A plastic-free day, woo hoo!

We were very tired after the party last night, and so it was lucky we had no shopping decisions to make, as I think we would have definitely gone for the easy option.

So nothing much to report today. I shall recount instead the yoghurt saga. On preparing for plastic-free July I realised yoghurt was going to be a major sticking point for us. Other dairy products have also proved impossible to find out of plastic, e.g. cream, creme fraiche, but we have just opted not to have meals which require these. That approach was not going to cut it for yoghurt. It is a staple of Little MIH’s diet, and also a key part of her pre-school packed lunches. There was a high risk of a hangry child without it.

Skip this next bit if you know how to make yoghurt! Some Googling of homemade yoghurt later, I found that it is possible to use a slow cooker to make yoghurt (see here). We needed some kind of temperature measuring device, but I didn’t want to invest in this in case the yoghurt making didn’t work out, so we reused Mr MIHs thermocouple (putting on a new, sterilised wire), which works a treat.

I invested in a small pot of Yeo Valley Organic Live Yoghurt (like this), as this had been recommended online as nice and creamy, plus easy to get in the supermarket. And it turned out to be remarkably easy (Edit: see later posts – it is not always this easy!). You heat whole milk up to 82°C, let it cool to 43°C, then add the live yoghurt starter pre-mixed with a little of the warm milk. You wrap the slow cooker in a couple of towels and leave (turned off) overnight, then in the morning the milk has magically turned into lovely thick yoghurt.

Pop it in an empty jar (keeping a little back in a separate jar clearly marked ‘Do Not Eat!’ to use as your next starter), and it will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge.

The biggest faff is not missing the temperature points, and so I can see an intelligent beeping thermometer would work well here (or you could invest in a Instant Pot, which I am toying with – overkill for just the temperature measuring, but they do seem very versatile, especially as I am also considering a jam maker to make use of our allotment fruit).

So, after the first few tries by Little MIH, all was going well. But then ‘I don’t like it. It’s got stringy bits’ and still full yoghurt pots started coming back in the packed lunch. Sad times. I’m hoping this has a happy ending though. I think the major problem was I had not removed the milk skin that formed when the yoghurt heated, so I have done this for the most recent batch. It has taken a little bit of coaxing to get her to retry it, plus lots of stirring up to smooth out any lumps, but I think (fingers crossed) she may be back on the yoghurt eating.

Fails

None. Let me repeat that – NONE!

Items we couldn’t buy

After my recent parcels (with sellotape) which delivered sample cardboard boxes, I’d really like to order a batch to get preparing my plastic-free craft boxes, but I know they will come with more sellotape. I’ve tried justifying it on the basis they are destined for plastic-free presents, and I probably will order them anyway at the end of the month. But I think I will be good for now and wait, and just prepare as much of the rest as possible this month.

Unsolicited items

None.

Do you have any top tips for easy homemade food swaps? Any extra yoghurt smoothness tips? Please do share in the comments below!

We realised we had no wrapping paper this morning for the party presents. I thought I knew where there would probably be some sheets of paper for sale in our local town, but in the end rather than risk spending too much time chasing an elusive plastic free option, I found some old brown packing paper we already in had in the house, and used twine and tags which we also already had to brighten it up a bit. So plastic-free crisis averted there. I guess once we have done a round or two of buying all these things, it will be easier, as we will know where to go.

Came home with some a couple of plastic party spoils. To me it would seem rude to no accept them, plus they were not for me, so it is Little MIHs choice. I was ruminating on this earlier though. I wonder if one day it could be socially acceptable to be ‘no plastic’ or ‘no/low waste’ in the same way as a vegetarian is ‘no meat’ and it isn’t considered judgy?

While Little MIH and I were partying, 4-year-old style, Mr MIH went on a top-up shop to get some of the things I couldn’t bring myself to buy in Waitrose, as Aldi was half the price. He was also stocking up on supplies for his lunches next week. We have cooked 2 loaves of wholemeal bread in our bread maker (hello free solar electricity and hello £6 Ebay breadmaker!). Our big, less-local Tesco (near Aldi) were apparently fairly grumpy about letting him have ham and bacon in his own container, so he had to come back to our smaller local Tesco to get those – which they did quite happily wrapped in paper, go figure.

He also did a little bit of investigating of other options out there. Another shop that does cleaning supply refills, and also stocks coffee in a tin with a metal lid and a ring pull seal (photo to follow).

Our aim is to have to buy things in as few places as possible, so we are constantly reassessing options.

Also, a new artisan-looking bakery has just opened. It looks like a good option for those sweet treats. Anyone who knows Mr MIH will appreciate he has a somewhat sweet tooth, and is quite happy to polish off a 6 pack of hot cross buns (time of year immaterial) in nearly one go. But sadly most options are plastic wrapped in our local supermarkets. I think this will be one of those change of mind sets things – instead of ‘treats’ being constantly on tap, they really will be reserved for treats and savoured.

Anyway, an early post today, as we are off to party 40-year-old style next – do we take cups with us in case there are only disposable? I would do it with no qualms for coffee, but I think we will feel a bit more embarrassed in this scenario. I suppose it is just a case of making it the new normal. Or maybe we will just drink from bottles today!

Fails

Washing powder box rip strip – thumbs up for the cardboard box, hadn’t appreciated the plastic rip strip until starting this challenge.

Things we couldn’t buy

Last minute wrapping paper.

Unsolicited items

Party spoils – bubble wand and finger puppet toy.

 

Update: Party 2 spoils – foam light wand. Two ice pop wrappers (not brought home).

Any good book recommendations about the effects of plastic and waste for 4 year olds? 

No shopping today, some successes, but also some fails. Maybe at some point we will have at least one plastic-free day!

Birthday Party present

I hadn’t contemplated birthday party invites in my planning. Getting party presents is difficult enough at the best of times, and I think we exhausted the books option last year! Luckily we had a ‘drawing’ book which we can give and also a grow-your-own cress kit. Then additionally, to make it a little more special, I thought we could try out a homemade ‘treasures’ box. Little MIH was keen to design it, so a little cardboard box construction and pretty patterned paper decoration later, voila:

Little MIH is very pleased with it, so I hope it goes down well.

Toothpaste

We may have a toothpaste situation coming up. Mine and Mr MIH’s toothpaste is low and may not last the month. We do have some dental tablets that we got to try out and each tried them once and then left them in the pot not to be touched again. I can’t say they were a pleasant experience – you have to crunch up the tablet into a powder and kind of mix it with the saliva in your mouth to make a ‘paste’. I was not a fan of the whole powderiness thing, and also they just weren’t that minty compared with normal toothpaste and I could just taste too much of my yucky mouth taste leaving me concerned my breath would not be ‘minty fresh’! But seeing as our toothpaste may not last the month, we have switched to using them in the evening, and then still using the normal toothpaste in the morning before we face the world and the world has to face our breath. We’ll see how it goes. At least we will be using only half the toothpaste in normal packaging.

More difficult is that we are also low on Little MIHs toothpaste. I had fully intended to cheat and buy some more before the month started, but forgot. I am not convinced we will convert her to the tablets, although I suppose they might be something like sweets for her, so we may well give it a go. We have a little while to decide what to do at least.

Fails

Lolly wrapper – It was the school Summer Fayre. We tried to distract Little MIH with cake, but her friend had a lolly, and it was super sunny and baking hot. A tricky one, but as Little MIH hasn’t really signed up for this challenge, although we can try and explain the reasoning, I didn’t want to say no on this occasion.

Things we wanted to buy but couldn’t

Unsolicited items

Sellotape – another parcel I ordered before we started the challenge. The last one I think!

Plastic packet – the parcel was part of an attempt to put together a plastic-free craft box. I ordered paper straws, and unfortunately they came in a plastic packet. In the plus side, the little wooden spoons came in a paper bag.

Two envelope windows.

Kids birthday party ideas? Any plastic free toothpaste recommendations? Please do leave any comments below!

We have put in an order with our local packaging-free shop – noodles, spaghetti, sultanas, cashews, almonds, and washing-up liquid. No other purchases today though.

Fails

None – although see unsolicited items.

Things we couldn’t buy

Deodorant for Mr MIH – we are currently sourcing recommendations for effective men’s deodorant that will work in a hot office!

Unsolicited items

Sellotape – another parcel which I ordered before our plastic-free month started. Outer packaging was cardboard (and content was card), but it was held together with sellotape.

Leaflet spine – Introduction to Reception Day here for Little MIH. I received a (very useful) information pack. I’ve just realised whilst writing this that it is held together by a plastic ‘spine’, like this:

How are you finding Plastic-free July so far? Any plastic-free effective deodorant recommendations? Please do leave comments below!

Hurray for Waitrose! Not long after deciding to go try out plastic-free month challenge, Waitrose announced that they were trialling a new ‘Unpackaged’ concept in one of their stores – until 18 August 2019 they are stocking 160 varieties of fruit and veg unpacked and have introduced 48 products to refill, from pasta and grains to frozen fruit, coffee, beer, wine, plus cleaning products, in the Oxford, Botley Road store  – you can read more here.  And even better for us, although not ultra-close, it is a driveable distance (44 miles) (sidenote: we have an electric car (2014 Nissan Leaf) and solar panels which in summer we can use to charge it, so CO2 emissions-wise and economically this isn’t too horrendous – just time and convenience, as usual).

So today, for the start of our plastic-free 30 days, I drove down to Waitrose, complete with our shopping list for the month (we will still have weekly veg shops and small weekly local top-up supermarket shops). And here is the result. Any plastic containers are our own (I have a stockpile of plastic freezer bags I have been using for frozen batch cooking).

There were some things we couldn’t get, and so I will still need to source these locally: chicken, bacon, washing-up liquid (see below), spinach (I was so hopeful but, alas, only in plastic bags!), frozen peas, sliced bread.

We have now switched to milkman-delivered milk in glass bottles. It looks like we may not actually use as much as I had anticipated, so hopefully the extra cost per year will go down which is good news, as at £250 a year more than plastic bottles, this is a pricey swap (and hence it has taken nearly a year for us to take the plunge to glass bottles).

Fails

Sigh, a fail on the first day. Plastic stickers on some of the fruit.

Also, a not-sure-if-is-a-fail – I treated us to a bottle of wine and bought a reusable bottle with a stopper which may include plastic  – I was rather hoping it was rubber, but it may not be.

Things we couldn’t buy

Refill bottle for Ecover washing up liquid. Unfortunately, to get a washing up liquid refill, we had to have an Ecover bottle, which I don’t, and as we couldn’t buy the bottle as it was plastic, we also couldn’t get washing-up liquid today.

Unsolicited items

Nappy bag – Little MIH had a mud fight at school, followed by a water fight. Her uniform and socks came home in a nappy bag.

Half-fail/half-unsolicited items from my pre-plastic-free challenge self. A parcel ordered on the internet, which included: sellotape; 2 clear stickers; one plastic bag.

One envelope window – mental note to stop mail from bank!

Anyone else starting plastic-free July? What do you think the trickiest bits will be for you? Please do leave comments below!

 

Exciting – Plastic Free July preparation!

I love a challenge, and the first step is to determine exactly what the challenge is! On the official Plastic Free July page, you can choose from a number of options, such as:

• Avoid single-use plastic packaging
• Target takeaway items
• Go completely plastic free

We are going for our own version of the last option – go completely plastic free. We aren’t going to stop using anything plastic or in plastic packaging – if we already have it, it would be a waste not to use it – but are going to attempt to not buy anything new which contains plastic (so second-hand is ok), or anything in plastic packaging. We have a couple of exceptions, which are:

• painkillers and medicine – as painkillers like ibuprofen and paracetamol are impossible to buy without plastic (and non-recyclable packaging) in the UK, and similarly most prescription medicines include plastic in their packaging, we are not going to forego these
• emergency household fixing supplies – if something goes wrong in the house, which it is imperative it is replaced promptly, we will buy it even if plastic/in plastic packaging

The second step is to plan our our food and household shopping for the month. I have made a meal plan for the month (which we generally do anyway). I have tried not to cheat and include only items I know we already buy plastic free! Next, I have reviewed the plan, and highlighted the plastic items to remove, and come up with a solution, many of which require learning to to make something, or switching to new supplier. I am going to work my way through these things this month, so we can start July as prepared as possible.

Plastic item to remove	Solution
Fruit/veg	Do not buy unless plastic free – shop mainly at market
Yoghurt	Make it
Milk	Get glass bottle delivery
Garlic bread	Make it
Naan bread	Make it
Cream	Do without unless can source plastic free
Meat	Buy from local butcher unpackaged and put in own containers
Fish	Buy from marker fishmonger and put in own containers
Chocolate	Buy in foil and paper only
Coffee	Switch to plastic-free packaging supplier
Frozen veg	Source packing-free bulk supplier
Hummous	Make it

I’ll post updates on my exploits to prepare for each of the points above during June.

Are you doing Plastic Free July? What challenge are you doing? What are you doing to prepare and what do you think will be difficult?