By Penny Mackay*
First person - Thank goodness August is here. I did Plastic-Free July and it was exhausting.
You have to really concentrate to be without plastic, something Penny Mackay didn't realise until she tried living without it. Photo: 123RF
Plastic is like the cockroach that scuttles across the kitchen floor, two days after you've sprayed for insects.
You have to really concentrate to be without plastic. We're drowning in the stuff, despite paper shopping bags, and I didn't realise it until I tried to live without it.
The month has been for me, one of experiment and quaint experiences. Trips to 'The Butcher'. To 'The Fishmonger'. Having product weighed, and being asked 'is that about right?' (I don't do deli shopping much either).
My mother would have been familiar with such olde worlde provisioning. And she would have found it inexplicable I was giving up the plastic-wrapped convenience of the supermarket to return to such time-sucking activities.
I told everyone behind every counter I was going without single-use plastic for the month, and they were all very willing to help. Only the couple at the local bulk foods store, who sell biodegradable bin liners, waxed cloth wraps, and other plastic substitutes, couldn't have cared less. The man was picking his teeth when I told him my going without plastic story. He just raised his eyebrows in minimum acknowledgement and continued to groom the interior of his mouth.
I arrived home from my first shopping trip with mandarins in a plastic mesh bag and bone broth in a plastic bottle. You have to really concentrate.
Full of virtue, I took the mandarins and the bone broth back, replacing the plastic mesh bag with single mandarins, and getting my money back on the bone broth. When I got home I realised the mandarins had those annoying little plastic labels. But someone told me you can eat them - really? - so I decided that was allowed.
Despite feeling I was alone in this, I apparently joined 120 million people around the world, "choosing to refuse" single-use plastic during the month of July. Starting out in 2011 with just 40 residents of Perth, Australia, what's become the Plastic Free Foundation now signs up residents from 190 countries.
The foundation is proud of its stats. It claims that last year, Plastic Free July participants around the world reduced tip waste by 1.2 billion kilos, and recyclable waste by 900 million kilos. They reduced plastic consumption by 232 million kilos. And it says more than 80 percent of PFJ participants stick with at least a couple of behaviours they adopted during their sans-plastic experiment.
"Let it be in glass, let it be in glass," I silently pleaded with the grocery gods on shopping trips, as I approached supermarket shelves holding what I considered essentials. You know, like, crackers. They appear to come in cardboard boxes - and inside they sit inside dinky wee plastic trays. And forget bacon. I couldn't buy bacon even at the butcher because the only way they sold it was wrapped in you-know-what.
Cheese, too, was a nightmare. I ended up buying some waxed cheese. Don't tell me it was plastic wax. At that price, it was wax wax. Delicious but.
So going without plastic is an attack of righteousness only those in funds can afford. All those plasticked-up products at the supermarket are definitely cheaper than those free of petroleum by-product.
Mackay told everyone behind every shop counter she visited that she was going without single-use plastic for the month, and they were all very willing to help. Photo: 123rf
Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance chair Liam Prince says while there's a lot we can do as individuals, local and central government need to make it easy for people to go plastic-free all the time.
"Shopping without plastic is not going to be accessible for most people unless we rethink the way the entire food system works and how we move goods around, and sell them. It would be a huge shift but it could be done if the will was there."
You also need time. In the first week alone I had to make my own crackers, soup, bread, dip, and coleslaw dressing.
Not only do you have to go to lengths to avoid it yourself, if you're really staunch you also need to reject things encased in it, gifted by others. My daughter gave me some juice, in a plastic bottle, because I'd been sick. I decided if someone else bought the plastic-housed whatever, it was allowed.
Then I used the last of the bleach. Then the last of my fizzy vitamin C, and zinc drops - all in plastic. I know there are websites dedicated to replacements. But it was all so time-consuming and energy-committing, I decided that if I held out until August to restock, that was allowed.
A woman in England went a week without plastic, still buying stuff wrapped in it, but then stripping it off and presenting it to the supermarket staff. I thought that was just passing the plastic-wrapped buck. The turtles would still choke.
Being no-plastic makes you more aware of other environmentally friendly measures. I found myself buying paper towels made from recycled paper, and recycled paper ... toilet paper. I know, I wondered too. Both came in plastic, but I decided one balanced out the other, so it was allowed.
I eventually got into the swing of container carriage and filling, concentrating on choosing products carefully, and getting home without the unwelcome cockroachy appearance of plastic.
At the butcher's, towards the end of the month, I watched, mouth pursed in judgeyness, as the bloke in front of me at the checkout piled into his reusable bag, his plastic-wrapped meat.
"Well," I thought, sanctimoniously. "What. Is. The. Point??" It was hard, by now, not to be pious.
To mark the end of my no-plastic experiment, I bought a scone to celebrate. Yeah, I don't really get the connection either. Anyway, I buttered the warmed scone with great anticipation. And then to my horror I realised the butter had come in one of those dinky wee plastic butter containers. You have to really concentrate.
So was my month of no-plastic a success? Well, I rationalised an awful lot of exceptions. But it did make me aware of how pervasive plastic is. If anyone asks me - which they don't - I would say, "go [on] just one trip to the supermarket and see how far you get".
Awareness counts for something I guess. I'll continue to go to the butcher/fishmonger and carry my containers everywhere. And I'll continue to dedicate a couple of hours each Sunday to preparing food for the week.
Mackay says she will continue to bring reusable containers with her when going food shopping. Photo:
Prince says the government is starting to take things more seriously with initiatives like banning problematic plastics. "But it needs to think carefully about what will take their place. Just more of single-use something else, like paper, glass, or metal? These things might have an even bigger carbon footprint than plastic packaging.
"On the other hand, the system may well start to shift towards more genuinely reusable, refillable and repairable products. I certainly hope so.
"But more and more people around the world taking that first step in rejecting single-use plastic is a great start."
Thank goodness wine comes in bottles. Offering a glass to my daughter a few days ago, she looked pained.
"It's okay," I said delightedly. "It's allowed, wine comes in glass."
"I know Mum, but I can't. Me and the flatmates, we're doing dry July."
* Penny Mackay is a former RNZ journalist.