A Month Less Plastic

A daily update exploring the learnings and inconveniences of not using single use plastic for the month of July.

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I leave Portland tomorrow for a small cycle tour up to Seattle and back down the Washington coast. I knew that doing this trip would be difficult plastic free, and was feeling like I was going to have to resort to buying lots of plastic for the trip. 

While looking through the many instant meals at REI I was imagining I would have to find another option or just bite the bullet and get myself some plastic freeze dried meals. This was obviously going to be a bit of a kick in the teeth, but I kept looking and eventually came across one brand, out of around 10, that produced their products in a paper pack. (I’m not sure if the inside is lined but it’s the best they had.) 

My point being, that on what might be my last day, I have learned to look for alternatives, and I think that might be the main thing I take away from this. I probably would have previously picked a brand who might have had a tastier sounding description or better branding, but being plastic conscious has created in me, an urge to keep looking. 

Whatever happens next, I am certain that I will always be very conscious of my decisions around my single use plastic consumption. I don’t know if I will be able to live at the level that I have been for the last month right now, but there is nothing in my life I feel like I am missing or doing without. Only perhaps superflous items that could really be acquired pre-used... oh and toothpaste.

I will always carry a coffee cup, and food container, these two things reduce your waste significantly. I will also continue to use soap bars and metal packaged moisturiser, which sounds like a small thing, but replaces multiple plastic bottles a month. I hopefully will never be caught out by waiters offering water, and I’ll be doing a lot more of my grocery shopping at weigh-it-out stores with with my own re-usable containers. 

Essentially any option now, that I can find a plastic free solution to, I will. There is pretty much always another option, and it just takes a bit of effort or consideration, which we really have no excuse not to make. It is really in our hands. Our purchasing decisions affect production, so let’s stop supporting single use plastic so that companies look for other options.

I hope Mary Jane’s Lentils, Rice and Indian Spice is good.

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You definitely get days when you feel like what’s the point. Seeing other people using plastic without any regard for where it ends up is getting harder and harder to stomach. It’s all about those little differences though, I just have to keep telling myself that.

Portland does appear to have solar powered bins though which reduces the amount of collections needed, thus reducing fuel costs. I also found out this morning, that plastic bags are banned in the city and straws are about to be outlawed too. That’s amazing, this box would have been full of plastic bags if they weren’t. I didn’t even realise as I haven’t been grocery shopping. Good work Portland.

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I’d ordered room service pizza earlier in the week and it arrived totally plastic free, so when I got in last night after a late stint in the office and a couple of beers I didn’t even think to ask for no plastic. When it arrived at my door, there was a small paper bag containing 2 plastic forks. Gutted! Who eats a pizza with 2 forks anyway?

Needless to say I didn’t use them, and thought about ways around this. I knew that if i leave them in my room they’ll just go straight into landfill, so I took them down to my favourite Mexican food cart and added them to theirs plastic cutlery offering. They stand out a bit but I’m sure no-one will mind.

Just goes to show, you have to be so careful when someone else is catering for you.

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I forgot to take my keep cup with me this morning, so when I passed Stumptown needing a coffee fix I got a cup with no lid. I didn’t even spill it walking 5 blocks. Who would have thought!

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While I was in my favourite local cafe picking up lunch with my own container, a woman walked in with a whole bunch of re-usable plastic containers. We got talking and turns out she’s the owner of an amazing company called GO Box. They facilitate re usable packaging in the city, where by you find an establishment taking part, and once used, you drop your box back to a drop off point to be cleaned. This is such a great idea, just think of all the packaging that is saved. It’s all delivered on Bicycle too! Keep up the great work Jocelyn.

Go take a look www.goboxpdx.com

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This is Elaine. She works in the Icebreaker Portland office and single handedly upholds the recycling law. She updates this info poster every few weeks to try and help people understand recycling better. We need more Elaine’s.

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Buy your produce locally. You’re so much less likely to run into single use plastic, you’ll be eating seasonally with a small carbon footprint, you’ll know where you food has come from and you’ll be supporting local growers. It’s fun going to farmers markets too.

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I don’t have any way of preparing food for myself at the moment as I’m living out of a hotel room, so I’m eating out a lot. That makes avoiding plastic fairly tricky, but it also means that plastic or not I’m using a lot of packaging that could be avoided.

Greenleaf organics near our office use compostable plastic, but I’ve decided against using this now, and with bowl food being such a big popular option here I’m going to be carrying my re-usable container a lot more. I got a bit of a strange reaction, but in a positive way. They weren’t allowed to remove the lid though for whatever health and safety rule so I had to do that. Imagine how much we’d save if this was the norm.

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Remember when life was simple, and you weren’t tripping over plastic bottles  in the shower? This is such an easy one to avoid all those plastic bottles.

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So food carts are a massive thing in Portland, and I love cheap Tacos more than most. But these things are like plastic traps, and the vendors don’t have the most concise grasp of the english language, so explaining you want zero plastic is a punt at best. I managed to get this burrito plastic free, which also meant hot sauce free, but I can live with that.

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So here’s the problem with compostable containers. You can’t actually add them to most compost bins, so you’re either going to be throwing this in the trash can, or contaminating your compost. Neither of which you want. If it’s in the trash it should eventually break down, but quite often organic waste doesn’t get any light or water in landfill so actually doesn’t. And if it does, contributes to methane gas emissions, which will inevitably increase with the popularisation of this type of container. They also allow us to feel guilt free about using them, which really we shouldn’t. Well that’s how I feel anyway.

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The problem with single use plastic is, that once it has been handed to you, it really has been used and there is not really anyway of returning it unless it’s a protest move. When I went for breakfast with Tsveti this morning at Proud Mary, I asked for no straw with my juice anticipating they might use them. It looked like the kind of establishment that wouldn’t but you never know. Anyway they did, and Tsveti felt bummed as hers turned up with a straw. That’s the cool thing about this month, it’s pretty infectious and most people will tend to do it with you while in your company. Tsveti is really conscious of this anyway, and that’s how easy it is to forget.

We went to a second cafe (she’s giving me a tour of her favourite spots, actually this was eatery 3) and bought a metal straw to take with her so I wouldn’t shame her as a plastic user. And because she loves the planet.

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I found plastic free hot sauce today at Proud Mary so I got some as I love hot sauce. It’s made with love too.

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A good friend and colleague has been showing me the best places to eat in Portland this week.

Tsveti’s favourite eatery in Portland is a small place in the downtown Pearl district, called Pixie Retreat. They make most of their own ingredients such as tempeh, hazlenut mylk, coconut water and a bunch of other things you can’t imagine. While their main goal is to provide whole foods and great chat to their customers, they also supply this produce in such a way that uses very little plastic. 

Eating in is a great way to reduce single use plastic, and your food will almost always be way fresher and hold so many more nutrients. Thanks Willow for making amazing food and creating such a great place.

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I don’t often go for room service but I’m working all hours of the day at the moment so thought I’d save some time while living the hotel life. Granola and orange juice seemed like it’d be safe enough but I didn’t consider the spillage factor. One for the mishaps.

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I didn’t really get to eat at the motel as everything was covered in plastic, so when Elaine told me they were supplying lunch today I jumped on it. I was so hungry I forgot to ask about plastic, and when it turned up I was kicking myself. It turned out to be bio-plastic, that while I don’t think this is the answer, I do not consider single use plastic. It will eventually break down, but only really in a commercial process which requires a lot of energy as does it’s production. It also gives consumers the false impression of a guilt free packaging, but it is better than petroleum based plastic for now. Thanks Elaine.

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Had to wash my food containers before I left the motel. (This isn’t single use)