaste@gmail.com

THE FORFEIT

As I failed my Zero Plastic Waste challenge, I will be cycling around Bristol city centre dressed in nothing but plastic bags, on Monday 8th June, as part of the launch of the City to Sea project, which aims to raise awareness of (and prevent) litter in cities making its way to the ocean. More on that next time...

MEAT-FREE MAY

Mooooving on to meat-free May...This one is actually going to be pretty easy. I have already stopped buying meat, partly because I've been avoiding plastic, and it takes effort to find meat which is not wrapped in plastic. But also because I watched the film The Cowspiracy (http://www.cowspiracy.com/) and became aware of how much impact the animal agriculture industry has on the greenhouse effect.

I'm getting a little help with inspiration and recipe ideas from Friends of the Earth: https://www.foe.co.uk/page/meat-free-may

This is from their website:

"Our current diets are harming our health and our planet. How our food gets to our tables is almost unrecognisable from 50 years ago. While people in some parts of the world do not have enough to eat, others suffer from obesity, and our current diets are causing massive environmental damage. Meat production is responsible for 14.5% of global greenhouse gases emissions, and overfishing has led to 70% of fish stocks being declared ‘fully exploited’ or ‘totally exploited’. The global food system is broken, and something needs to change. By eating less meat and fish, we can make a difference to both the planet and our own health, while still enjoying the food we love."

The only time I have eaten meat in the last few months is when other people have cooked it for me, or occasionally when I've eaten out, and didn't like the sound of the veggie option on the menu! So now I have to "come out" to everyone - My name is Holly, and I am a vegetarian!!

SPONSOR ME

I want you to sponsor me, but I DON'T WANT YOUR CASH!!
Instead, I want YOU to pledge to make a change in your life too.
Why not join me for a meat-free May? Or just pledge to stop buying food in plastic packaging. And you don't even have to go down the same lines as me, you could challenge yourself to stop using your car, to give up smoking, or whatever you fancy. There are loads of suggestions on the DoNation website, so have a look around.
Whatever you choose, I look forward to hearing about how you get on! Good luck!

Plastic, plastic everywhere

Oh dear, oh dear

I've been putting off writing this because, to be honest, I've failed on my Zero Plastic Waste challenge. And it's only halfway through April. That just goes to show how difficult it is.

My house mate and I got a Thali takeaway - If you live in Bristol, you'll know a Thali is difficult to resist. But I didn't think we'd end up with any plastic because she asked for it in our Thali Tiffin - a wonderful invention, especially when you're trying to avoid plastic. 

But, when she came back, they had given her some samosas in a separate cardboard box, with a little pot of dipping sauce - a little PLASTIC pot of dipping sauce. Of course.

 

Now, I didn't buy it, and technically I didn't throw it away either, but I did eat half its contents, and it did end up in the bin. Does that count as a fail?

Another stumble last week occurred when I went to stay with friends in Yorkshire. For the train journey, I had packed a banana and some nuts to snack on; it was a long journey, but I had had lunch prior to leaving and knew dinner would be waiting for me when I arrived. All good, I thought, no plastic packaging required.

But I hadn't planned for the return journey, when I would be travelling over lunch time. I made myself a sandwich, but had no lunch box to put it in. My friend gave me a plastic sandwich bag, which I put straight in the bin when I got home out of habit - it probably could have been washed and re-used, but I just didn't think. 

Right now you may be thinking, "What's the big deal? It's only a flimsy little bit of plastic". But it's these flimsy bits of plastic which are rarely recyclable, can more easily escape from the waste disposal chain, and end up in our trees, rivers and eventually oceans.

"We currently recover only 5% of the plastics we produce. What happens to the rest of it? Roughly 50% is buried in landfills, some is remade into durable goods, and much of it remains “unaccounted for”, lost in the environment where it ultimately washes out to sea." 

To me, it's that thin, ubiquitous plastic that is the biggest problem. 

I'm not going to let these hiccups stop me on my journey to eliminate plastic waste, however. This is not just a month-long challenge for me, it is an attempt to change the way I live permanently.

Lesson learned - On long journeys, ALWAYS take a lunch box, bottle of water and reusable cup with you. Even if you're not taking any lunch, or coffee with you. At train stations, airports and bus stations, it's nigh on impossible to get any plasticfree food or drinks. Even at cafes where you can eat in, they usually give you a takeaway cup, or plastic box.

"What's wrong with take-away coffee cups?", I hear you ask. 

Well, let me tell you 5 things you didn't know about disposable coffee cups:

1. EVERY MINUTE over ONE MILLION disposable cups are discarded to landfill.

I'm just going to let you think about that for a minute...

That's 60 million every hour. Or 1,440 million per day. In other words, MORE THAN 565 BILLION CUPS IN LANDFILL every year. That's a lot of cups.

2. Most disposable cups are lined with polythylene which makes them NON-RECYCLABLE.

3. Disposable cups that are 'compostable' require commercial composting to biodegrade. If they get put in a normal bin, they will not fully break down  And how many people remember to put them in the compost bin?

4. Even if they were recyclable (like this one claims to be) the process still relies on the consumer to find a paper recycling bin on the train/at the airport/on the street....

5. ...And they would be "recycled" (more like down-cycled) into flimsy paper, like newspaper, thus requiring more trees to be cut down to make another 1,440 million more 'recyclable' cups EVERY DAY!

So I'm not a fan of the disposable coffee cup.

Neither am I a fan of these: Loom bands. At least they last a bit longer than disposable coffee cups. 



I was given this one last summer by a friend of my nephew. I intend to keep it FOREVER! Just thinking about all the bands that must have ended up in landfill since they took off last year make me shiver. 

I signed up to an organic veg box scheme this week, thinking that would take the pressure off me to find veg shops that don't wrap everything in you-know-what. Imagine my horror when the first box arrived with two plastic bags in it!

Do I really need my broccoli and cabbage to be wrapped? They're going to be either washed or cooked anyway. I'm going to give them back, along with the reusable box it all came in. Hopefully they'll reuse the bags too...

Anyway, I digress. I've failed, and therefore I must take the consequences. So I hereby announce that I will be walking through Bristol City Centre wearing nothing but plastic bags on Saturday 2nd May. Hopefully, it'll get a bit of media attention, and raise awareness of what I'm trying to do.

This is what I'm trying to do, by the way. CLICK HERE to pledge to reduce your carbon footprint too!

Stealth Plastic

My Zero Plastic Waste challenge started today and it's all going well so far. I'm all set up with my canvas bags, lunch box, milk delivery round, reusable refillable bottles (for everything you can imagine!) and my all-purpose glass jar of coconut oil (you'd be surprised what you can do with coconut oil!)

No matter how prepared you are though, you always have to be on the look out, because some plastic sneaks into your life quietly, like a ninja.

Take this bottle of olive oil, for example.

Looks like a glass bottle with a metal lid, doesn't it? BUT NO! Take a look inside and there's a sneaky bit of plastic hiding in the top of the bottle, and another bit in the lid. Ninja plastic!

And when you're out and about, I've discovered you always need to carry a reusable cup with you. The other day, I went to the Frack Free Festival at the Attic on Stokes Croft. They didn't have any glasses behind the bar - only plastics - and disposable ones at that. 

I went to donate blood the other day and was faced with a mountain of plastic cups, and snacks wrapped in plastic. You HAVE to drink a pint of water or squash before you donate - it's the law or something - and they force feed you tea (in a disposable plastic cup) and snacks afterwards too. I think it's the one time scoffing biscuits and crisps is positively recommended by health professionals.

I got away with not using the disposable plastic cups because I had taken my reusable water bottle with me, and I refused the tea, but HAD to have a packet of ginger nuts. I might have fainted or something otherwise. Honest. 

These don't count as a slip-ups by the way, because they all happened before the 1st April. If I dispose of any plastic during April, then my forfeit is to walk through the centre of Bristol wearing nothing but plastic bags. And I'll do it too, just watch me.

So far I have been "sponsored" by 5 fantastic people:

Giles has pledged to cycle instead of drive for 2 months, saving an estimated total of 141kg of carbon dioxide. Way to go, Giles!

Lindsey has pledged to stop overfilling the kettle when she makes tea, which will save an estimated 9kg of CO2. Thanks Lindsey!

Kat has pledged to give up food wrapped in plastic for 2 months, but is having trouble with the website (I've emailed them about this Kat and they said they would look into it). Good luck Kat!

A mysterious individual who goes by the name of AzureBlue has pledged go vegan for 1 month! If this is you please let me know who you are so I can shake your hand! This adds another 55kg of CO2 to the total.

Plus Tom has pledged to stop smoking, which will save 4kg, AND to stop flying to visit his girlfriend in Holland every other week, which will save a massive 3280kg of CO2! Although I can't really claim credit for the quitting flying - he has moved to Holland, and not because of this!

So in total, we're making a potential saving of 3489kg of CO2 so far! (Plus whatever Kat saves)

Will you sponsor me? There are lots of things can do, big or small it doesn't matter - every little helps! CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT YOU COULD DO. 

A year of Eco Challenges

I am giving up plastic. 

Oh, right, yeah, OK I said I was going to do that at new year. But the truth is that giving up plastic completely is too hard and in reality no-one cares if you slip up. And up I have slipped many times. 

What I need is people watching me! YOU are those people. 

So my new challenge is:

ZERO PLASTIC WASTE

That is, any I plastic I do buy, I can't throw it away when it's useful life is over, either into the recycling or the landfill bin. If I have something plastic and it breaks or wears out, I have to find another use for it. 

And, since this should be quite easy, as I've been trying to do it since January, I'm going to set myself a new challenge each month and keep you all updated on this blog! Just what you've always wanted!

Why? - this is from the DoNation website http://www.thedonation.org.uk/how-it-works/doactions/shopping/fantastic-un-plastic

Plastic is everywhere. From the wristband placed around your wrist at birth to the mouse your hand is resting on right now, you can’t get away from it. It’s fantastic stuff... when used well.

We’ve grown a bit of an addiction lately though, using it like it's going out of fashion in the most ludicrous way. From individually wrapping bananas to encasing a stick of glue in an unbreakable plastic case, to single-use carrier bags, our use of plastic has gone wild.

And it’s not without it’s consequences.

Landfill and recycling

Thankfully, not all plastic waste ends up in our trees and seas. Every year 800,000 tonnes of plastic bags are used in the EU, and only 6% is recycled - down cycled, we should say. Plastic recycling is nowhere near as efficient as glass or aluminium can recycling; it dramatically reduces the quality of the plastic and uses lots of energy (although not as much as making new plastic from scratch).

But it’s far better just to use less in the first place.

Climate change

Plastic is made from oil, and making it uses a fair whack of energy: for every kilo of plastic six kilos of carbon dioxide is released.

By avoiding buying excessively packaged goods you can save 250kg CO₂ a year – the same as 40 cups of tea a day all year.

By just taking your own cotton bags to the supermarket you can save 23Kg CO₂ a year.

The penalty

Each month I will set myself a penalty for not meeting the challenge. 

So, if I slip up on the April zero plastic waste challenge, I promise to walk through the centre if Bristol wearing nothing but (recycled) plastic bags at the end of April. So keep watching me!

Sponsor me!

I want you to sponsor me, but I DON'T WANT YOUR CASH!!

Instead, I want YOU to pledge to make a change in your life too. 

You don't have to be as extreme as me, for example you could pledge to give up buying drinks in plastic bottles, or just to stop buying food in plastic packaging. And you don't even have to go down the same lines as me, you could challenge yourself to stop driving your car instead - whatever you fancy. 

There are loads of suggestions on the website. 

http://213.138.117.136/doers/holly-anticrap/year-eco-challenges

Whatever you choose, I look forward to hearing about how you get on. 

Here is a list of the challenges I plan to take on over the year:

April. ZERO PLASTIC WASTE

May. No meat. 

June. No gadgets (TV, PC, phone) after 5pm. Take up new hobby instead?

July. Save water: timed showers, don't flush pee. No tea or coffee. 

August. No flying. 

September. Draught proof the house ready for winter. 

October. Save electricity: Always switch lights of when leaving the room. Switch appliances off at wall when not in use. 

November. Buy only seasonal local food. 

December. Zero waste christmas: Only really useful presents, no waste wrapping, no cheap decorations. 

January. Give up booze

February?

March?

Any suggestions for February or March?

Obviously some of these may change or expand as I might come up with other ideas over the year. And some of them are meant to be lasting changes, like zero plastic waste, and saving electricity and water, but others are only meant to be temporary like giving up meat and booze, but may last longer... Who knows?

You have a few days to decide how you are going to "sponsor" me. Have a look at the options on the website here:

http://www.thedonation.org.uk/doactions

And let me know how you get on!