Plastic Free July First Year Round Up

How I got on…

No plastic shopping bags – so in theory this would have been the easiest but like all plastic free challenges, this was all about organisation, and I found I wasn’t the best at that. Sometimes I would pack myself up nicely with a handful of bags before I left the house and other times I’d be struggling back to the car with a tin of baked beans in my pocket. Lesson learnt though as if the bags are in the car, I would remember I needed them as I pulled into the car park and I would use them. Going forward: Put reusable bags in the car

Packed lunches – Another hit or miss. I really enjoyed making my lunches and thinking up new things to fill my pack up but again I had to make sure I had got it all prepared and some days…well I just hadn’t. It’s just about getting into a routine though, making sure I’ve always got something lunchable in the fridge or cupboards and I’ve got a great pinterest board full of ideas so I’m confident I’ll keep this up. Going forward: Prepare lunches the night before.

Zero waste shopping trip – This was the easiest of my list to keep, I went each saturday morning to each shop I needed and although it took me a little longer that it would have if I’d done it all in the supermarket, I actually found it cheap and managed to get nearly everything plastic free (bar a bag of kale which I can reuse and the chicken which I just need to invest in a bigger tupperware box). I also really enjoyed chatting to all the shop keepers and it became something I looked forward to so I don’t think this is going to be a hard one to keep up. There are somethings I couldn’t get without plastic so I will still have some waste here but I’m going to keep searching out alternatives and badgering the companies change their packagaing. Going forward Plan a shopping list and make a morning it.

Plastic rubbish audit – Although I didn’t document it, I did keep an eye on the plastic I used and I was very pleased at how small the pile was each week. The main culprits was shop bought lunches which is easily remedied by being a little more organised. There was some products I couldn’t get plastic free and I’m not yet ready to give up so I will always have something but if I keep at it, I can really see a time when I’ll have hardly anything in my rubbish bin and hopefully not much more in my plastic recycling. Going forward: Try and find plastic free alternatives to get that bin down even more.

History/Home Front Elements – I sadly didn’t get chance in July to do any research into the history of plastic packaging and what was used instead of in the Home Front but its on my list to do so keep your eyes peeled in the future for this one 🙂 Going forward: Start researching

All in all, I’m pretty happy with how it went and it’s spurned me on in a few areas. I’m quite curious to how far I will have come by next year and am looking forward to making the comparisons.

How did your Plastic-Free July 2022 go? Message me or comment below so I can hear how it went 🙂

This blog is all about Home Front Solution 5: No Single Use Plastics. Find more about my Home Front solutions here.

This blog is part of my Do Your Bit series all about the things you can do to make the world a little brighter and better, find more at Do Your Bit or click the link in the menu bar.

Do Your Bit Here and Now 5. No Single Use Plastics Plastic Fee July plastic free