Oh dear, I am sorry to say that my pledge to avoid buying disposable plastic has been thwarted at my first outing. Initially I pledged to stop buying water in plastic bottles – and I have stuck to that and I am using a lovely, vintage, French, lemonade bottle which I take in the car and to yoga. So I can give myself a gold star for that. However after watching this clip
I decided to extend my pledge to include all disposable plastic. On Friday I went into town to buy some groceries and, since I have also pledged not to buy any “stuff” for my personal use I have also become very frugal minded and have been checking prices to see how much I will save by the end of the year. This necessitates me travelling to an Irish and to two German supermarkets in my local town to choose my organic produce. One supermarket has more choice, one is less expensive and another is a variant of those two. With frugality in mind I bought the necessities and returned home. I happened to mention to my husband that I had discovered a brilliant Facebook page called ZERO WASTE IRELAND. It is a very energetic, positive page with people posting great tips and advice and positive news. Since I joined this group just a couple of days ago, I have already approved four new members so it must be growing rapidly if other members are approving an equivalent number of people. Here is the link
www.facebook.com/groups/zerowasteireland/
It seems that a large majority of people are concerned to know that plastic is such a pollutant and so damaging to health. There is a Change.org petition to ask Irish supermarkets to remove disposable plastic wrapping from fruit and vegetables. You can sign the petition here.
My husband listened and was very interested and then nodded towards my purchases. I was aghast and horrified to discover that I had bought fruit and vegetables, from all three supermarkets, in plastic disposable wrappers. AAarrgghhh!!! Going into the supermarkets I had envisaged loose produce and I did buy loose aubergine and avocados and then I was on automatic pilot. How terrible is that! However, after this experience I have realised that I must be much more vigilant with myself. We are all creatures of habit and routine and this is perhaps why our best intentions fail. This was a wake up call for me to stay alert and it also made me realise that we are, quite literally inundated with, swamped with, suffocated by plastic. It was on a packet of organic tea, around a house plant and a couple of kitchen herbs, around the pack of cat food. It is so pervasive as to be invisible. I also realised that sadly, it is not something I can eradicate from my life in one go. This is going to be a big challenge which requires strategy and forward thinking but I am determined and confident that it can be done, especially with the help of Zero Waste Ireland.
I live in a very beautiful part of the world and I went for a walk later to better appreciate the winter light,
the snow on the mountains
and the stark winter landscape
Here’s what else I saw
