Leave Only Footprints

Plastic free 2008

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:14:01 +0100

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.

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What I did last year

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:20:59 +0100

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.

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Huddersfield Ban the Bag Petition

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 19:12:25 +0100

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

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Back On the Cheese

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 17:03:31 +0100

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

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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Glowing Like a Pig

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 12:43:41 +0100

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

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Childrens Party Bags eco style

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:50:14 +0200

For eco style party bags for kiddywinks go to

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

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New Bag Petition

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 16:11:35 +0200

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.

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October and the biodegradable breakfast

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:10:10 +0200

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

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Biobags

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 16:01:35 +0200

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

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How Many bags??

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:57:45 +0200

Plastic bags consumed this year:
RbBagCounter.Add();

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

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Poisonous plastic

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:08:22 +0200

Why give up plastic? Started because I didnt like the impact it had on the environment. As I find out more I am worried about the impact it is having on me.

The more I read, the more it becomes apparent that plastic is infact poisonous. It contains the following yummy ingredients

a) Dioxins. Dioxins, which are highly poisonous even at low doses, are produced when plastics are manufactured and incinerated.

b) Phthalates is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen . Most cling-wrapped meats, cheeses and other foods bought from shops are wrapped in PVC.

c) Bisphenol A . Plastic food and drinks containers are a great concern due to the safety issue around low-dose effects of bisphenol A

d) #1 PETE plastic water bottles contain antimony

And guess what ? There are indications that these chemicals are mobile and can leach into the plastic wraped products.

For the full scary story and tips on how to reduce your exposure to plastic poison go to

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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September and Why I wont be shaking my tic-tacs

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 15:07:31 +0200

The problem of litter has soared in recent years and, nationally, the annual bill for removing it from streets, waterways and open spaces is a massive £370 million. The most common items are cigarette ends, sweet and food wrappers.

http://www.portsmouth.gov.uk

Britain's beaches are nearly twice as dirty as they were a decade ago, a survey has found. ….. The most common rubbish was plastics, such as crisp packets, sweet wrappers and bottles.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

Sweets - guess what most of them come wrapped in plastic or worse.

Tic-tacs for example must be in line for the baddest, maddest packaging ever award - surely. Even the less bonkers sweet wrapper presents a problem

So this month sees me refusing to buy any more plastic wrapped sweetshop snacks.

I know - it sounds truly noble but its really not that bad.

Crisps - well they are evil any way with their huge amount of calories and general badness.

I can still buy chocolate which is foil and paper wrapped -

I can buy cakes from the bakers with no wrapping at all and they are practically the same as chocolate bars.

Cornflake choclate crunchy = lion bar

There use to be sweet shops that would sell you a quarter of boiled sweets in a paper bag. I dont know if they still exist.

NB
I am not the kind of person who litters beaches, I have seen the cruel seaside wind snatch those easily airbourne bits of rubbish out of bins and out to sea.

For more on sweet pollution check out http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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Rub It In

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 14:13:50 +0200

The amount of cream I need to slather over my wrinkled frame has increased, not surprisingly, with the years.

However I really don’t see why my need to keep my skin supple should result in a mountain of plastic pots that will last for centuries - far longer then my looks. A timeless, non biodegradable monument to my vanity - ooh err.

So I have been running down supplies of lotion, saving the pots and have invested in the make your own cream starter kit from

http://www.aromantic.co.uk

They are Swedish and organic but based in Scotland.

It arrived with everything you need including sadly 30 little plastic pots to put it in. All the ingredients were wrapped in plastic bags as well. Hmmm.

Last month I made my first batch. It was really easy and the results are excellent. I now have several pots of really high quality cream for a fraction of the price. I have been using it on face and body for weeks with no side effects.

So while the pots and plastic bags may seem like rather an own goal, next time I will be able to buy just the ingredients so no pots, and in larger amounts so less bags.

Do try this at home.

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July and its Ban the Bin Liners

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:53:15 +0200

Used to use hundreds now I have given them up! So what do I keep my rubbish in then?

We recycle everything but plastic and food waste. Vegetarian waste we compost in our new big black bin. Only meat waste and clean plastic packaging goes into our kitchen bin

As meat waste is a bit icky, we wrap it and the smelly wrappers it came in, in the clean wrappers from other stuff. Wrapped up/ or clean the rubbish does not stick so we put it straight into our bin - with NO bin liner.

The bin has a hard removable plastic liners that can be washed out after emptying. We empty the bin into a degradable black bin bag in our wheelie bin which we keep untied and then wash out the inner bin - sometimes. So we DONT NEED A BIN LINER.

Result - no plastic bin liners and a 60% reduction in wheelie bin use.

Others ways to compost
Worm bin
Green cone

For more composting info go to www.polytheneschoice.blog.co.uk

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June, Squeezy Does It

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:30:50 +0200

no more washing up liquid bottles for me. To see what I keep my squeezy in got to http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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May - Peas & Degradation

Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:27:21 +0200

I know .. it sounds like a Mike Liegh film

Sorry about May - one big computer crash … all info lost.. great despair and gloom.

Now I know that those of you kind enough to peruse these pages may imagine me as some kind of Birkenstock wearing earth goddess who loves nothing better than weaving yogurt while a pot of free trade, organic lentils bond themselves into a health some stew. Sadly not true. Dinner time finds me attacking the glacier that has taken up residence in our freezer in an attempt to liberate food, any kind of food, from its icy grasp.

Frozen food is important to us and I am particularly partial to frozen peas.

Sad to say plastic is rather important to frozen food .

Imagine then my whoops of joy ( I am inordinately fond of peas) when I saw the coop put much of its food in degradable packaging.

Degradable to me sounds much like biodegradable.

I could have let it go.

But I didn’t - degradable does not mean biodegradable.

It means plastic particles stuck together with biodegradable glue. Sure it breaks down faster, much faster, than conventional plastic but still into tiny invisible plastic particles - it is still basically plastic.

Good from a litter point of view but not so good from a no plastic point of veiw.

Degradable plastic is no longer allowed and frozen peas are no longer part of my diet.

For more information on degradable plastic follow this link

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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March & I Am Going to wash that plastic pollution right out of my hair

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:15:46 +0100

My bathroom is a plastic product paradise - they are all over the place. This month its shampoo bottles that have to go.

To read this article and find out how I made my own shampoo go to

www.plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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February & The Milk Man Cometh

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 17:13:08 +0100

I got my self a milk man with glass bottles
to see why go to http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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January - old bag for fresh fruits

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 13:47:29 +0100

String bags from

Taken from www.organic-ally.co

Produce Bags

from www.reusablebags.com

FULL BLOG AND LINKS At http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com

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My Gift to The World.

Tue, 09 Jan 2007 21:11:57 +0100

Ever worried about not making your mark on the world?

Think you might not leave anything behind you when you go?

Dont - I can assure you that everyday in everyway you are making a lasting impression.

I realised just how big my own everlasting monument would be when I decided to monitor my own plastic consumption. To determine how much of the stuff I actually "used" I began saving all the disposable plastic that passed through my hands. A sobering 7 days later and I was running out of cupboard space.

A weeks worth of kitchen waste

Leave only footprints? - Not bloody likely! I will be leaving an enormous pile of rubbish with a thousand year lifespan to commemorate my 3 score years and ten on this fragile globe.

Having realised the plastic problem what’s a girl to do? Giffing on in some blog on in the outer reaches of cyber space aint going to save no turtles - this problem needs some personal responsibility. In this capitalist paradise consumer pressure has massive leverage - reduce demand and supply will follow. and the best answer seems to be to take direct action and boycott the filthy stuff.

However on studying my mighty pile I realised that an immediate boycott would have some very unpleasant results - dirty, rotten teeth, bad body odour and hair thick with grease would occur within the first few days Followed by scurvey, rickets and ultimate starvation. Plastic has become so much part of our lives it is hard it seems to live without it. However faint heart and all that. I decided to modify my plan. Each month I would study my heap and decide to elimate one thing. I would research for a non plastic wrapped substitute and replace the bad and ugly with the good. Rather than an immediate ban I would tackle the problem one wrapper at a time - a 12 step program to a cleaner world.

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