post

Cardboard laminated

by Posted in 1 ABOUT PLASTIC Tagged ,

When I started my boycott I soon realized that giving up plastic would be no easy ride but I didn’t really know just how insidious plastic was. In my ignorance I made mistakes. For instance I thought shiny cardboard was shiny because, oh I don’t know, it had been varnished or something. It wasn’t until I put some in the compost heap and saw it disintegrating into separate components that I discovered it was covered with a thin layer of plastic.

Why? The plastic strengthens the base material, makes it waterproof and protects any printed design work

Examples of laminated card include business cards, labels on clothes for sale and some  food containers.

More

and don’t forget , paper and card can also be plastic lined to make waterproof containers. Those paper cups are not just paper. Sigh.

Find other sneaky plastics here….

Ullapool

by Posted in 3.2 Shops & Businesses Tagged

Dropped down out of the mountains into the pleasant town of Ullapool where we found the following fantastic plastic free finds

Out on what looks like a mini industrial estate is the smoke house where they smoke fish. They do two types of smoked salmon. We got there just in time just before this big boy was plastic packed for the counter. We proffered our reusable plastic tub and got it filled with fish.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Ullapool Smokehouse 
4 Morefield Quarry, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Next door there was a bakery where we bought bread which we took away in our reusable cloth bag.
Unit 6 3 Morefield Industrial Estate, Morefield, Ullapool, Ross-Shire IV26 2SR

Off we went to the butchers and got bangers and mince in yet more plastic tubs.

Food For Thought (Highland) Ltd West Shore Street Ullapool Ross-Shire IV26 2UR

Got some loose criossants from Tescos in our own cloth bags.

post

Glitter biodegradable

by Posted in 3.1 General & Homemade Tagged , ,

Yes you can get biodegradable glitter and this Etsy company sell it in compostable packaging. Yay!

Overview
Handmade item
Materials: Biodegradable Film, Certified as Compostable, Compost Home Certified, ISO 17088 2212, EN13432, ASTM D6400

And the bags and packaging it comes in are biodegradable too.

You can buy from EcoEquinox A U.K. Based seller.

More

Read more about compostable plastics HERE

post

Reports & Statistics Index

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged , 3 Comments

Post Index

Wasting Away – how much rubbish do we create globally
Definitions You can find definitions, clarifications and explanations here

Number CrunchingFor nasty stats go to  Statistics
Reports

Find all reports here  or by look by category below.

Post

For the latest news, reports on and about plastic plus statistics to shame any one who still thinks disposable carrier bags are a good idea!

Check out these scary stats: Wasting Away – how much rubbish do we create globally

Definitions

Don’t know your P.E.Ts from your pets? You can find definitions, clarifications and explanations here

Number Crunching

“Our previous work had suggested that bottled water production was an energy-intensive process, but we were surprised to see that the energy equivalent of nearly 17 million barrels of oil are required to produce the PET bottles alone,” Cooley told PhysOrg.com.

For more nasty stats go to  Statistics

Reports

Check out the latest scientific reports on plastic and the effects it is having on everything from plankton to elephants

Find all reports here  or by look by category below.

And the latest new reports as rounded up by Fabiano of www.globalgarbage.org are here. Thank you for all his hard work.

By Category

How much does plastic cost us

Everlasting Litter & Plastic Pollution

Seas Of Rubbish

Micro plastic trash 

Plastic and Animals

Chemicals in plastics 

People Who Know

Expert Opinions from people who have studied the subject and kindly submitted guest posts in People Who Know.

All Reports

post

Vinegar

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink, 4 About The Alternatives Tagged , ,

Vinegar is great. You can use it for all kinds of things and is almost plastic free to buy.

Vinegar is made by converting ethanol (alcohol) into acetic acid – the main ingredient in vinegar.

Vinegar is typically a 4-8% solution of acetic acid; the rest is water.This makes it a moderately strong acid.

Read about pH of acids and alkaline here.

It can be made from any any alcohol – wine vinegar is made from wine (!), apple vinegar from cider, malt vinegar from beer and white vinegar from moonshine as far as I can tell!

Vinegars can be made at home.

Live Vinegar 

Most vinegars are sold processed and filtered but you can buy live vinegar.

  • This still contains the mother Mother of vinegar a cloudy monstrous swamp  of acetic acid bacteria and cellulose. This is created during the fermentation process of alcohol into vinegar
  • The ‘mother’ is alive and is made up from bacteria, enzymes and living nutrients.
  • The presence of the mother shows that the vinegar has not been processed or filtered.
  • It is the mother that gives vinegar all its claimed health benefits.
  • You can also use it to make more vinegar

Apple Vinegar

  • is good as a  hair conditioner and skin toner
  • It can also be used for cleaning
  • And almost everything else.
  • It can be  made at home!
  • Tescos do an apple vinegar in a glass bottle with a metal screwtop lid. Apart from the little plasticised disc in the lid they are as plastic free as you can get.

Find out more about apple vinegar here including where to buy the good stuff

White vinegar

White vinegar is made 

  • can be used for cleaning and pickling
  • It is  made from either acetic acid produced in a laboratory or from grain-based ethanol (alcohol)
  • It is clear
  • It can be bought cheaply in large glass bottles at most supermarkets. However they will have  either a plastic lid or a metal lid lined with plastic.  It is a plastic price worth paying for this versatile product.

Malt Vinegar

  • is for pickles, chutneys and chips.
  • Malt vinegar is made from beer which is allowed to ferment until bacteria turn it into vinegar.
  • It has has a deep brown colour.
  • It can be bought cheaply in large glass bottles at most supermarkets. However they will have  either a plastic lid or a metal lid lined with plastic.  It is a plastic price worth paying for this versatile product.

Uses

Disinfectant

Vinegar is a mild disinfectant. It will kill some microbes but not all. You can read more here.

Cleaning

Vinegar is an acid so good at cleaning inorganic soils and alkaline stains and grime but NOT grease and fats.

 Examples of alkaline grime is hard water, mineral buildup, soaps scum (acid attacking an alkaline).

Vinegar can be used to clean all manner of things – you can find a big list here

Clear dirt off PCs and peripherals with equal parts white vinegar and water on a cloth damp not dripping

Other Stuff

  • Erase ballpoint-pen marks
  • Burnish your scissors
  • Clean your window blinds
  • Clean your piano keys
  • Get rid of water rings on furniture
  • Restore your rugs
  • Remove carpet stains
  • Brighten up brickwork
  • Revitalize wood paneling
  • Wipe off wax or polish buildup
  • Revitalize leather furniture
  • Conceal scratches in wood furniture
  • Remove candle wax

Wine

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , 7 Comments

I do have a social life. I occasionally get to  go out to dinner and wine is the present of choice. My friends are are gluten-free, minimalist drunks – what else am I going to take? But bottled wine often contains plastic – either a plastic cork or the metal screw top lid is plastic lined.

So I thought I would try to find a wine that was corked with a cork. I climbed out of the bargain booze bins and took myself off to a proper wine merchants. I explained my problem to the proper wine merchant and he recommended the Spanish wines as being more likely to use corks (they want to keep their cork industry alive). Also the better quality wines tend to use corks. Not entirely sure gluten-free drunks deserve such a treat but went ahead and purchased a bottle of quality Spanish wine with a cork sealed in foil.

HA! Peeled off the foil to a cork – sure enough…. BUT the foil, was plastic lined! Damn!

Seems the only way to get really plastic free wine is to use a refill service. Of course our civilised european cousins in Italy and Spain allow you to do just this. Most places will have a shop where you cant take your own bottle and get it filled with a choice of wines. Back in the U.K. your choices are rather more limited.

Borough Wines

When I went to Green Oscars, (did I mention I was in the same room as Colin Firth -hey it’s a start!), they were serving wine from Borough Wines . Borough Wines sell wine on tap and offer a refill service (you can read a Guardian review here). I don’t know if it was the tap wine we were drinking but my white was very nice. Sadly they only have shops in London – there’s a list here .

Whole food Supermarket

Wholefood supermarket also do a wine refill service (They have stores in Glasgow, London and Cheltenham – maybe more now – check the link)

Buying Refills In Cheltenham

Wholefood Market  (Cheltenham) offers a wine refill service. You buy a glass liter bottles from them that you then refill, yourself from the large and lovely barrel of wine. But as we wanted rather more than a liter and have no room for glass bottles in the van , (our current home). So we brought our own emergency plastic water bottle. It’s big and it’s plastic. Classy!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Dreadful shock then when we got there.  The refill wine barrel  I saw last time I was there was no longer in place. Desperate enquiries revealed that this hadn’t worked out and the wine kept going off.

I visibly reeled “But what of my wine refill” I whimpered.

Thankfully they still did refills but now a member of staff fills your bottle from a huge 15 liter wine box. Not quite what I was expecting and  stretching the not- in- my- bin rule to it’s limit – but still a refill is a refill and the plastic wasn’t in my bin. And there is still some green kudos to be gained it – was organic and cost considerably less to transport it this way. Besides which we desperate.

We proffered the canteen with trembling hands. Arghh!!! Now there was some doubt as to whether we could use a huge plastic water carrier. Once again we waited anxiously and sagged with relief when they agreed that we could.

Norfolk, Reno Wine

Not used those guys – the following is from their website…

“Our speciality is Refillable Bottles…

Buy one of our bottles and fill it with wine from our barrel taps in the Reno Wine shop in Wymondham, Norfolk.
Rinse out your bottle and bring it back to fill with more wine – and by reusing save yourself the cost of the glass bottle!
Speciality ‘Crafted Cask’ Whisky in Refillable Bottles also now available…

Go to 15 Market Street, Wymondham, Norfolk, NR18 0AJ
Open 9.30-5.30, Tues-Sat

Contact

T: 01953 425995
M: 07913 672275
E: sales@renowine.co.uk

London

A review of Clapton Craft – refill beers and wines. can be found here. –

More

If anyone else knows of other wine refill options please leave a comment below… many thanks.

You can find other plastic free beverages here…

 

post

Endocrine disruption, fish & polyethylene

by Posted in 2.1 reports, stats and studies Tagged , ,

Early warning signs of endocrine disruption in adult fish from the ingestion of polyethylene with and without sorbed chemical pollutants from the marine environment,

Abstract: Plastic debris is associated with several chemical pollutants known to disrupt the functioning of the endocrine system. To determine if the exposure to plastic debris and associated chemicals promotes endocrine-disrupting effects in fish, we conducted a chronic two-month dietary exposure using Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) and environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic (< 1 mm) and associated chemicals. We exposed fish to three treatments: a no-plastic (i.e. negative control), virgin-plastic (i.e. virgin polyethylene pre-production pellets) and marine-plastic treatment (i.e. polyethylene pellets deployed in San Diego Bay, CA for 3 months). Altered gene expression was observed in male fish exposed to the marine-plastic treatment, whereas altered gene expression was observed in female fish exposed to both the marine- and virgin-plastic treatment. Significant down-regulation of choriogenin (Chg H) gene expression was observed in males and significant down-regulation of vitellogenin (Vtg I), Chg H and the estrogen receptor (ERα) gene expression was observed in females. In addition, histological observation revealed abnormal proliferation of germ cells in one male fish from the marine-plastic treatment. Overall, our study suggests that the ingestion of plastic debris at environmentally relevant concentrations may alter endocrine system function in adult fish and warrants further research.

Keywords: Plastic debris; Endocrine disruption; Japanese medaka; Germ
cells; Gene expression

Chelsea M. Rochman, Tomofumi Kurobe, Ida Flores, Swee J. Teh,

September 2014, Pages 656-661, ISSN 0048-9697,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.06.051.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969714009073)

post

PVA plastic

by Posted in 1.3 Plastic Types - Fact Sheets Tagged 4 Comments

Here is an oil derived plastic that actually dissolves in water, is biodegradable and has been certified compostable. Interesting stuff.

The following is a collection of information that really needs to be properly collated.

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH, PVA, or PVAl) is a water-soluble synthetic polymer. It has the idealized formula [CH2CH(OH)]n. It is used in papermaking, textiles, and a variety of coatings. It is white (colourless) and odorless. It is sometimes supplied as beads or as solutions in water.[2] wikkipedia

PVA is produced through multiple chemical reactions. However, the starting compound is ethylene gas. So, where does ethylene gas come from? Well it is actually produced by some plants when their fruit ripens. It can also be produced from ethanol. These methods are just too expensive for commercial production. So, it’s made from you guessed it oil. However, it is able to be broken down by some types of bacteria making it biodegradable.

PVA (Polyvinyl alcohol) the plastic that’s afraid of water

This is to confirm that Flushpuppies pet-waste bags are produced by BPI-approved manufacturers from BPI-certified materials. These products are authorized to carry the BPI Compostable Logo (shown on the right) because they meet all of the requirements
of ASTM D6400 or ASTM D6868: they will disintegrate and biodegrade swiftly and safely in a professionally managed composting facility and not leave behind any non-compostable residues. http://flushpuppies.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-New-BPI-letter-Flush-Puppies.pdf

PVA films are used for packages that release their contents upon contacting water. Some brands of sanitizers, dyes, and detergents are packaged in dissolving plastic bags. PVA film has recently found a new use in agriculture. At high concentrations, some pesticides and herbicides can be toxic to humans. Farmers typically purchase concentrated chemicals, then mix them with water to prepare the dilute solutions that are applied to crops. Powdered insecticides and herbicides prepackaged in PVA bags are simply dropped into a container of water, and the farmer is never exposed to the powder. http://www.borlik.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Dissolving-Plastic.pdf

Uses

Polyvinyl alcohol laundry bags are used in hospitals to minimize the contact hospital workers have with contaminated clothing and bedding. Dirty items are put into these special bags, which are then placed directly into the washing machine. Because polyvinyl alcohol is soluble in water, the bags dissolve and are washed down the drain with the dirty water. At the completion of the washing cycle, the clean clothes are removed from the washing machine

This was taken from a website selling the product.

Environmental Friendly characteristic
It has no any bad effect on environment. Once PVA is dissolved in water, specific microorganism will cause it to degrade. When treated with activated sludge, solutions of PVA will be decomposed into water and carbon dioxide.

Water solubility

1.Solubility is related to PVA film’s thickness and temperature. According the time of dissolving, the film has three types, quick, middle, difficult, all depend on its thickness and water temperature. Thicker film makes slow dissolving, high temperature makes fast dissolving.
Water soluble pva film can prevent operators from contacting toxic materials directly.It is safer and more convenient.

Water content

Water content of the water-soluble PVA film can change with environmental humidity. The water-soluble PVA films are usually sealed with the PE film to keep its water content invariable. After the water-soluble PVA films is taken out of the PE film, water content can vary from environmental humidity, whose property also varies with it.

Good gas barrier properties

Water-soluble PVA film has an excellent gas barrier to oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, argon, carbonic acid gas and so on when the humidity is low, but it permit moisture and NH 3 to penetrate . Moreover, it has an excellent fragrance preservation of the contents and can keep products moisture and fresh as well.

Good antistatic properties

Because water-soluble film has a lot of hydroxyl groups in molecule, it does not take charges. It is different from the film that is made from the other synthetic resins and it has the same antistatic properties as cellophane. If PVA film is used for product packing, it could keep products out of dust.

Good printability

Water-soluble PVA film has the h3 polarity and the excellent printability so as to gravure print is beautifully completed without spark-treatment. Presently it has been widely used in the field of special printing, for example, water transfer printing.

Strength and Weathering resistance

PVA film has good tenacity, biaxial tension-strength and anti-tearing strength that ranks high among all kinds of films, flexing resistance is 10 times to other films. It has excellent Weathering resistance and service life is very long.

Good heat sealability and adhesiveness

Water-soluble PVA film has an excellent gas barrier to oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, helium, argon, carbonic acid gas and so on when the humidity is low, but it permit moisture and NH 3 to penetrate . Moreover, it has an excellent fragrance preservation of the contents and can keep products moisture and fresh as well.

Resistance to oil and chemicals

The Water-soluble PVA film has the good characteristic to resist the oils and fats such as animal oils, vegetable oils, mineral oils, fats, organic solvents and the hydrocarbons to penetrate. However, it can be affected by h3 acid, h3 base, chlorine free radical and some special chemical which can react with PVA such as borax, boracic acid and coloring matter and so on, so it isn’t fit for packing the above things.

post

Milk Buying Direct /Refill Vending Machine

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , 4 Comments

Recently our van trip has been milk free. Seems they don’t do milk in bottles in France. But if you are lucky, they do do milk in machines. Check out this milk dispenser outside a huge supermarket chain. Thats us filling our water bottle with fresh, cool milk!

And now some forward thinking folk in the U.K have invested

Happy World Milk Day from Nunton Farm Dairy! Come to our Open Farm Sunday on the 11th June to sample our milk from our brand new vending machine, which will be located outside the Radnor Arms, Nunton, from the 17th July onwards. Yay @nuntonfarm on Facebook for lots more info.

And this was taken from the website

The Milk vending machine is now open!!!  Fresh milk is available every day. We are very excited to be have this new facility to enable customers to help themselves to milk  from a vending machine, recycling glass bottles and  reducing plastic bottle wastage. We would like to thank the many customers who have already been  to use the vending machine for their support.
The machine can be found at
Whitegate Farm, Norwich Road, Creeting St Mary, Suffolk, IP6 8PG
01449 710458 / 07787 584386

 

Buying milk straight from the farm is one way to make sure dairy producers get a fair deal.

Some produce pasteurised milk, others sell raw or unpasteurised and a few have a wider dairy range to try. 

Farmers Weekly has created a map of British farmers selling direct to the public – cutting out the supermarket or middleman.

See also: Video: So you want to… sell milk direct from farm?

Click on the map below to find on-farm dairies near you where you can buy direct, if you’re a consumer, or, if you’re a dairy farmer selling direct, you can send us your details and we’ll add you to the map .https://www.fwi.co.uk/business/map-buy-milk-direct-farm

Did you know about milk refill dispensing machines? Yes they exist.


And Here’s another great scheme. Dairies are supplying shops with churns so people can get a refill. Check out the map https://buff.ly/3cCznM6

Can’t get to Suffolk? There are still some milk men who deliver in glass bottles. Check this list. If you know of any others please add to it.

post

Oil Vegetable Cooking Refill

by Posted in 3.1 Disposables & Reusables, 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , , , 10 Comments

Vegetable oil is difficult to source plastic free. Buy in glass and the metal caps will have a little plasticized disc or plastic liner on inside and maybe a plastic seal. Plus the bottle will almost always have a plastic pouring widget in the bottle top.Like I can’t pour oil out of a bottle??? Buy in  cans and they have a plastic lid, perhaps a handle and the can is of course  lined with plastic. You can read more here

On Tap
But if you are very lucky you might find a place that sell oils on tap that lets you use your own refillable bottle. Do you need me to explain that? They sell oil from the can and you take your own bottle, which they refill with oil.

Whahey plastic free oil!

That said in 2015  Defra  banned ‘On tap’ olive oil. The following is taken form their website….”These oils mustn’t be sold ‘on tap’ in their pure form: extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, olive oil composed of refined olive oils and virgin olive oils, olive pomace oil. Today (2016) seems oil is back on tap. So,  for now you can buy olive oil on tap from a variety of store.

Using your own bottle?
It would seem that some stores allow you to refill your own bottle. Whole Food Market do and I refilled my glass bottle there.  But I cannot vouch for the others listed below! Any information on the subject is much appreciated.

Oil refills in the U.K.

The butchers St Agnes, Devon
Wholefood Supermarket Cheltenham & London

Demijohn – Victoria St, Edinburgh refill oil & vinegar (and spirits at Demijohn).

Olive oil Stoneygate, Leicester http://www.deliflavour.net/may also do refills but not checked
Sheena Hatton Claremont Farm in Wirral (oils and vinegars) and Spar in Llanfyllin.Åsa PamphilonHoland andBarrer in Chelmsford.” I havent yet refilled but it is clearly two different prices for their bottle and oil/vinegar or just a refill so I assume I will have no problems.

More

Or you could try lard. Other greasy options and ways to buy plastic reduced oils and spreads can be found here the edible oil index here.
And everything you need to know about fatty acids here

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

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

post

Beer

by Posted in 3.1 Food & Drink Tagged , , , 2 Comments

Of course you can get beer in bottles but those metal caps have a plastic liner or small disc to prevent leakage. It’s a tiny amount but it is plastic.
Cans of beer  are plastic lined!
The only way to get plastic free booze is to use a refill service. Take your own flagon to the alehouse and get them to fill it. These are the ones I know of

Huddersfield

The Sportsman Huddersfield  will sell you your own reusable flagon. Yes its plastic but it will last you a good long time.
The Grove
The Head Of Steam ( also sells plastic flagons)
All sell great real ales and very reasonable priced. 

Magic Rock sell metal reusable flagons. Very stylish! Also sells  great real ales but they are more expensive.

If anyone else knows of other beer refill options please leave a comment below… many thanks.

London

Hi Kate, I have been out and about in Kentish Town again  A review of Clapton Craft – refill beers and wines. https://arefugefordaffodils.wordpress.com/2016/04/14/green-shopping-in-london-clapton-craft-in-kentish-town/

You can find other plastic free beverages here…

post

Perfluorochemicals and plastic

by Posted in 1.4 Additives Fact Sheets Tagged , , 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.

Read more here