Leave Only Footprints

I am still not using plastic but I am now over on

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com - hope to see you there.

Here you will find all the details of all the non plastic alternatives I have sourced.

I plan to continue my campaign in 2008 but I am moving my blog to

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com - hope to see you there.

Hello and thanks to all the people who supported me last year. For those of you who dont know me I have been ridding my life of plastic rubbish a piece a month. Without wanting the sound of my own trumpet to deafen you all I have to say I pretty much did what I said I was going to.

Last year I gave up the following plastic items

December
Plastic knives and forks -sourced and bought biodegradable cutlry and glasses for my party
Huddersfield Ban the Bag - set up a petition supporting Kirklees Councils decision to look into banning plastic carrier bags
November

Rolling my own - tobacco that is - fell off this wagon several times but back on it for now. May have to take up pipe smoking.

The Sweet Smell Of success heavily packaged deoderants and antiperspirants are replaced by a small rock. Used it ever since.

Greaseproof paper bags - bring your own to the cheese stall where they cut it for you. Havn't had pre packed cheese since.

October
Biobags and the butcher - I take my own biobags to the butchers and get him to my meat in them. Result plastic free meat bacon and sausages - I havn't bought prepacked since.

September
Sweets and Crisp plastic wrapped snacks are out and I still havnt bought any.

AUGUST
Rub It In - Made my own homemade body cream and lotion - I am still using it.

JULY
Ban The Bin Liners -
Done exactly that - havnt used one since

JUNE -Buttering Up
No more marge cos butter comes in paper. Since June I have not bought spreading margerine and for cooking I buy margerine wrapped in foil. Except once last week sad to say - emergency - had to go to the corner shop - no buttre np cooking marge - just a tub of flora. Baked a bright yellow cake with it.
Squeezy Does it - I discovered that I could get my ecover washing up liquid bottles refilled at the Half Moon Health Food shop. since then I have done nothing but. I have to have three bottles on the go on account of the fact I am terribly disorganised but this is the easiest way in the world to cut down on plastic consumption.

May
Peas and Degradation Degradable plastic - it is not the answer as an action I gave up frozen peas - and I love frozen peas. I have not bought a bag of peas since and I avoid all degradable plastic. However I have discovered loose fill frozen peas which are wonderful - hurrah- see February 2008 for more details.
April

Back off the bottle After reading about chemicals leaching out of plastic bottles and into the liquids thay contain I have gone right off drinking from plastic bottle. Water from the tap seems safer and since making the decision have not bought bottled water. I cant say I miss it.

MARCH
Wash That Plastic Pollution Right Out Of My Hair -and make my own shampoo out of soap flakes. Since I started I have not bought a bottle of shampoo.
FEBRUARY
The Milkman Cometh - I got myself a milk man with real glass bottles. Last I have bought 6 additional bottles of milk in plastic bottles. I know exactly how many because I use the bottles to store my home made shampoo and soap mixes in. For that they are ideal. For all the other times I use powdered milk from a cardboard box.
JANUARY
Refusing to use free plastic carrier bags was my first plastic free action. It was suprisingly easy - the hardest thing was remembering to take my own bags out with me.In the course of the year I have accepted three plastic carrier bags.The first was a massive miscalculation involving massive amounts of shopping and bad planning
The other two were due to an oversight on my part. My reusable bags of choice are string bags - they are fantastic but full of holes. When it rains things get wet. One plastic bag was to protect library books. Another flaw is that they are see through - another bag was accepted to facilitate the secret purchase of a present.

These problems have been remedied by the purchase of a Chico bag. Showerproof and opaque it folds up to the size of a golfball.

I would reccomend that you buy a selection of reusable bags

Stopped buying plastic wrapped fruit and veg and rather than put them in those plastic produce bags I use my own re-useable cotton produce bags. This has been a success. The produce bags are great and I bought a lot of them. When I dont have enough produce bags I take the big stuff - carrots and such like to the till and have them weigh it loose and unwrapped.

Huddersfield Council have agreed that plastic carrier bags are nasty and are going to look at ways to get rid of the beastly things. easier said than done so to stiffen their resolve and show how much you support them sign the on line petition.

http://www.gopetition.com/online/15845.html

for details on how the campaign is gpoing go to
http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

How did I get the cheese back in my life - to find out go to

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

Get rid of heavily packaged deodereants and anti persprants and use ammonium alum. This is a naturally occurring mineral salt with antiseptic properties. It inhibits the bacteria growth that causes odour. Alum molecules are far too big to be absorbed by the skin so they just sit there doing the job.

You can buy alum in a spray, as a push up stick or in lump crystal form. The first two involve nasty plastic packaging and lots of it. Better, environmentally speaking, to buy it in lump form. Pit Rok sell a single 80 gram crystal in a small cardboard box. Minimal packaging, completely natural, and fragrance free. You can be clean and green.

For Pit Rok stockists in your town go to www.pitrok.co.uk/stockists.asp. and type in the name of. They do not differentiate between the products. In my experiance the health food shops are morelikely to sell the crystal form. If you want to buy on line go to www.amazon.co.uk and search for deodorant crystal. They have several rather attractive crystals designed to look good on the shelf. Some come with their own marble stands, others in baskets, cotton bags even shells.

FOR MORE WAYS TO RID YOUR LIFE OF PLASTIC GO TO http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

For eco style party bags for kiddywinks go to

http://battleofthebin.wordpress.com/party-bags

I posted a link to a ban plastic bags petition earlier in the year. I got an e mail from the organisers asking if anyone who had signed, could they transfer their signitures to these guys - Greener England. They ave already collected a lot more people. If you have signed the old petition follow the link and sign again. If you havent please sign up. You know it makes sense

Plastic Bag Petition: Sign the petition for a tax to be put on plastic bags in Britain.

For a Leave Only Fottprints clean feed go to http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/bags-for-life/a-clean-feed/

For the thriling tale Biobags and the Butcher gp to http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

To buy biobags go to

http://www.biobags.co.uk

You can buy your bags fron biobags direct but I got mine from The Bin Company

www.thebincompany.com

The Bin Company
Colin Sanders Innovation centre
Mewburn Road
banbury
Oxon
OX16 9PA

0845 602 3630

Plastic bags consumed this year:

Plastic bags consumed this year:

Taken from

http://www.reusablebags.com

15 million bottles A DAY
Turn the world state we use 15 million bottles a day every day in the UK http://www.turntheworld.com/recycler/plastic.htm

Which is backed up by the independent which states that Britons use 275,000 tons of plastic bottles each year - 15 million a day http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article621200.ece