The Plastic Free Birthday Idea
This post has been such a long time coming, I'm feeling quite a sense of relief to be finally sitting down and writing it. After all, the blog is called 'my plastic free birthday', and I turned 25 in April...
Anyone who knows me well would be aware that I'm not a big fan of celebrating my birthday, and would even go as far as to say that I find the whole thing pretty stressful. These people who know me well would also be aware of how affected I was whilst watching David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet II', and the changes I've tried to make to my lifestyle in order to use less plastic. In light of both of these facts, and equipped with my new found awareness, I decided to celebrate my 25th birthday by going 25 days without any single use plastics. Having been moving around quite a lot recently, this is the first time I've had a good opportunity to do it, and I'm really looking forward to giving it a go.
My purpose in blogging my experience is to try and raise some awareness, give people inspiration about the changes they can easily make, and to hopefully pick up some more tips from other people along the way.
For the purpose of all of the critics out there, I feel it necessary to put in the following disclaimers...
1) I'm fully aware that not using single use plastics isn't going to save the planet. I'm neither a vegan nor vegetarian, I drive a car more often than I need to, and I don't religiously recycle everything I throw away (though I do give it a jolly good go). This is just the first of many small steps for me to live a more sustainable life, and this is how I've chosen to start.
2) I'm not the healthiest of people, and I'm sadly not yet aware of anywhere I can obtain my medications in reusable containers. Therefore, I will continue to take them from the plastic packets, and recycle these wherever possible.
3) I'm going to make mistakes... I'd say that's fairly inevitable. I'm yet to find out how sustainable it is when I'm eating out with friends, or driving down the motorway at 11pm and find myself needing a sugar hit, but I'll blog about these events honestly in order to properly document my journey.
Changes I've already made:
Anyone who knows me well would be aware that I'm not a big fan of celebrating my birthday, and would even go as far as to say that I find the whole thing pretty stressful. These people who know me well would also be aware of how affected I was whilst watching David Attenborough's 'Blue Planet II', and the changes I've tried to make to my lifestyle in order to use less plastic. In light of both of these facts, and equipped with my new found awareness, I decided to celebrate my 25th birthday by going 25 days without any single use plastics. Having been moving around quite a lot recently, this is the first time I've had a good opportunity to do it, and I'm really looking forward to giving it a go.
My purpose in blogging my experience is to try and raise some awareness, give people inspiration about the changes they can easily make, and to hopefully pick up some more tips from other people along the way.
For the purpose of all of the critics out there, I feel it necessary to put in the following disclaimers...
1) I'm fully aware that not using single use plastics isn't going to save the planet. I'm neither a vegan nor vegetarian, I drive a car more often than I need to, and I don't religiously recycle everything I throw away (though I do give it a jolly good go). This is just the first of many small steps for me to live a more sustainable life, and this is how I've chosen to start.
2) I'm not the healthiest of people, and I'm sadly not yet aware of anywhere I can obtain my medications in reusable containers. Therefore, I will continue to take them from the plastic packets, and recycle these wherever possible.
3) I'm going to make mistakes... I'd say that's fairly inevitable. I'm yet to find out how sustainable it is when I'm eating out with friends, or driving down the motorway at 11pm and find myself needing a sugar hit, but I'll blog about these events honestly in order to properly document my journey.
Changes I've already made:
- I use reusable pads and I love them. I've seen varying reviews, but I did my research and was convinced enough to give them a try. They do take a bit of getting used to... but who can honestly say they were comfortable the first time they put a normal pad or tampon in? They fold up nicely to keep everything clean, they come with a great little carry bag, they wash so easily in the washing machine or by hand and, for something so absorbent, they don't take a long time to dry at all. As someone with a heavy flow, I've never found them to be insufficient, and would 100% recommend them. The amount of disposable pads I've sent to landfill in 12 years of using them is enough to make me squirm with guilt, and I'm glad to have made the switch.
- I use loose leaf tea infusers and I love them (check out my adorable deep tea diver!). I have found that loose leaf tea in the supermarkets comes in a plastic bag within a card box, but I was thrilled today to find that Pobbles Food and Crafts in Pennard sells loose leaf tea that you can take home in your own container (and they have loads of types too!)
- I have some beeswax wraps. While they're really pretty, I can't say I'm yet in the habit of using them often, and I haven't experimented with the different uses. I wasn't a person to used clingfilm that often anyway, as I have a pretty comprehensive selection of Tupperware pots.
- I rarely use plastic drinks bottles anymore, and I'm working towards not using them at all. I wish the UK could follow in the footsteps of Germany, and start putting deposits on all bottles so that they could be returned, washed and reused.
- I use toiletries from lush, within reason... I love their principles, I love the shampoo bars, and I love how all of their plastic pots can be returned, washed and reused. As someone living on student budget, I don't love their prices at times. I did find that you can pay to refill shampoo/conditioner/soap/washing up liquid/laundry detergent bottles at Pobbles Food and Crafts, so that could potentially be a more cost effective option, but I'm yet to test that theory.
- I use a bamboo toothbrush with boar bristles. It's great, but I have found it not to last as long as the plastic ones I've used. However, there's a lot of them on the market, and I've only tried one brand, so I'm going to shop around and see how I find some of the others.
Challenges:
- I drink lactose free milk, and I'm not sure where I can buy that plastic free.
- To buy clothes without plastic tags, I'll have to buy second hand (which I definitely don't object to). But to buy nice second hand clothes in a time efficient manner (something fairly important to me as I'm a pretty busy person) often means using websites such as Vinted, and the items are likely to be posted in plastic packaging. I can probably request that they use alternative packaging, but I'm not sure how many will oblige.
And that's all the pretext I'm going to write for now. I'll be starting my 25 days on Monday September 2nd and will try and blog regularly throughout. In the mean time, any advice, tips etc. are all going to be gratefully appreciated. I hope you've enjoyed my first blog post! Now time to start planning...
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