Monday 13 March 2017

Plastic Free February: A Summary

When I embarked on the Plastic-free February challenge I wasn't really prepared for how it would change my life. There have been some hugely satisfying surprises and dismal disappointments, it has certainly been an interesting ride so far.

When I started this year it had not crossed my mind that I would turn out being a nut about refusing plastic! While I've always despised litterbugs, and have in the past been a fan of recycling, I guess my interest in environmental protection (like many) had been more of a personal, quiet interest. I thought I did my bit and that was enough. Wrong. After a month of refusing single-use plastic I realized that I, that we, can do so much more. But just like quitting anything, we have to care enough first.

So what is single-use plastic anyway?
Straws, takeaway cups, plastic shopping bags, plastic water bottles, food wrap, and general plastic packaging. Pretty much anything that you would use once and then throw away.

Where single-use plastic inevitably ends up.
Reuse plastic, don't throw it away.

There were various levels of commitment for the challenge, go cold turkey and quit the lot, or just choose a few. I decided to focus on refusing three: plastic bags, plastic bottles\takeaway cups, and plastic wrap. Not wanting to set myself up for failure, I felt these three were realistically doable and anything above and beyond that would be a bonus pat on the back.

For the month of February in total I refused 54 plastic bags, 20 plastic bottles or takeaway cups, and 3.8 meters of plastic wrap. Actually the wrap figure is likely much more as half way through I got so used to not using wrap that I got a bit slack at taking record!

I am probably most proud of the fact that I haven't used a single piece of plastic wrap in the kitchen since January, nor accepted a single plastic shopping bag. It is now getting to the stage that I am running out of suitable shopping bags to put recycling in (I have however found a few ways around this which I'll expand on in future posts).Overall our plastic waste has halved. We are now putting out a bag every two weeks rather than every week, and surprisingly, our general 'burnable' rubbish has also halved.  So it appears that in general we are consuming less and therefore creating less waste overall. This was not something I was expecting to be honest, but as I've found it extremely difficult to find any snack foods that don't come in layer upon layer of plastic, our consumption of such items has decreased considerably.

Another surprising outcome is a result of  what I like to call the 'plastic-free diet', Eating more unprocessed foods, and less in general due to few plastic-free options, has had a noticeable affect on my waistline. Turns out I've lost 0.4% body fat predominantly around my midsection, and can now fit into clothes that I had 'outgrown'...ehem...

It has not however been without it's low points.
 For example, having to constantly repeat my wish for no plastic bag, sometimes not once, or twice, but THREE times (no I'm not exaggerating I had to literally take an item out of a bag in front of the cashier on one occasion), or to go to a supermarket and find that ninety percent of the fruit and veges are wrapped in plastic, or to do a shop and literally not be able to find one single thing on your list that is plastic-free (but you're so tired and you have to feed the rugrats so you give-in...defeated). While refusing all plastic is ideal it's really not practical or realistic in modern Japan, as much as I hate to admit it.

Despite the setbacks though, probably the best thing that has come of this experiment is that I've now formed habits that will likely stick with me for life, like carrying a reusable shopping bag with me ALWAYS, and having backups, containers, a cup, and utensils in the back of my car. I used to have ten reusable shopping bags that I could never seem to remember to take to the store with me...now I have two in my handbag and two in the car (oh OK and a couple in the cupboard at home!) and they are finally getting used A LOT!
Take a reusable bag or if you must, ask for paper

DIY reusable beeswax wrap

What I now see cannot be unseen...and it is shocking and incredibly frustrating at times, but also hugely motivating. For the most part I am embracing going plastic-free as a positive change, in fact I cannot think of a single negative thing that would stop me from refusing plastic waste whenever I can, and it feels good to be doing something.

Friday 3 March 2017

Look No Pura!

For the last few years I flagged the New Year’s resolutions, I mean who really keeps them anyway ?
But this year something changed….the world is in shock and awe over the inauguration of an unlikely President (you know who I’m talking about, so let’s just leave that right there).  By this point I’d had enough of the theatrics, ‘this shit can’t be real’ I thought, time to refocus my energy into tangible action and pull myself away from the drama. And that’s when I decided, albeit a little late in the year, that the only resolutions I needed for 2017 were to love more and to do more.  Yeah yeah pretty vague I know, doesn’t fit the SMART goals framework, but it’ll do!

So in the spirit of ‘doing more’ I set out to tackle a bugbear of mine since the very first time I visited Japan (over 20 years ago), the ridiculously excessive and wasteful use of single-use plastic.
For a country that prides itself on not being wasteful, the often boasted concept of ‘mottainai’, there is a staggering amount of thoughtless waste going on. From the individually wrapped confections, the wrapping of fresh fruit and vege, or the Japanese love of the poly bag, (if it’s naked, cold or hot, it must have a poly bag) plastic is EVERYWHERE you turn.

Plastic rubbish day
Produce packaging madness

‘So what?’, you say, ‘doesn’t matter if it’s all recycled, and Japan is super wonderful at recycling'. Indeed the recycling system here is extremely complex and efficient, with over 70% of PET plastic bottles being recycled, and rubbish being sorted into detailed categories for collection. The successes of recycling are espoused with vigour here, but it would seem the less desirable stuff, like the fact that most plastic wrapping (low quality film/ wrap etc.) is simply incinerated, or that historically Japan has produced the most garbage per person, or that a huge amount of resources (which are finite I might add) and energy are used in producing these one-time-use-throw-away-conveniences, are quietly swept under the carpet. Of course despite our best efforts a lot of plastic ends up in drainage systems which in turn flow out to the sea. Plastic pollution is now such a problem that by 2050 bits of plastic polluting the sea will outnumber fish in the sea!

I found myself starting to fall into the zombie like state of plastic acceptance, and when you snap out of it you are startlingly aware of the plastic society we now live in. Don’t get me wrong, plastic is extremely useful and versatile, but we need to value it more and use it responsibly, we are literally suffocating in the stuff! 

I’ve started this blog to record my personal journey out of the plastic fog. ‘Pura’ is the Japanese word for plastic and the name is a bit of a play with words. It reflects the standard response I often get of shock and disbelief at not wanting a plastic bag, as if I was doing something deemed uncouth or socially unacceptable. The title is also reflective of my own shock when finding the rare item not wrapped in plastic, and discovering how easy giving up single-use plastic has been for the most part.
The sooner we can get back to living more simply (before it’s forced upon us) the better things will be for us and the planet.

Stay tuned for my upcoming posts where I’ll be breaking down my plastic-free month which I undertook in February 2017. I'll go into details of the unexpected challenges, as well as some surprising benefits, of avoiding single-use plastic.