Recipe for Saturday

 Ingredients:

Take a day with a welcome addition of gentle of sunlight

One over enthusiastic mud attracting dog

One patient husband who will carry said tired dog up an almost vertical stile, 

then back down the other side 

so she does not have to jump down to the very much lower field 

Add generous piles of crunchy leaves strewn through the woodlands

Top up with generous amounts of water - almost any variety will do

Randomly insert drovers tracks, farm lanes, bridle paths and byways

Spice up with a flask of steaming hot curried lentil soup and hunks of bread

Sweeten with a surprise clump of delicate snowdrops in the middle of the moors

Mix well and serve with copious amounts of chilly air, 

long distanced views and empty horizons - simmer for nearly 7 miles.                   

Optional extras:

bring along crochet for a little 'in car entertainment'

Have in generous helpings and repeat as often as you can. 

It does wonders for your soul 💚

Feeling sick

I've just done the tally for the 'Big Plastic Count' and was not too surprised at the amount (seeing I was the one monitoring what was being collected) and I did think that it was not too bad, we do have weeks that we must throw more away and it tickled me that I actually did a 'flat lay' of my rubbish - but that is where the amusement ended ....

K'S PLASTIC FOOTPRINT

In one week you used 22 bits of plastic   Over a year that's equivalent to 1,144 pieces of plastic   If all households were the same as yours, the UK would use 32,146,400,000 bits of plastic every year

What was your plastic packaging waste used for?   91% Food & Drink   9% Cleaning & Toiletries   0% Everything Else   Most plastic packaging is single-use – designed to be used once and then thrown away. For a lot of people plastic packaging from food & drink will be highest. If supermarkets reduced the amount of fruit and vegetable wrapping, it would significantly cut plastic waste.

What was your breakdown of hard and soft plastic?   64% of your plastic was hard plastic Hard plastic is a lot easier to recycle than soft plastic. Whilst hard plastic is more recyclable, there are many items that cannot be recycled such as black plastic, polystyrene chips and toothpaste tubes.   36% of your plastic was soft plastic Less than 1 in 10 local councils in the UK collect soft plastic, like plastic bags and wrappers. Do you know if yours collects it?

What happens to your plastic packaging waste?   14% recycled in the UK Plastic waste that is sorted and reprocessed in the UK then turned into new materials.   21% exported The UK sends tonnes of rubbish to other countries every day - often to countries in the Global South. Investigations have shown much of it ends up being dumped or burned.   23% landfilled When plastic is buried in the ground at a landfill, it releases harmful gases into the atmosphere, while wind and rain carry microplastics into surrounding areas.   42% incinerated Burning or incinerating plastic releases carbon, toxins and pollutants into the air, presenting numerous health risks for local communities and contributing to climate change.

I have now emailed our local politician (who has a well deserved reputation for enjoying a cake or two...) to say that I was horrified with what happens to the plastic I throw away..... WTF?!!

I shall have to try harder at not purchasing items in plastic (but as discussed before - that can be difficult) HOWEVER - the onus is not on us alone - Government and businesses need to sort their houses out too before lambasting the 'throw away' culture of the public and telling them to improve/repent/change - they have to, too!!

Accountability

 

For the next seven days - EvErY SiNgLe PiEcE Of PlAsTiC PaCkAgInG coming into our house and normally throw away (either in the bin or recycling) will be logging on to The Big Plastic Count website as part as a nationwide data collection as to how much plastic is actually in 'circulation' in just one week.

We personally have tried reducing our plastic usage, switching to reusables where possible and in our style of shopping and at home with what we have and what we use. However there are some things we just can't get around. Availability being one and the simple truth of cost being another.

For example - we buy cereal. 

Usually oats and muesli type for ourselves, except when the boys and their lovely girls come home, then we keep their favourites on the shelf too. Where possible, we purchase a paper bagged variety from our usual supermarket or from our own lovely village shop with a refill station - it is small (and perfectly formed!) so does not have the capacity to keep a big selection of cereals apart from oats.

Commercial cereal cardboard boxes are recyclable but the plastic food grade bag inside is not. So once we have finished the contents, the box goes into the paper skip and the bag is pulled fully open, cleaned and then stored to be used as a sandwich or cheese wrap.  I make sure that this 'wrap' is then used many times before it then is disposed of - removing some of its 'single use plastic' moniker but it still is not biodegradable. 

Bread bags.

We used to purchase a rather delicious bloomer style loaf when the boys were still home as each slice was thick and chunky and filled hollow teenager legs. These loaves came in paper bags which were not 'lined' on the inside by a thin layer of plastic so once eaten, the loaf bags went happily into the paper skip. Now it is just Himself and I, we have 'downgraded' to a simpler thinner sliced bread with 'bits' in it - partly due to cost again and partly as we found the previous doorstop type sandwiches were actually quite a 'chore' to munch through in a short lunch break slot. These loaves are sold in plastic bags..... so they are kept and used to store foodstuffs in the freezer, reducing their single use status again, but still needing to ultimately be disposed of. 

Mushrooms/tomatoes/fruit punnets

These are all kept, used either in the greenhouse, as food holders in the fridge, seed packet storage, thread/yarn bits/fabric trimming holders or crumb 'catchers' when we wipe down surfaces then given to the birds or the chickens.

However, ultimately - they are all eventually thrown away (the punnets are either the 'wrong' plastic to recycle or the type that are non-recyclable) but only after they have had to work for that 'privilege' .

Eldest's girlfriend has been working on a 'single use sculpture' with her geography pupils and we were saving plastic lids as part of it....... There was that oxymoron moment when I was pleased to be able to hand over a 'goodly' selection of lids to her yet it brought home how many our 'simple' life style produced.... things have got to change.

Not just us, but everyone including the producers. Either plastic has to be 100% recyclable or replaced with something that is.  

Food for thought (sic).

If you are interested (and you should be) 

https://thebigplasticcount.com

https://www.citytosea.org.uk/plastic-free-living

https://www.everydayplastic.org

https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/