Day 1: Our goals and aspirations for Plastic Free July 2019

Day 1 - New beginnings

The past few months our focus has shifted away from plastic free and zero waste to reducing household inputs - energy and water. We’ve installed a solar battery and we are in the process of getting more water tanks.

But now it’s July we’re keep to refocus on unnecessary single use plastics and how we can do our best to eliminate them. So, After a year off we are back with another month sharing our journey though plastic free July. We’ve learnt so much over the last couple of years and changed a lot of habits for the better. We are:

• eating better - less packaged and processed food;
• saving more money - our spending is much more considered; and
• making new friends - in our community and through my Permaculture course.

There are definitely days when things seem too hard (sorting out compost for the worm farm / bokashi bin / the compost / direct into the garden) or a bit pointless (bringing home a single piece of clingfilm to add to our bag of soft plastics for recycling) but we keep on aiming for small sustained changes. We also figure that lots of imperfect actions are a lot better than waiting for a ‘perfect’ action.

So this month is about refining a few things, and making a couple of extra changes - such as consistently taking our containers to the butcher and the deli. It’s also reducing our use and reliance on plastic while travelling and sharing what we learn along the way - as there’s a limit to how much plastic you can reduce just by being organised. Travelling with a pre-schooler sometimes means you have to do things quickly!

We saw this at London Gatwick airport last month and while it is only one coffee store we though it was a great initiative. It also saved us time as we didn’t need to rise out a personal keep cup!

Anyone seen anything similar at other airports, or other similar spaces?