A year ago, my life was infused with plastic — like most people’s. From my mobile phone to my mascara wand, from the soles of my shoes to my hair clips, from the pens that littered my desk to the plastic keyboard on which I type, it filled much of my car, kitchen drawers, bathroom cabinets and more.
Then, I was asked to spearhead the Daily Mail’s campaign against plastic.
Fired up by the success of the paper’s Banish The Bags initiative, which slashed plastic bag use in the UK by 86 per cent, and spurred on by the images of plastic-choked seas in David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II series, we embarked on a mission to help every reader reduce their consumption of plastic with simple steps.
To start with, I knew absolutely nothing about plastic or recycling and I admit that environmental awareness ran low on my ‘to-do’ list. But saddened by the images of oceans being turned into a toxic plastic soup, I vowed to give it my best shot.
I had misgivings. Would cutting back on plastic require me to adopt full eco-warrior mode, forcing the family to go vegan and shunning gas-guzzling foreign holidays?
Louise Atkinson (pictured) revealed how she was able to reduce her annual plastic waste pile to 47kg by making a series of conscious decisions throughout 2018
Would I be scrubbing the kitchen floor with vinegar or bicarb rather than supermarket sprays, and going ‘au naturel’ with my body hair, the better to streamline all the plastic bottles cluttering my kitchen and bathroom?
The more I read, the more impossible it seemed to pick plastic out of the mix. Yes, you might carry your plastic water bottle around for a few weeks, refilling it from the tap, but what about those toxic plastic residues leaching into the water?
And would driving the car an extra few miles to a shop with a plastic-free aisle be considered an unnecessary waste of fossil fuels? And should I prioritise the unwrapped avocado from Mexico over the plastic-swathed one from southern Europe?
A weekly supermarket shop is stressful enough already, when it requires the typical working mum (me) to sprint around in under an hour, making on-the-hoof decisions about family meals, while keeping an eye on budget and nutrition. (Five-a-day? Wholegrain or white?) Must I now marinade in a heavy dose of environmentalism, too?
I was concerned the only true path to plastic redemption would be one of muddy brown food, organic cotton smocks and rope-soled shoes — all while wearing the furrowed brow of a woman frozen at the check-out trying to compare the air miles travelled by the unwrapped avocados vs the plastic-wrapped ones.
But here’s what I found out . . .
FAMILY RESISTANCE
This time last year, I took on the first steps to plastic reduction: refusing plastic bags (and always carrying my own), refilling a metal water bottle instead of buying plastic, carrying a re-usable coffee cup, saying ‘no’ to straws and stirrers, choosing unwrapped fruit and vegetables where possible and switching to a daily milk delivery in re-usable glass bottles.
I discovered the growing sense of satisfaction is addictive, but however much you do achieve, there’s always more. I set myself a mission to see how far I could go without being forced to make dramatic eco lifestyle changes I knew would embarrass my children.
Louise (pictured with her husband Jon, 54, and their sons) says despite her children squirming she has put her foot down to use solid soap instead of liquid varieties
My boys (aged 16 and 18) still squirm at the idea of someone else’s body hair on the bath soap, but I put my foot down (after all, it was good enough for me as a child) and there’s now sweet-smelling solid soap at every sink and shower in our house. Bonus: it turns out a bar of soap lasts far longer than the liquid variety.
My daughter, 21, was persuaded to switch her disposable razors for waxing, but refuses to be wrestled from her toxic, unrecycleable make-up removing wipes. I’m working on her. My persistent plastic-nagging is the background hum of our lives now.
The kids find me faintly cringe- making, especially when I stop the car to pick up the remains of someone’s takeaway littering the verge, but the message is getting through.
There’s less eye-rolling when I pore over the bins, switching items from rubbish to recycling (and vice-versa) and washing food out of tins and containers. Now they’ve started tagging me on the plastic-free clips that crop up on their social media feeds, and sometimes ‘like’ my Instagram photos of dog-plogging (picking up litter on a dog walk). My 18-year-old even rang from university last week to tell me his flat won the hall’s monthly recycling prize (a plastic tub of sweets!).
My husband Jon, 54, is not particularly happy about the various soggy bars of soap swimming around the bottom of the shower (one for body, one for shampoo, one for conditioner, one as a scrub) and was initially suspicious of my foray into ‘natural’ cleaning products.
Louise was able to reduce the number of plastic bottles used for household cleaning agents by using concentrated refills
There’s quite a chasm between the lemon juice and bicarb concoctions recommended by the environmentally extreme and the great glugs of thick bleach he likes to use to nuke our household germs.
But we’ve found an acceptable middle ground in the form of concentrated refills of household cleaning agents which we can drop into our old plastic trigger bottles and top up with water (ocean-saver.com and splosh.com).
To my amazement he brought home a wooden washing-up brush, plus replaceable heads, and he loves the fact I use prettily packaged plastic-free loo rolls (from whogivesacrap.org).
KETCHUP CHALLENGE
Plastic bags drive me to distraction. I refuse them even when buying clothes and shudder at the thought of pulling a flimsy bag off the roll at the supermarket (using reusable fruit and veg bags instead).
So it saddens me that the contents of our supermarket trolley are still depressingly shiny: salad, pasta, hummus, coleslaw, scones, bacon, fishcakes . . . the list of items packaged in plastic is endless.
There doesn’t seem much I can do about the weekly freezer staples of pizza (though I try to pick a brand which sits on cardboard rather than unrecyclable polystyrene), peas and oven chips.
It makes me angry that our local authority (like most) can’t or won’t accept flimsy plastic in the recycling. The wrapping might say ‘recyclable’, but in reality your options are very limited.
Louise (pictured) says she's ashamed to still use a plastic dental brush because she finds it more effective than a wooden tooth pick or silk floss
I’m not militant enough (yet) to unwrap my shopping and leave the bags at the till, but a few larger branches of Sainsbury’s and Tesco now have hoppers in their entrance halls for the swathes of flimsy plastic that come with any food shop.
It’s annoying and inconvenient to have to make a special journey there, burning fossil fuels just to ensure those plastic bags stay out of landfill — and having researched the recycling situation in this country, I’m not convinced they always do.
Yes, I might get a small thrill of virtuous satisfaction every time I drop off my plastic bundle, but I need a bit of credit in the plastic bank to offset the recommended reduction moves that have so far stumped me.
Take the recycled paper compost bags sold to hold food waste — it turns out they dissolve into mulch when moist, splitting and scattering potato peelings and tea bags all over the floor.
Neither can I get on with the cling-wrap substitute — the nicely patterned beeswax-infused cloth which is supposed to cling to the sides of a bowl and keep food airtight and fresh.
I buy eggs on cardboard trays, butter in paper, and we fizz our tap water in the SodaStream (no more plastic water bottles), but my kids insist squeezable ketchup in a plastic bottle rather than glass is ‘progress’ that should not be denied.
Other areas I’m slightly ashamed of: we still use coffee pods (recyclable ones, obviously), and although I’ve tried toothpaste in a glass jar (georganics.co.uk), I haven’t found a sensitive version. I’m also still adhering to my dentist’s advice to use an electric toothbrush (rather than a trendy bamboo one). And I find plastic inter-dental brushes more effective than a wooden tooth pick or silk floss.
But one step at a time, and these are now on my resolutions list to tackle in 2019.
Louise (pictured) revealed being plastic-free can be expensive but she's been able to cut costs by avoiding liquid soap and using products that last longer
EXPENSE IS WORTH IT
Though going plastic-free means there are some cost savings (notably, by shunning bottled water, embracing ‘hard’ soap, and enjoying a 50p discount every time I buy takeaway coffee in my reusable cup), this quest can be expensive.
A pint of milk delivered to the door costs 81p compared to 50p from the supermarket, and the delicious yoghurt my milkman now brings in a glass jar costs £2.95 for 500g, compared to 68p for the plastic-packed version.
I’ve saved money by avoiding liquid soap and buying hair products which turned out to last far longer than their plastic-packaged predecessors, but it was a shock to find my trip to a bulk order shop cost five times more.
A few paper bags of store-cupboard staples plus a box of plastic-free dishwasher tablets came to £25, when the total bill would have been £5 at Aldi.
But, mostly, I’m proud to be doing my bit. You don’t have to be a full-on eco-warrior to make a difference. I’ve discovered there is a less contentious route to plastic vigilance that allows you to trim excess plastic in many areas of your life, without much sacrifice in comfort or style.
The Duchess of Sussex might have been spotted wearing Rothy’s shoes made from recycled plastic water bottles (£110 a pair) on her trip to Australia, but I don’t for a minute imagine she wipes over her counter tops with malt vinegar and bicarb, or rinses and re-uses old plastic bags to wrap Harry’s sandwiches. Yet she’s still doing her bit, too.
And when I look back over this year and add up the volumes of plastic that I no longer use, the figure is actually pretty impressive.
Louise (pictured) aims to get her children's school to go 'plastic free' in 2019
The statistics show that a heavy user of plastic — ploughing through a water bottle a day, takeaway drinks and containers, liquid soaps, traditional plastic-packed detergents and beauty products, shopping bags, ready meals (think of the plastic trays) — might throw out more than 190kg of plastic waste each year, enough to fill a bathroom.
I reckon I’ve now reduced my annual plastic waste pile to a more manageable 47kg (the size of phone box).
If everyone took a few extra steps to reduce their plastic consumption, that could be a 150kg of plastic trash saved from landfill, incineration or the sea per person, per year.
For a family of five, that could be 750kg plastic saved — enough to fill a double garage.
It’s a thought which, despite the effort and sometimes challenges of the past year, keeps me continually looking for new ways to avoid plastic.
If everyone makes one change, then adds another, and perhaps inspires a loved one to follow suit, we can effect positive change — one plastic bottle at a time!
MY GREEN GOALS FOR 2019
1 Stop buying fresh berries in winter, sold in plastic and grown in vast plastic greenhouses.
2 Only buy mushrooms in clear plastic punnets (black and brown plastic is hard to recycle).
3 Invest in a plastic-free yoga mat (right, £26.25, yogamatters.com) and recycled plastic trainers when mine wear out.
4 Try a bamboo toothbrush and silk floss.
5 Buy meat from the butcher and take my own container.
6 Experiment with food-protecting beeswax cloths (left, beeecowraps.com). They are thinner and much more malleable.
7 Encourage our local village shop to offer some bulk sales.
8 Get the kids’ school to go ‘plastic free’.
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/category/the-sun-world/
https://textbacklinkexchanges.com/my-plastic-free-crusade-and-how-everyone-can-join-in-by-louise-atkinson/
News Pictures My plastic free crusade and how everyone can join in by LOUISE ATKINSON
You don’t have to pack away your bikini just because you’re the wrong side of 20. These body-beautiful stars reveal their secrets to staying in shape and prove you can smoulder in a two-piece, whatever your age. Read on and be bikini inspired!
TEENS
Hayden Panettiere
Size: 8
Age: 18
Height: 5ft 1in
Weight: 8st
To achieve her kick-ass figure, Hayden – who plays cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes – follows the ‘quartering’ rule. She eats only a quarter of the food on her plate, then waits 20 minutes before deciding whether she needs to eat again.
Hayden says: “I don’t have a model’s body, but I’m not one of those crazy girls who thinks that they’re fat. I’m OK with what I have.”
Nicollette says: “I don’t like diets – I see it, I eat it! I believe in eating healthily with lots of protein, vegetables and carbs to give you energy.”
kim cattrall
Size: 10-12
Age: 52
Height: 5ft 8in
Weight: 9st 4lb
SATC star Kim swears by gym sessions with Russian kettle bells (traditional cast-iron weights) and the South Beach Diet to give her the body she wants. To avoid overeating, Kim has a radical diet trick – squirting lemon juice on her leftovers – so she won’t carry on picking.
Kim says: “I am no super-thin Hollywood actress. I am built for men who like women to look like women.”
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2018/12/30/20/7964248-6540367-image-a-28_1546203075046.jpg
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