The end of Plastic free July 2018
This month went by so fast! I’ve been having an amazing summer so far, although the heat has been a bit to much to handle. I’ve been taking care of my mum’s garden, picking everything edible there was to pick and made jam and juice with white and red currants, rhubarb, and gooseberry, also I made arugula pesto. Hoping that it will last until next year!! (It probably won’t).
I’ve really been trying to do my best being plastic free, and I’ve found some tricks (read: learned by my mistakes) that’s going to help me (and hopefully you too) in the future.
1. The first one is about online shopping: try to avoid it. If you can find what you want to buy somewhere near you, that’s always a better option. Online shopping almost always comes with some sort of plastic and that’s just not what we want.
2. Aleppo soap! I found that dishwashing liquid can be replaced by Aleppo soap(!), and that’s just amazing. So I tried it and it works wonders.
3. I need to grow my own salad. Period. Salad leaves are always packaged in plastic here in Sweden and it’s been a blessing that my mum’s been growing arugula this summer. (Also I need my own garden)
4. ACV (Apple cider vinegar) rinse!!! It really is the best “conditioner” I’ve ever tried on my hair that is zero waste and also WORKS. (I found a recipe how to make ACV at home and it seems to be really easy. I’ll share it in a few months when I can pick apples myself and make it out of that). A big problem though with the ACV rinse is that my partner hates the smell, I can’t really smell anything, but he hates it, so I need to solve that somehow. I’ve experimented with tea tree oil in the mixture (I use about 1 tbsp of ACV and 0,5 liters of distilled/boiled water) to make it smell of something else. But he still thinks I smell like vinegar, and that’s not really how I wan’t to smell even though I’m a urban hippie.
5. I love my bike. It takes me everywhere and costs me nothing more then a tiny bit of sweat and a active body (I got it for my birthday some years ago).
6. July isn’t the best month for being plastic free. I don’t have any stats on this one, but I think it is the month when people waste and use single use plastics/products the most. At least here in Europe. Maybe that’s why July got to be the month with a plastic free challenge, just because we need to think more about how we prepare (or don’t prepare) to be out and about all day long. I see thai boxes everywhere, ice cream wrapping, soda cans, plastic and glass bottles, bottle caps, plastic cutlery, pizza boxes and it really makes me sad. It’s been hard not to buy take outs and sit down by the water on a perfect summer night, it’s a weird but wonderful holiday/summer vibe over that type of things. But I put my back into it and made my own food to go and it was just as fine!
7. Trial and error. There always has to be some errors before knowing what works. There’s always going to be plastic that you can’t avoid. The thing about zero waste is that it’s always going to conclude some fails, hopefully less and less in time. But the effort people are making, trying their best to quit using plastic and finding ways to be kind to this planet really makes me happy and hopeful, this community of zero or low wasters is truly amazing! I’m also noticing that my friends are getting interested in quitting plastic and fast fashion, also that they want to get into gardening and make things themselves! That’s just so cool!
Two days to go and then Plastic Free July is officially over! How has it been for you?
