Preparation

First confession... I started a day late.

I've spent the weekend away in Didcot, and all of the preparation I'd done was in Swansea. I expected to be back in time to start but I extended my stay up here.

However, from this arose a couple of opportunities.

Firstly, I picked a load of Blackberries, found some old jars and made some Blackberry jam. This doesn't save massive amounts of plastic, just the bit that's usually wrapped around the lid, but it's a good start.

Secondly, I managed to go to the Waitrose in Oxford which is trialling their 'Unpacked' concept. The concept is soon being extended to Waitrose in a couple of other places too, so I decided to go along and check it out. 

We should definitely recognise Waitrose for the efforts they've gone to in order to remove plastic packaging from their foods. Walking around the fresh produce section, the changes are evident, with mushrooms in recycled card boxes and biodegradable starch produce bags available for free in every aisle. As someone living in Swansea, I can't say I've been to Waitrose many times, but seeing all of this made me feel very positive about the next 25 days.

The dried unpacked section was a little smaller than I expected, but still a good start for a trial. They had various kinds of rice, pasta, grains, cereals, seeds etc. Identifying that rice can already be bought in cardboard boxes without any internal plastic packaging, I decided to buy some oats and mixed seeds to bake my own granola, some pasta, and some risotto. They also had a pick and mix of frozen fruit, and I bought some raspberries and blueberries to have with Yoghurt. In total, using the standard plastic boxes that they use at Chinese takeaways, I bought two boxes of rolled oats, one box of raspberries and blueberries, one box of pasta, one box of mixed seeds, and one box of risotto for just under £5. I was pretty pleased with that. They also had refillable wine and beer bottles, and coffee with a little grinder. If you came to the shop without a box, you could put a deposit down to borrow one and return it when you next came. I'm really hoping this starts to catch on at other supermarkets soon.

Another little project I embarked on whilst up at Didcot was making produce bags. I think reusable produce bags for your fruit and veg are a fantastic idea, and initially set out to buy some. However, I found that the cheap ones were made from plastic (and not even recycled plastic which is a little ironic). There are some great ones out there made from recycled materials etc. but at roughly £10 for 3, I decided I could do better. I went to a charity shop and bought a second hand bed sheet for £1.50, and I bought 3 metres of string from Hobbycraft for another £1.50. Then I sat in from of the TV one evening and sewed some of my own. I'm hoping to make some more in the next couple of days. Disappointingly, they had some suitable bags in Hobbycraft for very little money... but each one wrapped in a nice big single use plastic bag. Wandering around Hobbycraft, almost everything in there seemed to be wrapped in plastic of one form or another and I was glad that the string was bought by the length.

After this, I decided to go and wander around Sainsbury's to see what things I could buy. There are quite a few plastic free shops available, including one up here in Eynsham, but looking at their prices online made it clear that grocery shopping there on a student budget was not going to be sustainable. One thing that's become clear pretty quickly is that going plastic free is going to mean some pretty significant lifestyle changes if I'm going to have any money left at the end. Loose fruit, vegetables, meat and fish are easy to come buy at markets at prices that don't break the bank, and I can bring my own containers for all of them. Dried food, toiletries, make up, herbs and spices, and condiments are significantly harder to get hold of. I was pretty disappointed in Sainsbury's when I went to buy my honey and found that the expensive honey didn't have plastic seals around the lid but the affordable ones did (£1.85 vs £5.50!) I felt pretty defeated, and bought a cheaper honey with plastic wrapped around the lid. I bought some tinned tomatoes, rice in a box, loose bananas, some loose kiwis and 2 little yoghurts in glass jars. Despite them being on special offer, I found myself instantly googling how to make my own yoghurt in the hope I can do it a lot cheaper.

Other purchases I've made so far are toothpaste tablets and a bar of deodorant from Lush. Reviews to follow, but I'm excited to try them out. At £6.50 for a bottle of about 50 tablets (25 days worth), I'm hoping toothpaste tablets become available at more reasonable prices soon. Tooth powder is also something available online for those who are curious.

So that's my feedback on the morning of my 2nd day. I'm off to eat my homemade, plastic-free granola with an overpriced tiny yoghurt in a glass jar... advice, tips and support even more appreciated than before as I start to appreciate the difficulty (and cost) of this challenge.

Disclosure: I hate food waste, so will continue to eat any fresh food I have remaining. Dried foods will sit to the side as much as possible for the next 25 days.