plastic? boycott it!

Family boycotts plastic - by Catherine Eade


When I told my children we were going to stop buying plastic packaging until further notice they didn't bat an eyelid. We had been looking at the front page story in this paper on February 3 which revealed that a 'plastic soup' twice the size of the US was floating around in the Pacific Ocean. 'Why don't we give it up for Lent?' suggested my eight year old, Joel as were making pancakes for tea and my daughters agreed. (Although my youngest, Alice, confided in me later that she would find a shortage of yoghurt for 40 days quite challenging. I promised her I'd make some.) What they, and I, didn't know was what an impact a plastic ban would have on our family of five in terms of our every day lives.

I'm not talking about refusing plastic bags, I’ve been doing that for years, no, this pledge meant every food item I normally bought for my family would be scrutinised for plastic. Recycled and recyclable cardboard, jars, tins and glass bottles I deemed acceptable, anything made of or containing plastic or some other unrecyclable material would be rejected.

The ten metre deep vortex of plastic rubbish highlighted by the Independent was first discovered by a sailor, Charles Moore, in 1997, back when I was having my first child and not particularly aware of much else. It is now the largest mass of rubbish in the world, totalling an estimated 100 million tonnes, and kills hundreds of thousands of birds and animals every year, as well as introducing toxic waste into the food chain.

Some of the plastic in this giant swirling rubbish dump has been there for 50 years as it does not bio-degrade, and toothbrushes, lego and cigarette lighters are just some of the items that have been found in the stomachs of fish and sea birds. Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans: the UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of the stuff.

The next day - Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent - was my first foray into a supermarket with the intention of buying only unpackaged foods, or at least foods that were not encased in plastic. Yes I know that for anyone with a modicum of environmental awareness supermarkets are not the place to shop. But between them, Asda, Morrison, Tesco and Sainsbury’s account for three quarters of our grocery shopping in the UK. My aim was to see how easy it would be as an 'average' shopper to reduce the amount of packaging bought, and Tesco was my first port of call.

My first realisation was that much organic fruit and veg is actually more packaged than non-organic, so it was back to standard loose potatoes, apples and oranges and the rest. After five minutes in the fruit and veg aisle my trolley was beginning to look like a greengrocer's barrow, with things I might in the past have bought in a bag rolling around in a riot of colour. It looked great to me but I noticed I was getting a few funny looks as I strolled round closely examining packets, shaking and replacing them, with apples, apricots and avocadoes, potatoes and pears parading in all their naked glory in my trolley. One disappointment was that the paper mushroom bag had a plastic insert, another example of thoughtless over-design.

I left the dairy aisles almost empty handed: All the cheeses were in plastic wrapping - some unnecessarily on plastic trays inside plastic wraps. I setttled for an organic cheddar in a sort of greaseproof paper printed with trees, figuring (hoping) it must be bio-degradable and making a note to self to check when I got home. Out went margarine or spreadable butter in favour of a paper wrapped block of butter, easy. No yoghurts today though.

Tins of tomatoes and beans were OK but jars turned out to be a different matter: yes the glass can be recycled but all those lids! Some were tin, which I could recycle with the cans, but an amazing number of lids are plastic. To add insult, many jars also have a ‘tamper proof’ plastic seal around the lid. Lids on plastic bottles and tetrapaks were all plastic so no squash or juice for the kids here - or milk. How would I get round that one?

Porridge oats in a 75% recycled cardboard box were the only cereal item without a plastic inner bag so in they went. Porridge is a staple breakfast in my house anyway but I wondered how soon they would get bored of it without the odd morning of cornflakes or rice crispies. Eggs were the answer. My usual seedy brown bread in a plastic bag was replaced by a French stick in a paper bag and some flour so we could bake our own, but when I got to the frozen section I realised things were getting tricky. No frozen peas or sweetcorn - my handy vegetables of choice when the kids are hungry and I have to whip up a meal fast. I vowed to buy fresh peas and corn from the local grocer, where I could top up my meagre haul with cucumbers, lettuce and other salad items which were not tightly bandaged in plastic.

At the checkout the sulky teenager didn't bother to hide his annoyance as new potatoes and satsumas rolled off the weighing area. I gave an apologetic smile and explained, but I don't think he was particularly impressed. A couple of days later I found the same problems in Asda and Morrisons, leaving with a small bag of non-packaged goods to fill some gaps in my food stash. By this time I confess I had given up on finding milk without a plastic lid and bought some, although my research had revealed that some milk companies are planning to drop the handle on pint and two pint plastic bottles in favour of a more lightweight design.

Just like when you split up with a partner and every song you hear on the radio is a love song, now that I was trying to avoid plastic it was everywhere I looked. My shopping habits changed dramatically. Carrying my organic cotton bag around with me I became a much more random, opportunist shopper. In the Co-Op next to my kids' school I nipped in when I spotted an unwrapped cucumber. I bought cheese wrapped in paper at the deli down the road and took the kids to the proper ‘green’ grocers who were happy to tip everything into my bag. I ordered a local organic vegetable and fruit box with earth still caked to its cargo and cooked vegetables I wouldn’t normally buy such as turnips and celeriac. Basically I reverted to the kind of shopping I had always done pre-kids, before the supermarkets' lure of one stop shop convenience got me hooked.

By the end of week one I had already fallen off the plastic wagon: an unforseen loo roll shortage meant a visit to our corner shop for recycled toilet rolls - wrapped in plastic 'recyclable where facilities exist'! I gave the kids money for ice creams that lovely sunny weekend as we lounged on the beach and they came back with ice lollies - didn't they used to be wrapped in paper way back when? As well as milk one day I also bought a replacement toothbrush for my husband. Maybe I could have found an alternative but with running a household, working freelance and parenting three children, I didn't have masses of time left over that day.

By the start of week two to their credit the kids hadn’t complained about the relentless porridge breakfast diet, but the cats slunk off in disgust when I produced boxed cat crunchies instead of their usual vetinary approved stuff in a big bag. My larder of existing food was looking depleted, but I was determined to improve on last week's record. I count myself very lucky that my childrens’ school (Brighton Steiner School) has a policy of no pre-packaged food in lunchboxes, so there was no big change in their lunches. The school in fact has a dry wholefood goods shop where items can be ordered, and I pored over the catalogue, ordering in bulk to save packaging that way. I also wrote something in the school’s weekly newsletter mentioning the ‘plastic soup’ and asking for tips.

A few parents got in touch: One told me that she and her partner had not shopped in a supermarket (bar the more ethically minded Co-Op) for three years, which I found inspiring. Their packaging levels had dropped dramatically and they were actually saving money as they stuck to what they needed and weren’t tempted by spontaneous purchases.

Another friend told me that when she stopped buying fruit and veg in plastic she was able to put out just one carrier bag of rubbish per week – not bad for a family of four – and that she was now getting rid of things like bubble wrap and jiffy bags through Freecycle, snapped up by eBayers. The manager of the school shop told me she was looking into decanting some dry foods into brown paper bags instead of plastic.

My crusade began to seem more worthwhile and ten days in I felt I was making a (small) difference just by telling people about it as they had begun to think about their plastic buying habits too. My children were enjoying cooking with me more, making different types of bread, their own pizza dough and experimental cakes. My husband even offered to make pasta from scratch but the pasta cutter had gone rusty from lack of use.

I phoned and emailed several food companies asking whether I could recycle their packaging and was mostly fobbed off with the reply that yes it was recyclable 'where facilities exist'. They don't. Not where I live anyway. I phoned the local council and the 'household waste depot' and was told only plastic bottles could be taken there for recycling. What is so frustrating is that there are so many types of plastic packaging which seemingly can't be easily recycled. Only the simplest, marked 'PET 1' on most plastic bottles, is taken by kerbside recyclers.

Why has plastic become so widespread as a packaging material? All food manufacturers I contacted gave the same reason: Plastic has proved the most successful material for wrapping food because it keeps it fresh and is durable enough to prevent leaks and spills during transportation. Longer distances between food producers and consumers has led to a greater demand for packaging, as has the increase in working families, the spread of microwaves and freezers, and smaller family units.

Insufficient packaging is a major contributor of food waste. A shocking statistic from the Industry Council for Packaging and the Environment (INCPEN), is that more than six million tonnes of food from UK households alone goes to waste each year. Yes you read that right. Making the case for plastic, the British Plastics Federation says in Britain, where use of plastic is widespread, food waste accounts for just 3% of food produced, compared to the developing world where it is 40%.

Plastic is now engrained in consumer’s buying habits and is unlikely to disappear overnight – not until the oil runs out anyway. But alternatives do exist: London Bio Packaging is one of a handful of new companies which manufacture packaging made from plant materials that break down in compost or landfill within 6-8 weeks. Director Charlie Vaughan-Lee told me that since starting up two years ago the company now has 650 companies using its bio-degradable packaging, with many London offices using the compostable cornstarch coffee cups. He also explained that 'degradable' does not mean bio-degradable - buyer beware.

Vaughan-Lee namechecked M&S as one company which is pro-actively working to reduce packaging, and on a visit to Sainsbury’s I discovered that most of its SO Organic range of fruit and vegetables uses compostable packaging.

So it’s not all doom and gloom: A number of organisations exist that encourage consumer brands to embrace recycled and biodegradable materials - among them WRAP and Waste Watch, while the plastics waste management industry has set itself the task of moving towards more environmentally sound practices with its organisation Recoup.

Packaging is an area in which the consumer has a lot of power. Our tiny family experiment may seem insignificant but like all contributions towards environmental change, it could make a big difference if widely adopted. But the trashing of the oceans will continue as long as our dependency on plastic continues. To achieve more sustainability it is not just the packaging that requires alteration but our lifestyle and consumption habits.

As I finish the second week of our experiment I give in and buy oatcakes and rice cakes wrapped in plastic. As lunchbox fillers and emergency snack food I find them essential in our house, and when Lent is over I may revert to buying packaged dried fruit and nuts and pasta if I can't find alternatives. So I have already proved that I can't live 100% without plastic, but maybe 98% will do for now. I am cheered by some of the alternatives to plastic that are being offered when you look around, if appalled at the number of people I see walking round with plastic bags.

I am spending significantly more on certain things, but not buying as much generally, which has to be a good thing. A knock on effect has been that I am more scrupulous about turning off lights around the house and switching appliances off at the plug. Yesterday I even ordered some products from the Ethical Superstore – complete with carbon offset delivery service - an online store offering a range of products with the minimum of packaging, plus cereal in recycled paper bags, hurrah!

I’m also planning to buy myself a sustainable wooden toothbrush. “When you want to replace it just burn it in your wood burner or throw it onto your compost heap!” But I still haven't got round to making my own yoghurt - that's on the agenda for next week...


Plastic facts
· Packaging represents the largest single sector of plastics use in the UK. The sector accounts for 35% of UK plastics consumption, and plastic is the material of choice in nearly half of all packaged goods.
· On average, every household uses 500 plastic bottles each year, of which just 130 are recycled. The UK disposes of an estimated 13 billion plastic bottles per year.
· According to a 2001 Environment Agency report, 80% of post-consumer plastic waste is sent to landfill, 8% is incinerated and only 7% is recycled.
· Packaging accounts for 60% of household waste and 11% of household waste is plastic, 40% of which is plastic bottles
· Over 60% of litter on beaches is plastic
· More than 80% of plastic is used once and then thrown into landfill sites
· We produce and use 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago
· Plastics consumption is growing about 4% every year in Western Europe
· Plastic food packaging uses around 4% of all crude oil produced compared to 86% for transport and heating
· Reprocessor demand for plastics outstrips supply three times over
Source: FOE, Waste Online, Recoup, BPF