Natalie Lamb and the plastic free July

More than 8 million tons of plastic are dumped in our oceans every year. Half of it comes from disposable plastics that are only used once before being thrown away. This month I have taken the pledge to identify the single use plastics in my life and try and reduce my usage of them. I have decided to do a plastic diary, of the single use plastics I have been using throughout the month.

Sunday 1st July

-For breakfast I had cereal with plastic packaged milk 

+ For lunch I fancied instant noodles. I got some Kabuto ones. Kabuto (n.d.) state that their packaging is speci cally designed to minimise the brand’s environmental impact, with a double-walled paper cup that is more easily recycled than standard plastic and there are no additional sachets or internal packaging. 

+ I baked bread to go with the lunch (and we also had some with dinner on Tuesday) so no plastic packaging from bread today.

- For dinner, I made a Mexican. This included some tortilla chips, which although it was my third or fourth use of them, were still plastic wrapped.

 - Also at dinner we had wraps, which we used for the second time but which were plastic wrapped.

- Dinner included frozen onions and peppers, both from plastic packaging. 

- My shampoo/conditioner uses plastic packaging, so does my washing up liquid and my washing machine detergent bottle

I feel like there is a lot I hadn't thought about before doing this challenge!

Monday 2nd July

 -For breakfast and during the day I had a protein shake and cups of tea/coffee using plastic packaged milk 

- For lunch, my Warburtons Thins use plastic packaging, even though it is 6 servings per packet.

+/- Also for lunch I tried to substitute my Graze boxes with something else because they are individually plastic packaged boxes. I bought some larger packets of mixed fruit and nuts from Lidl and put a portion in a reusable plastic container to take to work. Problem is, the larger packet is still a plastic packet.

- For dinner, we had food at my partner's parent's house. It included chips which I assume were from frozen in plastic packaging

- My shampoo/conditioner uses plastic packaging, so does my washing up liquid 

 I had tried to make some changes but they were not all successful.

Tuesday 3rd July

 -For breakfast and during the day I had a protein shake and cups of tea/coffee using plastic packaged milk

+/- For lunch I had my Thins and my fruit and nuts again

- For dinner we had leftover gammon from the weekend that I had wrapped in cling film

+ But we had fresh rather than frozen vegetables

- We finished off the homemade bread but I had wrapped it in cling film 

- My shampoo/conditioner uses plastic packaging, so does my washing up liquid  

Cling film was a problem today!

Wednesday 4th July

 -For breakfast and during the day I had a protein shake and cups of tea/coffee using plastic packaged milk

+/- For lunch I had my Thins and my fruit and nuts again

- As part of dinner we each had half a meatball sub from Cafe Nero, which was plastic wrapped. We were in a rush and so my partner brought food home

+ After rugby, later that night, I resisted the temptation of plastic wrapped chocolate and had a cardboard wrapped cornetto instead 

- My washing up liquid uses plastic packaging  

The ongoing plastic usage is very annoying!