A challenge - A fortnight without plastic

[Shirley]

Is pasta making that difficult?? Sounds like good exercise LOL

Why not email Amazon and ask that they don't package your books in plastic! Share the challenge.

That was one thing I liked about the OU stuff - it was sent in a cleverly designed cardboard wrap - I have kept the packages (of course!) to reuse and also intend to copy the technique (very simple) to use again.

Some places still sell 'normal' milk in glass bottles with a foil top.

[PurpleDragon]

In short if my card gets lost or stolen then I will have to go into the bank and explain why I want to get money out without my card and don't want it replaced straight away.

And watch carefully for the men in white coats that the bank will call as soon as you are out of earshot LOL - I would love to be on the coffee break of the employee you explain it to. Your ears will be burning.

[Andy Hamilton]

Aghhh bloody plastic is everywhere

I managed to fail on day 4 today. Although I will describe it as a minor indescresion rahter than a failure and try to continue for the next 10 days. - I thought I was being clever buying orange juice in a glass bottle. No such luck, on the inside of the cap there was a bit of plastic!

I had to put back a bottle of cooking oil as there was plastic around the bottle neck too. Mind you I have been collecting the bacon fat from the grill so as soon as my oil runs out I shall be using that.

Shirley - I went out looking for milk in glass bottles today and no where seems to sell it. I remmeber seeing glass bottles in supermarkets in the past, perhaps will have to find the nearest co-op as they sell milk door to door still and might have some. Won't hold my breath though.

Washing up liquid is the next hurdle it means I will have to cross town to one of the ethical supermarkets with an empty bottle to fill. Perhaps will do the same with laundry liquid.

Looks like I will have another hurdle soon as well as I think the toothpaste is going to run out sometime next week.

It is much harder than I thought!

[Shirley]

make your own toothpaste - am sure there has been a recipe on here for it....

Milk bottle.... farmshops might be a good place to try too - farrington gurney too far from you? Might be worth giving them a call first/email http://www.farringtons.co.uk/ ... Could always cheat and borrow some milk from Dave

[PurpleDragon]

I managed to fail on day 4 today. Although I will describe it as a minor indescresion rahter than a failure and try to continue for the next 10 days. - I thought I was being clever buying orange juice in a glass bottle. No such luck, on the inside of the cap there was a bit of plastic!

Oh too bad! That just isnt fair - it was sneaked up on you. Not your fault.

[Andy Hamilton]

ha, found a tube of toothpaste in my stuff from the birthday weekend and also took muddy's advice and got some brie wrapped in foil. Really cooking on gas now though as also found that somerfield don't wrap up there tea boxes in plastic nor do brooke bond D!

[Andy Hamilton]

another victory in the anti plastic front I found some bottled milk one of the local shops that I hardly ever go in sells it. Pats News within spitting distance from my house. It is steralised milk though but still its milk.

[Shirley]

Big up for Pat's News!!!!

Congrats to Somerfield and Brooke-Bond for the non-plastic wrapped tea stuff too.

Reading back through the thread... you can make cheese quite quickly... a soft cheese though....

Bottled beer - morrisons... £5 for 4 bottles of good stuff. They have the same offer on bottled cider too.

Washing up liquid... make your own.. Luath has a recipe!

Well done mate... you are doing really well. Impressed!!!

[Muddypause]

I'm impressed by your staying power, Andy, and I reckon you're highlighting very effectively just how pervasive plastic has become.

I just followed my own advice above, and bought some Fair Trade chocolate, wrapped in paper. Inside, hidden from view, I found not metal foil, but a thin plastic wrapper. So I can't safely advise you to buy Fair Trade chocolate now.

Also (and this could be a real bugger), I realised as I opened a jar of passata tonight, that although it is a glass jar, with a metal lid, there is a thin plastic seal inside the lid. You may find that every glass bottle or jar top now has similar - beer, jam, milk, spirits, etc... Once, it would have been a cork disk, or something like that, but plastic has taken over this, too. And I can't help wondering if tin cans don't have some sort of lining inside them, including aluminium beer cans - somebody else may be more definitive on this than me.

Sorry; not meaning to be unhelpful, but this seems a tough challenge.

[Andy Hamilton]

It is turning out to be a lot tougher than I thought it would be. The steralised milk has a 'beer bottle' top so I am begining to wonder if that will have plastic on the inside. I fear that yes it will have. As, I would have thought beer bottles.

I think for the washing up liquid there is no halm in getting a refil. It is enough to be baking bread, cooking all my food, going to work, posting on here and going to the allotment.

I have had to put a couple of things on hold too like making a solar oven. I noticed that clinton cards sells shiney silver wrapping paper that I think should work in a solar oven. - of course it is wrapped in plastic.

I am starting to crack a bit in some ways but it is stopping me from wasting any cash! Got a friends birthday to celebrate and she want us in the pub from 2pm this can only mean that take away is on the menu. Chips I guess is the easiest and least likely to have plastic near it. Pizza comes with that little plastic thing in the middle. chinese and indain always is presented in a plastic bag and sometimes in the little plastic tubs. - HAve to think ahead, perhaps I should bring a packed lunch - I think planning is the key to success here.

I am not sure about tin cans I think they are just tin or they would not pick them up for recycling and it looks and feels like tin.

This is gonn a have to be turned into a front page article me thinks when I am done! Beer might be the downfall, that damb ring thing around the middle of a 4 pack.

[Andy Hamilton]

It is turning out to be a lot tougher than I thought it would be. The steralised milk has a 'beer bottle' top so I am begining to wonder if that will have plastic on the inside. I fear that yes it will have. As, I would have thought beer bottles.

I think for the washing up liquid there is no halm in getting a refil. It is enough to be baking bread, cooking all my food, going to work, posting on here and going to the allotment.

I have had to put a couple of things on hold too like making a solar oven. I noticed that clinton cards sells shiney silver wrapping paper that I think should work in a solar oven. - of course it is wrapped in plastic.

I am starting to crack a bit in some ways but it is stopping me from wasting any cash! Got a friends birthday to celebrate and she want us in the pub from 2pm this can only mean that take away is on the menu. Chips I guess is the easiest and least likely to have plastic near it. Pizza comes with that little plastic thing in the middle. chinese and indain always is presented in a plastic bag and sometimes in the little plastic tubs. - HAve to think ahead, perhaps I should bring a packed lunch - I think planning is the key to success here.

I am not sure about tin cans I think they are just tin or they would not pick them up for recycling and it looks and feels like tin.

This is gonn a have to be turned into a front page article me thinks when I am done! Beer might be the downfall, that damb ring thing around the middle of a 4 pack.

[The Chili Monster]

And then there's those dreaded foil sealers -everywhere. Instant coffee, Yoghurt (?). I took a vacation job in a vitamin/mineral/health supplement factory that had a foil sealer machine - the operator had to make sure all jewelry was removed (normally solid gold rings no gemstones embedded are allowed, but this monstrosity shrinks metal).
As Muddy has pointed out, you can see just how reliant manufacturers have become in the (over)use of plastic and metal.

[wulf]

How many days have you got left?

Wulf

[Andy Hamilton]

only half way!

[Wombat]

Well Done Mate!

When I used to work in the brewing industry there was no plastic inside the cans, but that was damn near 30 years ago so there could have been some change there.

Nev