Plastic Free July - Blog 1

Date: Thursday 15 July

Seems no time since No Palm Oil November’s blog was written. One subscription to “Ethical Consumer” later (as promised), I have learned a lot more on sustainability, but this particular challenge is even more concerning. 

Plastic, which is a product of fossil fuels oil and fracked gas, is everywhere! Some is very beneficial in certain applications, but when for single use is the great disruptor of our planet. 

Just ask the Marine Conservation Society whose regular beach cleans and surveys have provided shocking statistics on plastics entering the oceans or watch the videos from 4Ocean who give employment to those who are constantly out at sea clearing vast quantities of it.

The worst of it is that we make plastics here in Scotland and even worse, some of it is from gas fracked in the US and shipped here!

Here you can find a shocking photo of Grangemouth - one of the largest plastic manufacturing plants.

More on types of plastics later, but off to the shops! Definitely no plastic bag for life either! 

*Here, I’ll give a plug to Nest Creative Spaces in Blairgowrie where for £2 you can buy a Morsbag Kit - make your own shopping bag from lovely fabric remnants, ready cut and with instructions- or to give to someone else*.

 

We are lucky in Blairgowrie to have independent shops who will package shopping in paper bags or compostable bags (more on compostability later). For example, Mitchell’s Newsagent sell loose fruit, veg and dried goods, while our supermarkets still have very little which is not in plastic bags or shrink wrapped.

What can you do...

• We can only choose to refuse, to reuse, to refill and to ask, if no choices, why not?  
• We can all ask our supermarkets to change their plastic behaviour and write letters.
• You can take your own reusable box to the butchers, to deli shops and counters, thus avoiding single use bags.
• We also have Robertson’s Dairy who deliver milk and an oat version in glass bottles.
• All Things Fair offers a refill service for household cleaning liquids and more.
• The co-op’s carrier bags really are compostable, so can be used for your food waste bin.  
• Refil your old drinks bottles or invest in a long lasting one - drinking bottled water alone accounts for over 0.25% of the world’s carbon footprint, doesn’t sound much, but that is 1000 times more carbon intensive than drinking tap water. This all reduces the need for single use plastic bottles. It is possible to live and work without the need to buy a bottle of water, especially since we have lovely Scottish water for refills.

In the UK cafes and restaurants are required to provide tap water so don’t be embarrassed to ask or look for the Refill sign as pictured above.

What to say about Nestle and its 100 bottled water factories in 34 countries around the world? One plant in Michigan evidently produces 500 – 1200 single use bottles every minute, using hundreds of tons of plastic resin pellets.   

How great it will be to have the Deposit Return System for plastic bottles - starting soon, but about 20 years behind Scandinavia!    

We can all do something to make a difference.  No effort is too small to make a change. If we can do this, we can cut down on plastic litter entering the oceans. Anyway, plastic can only be recycled a given number of times, so we all gain from the simple choice of taking a reusable bottle.

Enough grumbling  - off to ask the supermarkets how they are participating in Plastic Free July!

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