Day 13 summary

Day 13

13.7.19

Today was a non plastic day experience outside of the home as i spent it with friends at breakfast and dinner. I had a buffet breakfast and a restaurant dinner however my family was left with my husband having omelettes on toast for breakfast, chicken burgers, roast potatoes and peas which were some of the remaining items in the freezer and for dinner they had a Domino’s pizza. The pizza when collected and brought home was the wrong order but they eat it anyway. 

Another positive things happened today as after cleaning the kitchen this morning I started to fill the recycling bin with recycling items. Noticing the glass pop bottles I thought someone might want to up-cycle them. I went on Facebook page “Worcester waste exchange” and advertised that in a few weeks I will have a few glass bottles if anyone wants them. Straight away I was given a contact who will be collecting these bottles saving them from landfill or the recycling system. 

Decorated with fluff on Facebook thank you for wanting my glass bottles and jars. 

Up-cycled not recycled 

My lovely recycling bin is cleaned and ready for my reduced
waste this is where this challenge should show how my efforts  have worked. 

As I started to fill it I was disappointed with the amount of waste considering
The amount of work it has taken for me to reduce and change my shopping habits to plastic free. 

My next dilemma what bin bags do I use that  are plastic free?? 

Day 12 Summary Found a few solutions for the alternatives

Day 12

12.07.19

Today was a good day as it all started with the packed lunches for the kids trip and they were delighted and as a mom that was my day made.

After returning from the school run my friend arrived so we could start our soap making adventure together. We attended a course a few weeks ago and enjoyed the experience and decided to make some early Christmas gifts for family and friends.

These soaps are lovely and will make great teachers gifts.
My lounge smells beautiful 

So our Christmas gifts are setting 



My glass cabinet that I got free and up-cycled from Worcester waste exchange Facebook group.
 Perfect for the soaps to set in.  



I also found some success for my shampoo, conditioners and shaving soap for the hubby and nephew. One of you shared with me a link to Cosy Cottage Soap company who do products chemical free so thank you very much I have these products on their way as we speak.

I have also come up a solution to all the glass jars, yogurts jars and bottles. instead of recycling them in my green bin I'm going to try and up-cycle them on Worcester waste exchange Facebook group. The yogurt jars however are going to be up-cycled by myself to bees wax candles for christmas gifts too.

Every single delivery box will also be used instead of christmas wrapping paper but I will hand make a gift tag and tie with simple rope.

I am looking for another piece of advice and that is what happens when I run out of bin bags and ideas where I find compostable bin bags for my black bin waste. Someone sent me a link for a compostable cooked food waste alternative but the cost was a little high but I have an idea how to make one myself. Watch this space??

Tomorrow I plan to up-cycle some clothes and have a good sort out of unnecessary stuff clogging up the house.

See you tomorrow have a great Friday night.

Day 12 The KOH cleaner arrived and I'm sorry about the toilet picture but I love a cleaning success story lol

DAY 12

12.07.19

My morning experience today has been finding out if this all in one cleaner Koh really does what it advertised to do. A few of you have asked for a confirmation so here is my experience of the product and of course some pictures.

I'm will however apologise now for the toilet picture as I would not put a before one up of the grime a toilet experiences in a hard water area. You already know. You will however see a gleaming picture of the after cleaning with this product.

Koh was advertised as the all in one cleaner that is eco friendly and good to allergies.  It's key message is (Your healthier home awaits). It advertises and promotes on it's packaging for the planet and your planet good environmental choice. So imagine my disappointment opening up my box to a cheaply made plastic bottle spray and a wine like box of Koh cleaner to refill my bottle with and yes plastic insert. The box clearly states that their plastic inside is not recycled. So then I had to think wisely as I will be left with one recyclable box, none recyclable insert, an all purpose cleaner for all jobs, environmentally friendly due to no chemicals and less chemical bottles clogging up my cupboard. Bonus

So then we need to talk about the product itself ad ask one question Does it Clean??

My finds is that it is a very good cleaner but don't be fooled worn in crime does need a good scrub but the product makes this job a lot easier. Take a look at the pictures below. 





The information on the box.

The cooker before

The sink below before and after the clean



The before picture 

The after 

The toilet sparkles

To summarise though I think we are all looking for a magic cleaner that tackles all, I will say this cleaner is remarkably good cleaner but what and how it's advertised is not how it works. Be aware elbow grease is still a cleaning necessity with this product.

Day 11 summary it's been a succesful day

Day 11 Summary

So this morning started with a positive attitude as I had received many messages of encouragement to keep going. (Thank you)

Dinner was great fun we made homemade Chicken strips with homemade chips. All the items used were plastic free and the waste was nothing. The yogurts I brought today in glass jars were all eaten up and I have decided to up-cycle the jars into bees wax candles for gifts. One problem I came across with the yogurts was they had plastic lids which I did not notice when I brought them due to being excited that I found yogurts in glass jars.

I do really think that this plastic free challenge has proved that family time in the kitchen is defiantly more active and fun. Of course the down side is the MESS lol but look at her face.

 

I told the kids that we had made KING chips due to their length

seem to work I had empty plates in the end.

 



 

The only waste with chips is for the compost no frozen storage bag in sight



 

The chicken strips were lovely and everyone was eaten.

They are so easy to make too,

 I got the recipe from my 12 year olds cookery lesson from high school.

 



Day 11 I'm full of enthusiaum thanks to Aldi

Day 11

11.07.19

Yesterday I felt I had let myself down buying the plastic products I needed for my sanity as a mom and pushed on time. However today I thought of the comments and advice I have received from my readers and felt that today I needed to investigate Aldi.

Many of you have pointed me to Aldi telling me they have the alternatives the I require so off I went to see it for myself. Wow look at the picture below all these products bar a couple are plastic free.

 



Aldi I applaud you
 

You will see there are a few items with plastic lids and are possibly questioning what you see. However here are my dilemma's below.

 

 

So I gave it ago??? posh cups too just for you guys really lol

It's perfect Job done tea swapped and only 75p per 50 bags.

I have been using this brand and it's a perfect swap however ides how I can up-cycle the wrapping would be fab please.

My kids are on a school trip tomorrow and thinking of the alternative
which is crisps I can recycle the whole packet with
 Terracycle and the lid I will save and take them to a local
company for them to up-cycle them.

 

Yesterday My tea dilemma was looking for tea brands
that are available without plastic wrapping but also
 without the bags containing plastic.
I goggled this brand and its completely plastic free 



This is going to be my alternative to vegetable oil



I decided to buy a chocolate spread instead as the ingredients to
 make chocolate spread are covered in plastic.
I though I will reuse the jar anyway.



No plastic here kid will be delighted



Aldi offers one yogurt alternative in a glass
jar so I will see if the children enjoy them



individual 79p



in plastic wrap making them 67p each annoying and wrong



Aldi brand perfect



Hazelnuts needed for the homemade chocolate spread



This was the only option after seeing all the ingredients to make it were all wrapped in plastic.



Cream is still an issue but I'll save that for another day



cat food alternative as they are not enjoying the Whiskers tinned option



Yogurt in a glass bottle YEA



This is a similar problem Apple juice needs to be
 not from concentrate
and this was the only option I found.
I will cut around the lid and recycle it with my others.



great no plastic

going to give this a try with the kids

next challenge toilet roll



Aldi's only plastic free tissue might be a
bit posh as a toilet roll replacement

Day 10 one busy day a few plastic fails

10.07.19

OK so I need to tell the truth about today and how time consuming looking for plastic free is when you are on limited times.

I needed Cream, sliced bread, yogurt, tea and digestive biscuits.

No Biscuits can be found without plastic wrapping and I needed digestives for Banoffee pie pudding as we needed to use up the tin of condences caramel. plus Banoffee was quick to make when you have a busy day.

Tea? I cannot run out of tea in my house and on the supermarkets shelves the option are not biodegradable tea bags, the only brand the I have researched is PG Tips, they have a plastic wrapper around the box but all tea bags can be put in the compost.

Cream, I had a option of buying it in a glass jar however they wanted £2.65 for a small amount and I would of had to buy two jars.  so a plastic 85p one was brought.

yogurt I am still looking for the alternative and my children need yogurts, so i decided Natural yogurt in one big tub was worthy and I would add fruit, make smoothie ice lollies. All these benifit from less plastic.

My 12 year old only like brown bread, struggling on the toast front and when this man is hungry toast wins everytime. so I brought bread in plastic however this bag can be recycled back at the supermarket.

The rest of my shopping was plastic free so I still did not buy the convenient normal shopping. I have just put my bins out for recycling and the waste is down by half a bin as I normally put two full bins out. Please remember I am a family of six two bins are essential. However this waste is also part of the June buys before i went plastic free, so I am hoping in two weeks these recycling bins will be reduced immenesly. I will wash them out tomorrow and show in 14 days my results hopefully of reduced to plastic free & recycling waste.

So I feel like I have let myself down today and feel very annoyed with the supermarkets not offering the option to buy plastic free for the above.

The difference with letting myself down is not the issue as my kids and husband must come first and when you are a busy mom feeding time sometimes has to be convenient. So I appologise if you are reading this and are disappointed but finding plastic free alternatives quickly is not possible well no just not achieveable.



this would usually be full so i'm really proud its only a third full

Normally two full bins go out for recycling

Day 9 summary Nearly Emptied The Freezer

Day 9

9.07.19

So the food has started to go down a lot, I have been out today and did not have a chance to shop.

Breakfast was easy
Omelette on sliced bread, toast and tea.

Lunch sausage and bacon sandwiches on rolls.

Dinner ?????
So I went to the freezer to find that we had absolutely nothing but some burgers then when I said the freezer is nearly empty my nephew states “that’s because we can’t buy plastic”

How true, oven chips which is my usual rescue meal with fish fingers or something that’s usually plastic wrapped.

So I need to get smarter on the shopping and plan every meal.

My husband and I went for a couple of drinks at the pub taking advantage of our adult nephew staying at ours to put kids to bed. Lol
Baring in mind the food issue tonight was minimal so when ordering the drinks at the bar my husband wanted snacks. Not one snack served without plastic so no snacks were brought he was going to resort to the pickled onions jar but he didn’t.

So on a positive note school end of term is two weeks away and noting that most school uniform has some form of plastic wrapping I decided to set up a school uniform up-cycle Facebook page.

Take a look

https://www.facebook.com/uniformup/

Liked this Logo on the google sight