The three levels of plastic free food

20 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog 1 Comment

How to cut the plastic you wrap your food in…

Stage 1 Warming Up

Bagger Off …start by saying no to “free” plastic carriers and taking your own reusable bag.

Get loose.. buy loose and unwrapped food and take your own reusable produce bags and and pots to put them in.

Water waste … take your own tap water in a refillable bottle.

Milking It Now….play that fun game Find The Milkman -stalk your neighbors looking for empties or check here

Having mastered stage 1 you will now feel like a real challenge. Well its not far away…

Stage 2 Giving Up

Your task is to refuse plastic wrapped products and source substitutes.

This will mean some hardship and deprivation – no crisps unless you make them yourself!!!!!

You will have to make some choices here as to what you can and cant do without.

Stage 2 Lite

It should mean that you give up everything for which there isn’t a plastic free substitute. However if that is not possible I would suggest that you allow yourself a fixed number of necessities for which you cannot find a regular plastic free substitute. Mine include brown rice and noodles.

And I think you you can allow an occasional plastic treat. These would be plastic packed products for which there is no substitute, that you probably could do without -but life would be miserable. Mine are nori seaweed, smoked salmon and creme freche.

Next you next have to ask yourself what constitutes plastic wrapped.

Stage 3 Stealth Plastic

I consider all of the below to be plastic packaged.

Nearly all PAPER products used to wrap food are Plastic coated paper – no plastic lined tetra paks, disposable cups, wraps of sugar and of course tubs of ice cream.

Foiled again…. most foil packaging is also plastic wrapped- watch out for butter margarine and Boursin.

No can do – Tins & soda are plastic coated so out they go

Pain in the jars. GLASS JARS WITH METAL LIDS what could possibly go wrong. The lids are plastic lined or have a little disc of plastic as a seal.

If you agree, your plastic boycott suddenly got way harder!

Stage 3 Lite as for stage 2

Again try to cut the above to the minimum, but don’t beat yourself up over a bottle of ketchup! Reduce the tins and jars you use but decide what you have to keep. I still buy honey, beans and tuna.

Help

You can find all the plastic free food I have sourced here

You can see the plastic food I eat here

Cellophane – a plant derived and biodegradable plastic

15 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 1.3 Plastic Types - Fact Sheets Tagged 0 guest post, 1.3.2 bioplastic, 1.6 Definitions, 3.2.5 composting & compostables 2 Comments

Quick Introduction

Cellophane is made from cellulose
It is biodegradable
However the way it is made results in a lot of other kinds of pollution
Cellophane bags were often used to package candy, vegetables and convenience foods.
Cellophane is easy to tear, reseal and print.
It performs badly at low temperatures and has a limited shelf life
Cellophane is more expensive than most other types of plastic.
“polypropylene has replaced cellophane to a large degree. For a while cellophane and polypropylene were used in conjunction, thus a ply of cellophane was laminated to a ply of propylene. Now, however, cellophane is mostly abandoned altogether.” Read more here.
Cellotape used to be made from cellophane. now it is made from oil derived plastic.

Find out more about compostable and other types of plastic here

Current Uses

Cellophane is now being used to wrap “green” products because it can be composted. Here are the PLA cornstarch and cellulose compostable plastic products I have composted in my back yard bin. They said it couldn’t be done Mwahahahaha! Read more here.

The History Of Cellophane, how it is made and the pros and cons A guest post from Michael Bloch blogging up on Green Living Tips.com

We see many news stories about developments in the plastics industry to make these items greener. With disposable plastic shopping bags being banned in some places and consumer concern acting as the writing on the wall for the industry, it’s certainly in the sector’s interest to make more environmentally friendly plastic bag and wrap products as soon as possible.

Degradable, compostable and biodegradable plastics may seem like recent inventions, but some have been around for a very long time. One such plastic is cellophane – and it’s now experiencing resurgence in popularity.

Cellophane being plant based didn’t click with me until I was doing some research recently for a restaurant employee who was looking for a biodegradable bag suitable for use with a particular food application – it was only then that it clicked with me the “cello” in cellophane stands for cellulose – the structural component of plants.

Cellophane was invented in 1900, but wasn’t commercially available until 1912. At that point it was mainly used for wrapping candy. When moisture-proof cellophane hit the market in the late 1920′s, it rapidly increased in popularity until the 60′s when alternative petro-chemical based plastics became popular – and we all know how that worked out for the planet.

Quite a few modern bioplastics use plants, but often they use corn as the primary component. Similar to using “food as fuel“; should we be using a grain or a crop grown on land suitable for producing food for non-food uses when arable land (without further deforestation) is becoming a diminishing resource?

Cellophane has an edge here as it can be made from farmed trees or from hemp; which can grow in relatively harsh conditions.

Regarding its composting and biodegradable attributes, I’ve read various reports stating uncoated cellulose film degrades within 10 days to 1 month when buried and nitrocellulose-coated cellulose in 2 months to 3 months. Complete biodegradation of cellulose film is between 1 – 2 months for uncoated products, and from 2.5 to 4 months for coated cellulose products. In a fresh water environment, the rate of biodegradation is only 10 days for uncoated film and a month for coated cellulose film.

As far as I know, corn based bioplastics take far longer to degrade and there’s also some issues with recycling bioplastics made with corn as they are currently classified as a number 7 plastic resin, meaning “other”.

That’s the good news about cellophane; but as with most things, there are some negative aspects too environmentally speaking.

Cellophane is made by dissolving plant fiber in alkali and carbon disulfide to create something called viscose. The viscose is then reconverted to cellulose in cellophane form after a sulfuric acid and sodium sulfate bath. The cellophane is further treated with glycerol to make the dry cellophane less brittle. The cellophane may then be coated with nitrocellulose or wax to make it impermeable to water vapor. A few nasty chemicals in that process – for example, high levels of carbon disulfide are toxic; affecting the nervous system.

However, given the amount of processing and nasties it takes to turn petro-chemicals; i.e. chemicals derived from crude oil, into plastics and the damage those plastics do long after having been discarded, it would seem to me that cellophane is probably still better environmentally speaking. Stacked up against corn based plastic bags and wraps, the better/worse distinction is a little harder to discern.

Cellophane films and bags are readily available – just run a query on the terms in your favorite search engine to locate a stockist.

Tip: When composting cellophane, scrunch it up instead of laying it flat on your compost pile. This allows for air pockets and some air is necessary when composting any material.

Trivia: another plastic product that’s been around for at least a hundred years also based on plant material is linoleum.

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

The Observer Ethical Awards

12 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 4.4 As Seen In 2 Comments

Last night I had a great time at the Green Oscars….whaoh there, before you get too excited, it was only as a guest – not to get an award! This Observer organised bash is to honour worthy projects and environmental initiatives.

When I was invited I thought it would be held in some kind of derelict-factory, refurb, pop- up space in the bad lands. Inside it would be all polished concrete with a stage made from pallets and old park benches cunningly upcycled by Kevin Mc Cloud into seats. It wasn’t. It was held in OneMarylebone.

“Beautifully refurbished to the original designs of Sir John Soane, the Grade I listed venue boasts 3 unique spaces plus landscaped garden, moments from Regents Park. The grandeur of One Marylebone has attracted blue-chip brands from avariety of industries with a focus on fashion, beauty and the arts.”

WHAT????

As you may know I am currently living in a van. Which means that my wardrobe, (never dressy), is now severely limited. The dress code on the night was sustainable style. While my van wear may well be sustainable, there is no style involved. I have a dress of sackcloth and some brown, flat, Roman-style sandals. At best I look biblical – and I mean more Moses than Delilah! I admit as I approached One Marylebone last night I was nervous.

Turns out I need not have worried. The venue was lovely and not as overwhelming as it looks on the website. It is a tastefully converted building on a nice intimate scale. Even a van dweller like myself felt at home. And while the sackcloth was at the less dressy end of the spectrum, there was a diverse range of outfits on display.

The awards themselves were great and featured some fantastic projects. It must have been hard to choose the winners.

I loved seeing what were once considered alternatives becoming mainstream – and that fact being not just acknowledged but celebrated.

I am sure there will be some accusations of green washing. Of the sponsors – can an airline ever be considered environmental (Virgin), what about Ecovers use of synthetic biology?

And charges that while change is happening, is it really fast enough and big enough? Is this just fiddling as sea levels rise?

And there is some understandable bitterness. I have been involved with cooperative housing and community design schemes for more years then I care to reveal. Many of the pioneers I worked with, the first wave hippies and greens, have become disillusioned because they have seen great projects fold for the lack of support. And the swinging cuts in council funding means another lot will go to the wall.

And then of course my personal plastic grievance. I look in my eco-goody bag to see most of the environmentally aware products still come in plastic! Come on guys – plastic is not the packaging of a green future!

But is there any point bitching about the past and denouncing others green credentials? Of course there needs to ongoing discussion and evaluation, but there also needs to be momentum, we have to start somewhere. The Observer Awards encourage and acknowledge movements that can then become the basis for discussions.

And good for them say I. It was great to be there supporting and applauding the people who worked so hard to make theses fantastically worthwhile projects happen.

And to hear Bianca Jagger speak. Not only is what she says always worth listening to, she has a lovely voice.

Trying hard not to diminish Colin Firths contribution by lapsing into drooling. Love that he supports the awards.

But, on a personal note, a real highlight was to meet fellow bloggers, people I know from twitter and other social media who I have long admired and whose support I have greatly valued.

These represent grass-roots movements started by one person or family just getting on and changing what they can – their impact on the planet.They have already changed the world.

It was so great to meet
The always challenging Zoe of Ecothrifty
Carl Legge Seeking sustainability on the Llyn Peninsula
Jen Gale who lives make do and mend
Mommy Emu bringing them up green
Karen Cannard the first lady of rubbish
And of course thanks to Katherine Purvis and the Observer Ethical Awards for giving me the opportunity to enjoy all of the above.

Join IN blogging for a plastic free world…

9 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged 3.6 #P-fU.K. Directory 13 Comments

I love that people are becoming plastic problem aware and taking responsibility for their own huge pile of plastic waste. And then, even more super fabbytastic, they blog about it!

When you first decide to go plastic free it can be overwhelming. It seems that everything comes plastic packaged from soap to shampoo to moisturizer to toothpaste and you have only just got up. Breakfast cereals, bread, milk yogurt and marge, tea and coffee are all plastic packed. Can of coke? Nope – tins are plastic lined! Coffee to go? Those paper cups and paper sugar sachets are also plastic lined!

And so it goes throughout the day till you return home sweaty and malodorous because you didn’t apply your plastic packed deodorant clutching a cardboard box of eggs and the only unpackaged veg you could find in Lidles! Which isn’t even a vegetable but an unripe avocado.

How fantastic then to stumble across people who have already sourced a range of plastic free alternatives and listed them in their blogs! But we need more.

Why?

Well some solutions like solid shampoo from Lush can be accessed UK wide but many are local. There is only one place as a far as I know that does plastic free olive oil in West Yorkshire. Great news for people in Todmorden but it stills leaves the good folk of Folkstone in a quandary! More people have to list their local plastic free sources to create a network of plastic free shopping blogs.

And blogging isn’t just about sharing information but also indicates that there is a market for different products, natural products that can be composted and unpackaged products that don’t result in a bin full of everlasting trash. I don’t want my courgettes presented on a plastic tray swathed in clingfilm but unless I blog about it, only my long-suffering husband knows how displeased I am.

Blogging tells business we want change.
I dream of an online army of plastic free blogs promoting better products and business practise. Refuseniks who vote with their cash for environmentally sustainable services and, by advertising that fact to a powerful online community, encourage others to do the same.

You can find other UK based bloggers here

If you are a plastic free blogger, get in touch. It doesn’t have to be a whole blog – a single post will do listing a loose food outlet or milkman with glass bottles will do. Send me a link to your post or blog and I will feature it.

Or write a post for the plastic free directory

You can find international bloggers and other plastic related projects here

Plastic free bloggers unite! We having nothing to loose but our chain stores! Cyber love to all and see you on the virtual barricades.

Perfluorochemicals and plastic

4 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 1.4 Additives Fact Sheets Tagged 1.2 Chemicals, 1.6 Definitions, 5 Content Veiw 1 Comment

Perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are a family of man-made chemicals.
They have been around since the 1950s.
They include
perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS; C8F17SO3),
perfluorobutane sulfonate ( PFBS; C4F9C03),
perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA; C8F15O2H),
perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA; C4F7O2H), and
perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS; C6F13SO3).
They are hydrophobic (water-repelling), and oleophobic (oil-repelling).

They are used

as a surface coating for paper and cardboard they make them water and grease resistant and so suitable for packaging processed foods.
on carpets,leather products and textiles to make them stain resistant and waterproof.
in non stick coatings on cookware and pans.

They are added to some plastics.

They do not break down easily and can last in the enironment for years.

They have been found in both soil and water.

When they enter the food chain they are retained in animal tissue leading to a process called biomagnification, meaning that they are passed on up the foodchain from animal to animal and because they are stored in the body for years the amount increases exponentially as they travel up the food chain.

Recent studies have found perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in human serum.

Human studies have been done for a number of years in workers exposed to high levels of PFCs. These studies have not found consistent effects on health.

My take on Plastic Free July

4 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns Tagged 1.2 BPA, 4.3 Plastic Free July 3 Comments

The (lightly edited) text has been taken from the Plastic Free July website... the comments in red are my observations

The challenge is quite simple…attempt to consume no single-use plastic during July.

Plastic Free July is a simple idea developed in 2011. It aims to raise awareness of the amount of plastic in our lived by encouraging people to eliminate the the use of single-use plastic during July each year.

It is an initiative of the Western Metropolitan Regional Council (WMRC) in Perth, Western Australia. It was developed by clever Earth Carers staff.
Plastic Free July started as a local community initiative in Perth’s western suburbs in 2011 to educate residents on the important notion of ‘reuse’.
In 2012 Plastic Free July expanded across Perth and even attracted interstate and international interest.
So in 2013 we’ve throw it open to the world!!!

So what do they mean by plastic free?

We have set some basic rules but have deliberately left the challenge simple so you can consider the issues and decide how it will work.

How can I go plastic free when everything around me is plastic?
Don’t worry, you can still use your computer, phone, car, etc during July. The challenge is about reducing single-use disposable plastic such as bags, straws, water bottles – you know, the packaging that you use for five minutes but lasts forever.

What do I do about milk?
Some brands are available in glass or cardboard cartons, just ask your local store or do an internet search for brands.

NB cardboard cartons will be plastic lined.

Check out our recipes to make your own soy and nut milk.
How do I get meat, chicken and fish that is not in plastic bags/wrap?
Ask for it to be wrapped in paper or bring your own container, most shops are happy to fill them.
It’s best to explain what the challenge is about – otherwise shop assistants tend to put their hand in a plastic bag to pick up your produce and then throw the bag away!

What about using biodegradable or other environmentally friendly bags?
Single use plastic is, well, single use plastic. The idea of the challenge is to avoid single use plastic, however its made. ‘Biodegradable’ and ‘environmentally friendly’ are both terms without a single definition and can have wide ranging meanings.

I use compostable plastic (PLA) because my challenge includes finding sustainable packaging. If I am going to use compostable disposable paper then I am going to use compostable disposable cornstarch plastic

Is foil okay? As in foil around chocolate or chip packets?
Again, it depends how serious you want to get about the challenge!
Apparently chip packets are often made out of metal coated plastic film.
Use the scrunch test to check whether it is aluminium foil. If it springs back when scrunched in the hand it is not aluminum foil and most likely contains plastic!

I do not use plastic coated foil. The scrunch test does not work on certain types of plastic coated foil – you can read more here.

Are cans okay to purchase? I hear they’re often lined with some kind of plastic.
It depends how serious you want to get about the challenge!
Apparently most tins and cans are lined with plastic – usually containing BPA. (All most all tins are plastic lined)
There is information on the net about health concerns with these types of cans. If you want to be completely authentic about the challenge you would keep those tins in the dilemma bag.

Just keep any plastic you buy for your dilemma bag.

They do not mention glass jars with those pesky plastic lined metal lids. All metal lids are plastic lined!

So their definition of plastic free July (and believe me I am in no way being critical here) can mean only giving up what is obviously plastic (and only plastic) one-use packaging. Composite items like plastic coated card and tins are not necessarily included. Now the purists amongst you may well argue that products containing plastics fall well within the remit of a single-use plastic and I (with reservations) agree. Here’s why….

If you want to raise awareness about how much plastic we really use then hidden and less obvious plastics have to be included. So many people for example are unaware that cardboard containers have a plastic coating.
If you are at all concerned about BPA leaching into your food then you really need to know that tins are plastic lined.
You can find out more about sneaky plastics here ( watch out for those cardboard boxes with plastic inners)

However giving up tins, plastic lined papers and glass jars with plastic lined lids does make the project much harder….and while I feel that these points are important and do need making, I think it is fine to tailor plastic free July to suit your own needs and circumstances. So it could mean anything from total hairshirt- no plastic- arghhhh to giving up one particular type of plastic, replacing a disposable with a reusable or going plastic free for a day.

According to Katheryn at Second Hand Tales “when you register there are different options ranging from living plastic free for a day, week or the whole month. You can also choose to avoid all single use plastic or just the top four which are:

1) straws

2) plastic bottles

3) plastic bags

4) coffee cup lids”

So go with what feels comfortable and do what you can. As it says on Plastic Free July website …

“Remember it is a challenge, not a competition. The challenge is intended to make you think about all the single-use plastic you consume every day. Whatever you can cut out is a job well done!”

If you are giving it a go, in whatever capacity, please do link up with me @polytheenpam and others in the UK on twitter #pfjuk. And you can find lots of other bloggers here

Cheese

3 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged 3.1.3 Loose Food, 3.2.2 West Yorkshire 5 Comments

My plastic boycott started because I didn’t like the impact plastic packaging had on the environment – as I learnt more, I began to worry about the impact it might be having on me.Plastic contains phthalates which are (possibly) carcinogenic and cause the feminization of male animals exposed to them. They are found in the stuff used to wrap meats and cheeses.

Bisphenol A is known to cause neurological and hormonal damage to lab animals. This is found in plastic food and drinks containers. There are indications that these chemicals can leach into the plastic wrapped products.

How to buy

There are three ways to buy plastic free (ish) cheese.

Off the block:Find a place that sells large blocks of cheese and asked them to cut you off please. Be aware most large cheeses come wrapped in plastic so it’s not so much plastic free in total as plastic free for you. while the sensible part of me, (the part that wanted my hormones undamaged), said stick with it, the greedy me was lusting after a piece of phthalate ridden cheese.

Artisan:Find an artisan cheese shop that sells high-class cheese. Downside extremely expensive.

Wax wrapped cheeses:These are individual cheeses that come coated and coloured wax. The cheese tends to be rather nice but it is more expensive. And what actually is in that wax? Find out here

Note

none of the above are as easy as buying from a supermarket. So you might need to change your attitude to cheese. Make it more of a treat and luxury good rather than a staple. This has the added advantage of making you a little less animal products dependent.

And you get to eat some really good cheese.

However there is no denying it is very expensive and often inconvenient.

If you really can’t do without cheap cheese read our plastic free treats post and allow yourself a big block.

How/where to buy

Off the block

Markets: Sometimes sell loose cheese. It is not entirely plastic free – the large cheeses are packed in plastic and covered with Clingfilm but it is better than individually wrapped pieces – to my mind at least!

Huddersfield:Same with the Polish Deli on Wood Street in huddersfield

Supermarkets: have done this is Tescos and other supermarkets that have cheese counters. Again not entirely plastic free as the large block comes plastic wrapped.

Cheese Makers / Merchants

Find a local cheesmaker or specialist cheese shop. They tend to cut into the cheese as and when it is wanted. And traditional cheeses tend to come traditionally packaged. That is not plastic wrapped.

Take your own bags

Yorkshire Dales

Combining the best of all worlds. Plastic free shopping and cheese. Yes I visited the marvellous The Courtyard Dairy were they make and sell artisan cheeses from the UK and Europe. As well as the shop, there a cheese production room, a small museum with a display few cheesy artefacts and a café serving cheese-based cuisine.

But back to the shop. OMG!!! The cheeses are stacked in a glorious cornucopia of cheese wheels mostly unpackaged and free range.
Yes they are a bit pricey but it is cheese to die for. Take your own bags to be sure, and you can bring back some luxury cheese that is also plastic free.

but don’t take my word! it is winner of numerous awards including the ‘Cheesemonger of The Year’ (at the Farm Shop and Deli Awards 2016 and separately at the World Cheese Awards 2013); The Best New Cheese Retailer (2013 British Cheese Awards), Best Cheese Counter (World Cheese Awards 2013) and was also a runner up for Yorkshire Food Destination of the Year (2013) BBC Food & Farming Awards (2014) and Observer Food Monthly Awards (2015).

This is top quality cheese.

Its located just outside Settle on the A65 heading towards Kendal, in what was the former Falconry Centre (LA2 8AS).

Find out more, here.

Bideford

If you live near Bideford, get yourself down to the farmers market held on the harbour on Saturdays. There is a cheese stall that sells proper home-made, unpackaged cheese. It’s good, really good! Remember to take your own bags….

Whitney

Gemma, Darren & Ian can be found at Whitney Market selling their unwrapped and totally delicious cheeses. They also have a website

Monkland Herefordshire

You can cheese from the working diary or go one step further and learn how to make it yourself! Here’s the website

Utracomida Aberystwyth restaurant and delicatessen

Located a stone’s throw from the sea on Pier Street – our Aberystwyth deli and restaurant offers a wonderful selection of artisan food and drink.And wonderful cheese. Here are the details

Find speciallist cheese makers here

Waxed Cheeses

These are individual cheeses that come coated and coloured wax. The cheese tends to be rather nice but it is more expensive. Most supermarkets sell them. But you might want to consider what actually is in that wax? Find out here

Want more???? YES!

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

Join our Facebook group here

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

the plastic food I eat…

1 June 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 4.0 Us, the boycott & the blog Tagged 4.1 plastic we use

Plastic food is food that comes in

Cans of soda and other drinks
Tetra Paks.
Disposable paper cups that are plastic lined
Glass bottles and jars with plastic lined metal lids
Tin cans of food – they are nearly all plastic lined
Plastic coated paper and foil – a tricky one often hard to spot.
The plastic bag in the cardboard box squeeze and listen for the rustle.
Teabags (Packaging aside), the bag itself contains plastic

I have sourced plastic free alternatives for most food stuffs and while it might sound hard (it was!), and be rather more time consuming (it is!), there are very good reasons not to eat plastic packed foods. Read this about chemicals leaching from plastic into food.

Of course there are some foodstuffs for which there is no alternative such as crips. So what to do then? Some I have chosen to give up; cornflakes, crisps, crackers and cucumbers spring alliteratively to mind. Others I cannot do without.

Here are the plastic packed foods I still eat….

Cupboard Staples – essentials

Polythene Versus Film

Many products like dried beans, lentils and pulses can be found, dried, and packaged in lovely looking, printed, laminated plastic film. Or to put it more simply several layers of plastic each with different properties stuck together.

Because they consist of different plastics bonded together it is difficult to know what they are and how to treat them and separating the films is tricky and so very expensive. Films therefore often don’t get recycled but burnt or landfilled.

Simple polythene bags are easy to recycle. You can read more about that here.

Early on in the boycott I decided to buy many dried staples in bulk, on-line in polythene bags.

Beans & Pulses

I bought a whole lot of dried beans and pulses in bulk, on-line. Years later and I am still eating them. There are a few limited options for buy loose. Heres where you can buy loose, cardboard and polytheism wrapped dried beans and pulses.

Dried pasta

An essential in our house. Quick and easy but sadly not plastic free. Again rather than buy small amounts in fancy film bags I buy the big bags made from polythene, from Tescoes. Sadly, I cannot buy whole wheat or organic pasta like this so I have to make do white white pasta twirls.

Iranian herbs – no alternatives unless we go to Iran

Vegetable oil – even the tins are plastic lined

Glass Jars with Plastic or plastic lined lids

Tomato ketchup
Vinegar
Honey
Mango Chutney
Sweetcorn relish
mayonnaise – I just can’t make this stuff!
Marmite
Pickled Gherkins
Pickled Beetroot

Tins

Coconut milk
Baked beans
Tomato puree
Tuna

Cant resist – occasional treats

Cream cheese
Smoked Salmon (plastic free options here)
Noodles
Nori seaweed
Cream and Creme freche

Alcohol

Bottles with plastic lined lids, caps and corks
Cans of tonic

Check out plastic free booze here.

Now I know what you are thinking – if my diet consists of mainly baked beans, tuna pasta and vodka, I have hardly gone plastic free. This however is not the case. Sadly the student days are long since gone. And, since I have learnt about how chemicals may leach from the wrapping into the contents, I am not so keen to eat plastic packed food. I eat the above in very limited amounts (except for alcohol obviously), and often when we are entertaining/ have children round.

More Plastic Free Food & Drink Posts

By Category
The three levels of plastic free food
Bags & Packaging – how to get your loose foods homes.
Loose food shops selling loose, food that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt.
Cookbook

You can see all my plastic free alternatives here

Gasification

31 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 1.51 Reusing & Recycling Plastic Tagged 1.7 waste to energy

Gasification heats the waste with little or no oxygen in order to produce a chemical reaction. The waste does not burn rather the chemical reaction produces synthetic gases.

These can be burned to turn a turbine, which spins a generator and creates electricity.

As yet gasification technologies have ‘to reach an acceptable (positive) gross electric efficiency. The high efficiency of converting syngas to electric power is counteracted by significant power consumption in the waste preprocessing, the consumption of large amounts of pure oxygen (which is often used as gasification agent), and gas cleaning.”

Plastic can be regasified (?) along with all sorts of other products.

Cup to Compost – National trust, Boscastle

30 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.1 Composting, 3.5 Plastic Free People, Projects & Campaigns, 3.7 Other Solutions Tagged 3.2.5 composting & compostables 4 Comments

Our tour in the plastivan took us through Boscastle, a lovely old harbour and coastline maintained by the fantastic National Trust. In addition to keeping footpaths open and other essential maritime maintenance, they operate a cafe shop and visitor center (with immaculate toilets), down by the harbour. So far so good!

Not so good was that the cafe was using disposable paper cups! Eeek! As you know, most paper cups are in fact plastic lined and so not very disposable. Bah! Was just about to turn round and leave when I noticed that these cups were from Vegware. Vegware dont line their cardboard cups with the usual conventional non biodegradable plastic but a certified compostable lining. You can read more here.

Now I wanted to take photos! And ask lots of questions! Which Jon kindly answered. As he says”… when the cafe first opened in 2009, there wasn’t a modern conventional sewage system in Boscastle, and all the waste that would normally go for treatment went straight into the sea. Because of this, we were reluctant to have a commercial dish washer in the cafe that would have just contributed to this waste, and so looked for viable alternatives. Finding a fully compostable solution in the cups, cup sleeves, plates and wooden cutlery was part of the solution to this problem, but without making sure that they were composted afterwards it wouldn’t have been such a positive environmental statement from what is, after all, a conservation charity…. we collect the cups, cup holders, plates and the untreated wooden cutlery that we use, and they are taken to a local farmer who shreds them. He then mixes them with his green waste and composts them into a peat free mulch substitute. This mulch is hen taken to the National Trust plant nurseries at Lanhydrock House near Bodmin, who grow, amongst all the other plant, the plants that are sold in the National Trust shop that adjoins the cafe in Boscastle. By doing it this way, we not only successfully recycle the disposables from the national Trust Cafe in Boscastle, but we contribute to saving the limited resources of peat bogs.”

Well done you!

Organisms piggyback on plastic islands

29 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged 2.2 Marine Plastic

Miriam C. Goldstein, Henry S. Carson, Marcus Eriksen
Relationship of diversity and habitat area in North Pacific
plastic-associated rafting communities
Marine Biology
April 2014
DOI 10.1007/s00227-014-2432-8

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-014-2432-8

Abstract
Plastic and other anthropogenic debris (e.g., rubber, tar) augment natural floating substrates (e.g., algal rafts, pumice) in the open ocean, allowing “islands” of substrate-associated organisms to persist in an otherwise unsuitable habitat.

We examined a total of 242 debris objects collected in the eastern Pacific in 2009 and 2011 (32–39°N, 130–142°W) and the western Pacific in 2012 (19–41°N, 143–156°E).

Here, we ask: (a) What taxa are associated with plastic rafts in the North
Pacific? and (b) Does the number of taxa associated with plastic debris vary with the size of the debris “island?”

We documented 95 rafting taxa from 11 phyla.

We identified several potentially invasive plastic-associated rafting taxa, including the coral pathogen Halofolliculina spp. In concordance with classic species–area curves, the number of rafting taxa was positively correlated with the size of the raft. Our findings suggest that diversity patterns on plastic debris are compatible with the concept of island biogeography.

227_2014_2432_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (304KB)
Supplementary material 1 (PDF 304 kb)
http://link.springer.com/content/esm/art:10.1007/s00227-014-2432-8/file/MediaObjects/227_2014_2432_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

227_2014_2432_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx (69KB)
Supplementary material 2 (XLSX 69 kb)
http://link.springer.com/content/esm/art:10.1007/s00227-014-2432-8/file/MediaObjects/227_2014_2432_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx

A to Z of Plastic Free

27 May 2014 by Plastic Is Rubbish Posted in 3.0 CUT PLASTIC, 3.2 Shops & Businesses Tagged 3.6 #P-fU.K. Directory 10 Comments

The A to Z index is constantly updated so some links may be dicky as stuff is moved or even deleted. Other products will not yet included. If you can’t find what you want, try….