Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

 Where do you start your plastic free lifestyle?

I think most people find it scary to "Go For Green" as the stigma around eco friendly lifestyle is that it's expensive. The hardest is definatley coming out of your routine and changing habbits is difficult for anyone's busy convenient lifestyle. We all live a busy life, I should know I have three children, with working, school runs & sports clubs time was aways against me. The supermarket had the easiest and convenient all in one place shop in 10 minutes and Job done. 

When I started litter picking and mixing with other like minded people in 2018 who put the planet first by living a wasteless lifestyle, I said exactly what I hear now 5 years on from other families. "It's too expensive and I can't access the refillable/farm shop option" and "where do I start"!!

In 2019 I challenged my family to the Plastic free July campaign where we were not allowed to buy anything if it had plastic packaging. As a family we did our last shop on 29th June where the kids panic brought snacks thinking "Mom is going to starve us, as there will be no food for us to eat" When we returned from that shop I asked them to place the shopping on to the table where we unwrapped 2 bin bags full of plastic packaging, some of which was recyclable but others unfortunatley went in to the black bin bags.

Whilst this was a fun challenge it was also very difficult as I was trying to change the way we lived over night in a kind of rush to help reduce the families waste to landfil or puting waste in to the circular movement. So my advice to anyone is to just start by changing one thing and see how you feel. For me the joy came when I had reduced my family to two black bin bags a fortnight and half a green bin of recycling instead off two full black and green bins each fortnight for the council to take. 

The supermarkets for me now are just expensive especially if you are trying the quickest time consuming shop option. I can have all the lists I need but a supermarket has the power to sell you things you don't need and I always buy more than I need or want. As a family we plan meals, house chore rota and dog walk responsibility. We do one shop a month for the meal plan and only purchase fresh products like bread, eggs, milk. I find keeping the cupboards orgaised I can see what I need to use up first so I don't double buy and planning meals to what is in the cupbaord saves me a fortune. 

If you are reading this blog as you too would like to join the "Go For Green" lifestyle I would like to challenge you to sorting out your food cupboards first. Lableing and stock rotating your food to ensure you use what you already have. Plan you first week's menu then organise to shop for what you need not what you would like, as it makes life easier. I bet you save money and time this week with a plan.

Here is my families week planner and my 16 year olds excel spreadsheet organiser that helped me with the shopping list and save on shop costs too. 

I would like to thank you for reading my blog, there are many tips throughout the blog to help you start to make your lifestyle alot easier and cheaper. Have fun it really is a rewarding challenge.

From Karen

Where have I been since June 2021 well I'm back!

My last post was in June of 2021, life has thrown some curve balls my way in family life however my ethos has always continued to live sustainbly. 

So what have I been up to?

Well in March 2021 I was lucky to have my litter educational program commissioned by my local district council and have been flat out in schools since. This taking me back to work after being a stay at home mom for many years. The program has currently seen 4522 kids from the district take part in the litter workshops in a hope to shape our future adults to be more litter aware than the current adults we have out in the community who litter. The program is growing and the feedback has been incredible. I am very lucky to be a litter heroes ambassador for Keep Britain Tidy too and recieve fantasic support from their team. Since 2018 I have volunteered in schools and community groups educating over 14,000 kids taken on a litter workshop. 

www.littlelitterwarriors.co.uk

During lockdown I started making soaps from natural oils that were environmentally friendly too. This has also kept me busy and my soaps are now in 12 local community outlets. 

www.7soaps.co.uk

So now your up to date 

I have to say that I am always surprised at the lack of speed for sustainablity changes within society, whenever I talk someone new i'm always suprised at their lack of education when it comes to the state of the planet and the local community they live in. I always find myself stepping back 5 years and going back to basics to explain what is fact right now. This i can read two ways, yes it can be fustrating however i read this as everyone has to start somewhere. If I can get them to change one household item to a more sustainable solution then thats their first step to changing ten items. 

The difficulty right now falls under afordabiliy, accessabilty and convience in day to day lifestyles. The only way to move forward is to educate where possible in a hope that households find their way. Some of these changes cost no money at all and if you search on the internet you can see what can be achieved. One great site is Let's Waste Less | Worcestershire County Council there are some great tips on reusing, reducing and recycling. You also have my blog of how i have changed my household over the years since my plastic free July 2019 household challenge.

Take a look

 

This Pandemic is making it very difficult to be sustainable

 Lockdown and the pandemic 2021

We have now been in this pandemic since March 2020 and throughout our lockdowns our family like most took on homeschooling, getting whatever shopping was available, helping our local heroes and like many loss of household income. My morning inspiration today is Fathers day and without my incredible husbands support this pandemic would have been a lot harder. 

Our family has experienced lots of challenges from the children having no social engagements with their friends, homeschooling and generally trying to understand at the ages of 10, 12 & 14 a pandemic. My children at first enjoyed not going to school and whilst I was enjoying less clothing to be washed chore after a few weeks I could see their frustrations starting to show. I will say that I am incredibly proud of them and their ability to adjust has been something I will always remember.

When March 2020 lockdown hit our NHS resources to keep our doctors and nurses safe was at it's rock bottom and seamstresses were called on to make PPE. The community was calling on anyone with  a sewing machine to get on board. So out came my machines and off I went sewing for the NHS heroes. This is where my children seen me working hours on end to help and they took on the household chores and cooked meals daily. The kitchen became the hub of the home once more and food was freshly cooked or baked with the resources we had on a daily basic as supermarket ques were not for me.

The homeschooling work became routine and we even added on a project to weed the pond area and create a bee friendly flower patch. Our local garden centre was delivering so we set about in the great outdoor building and creating a garden lockdown haven. Nearly two years on and the bee friendly area is blooming and bee activity has returned.

Two months before the first lockdown I set up a natural soap company with a dear friend and whilst the garden was blooming I started to dry the bee friendly flowers and roses from around the garden so that our soap making workshops had some dried flowers that our clients could use to decorate their
soaps. So many flowers were dried out during this time that I could now sell these as wedding confetti which once again helps our wonderful environment. The soaps were another keep busy in lockdown project as we started to branch out into local farm shops. Being environmentally friendly the soaps are naturally made with products you would find around your kitchen such as Olive oil & coconut oil. We worked on our 7soaps packaging to ensure 100% sustainability and have beautiful compostable packaging that also has a duel purpose of becoming the soap dish too for the duration of the soap bar. check out www.7soaps.co.uk to read more about our 7soaps lockdown journey.

 

7soap has many stockists around the wonderful communities in Worcestershire

So lets fast forward and confess

Lockdown shopping

Lockdown seen many families shop where it was convenient and safe to do so and unfortunately my household seen single use plastic return.  I like to call single use plastic pointless plastic as this grab a snack lifestyle is just so easy to do. My bins were filling up with shop packaging waste and I hated returning to convenience shopping. Two weeks ago I emptied the kitchen cupboards to try and bring my plastic free lifestyle back in to my daily life. I was absolutely devastated at the results however I'm more determined to stop supporting these pointless plastic unsustainable companies making millions and my money will be spent supporting local eco friendly companies.

Retuning to planet friendly living has to be a priority for every household and as a community litter picker I see first hand just how wasteful this generation is. I for one will be teaching my kids living this way is going to be a must for their generations future.

My Plastic free family is back 

A simpler lifestyle is less stressful, leaves me with a healthy bank balance and shopping locally means supporting my community.

Sustainability in your shopping lifestyle

When you start a plastic-free lifestyle journey you can panic and want your habits to change overnight. I found this approached incredibly stressful at the times and it also costs me more money through the determination to achieve plastic-free living in one month.  

What I have learnt since starting this challenge in July is that it cannot be done without local knowledge of your resources to achieve a reduced waste bin every fortnight. When people say Eco-Friendly or plastic-free they automatically think that it's going to cost more money and more time. The main focus should be to reduce the household black bin landfill waste and gain knowledge on the recycling system the council have in place. (www.letswasteless.com)

 For Example: As a family, multi-packet buys of crisps is a necessity on my weekly list however I have learnt that I can recycle them locally. Therefore, my crisp packets go into a reusable shopping bag on top of my fridge and when it's full I drop them off at the nearest drop off point. Most schools are now taking on the crisp packet recycling scheme becoming the communities drop off point and raising money for their school at the same time. Here is a link to drop off points.

https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/crisppacket

 Knowing where to go shopping for your weekly needs to achieve less wastefulness is also key to winning in this fight. It's so very easy to just pop to the big branded supermarkets and get everything under one roof however I have found this costly as I buy other products that are not on my list or multi-buy offers and I'm left with food going out of date through bulk buying and overstocking unnecessary, lots of packaging causing more waste in my bins and produce is low in quality to the alternative I have now changed to.

Changing your shopping habits is the key to less waste success and its that simple.

Here are some ways in which I have changed my weekly shopping habits.

1. Say no to plastic bags food wrapping, buy fresh and singular items to reduce less food waste.
2. Carry reusable shopping bags in your car I have a box right outside my front door to remind me to take the bags with me.
3. Give up single-use plastic bottled water for a reusable bottle, tap water has been tested healthier than bottled waters.
4. Shop your local farm shops, butchers and fishmongers taking you reusable tubs with you to reduce unnecessary waste. Supermarkets accept your own reusable containers at the deli counters. 
   
   

   

   Containers used at the butchers 

   

   Own containers no household waste 

   
   

   

   Local fruit and veg shop
    no waste and locally grown

   

   Supporting locally-made products
   that's better quality and healthier.

   

   1. Choose a glass-bottled milk delivery option to your door where bottles can be returned for reuse. This saved me tons of space in the green recycling bin and stopped those panic shops buy visits when the milk has run out. https://www.findmeamilkman.net/

   
   
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

   I cooked with the sundried tomatoes this week and
    was left with infused flavoured olive oil in the jar.
    So I bottled it up to use in future cooking.
   Washed out the Jar reusing it later in the spring. 

   
   

   I left out the single apple here in the picture, so you can see the size difference you are being persuaded to buy. The single apples were brought for my children's snack after school. I brought 3 larger apples for £1.07 or I could have brought 6 apples in plastic wrapping. So yes once again cheaper apples were available but I chose a better quality of apple that had travelled fewer miles to the supermarket shelf and  I only had the apple cork to compost at home after.

I even left the label at the till however, they can be
 weighed at the till meaning no label needed in the first place.

This was my Tesco shop this week for a family of 5. Toothpaste products can be recycled locally, the plastic wrappers here can also be recycled or reused.  Thinking about where this waste ends up is my overall goal.

The result of the above has made a huge difference to my bin waste, black bin bags this week were two and the recycling green bin was half full. before this journey, I was filling two black and two green bin a fortnight. Composting at home, reusing, recycling and buying only what I need is the reason for the less waste success. 

Christmas greener living fayre post 2

Christmas community greener living fayre 

The most amazing people live right next to you in your communities, the greener living fayre for me personally was inspirational on so many levels. 

A few stalls were run by selfless volunteers who had turned their passion and crafts into items they sold for the charity they were supporting.

Save the Children volunteers use their candle craft making skills to up-cycle used church candle wax to make brand new candles. I was delighted to buy these candles for my Christmas table but also proud to know my donation was going towards a good cause.

Animal Asia table items made great practical gifts for my homemade Christmas crackers and whoever cracks them open will know that the donation for these items has gone to a good cause.

These Bee saver kits are brilliant to for the children Christmas stocking they are packed with information and challenges to help save the Bees at home in your garden. Brilliant idea with this one and the donation I made has gone to Friends of the earth Charity. 

These Christmas earrings were purchased on the Dogs charity table and these will also go into my homemade Christmas Crackers for the girls.

incredibly inspired at the simple but effective crafts advertised at the fayre, crochet is a passion of mine and somewhere in my loft I have my crocheted baubles. My tree will stand out this year and also hold memories from when  I made them when my children were very small.

Feeling excited to decorated these wreaths for gifts

My handmade crocheted soap bags

I have three tins of buttons that my nanny collected over her many years that I could not throw away  so I have been wondering what to do with them. My family Christmas crackers will include these making them personal and heartfelt gifts to hand down to Nanny other generations.

Greener living Christmas family

My last post was the 10th May 2019 when I had visited the Kidderminster greener living fayre. (Last Blog)
Last Night I visited the Kidderminster transition greener living Christmas fayre and returned home not only inspired but full of Christmas gifts for the family. I have been incredibly busy being a mom and also with my volunteer groups that seem to have taken up a lot of time lately. Christmas is fast approaching and i'm nervous about time to prepare our plastic free Christmas but also excited as there is an element of achievement when you complete a greener living task.

My parents live in France and tomorrow they are visiting for lunch and this week I have been up-cycling items in my home so they can take a box of gifts with them for their Christmas morning.

I have used a jam jars and a Kilner jar to create prepared soup in a jar gifts. I have been completely inspire by a Facebook post that not only advertised these jars but provides the recipe and free print off gift labels for the jars too. These have turned out beautiful and the recipe I have chosen suits my parents taste making them a thoughtful and personal gifts. If my parents choose to have a lazy day over the festive season they, know they only have to empty the contents of the soup jar into a saucepan and wait for their easy dinner to cook.

I used a shoe box to pack them in and I cut all the sides so that when mom pulls the lid off it automatically falls opens to reveal a box of personally homemade gift surprises. I personally think the shops these days offer such a easy gift choice that the personal touch is lost in the convenience to just get the gift job over and done with. 

I have also used the packaging paper that Amazon use in their delivery boxes for the wrapping the gifts and also for the homemade Christmas crackers.

What I liked about doing the Christmas crackers was that my daughter choose the jokes, wrote them and the gifts inside were not only practical but once again choose for them making their gift personal and thoughtful once again.

Home baked Christmas cake gift

A couple of weeks ago I started soaking the fruit for my Christmas cakes. This is a tradition in our family to home bake the Christmas cake and have it as a feature on the table on Christmas day. I decided I would make two smaller cakes at the same time as baking our one to give to my parents and a friend as another gift. The have turned out quite cute and once again personal and individual.


I quite surprised at how easy it is to achieve a plastic free Christmas and if you have the time I highly recommend a personal touch.

Ruby Slippers amazing talent

Soap bags 

These kind of Christmas fayres open up a hall of talent and original gift ideas. If you can get to a local event you would be so inspired but also see just what amazing local talent is out there. I saved a huge amount of time and unnecessary spends going last night and can see the light at the end of the tunnel for my Christmas planning now.

Gift sets loved these 

Sandwich bags

Straws and a straw pouch cute 

Willow wreaths 

One of the stalls last night completely inspired me and it was the wreath table, the lady who makes these wreaths makes them out of nature free offering. \Take a look she had a real talent and made beautiful Christmas decorations. I was so inspired I bought a couple of plain willow garlands that I will decorate myself for gifts. I recently got back into crocheting making soap pouches for my homemade soaps previously mention on this blog. Parents Christmas box also includes soap and crochet wash pouches.

I fell in love with this one absolutely stunning 

Just incredible ideas  

These wreaths are original and can only be found at events like these where incredibly talented people show off their homemade delights.

Greener living

My last blog was on 22.08.19 which was a few weeks ago now and lots has been happening in my community since. September for me is always a nightmare month as the children start back to school after their summer break and I try to get back into the mom normal routine and my time is limited.


Food shopping has slipped backwards a little into convenience life style and the plastic free household has seen a slight rise in the green recycling bins plastic waste. I have surprised myself though as I still have reduced my overall waste and I refuse to buy unneccessary plastic packaging.

 Today I visited the Greener living fair in Kidderminster and i was completed overwhelmed with the amount of stalls offering alternative greener living advice.  I am totally Inspired as ever to keep going now and I'm even planning my plastic free Christmas. Most of my September shopping was not buying the easier option but sometimes I was pushed for time and failed. My children have also decided to go back to packed lunches and whilst using reusable drink bottles some snacks have been in the plastic wrapping.  

 I make up 4 packed lunches each school day and I am proud of how I have changed them. I use a cotton wax wrap for the sandwiches (not tin foil or cling film) which I wipe clean and reuse. The drink bottles are reusable and I fill them with water or squash. Unfortunately the squash has returned and I have been buying the Robinson 2 for £2.50 plastic bottles. The fruit is quite easy as it is not wrapped but the snack bars I put into the sandwich tubs are in a wrapper. I really need to look at an alternative that my children will eat. I did run out of snack bars this week and the children put in a couple rich tea biscuits and crisps, making sure they bring the crisp packet back home to me for Terracycle recycling.  So I need to look at ways to do more plastic free lunches boxes as I feel I am letting the family down.



Today at the town hall there were lots of inspiring ways to change a couple of my habits and I am really interested in the repair workshop stalls. These stalls offered to fix broken household items, repair clothing or generally up cycle old clothes. Crafting stalls, home baking vegan ideas and plastic free gifts were also on offer.  I now have more ideas for my plastic free Christmas home.

My daughter was asked to judge the decorated plastic bottle competition completing her ambassadorship job for The Pickup Artists. Lots of great entrances made this an incredibly hard competition to judge.


Outside of the town hall were 3 electric vehicles with their owners offering their knowledge to the public? This was totally inspiring and I came straight back home to price up a Nissan Leaf to lease. My excitement turned to anger as yet again businesses are making money from people wanting to be more planet friendly. I could hire a petrol/diesel car for a fraction of the cost of an electric vehicle. This idea is now too far out of my reach and the companies are preventing a faster national change over due to this. When I priced up my petrol costs, tax and mileage from my petrol car I decided that I could afford £180 per month to hire an electric car instead. The advice I was given was to rent a electric vehicle instead of purchasing one. When I looked at online deals I would only be able to drive a maximum of 10.000 miles per year and pay £280 - £360 per month to lease an electric vehicle. This is what I have discovered online so I will however visit a show room to find out more information i'm not giving up on this one.

The turnout of stalls, community representatives, wildlife enthusiasts, litter picking groups, repairing groups, vegan alternatives and others was absolutely commendable. Kidderminster town along with Wyre forest district council is moving forward to make positive changes toward a greener living environmental town.

The bottle return scheme demonstration for me as a litter picker showed that a purchaser is more likely to return their items to this machine. This system is far from complete however its showing some options for the future. Unfortunately I think single use plastics should be banned full stop with this machine offering the incentive for tin and glass only. When thinking of the bigger picture recycling is never the option for plastics but this machine is a step forward none the less.

Eat, Love yoga our beloved Kidderminster cafe was there promoting ways in which everyone can change their shopping habits. If you are yet to visit their shop on comberton road kidderminster then I highly recomend them. Lots of ideas at affordable prices offered to help you with a plastic free lifestyle.

My vegan style stall was an absolute eye opener for christmas gift ideas, their prices were very affordable and the item ideas are boxed and ready to gift. plastic free all the way.  www.veganmystyle.com
loved this stall and my daughter is delighted with her gift box of goodies.

Worcestershire nappy exchange wow I wished I knew these nappies when my children were younger. When I think about the amount of nappies I sent to landfill knowing what I know now it makes me feel ashamed. what a great incentive they now offer to families and so much cheaper than disposables.

I have joined a volunteer group that hope to introduce Surfers against Sewage national incentive scheme to help Kidderminster become a plastic free town. Today the room was full of inspiring people who I had previously met in this group and you can clearly see the town’s enthusiasm is behind them 100%.

When I look at our community and see the incredible people who makes an event like this happen I am full of pride to be part of this team. Today was all credit to the organisers Elaine Halford-Bishop and Councillor Vicky Caulfield you really did put on a incredible greener living event Thank you.