Plastic Free July – the first of many

Hi, welcome to my first blog post!

Let me introduce myself. I’m a 25-year old called Eva, and I work in a refill shop on a small island called Guernsey. I started working at the shop in February, and my eco-friendly journey has really blossomed since then.

It’s not that I didn’t care before I started working there. I’ve been vegan for five years and I’ve always felt connected to nature and animals. But I always felt the climate crisis was too scientific and confusing for me to follow. I’m embarrassed to admit but I guess I thought that someone else would sort it out, and if plastic was still being sold in supermarkets then it couldn’t be that bad, right? Oops. I also mistakenly thought that as a vegan, I was already doing my bit (more on this in another post!).

Anyway, since working in the shop, I’ve learnt a lot, and still am everyday. I work with some really amazing people – colleagues, customers and suppliers alike – who have helped me rethink my place on the earth. Also, I do the social media for the shop, and having to research various problems has really opened my eyes. Hopefully I’ll do more posts on this, as I was shocked when I found about various products and chemicals that we use on a daily basis.

This month I’m trying Plastic Free July, an initiative started by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz in 2011, which aims to encourage people to use less or no plastic during the month of July.

The stats on plastic are absolutely terrifying:

98% of plastic is made using fossil fuels. Only nine percent of plastic ever produced has ever been recycled. Most plastic is expected to take at least 400 years to break down. A million plastic bottles are bought every single minute. Every year, we produce about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste.

And so on and so on. Ad infinitum. Obviously, systemic change is needed if we are going to stand a chance in fighting the climate crisis. Our governments need to be doing more. But I am a firm believer that if we all do our bit, we can make a change, and Plastic Free July is as good a place to start as any.

So, I will be logging my journey as much as I can in order to show a realistic account of trying to limit one’s plastic intake.

Some challenges:

1. I live at home (rent is excruciatingly expensive here) and my mum buys all the ‘boring’ stuff: rice, pasta etc. from the supermarket, all of it in plastic.
2. Most vegan ‘meat’ alternatives come in plastic. My favourite being tofu, which currently is sold in plastic film.
3. I’m going to Mallorca at the end of the month and most of the produce in the nearest supermarket probably will come in plastic.
4. Probably more that I am too tired to think of but will be shockingly obvious when it arises.

How I plan to overcome these:

1. As I mentioned before I work in a refill shop, so if I think ahead I can buy aforementioned rice, pasta, quinoa etc. from work and use my handy employee discount (20% baby!)
2. Going to try and rely on beans and legumes for my source of protein. Also, I found some tempeh in a jar which I’m chuffed about. As for lunches, I plan on having a lot of tinned soup rather than my normal salady bits, as sadly most of the components come in plastic.
3. I’ll just have to be realistic about this one. I’m so excited to go on holiday, and can only do my best when it comes to grocery shopping. I might try and buy some charcoal water purifiers so I don’t have to buy bottled water, but I don’t know what I’m going to do about crisps. It’s not really a holiday without Lays. Why do all crisp producers continue to use plastic!?!? (Rhetorical.)

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you are also attempting Plastic Free July, or have any tips for me!

Hand on heart,

Eva x