Welcome to our monthly round-up of news and products. You can subscribe to get our monthly updates delivered to your virtual door. There’s a subscription form at the bottom of the page.

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2017

Sign Up

There are now so many plastic free petitions I am now listing them on a separate page. So get your pens out and head on over to the petitions page.
Don’t be silly. I know nobody uses pens, or paper petitions come to that – but if you ever do want to write something try these refillable fountain pens…

N.B.

lines changes, products get removed. For more information why not ask the Plastic Is Rubbish FB group for updates. They are a great source of tidbits, personal experience and the latest news. Why not join them and share the plastic free love x

And before you go…

If you have found the #plasticfree information useful, please consider supporting us. It all goes to financing the project (read more here) or

December

This month we are
Making sweet mince for pies
Singing landfill carols
Last minute preps for a plastic-free Christmas

So the big day is nearly upon us.

Plastic Free Christmas

As for the rest of December….sigh! But lets not give way! Gird those loins and get busy. By now I am usually making mincemeat. You can see our sweet mincemeat recipe here.
It”s scrummy,yummy and features our brand new recipe Small Wrinkled Balls Of Christmas Fire! Whats not to love.

Songs

Going out carolling? Here’s a song you might like to learn!

Presents

I am busy buying my passive-aggressive, pointed, eco gifts. These cotton produce bags are for you, you crazy, double-bagging freak! No – not really! These are lovely gifts for lovely people …. who doesn’t want to sponsor a hippo? But should you go really hardcore here are some perfectly good reasons from Unistash to cutdown on presents….

Unstash manifesto

And as for the other festive stuff – as we all know by now, plastic isn’t just for Christmas. Sadly. So here are a few tips on how to ensure your festive rubbish can be composted to feed next years plants. See them HERE.

Fair Share Fabric

The end of the year and it time to start counting, weighing and documenting my plastic-free, compostable wardrobe.

And Finally

Green Elvis has led the building. Happy Christmas one and all xxxxxxxx

The Plastic Free Year

Read about it here

November

While travelling I’ve been buying locally made fabrics for next years outfits. I have been through India, Japan and Thailand so the choice has been huge. And I have had to learn a lot something about the different kinds of fabrics. If you too are thinking about making your own clothes you might find the following introduction to fibres and fabrics useful.
I am starting from a position of ignorance so it’s very much a dummies guide.
I of course have been only buying natural fibres that have been locally made. I tell you next years wardrobe is going to be stunning!

Fair Share Fabric Rationing

Wahey. talking of clothes, this year Ami is joining in in the fair share fabric rationing project. You can read more about it here

Packer Tracker

You can rummage in our plastic free backpack, find out where we are and link to other travel related posts here

One of the most poignant events of the year happens in November. Every year on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month all of Britain observes a full silence for two minutes. Because 11 November is Armistice Day and the anniversary of the end of the first world war. Remembrance Sunday is always held on the weekend so that everyone can participate. On this day we take time to remember all those who have fallen on the many wars.

Through November the most visible sign of remembrance is the wearing of a red poppy badge.

November is also When the Royal British Legion, a U.K. Charity organise a massive fundraising campaign. Whatever your opinions on the politics of war, whatever you feel about the senseless loss, many soldiers have died leaving families behind. Many soldiers have survived but so badly hurt that they now need help. The Royal British Legion supports the Armed Forces community both past and present. It provides support for the serving men and women, veterans and for their families.

Every year (2017 starting on 26 October), they ask for contributions in return for which you receive a poppy to pin on your lapel.Sadly the poppies made from paper and plastic are disposable. Many people buy a new poppy each year. Some careless ones like me get through two or three a year. Hundreds and hundreds of little green plastic stalks and black centres are left over once the paper petals have have rotted away.

So this year why not do it differently. The Royal British Legion have many new and interesting ways to contribute. And of course if you want to show your support by wearing a poppy you can buy a reusable poppy. You still make a donation each year but wear your own reusable poppy.

You can buy reusable poppy pins from the Royal British Legion,(visit the Website), Or these from Marks & Spencer’s. If you don’t like any on display, or find the offerings to be too plastic packaged, try making your own. Loads of ideas HERE.

Getting ready for Christmas

Too early for the C word? I know Halloween is hardly over but you need to plan ahead in the plastic free world. For example if you want to make a reusable advent calendar you need to start collecting loo rolls or get sewing. Or at the very least order online. You will also need to get some biodegradable sticky tape, think about making fantastic home made candied peel even some sweet mincemeat. See how to plan a plastic free Christmas here

Then there is the office party (groans!). Given the choice between washing up in the tea room sink, and disposable cups, the answer may seem obvious. However at the end of the night when the black bin bags come out that decision may seem rather environmentally unfriendly. So we put together some plastic free party tips here.

Leaf Mold

Another C word and one of our favorites. Yes it’s composting. Hooray! You can use all those Autumn leaves to make seed compost. Instructions here

October

Because plastic is too scary – even for Halloween

Whhhooo oooo

Yes its time for spooks, ghouls and zombies to take to the streets and beg sweets. We have put together a few tips to cut the plastic horror that results. Included are…

Get,(or make), some fabric trick or treat bags to take out with you – not to my house obvs.
Buy plastic-free sweets for when the ghouls come calling.
Use compostable, disposable partyware
Make a reusable, burlap witches hat .
make your own costumes

Check out the How To Halloween Plastic Free page for details. And please do add your own grisly finds and ghastly zero waste ideas ….. love Hollies mushed beetroot brains!

Updates

Compostable Coffe Cups

Look out for the lovely green van. Maybe you can hire it for your events. Not sure. You will have to contact them. As well as a great vehicle they are using compostable disposables. Mmmmmm.
London based
We’re a new mobile catering company coming soon! We’ll be serving excellent artisan coffee and bites out of our gorgeous vintage wagon!
Thanks to @BiopacLtd for our compostable coffee cups & other packaging! #TheWackaWagonCo http://www.TheWackaWagonCo.com

Straw Wars

All Bar One
Are cutting plastic straws…..
It’s simple really, over the next year we’re going to reduce our straw usage by a third.
Don’t worry you can still sip away merrily on our delicious cocktails and soft drinks, and for those crushed ice cocktails we’ll be offering replacement eco-friendly options.
So why does this matter to us? Our own research show just how many straws are in use and in turn, creating an environmental problem. To give you a snapshot of just how many straws we use at All Bar One:
Straws are served in 25% of our drinks
An average of 1,600 straws a week in each bar (about 13,000 a day as a brand)
We purchase 4.7 million straws a year
We need your help, we can’t make this happen without you, the change starts with how you enjoy your drinks and we ask that when you do, you don’t ask for a straw. Let’s all work towards making a difference and get rid of plastic straws for good.
We’re also calling on other bars to join the pledge and get involved in the #StrawsSuck movement.

Check out the website HERE

Weatherspoons
Are also giving up straws for new year.
From January 2018, Wetherspoon chains will no longer automatically put plastic straws in their drinks, instead using only biodegradable paper straws. The pub chain claims this will stop 70 million plastic straws from heading to landfills or finding their way into the ocean, where they can cause damage to all kinds of sealife. The plan is part of a massive campaign called Refuse the Straw, which urges pub chains and restaurants to stop handing out plastic straws willy-nilly.

Apples

October is the time for apple harvesting. If you don’t have your own tree you could try a PYO farm. There are hundreds of orchards offering this in the southern counties, rather fewer up here in the north.Check out this great farm finder website

Urban Harvest

Otherwise you coud get involved in some of the urgan harvest programs. They pick and distibute unwanted fruit. Abundance in Manchester is one such. From the website…

“A mature garden fruit tree produces more than the average family can eat. And at the same time there are lots of people in our city not able to access fresh food.

Abundance Manchester is a voluntary project which picks surplus or unwanted fruit from gardens and public trees around South Manchester and distributes it to local groups and communities who can use it. We also collect and distribute surplus vegetables from allotments.”

I have listed a couple more here.

September

We are always happy to work with others promoting plasticfree products. Every so often we run a give away for fabulous #plasticfree prizes.
This month you are super lucky. WE have two!
Snact Fruit Jerky in compostable packaging and WUKA period underwear cutting the need for disposables.

Zerowaste Week

Zerowaste week starts on the 4th of this month.
For a number of years now I have been a zero waste ambassador. Here are some quick zero waste week facts!
Zero waste week is organized by Rae Strauss:
It has been going since 2008:
The aim is to cut the trash going to landfill.

This year each day will focus on a different topic.
They are:
#MakeItMendItMonday – Make Do and Mend – get fixing. See how to make stuff plastic free HERE

#TrashlessTuesday – try and have a complete ZERO WASTE day with bonus points for carrying their waste around in a clear plastic bag all day!
#WasteLessWednesday – Upcycling don’t bin it transform it into something extremely lovely.
#TopTipsThursday – Time saving and Top Tips. What’s your favourite.
#FoodWasteFriday – Food waste and how to minimise it.

Visit the website here.

Of course its not just me doing it- there are loads of bloggers doing all kinds of stuff. You can find them herded together in one easy to access place on the Zero Waste website and listen to them wittering – sorry twittering – on on the twitter hashtag #zerowasteweek

If you want to join in you can make a pledge here on the zero waste website. If you decide to blog about it you can decorate your blog or post with various buttons, if you don’t you can print off posters for your living walls (easy tiger!) with these links posters and pdfs

Read more about My zero waste weeks here

Summer Holidays

Do you need DEET check out these Malarial regions here
Read about DEET and the plasticfree alternatives here

Which times of the day are worst for The UV index here.

UV-Control Merino (Knitwear)

A UV absorbing finish is applied to the Merino wool product during dyeing or bleaching at either yarn stage, fabric stage or during knitted garment finishing. The finish can also be applied after dyeing either by exhaustion or by padding. Read more

More about merino

Read more about Plastic free fun in the sun here.

Lush making an Exhibition

lush are one of the more forward thinking British companies. And they do stuff like this:

One of four Pop Ups being staged to support the Lush 2017 Creative Showcase event in London next month, Naked House is part gallery exhibition and part immersive experience curated by the brand team at Lush to show just how easy it is to make the switch to Naked (as in living with less packaging).
Read more here.

August

Summer and it’s time for high tea with

Strawberry jam and scones
First pick your strawberries. Unless you have been super organised and grown some, you will need to visit a pick your own farm. Find a PYO farm here ….
Now you can make some jam. I know you can get it in glass jars but the lids are plastic lined. Jam recipe here

And Cucumber Sandwiches
Cakes can be tricky but Asian stores and Polish delis often stock the smaller kind.

And then of course you need a nice cup of tea…
What’s in your tea bag? Paper and tea? you wish! Most teabags contain one or more
Plastic
Thermoplastics
Epichlorohydrin
And have been chlorine bleached.
There are plastic free teabags but they often come plastic packed.
And yet in a strange twist of fate you can get conventional tea bags that contain plastic in compostable packaging.

Read up about it here.

After which you will no longer want to use a conventional tea bag ever again. And you will have to be super rich to afford the cleaner greener alternatives even if you can find them in plastic free packaging. And please let me if you do.
So what to do when you want a nice cup of tea?
Loose leaves are the way forward. But how to steep them? If you are brewing up for the WI, a teapot is fine but what when you want a quick cuppa for one?
You can get cotton bags that you can use to make your own teabags but really who can be bothered with that kind of faff.

I have found that a steel mesh single cup infuser works perfectly. It sits on your mug, you fill it with loose tea, let the brew, brew then remove. Really no effort at all and very easy to empty into the compost bin after. Mine was given as a gift but I have found something similar on Amazon

Fun In The Sun

Don’t forget if you are going out berry picking to slap on some sun block.
Sun protection even on cloudy days is vital. But dont listen to me, have a look at www.skincancer.org website an invaluable source that should be read by everyone. Though you might find yourself spending the rest of Summer cowering in a cellar coming out only after dark after doing so.
But educate yourself and you can enjoy the sun sensibly.

There is lots more information about sun protection here. Do read up before you decide to make your own.

Oily Sun Tan Lotion

The following information is for guidance only. None of the following recipes or tips have not been tested on anyone other than me. I strongly advise you do your own research and proceed very carefully as sunburn is not only painful and aging but dangerous.

I have been mixing up sun tan lotion using zinc from home with rice bran oil bought in a Thai supermarket.
It chose an oil in a plastic bottle but there is a reason for that. On the island we are staying I have seen several points where plastic bottles are collected for recycling and none for glass. I have seen a lot of glass bottles piled up round the bins. Judging by the dust and weeds they have been there a long time. So I while I could have got coconut oil in a glass jar, I chose rice bran in a PET plastic bottle. principals are fine but not if they add to everlasting waste trashing up this island. And glass also lasts forever, is heavy and costs a lot to transport. PET plastic bottles are easy to recycle. They are the plastic most often collected by litter pickers because they have a value.
So I chose to buy one big plastic bottle of oil because it is most likely to be disposed of “properly”.

I added the zinc to oil to make lotion which so far seems to be working. You can see my recipe here. making your own sunblock

Rest Of The Oil
It was a very big bottle so I used some more oil to make
suntan lotion you can see my recipe here.
It can also be used to make

After sun lotion
I don’t believe all the hype about essential oils. That said it seems that lavender essential really might help with burns. And it is grown locally in Yorkshire. So I use lavender oil added to a carrier oil to make a soothing after sun lotion.

Mosquito repellent
I also use citronella essential oil mixed in a carrier oil as a mosquito repellent. I don’t know if it really works by which I don’t know if it repels Mosquitos. I feel it does and it certainly seems to soothe bites and reduce irritation. Obviously mosquitos present a real risk of malaria and you should consider your options very carefully before you proceed with this option.

Essential oils
Essential oils are resource hungry, have a large environmental footprint and should only be used on special occasions.
You can read more here

July

Hello and welcome to July. This month sees us back from Japan and hanging out on a beach in Thailand.
We are backpacking #plasticfree. You can find more details as to how and where in the packer tracker section.
But first”Plastivists united will never have to secumb to icecream in tubs”. Yes as a slogan it needs some work but here’s how we are going to bring plasticfree to the masses..

Stronger Together

I always wanted the blog to be a resource where numerous people could Collaborate on producing the bestest ever data base of plastic free resources for UK plastivists.

So if you want to contribute and I hope you do, please do this.

It’s not perfect but here’s how it works: find a plastic free product i.e. Pasta, search the database or A to Z index to see if there is already an entry for that product. If so, add the details in the comments for that post. You should be able to do this quite easily via any of your social media accounts.
If you have a post on the subject on your own blog please leave a link to your own post again in the comments section.

Plastic Free Products

The easiest way to find a #plasticfree alternative in our huge database of products is to use the search function (#grandmothersuckeggs!) However we have also organised them by other criteria.
By Category Everything from food to Gardening to personal care
By Task Want to know how to wash the pots, #plasticfree? Check out these posts organised by task!
A to Z organised… erm…alphabetically
By Place
Towns organised alphabetically that have #plasticfree/ packaging free/ zerowaste shops. Find them here.

By Shops
Local shops Places selling refills and packaging free food (of a type normally sold prepacked)Heres a list of towns with shops selling loose food.
Supermarkets & Chainstores can surprise you – check out the plastic-free and reduced packaging products here.

By Blogger & Projects
Plastic Free People
Plastic Free Bloggers U.K. based bloggers can be found here

Campaigns Arts, Media and Education Can be found here

WHAT! NO POST? if you cannot find a post about pasta for example, tell me and I will set one up.
Sharing Is caring And with your contributions, posts can stay up to date and we can all benefit from each other’s expertise.

What do you think? Inputs, feedback and thoughts greatly welcomed. Anyone fancy out trying out and commenting on the system?

Big gold star to Yolanda for adding information on the ice cream post. Yum!

Competitions for designers

Any clever designers out there? Want to help design out plastic pollution and win a share of 1 million? Read more here.

And now you can reward yourself by entering our Giveaway. It’s from a company called Greencane
They make #plasticfree tissue products including loo roll. Wahey.

They will be giving away a cardboard box containing

32 Rolls of Toilet Paper (8 packs of 4 rolls)
6 Rolls of Paper Towels (3 packs of 2 rolls)
3 Boxes Facial Tissues

How Plastic Free

The products come in individually wrapped packs.
All the packaging is paper, card and or cellophone.
The cellophane is certified as commercially compostable.
Delivered to your door in a cardboard box from their Brighton warehouse.
There may be some plastic tape on the box but they are working on that!
I have reviewed these produce – you can read my review here.

Enter Here

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enter by clicking the link and following the instructions to either
Visit the Greencane Facebook page and leave a like
Comment here on the blog on why you want to wipe #plasticfree
Tweet our cheeky tweet
OR, for a better chance of winning, all three.

SORRY but this is only for people living in the UK

Buy

Can’t wait? For lots more info and to order products visit the website

Composting Plastic At Home
FYI While most agree that some plastics are indeed compostable, many say that they can only composted in large scale municipal schemes. I have used and composted a number of compostable plastic products

Of course every month is plastic free for me but plastic free July is a time to make a bit of extra effort.

What is Plastic Free July

The aim is to cut your consumption of one use plastic, for one month; how much you choose to cut is up to you – read my take.

A bit of history

Plastic Free July started in 2011 in Australia in 2013 it went global. They have a great website and are all round good eggs.

My Plastic Free July
I try to cut all disposable plastics including the lesser known sneaky plastics

U.K. Participants

2017 This year progress and uk bloggers can be found here

More Info

And you might like these other health & hygiene posts.

June

Packer Tracker

Back in Malaysia and not drinking bottled water. Is the tap water safe to drink in Malaysia. I can find out using this super cool website ” can I drink the water.” I pick the country you want and read the result. And No it’s not safe to drink. But it does have a few water refill machines that are cheap and easy to use.

You can read about them here

Otherwise it’s back to tap water made safe by a steripen. You can find that and other plastic free travel aids here.

How Much Plastic

Last month others from the PLastic Is Rubbish Facebook group agreed to track our plastic consumption for a show and tell at the end of the month. This is not a competition or one upmanship but an out of interest kind of project.

I don’t know how they did but I made more plastic trash last month than I have done in the whole of my 10 years boycotting plastic. I was camping in Japan where it is almost impossible to buy food plastic free. When travelling a I take my plastic free shopping kit of reusable bags, tiffin tins and compostable PLA bags. But this only works if you can find loose produce. In Japan they love packaging. We did what we could but noodles, rice and even potatoes came in plastic bags. While we sometimes found a loose lettuce most veg was bagged. Most protein wether meat fish or soya was again well wrapped. The usual ploy of buying food in markets and local shops didn’t work here because even then they plastic wrapped it. They really are obsessed with packaging. To console ourselves we drank a lot of beer in tins. Plastic lined of course.

#myplastictrash.

But this month should be better because we are back in Malaysia.

June

Hello there. We are now in Japan where it is suprisingly green. Lots more trees than I expected. We are travelling round in a carvan. That is a car big enough to have a fixed bed in the back but no more. It came with a little camp stove and some bowls. We are staying in rest stops. These are car parks with toilets where you can sleep the night for free. It’s fanatastic but its not a campsite and cooking has to be quick and discrete. And there are no pot washing facilities.Or showers come to that. It’s an interesting experience. More of which later.

In the meantime…..

New Kid On The Blog

Sarah from Devon blogs about living plastic free in this lovely part of the world. Read about it here.

How Much Plastic

Myself and others form the PLastic Is Rubbish Facebook group will be tracking our plastic consumption for a show and tell at the end of the month. This is not a competition or one upmanship but an out of interest kind of project. Feel free to join in. Don’t need to do it for a month, a week or a day will do.
Post at the end of the month, each week or whenever works for you. A list, photos, total weight however you want to record it. Post them in the plastic Is Rubbish group with the hashtag #myplastictrash.

Any other ideas on how to organise such a project greatly welcomed as I am talking off the top of my head here.
I can tell you now mine is going to be dreadful. I am in Japan and everything comes plastic packed!

Plastic Free June

Want to really cut your plastics? Then this is a great campaign organised by the Marine Conservation Society (MCSUK).The MSCUK is a UK charity “that cares for our seas, shores and wildlife”.

The Plastic Challenge takes place every year in the U.K. in June.It is organized by the

The MSCUK “have a vision of a world where plastics don’t end up in our seas and on our beaches, where they persist and impact our marine life.”
So they challenge you to give up single use plastics for a month (June), and get sponsored whilst doing it. The money goes to support MSCUK projects which are many and very worthwhile.

You can read more about it here

Giving Away

Getting ready for our next giveaway. Plastic free loo roll, and tissues and kitchen wipes. In a big cardboard box. Wahey!
Is from a company called Greencane
They make tissue products and will be giving away a
Mixed Box
a cardboard box, containing
Buy

Can’t wait? For lots more info and to order products visit the website

Biodegradable, Compostable Plastics

What is biodegradable? Biodegradable products break down through a naturally occurring microorganism into simple, stable compounds which can be absorbed into the ecosystem. More about biodegrading here

What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. Read more about compostable plastics here