One Week Living (Mostly) Plastic Free
It’s Monday and I’m officially one week into this zero-waste journey.
How have I done?
Pretty good, I would say. There were definitely times where I felt frustrated, or really wanted a coffee, drink or treat even though it would mean plastic trash - but I’ve withheld!
And what’s more, I can see that it will only get easier.
What have I learned this week? Well, these are a few key reminders:
Plan - Know what you’re going to do before you leave the house, then stick to it.
Prepare - I like to put everything together the night before so in the morning when I’m rushing to get to work, I’m not forgetting my trusty coffee mug.
Ability to say “no” - People want to share, but sometimes this means turning down an individually wrapped cookie. And that’s OK. Your stomach and the environment will thank you later.
Through this week I have thrown some things a way. But this isn’t about being perfect, it’s about building habits.
Here’s my waste count for the past week:
Monday, April 22: Paper plate and plastic fork.
Tuesday, April 23: Packaging from Trader Joe’s pizza
Wednesday, April 24: 4-5 paper towels from washing my hands.
Thursday, April 25: RX bar wrapper. Bought this who-knows-how-long-ago, and didn’t have time to eat breakfast. Also, probably 4 paper towels from washing my hands.
Friday, April 26: 2 paper towels.
Saturday, April 27: Plastic wrapping around flowers. This one kind of hurt my heart, but I haven’t seen store bought flowers without plastic.
Sunday, April 28: Nothing - though I did create some food waste while doing lunch prep.
Monday, April 29: Plastic bag containing trail mix I bought a while ago. As a vegetarian, I rely on trail mix, but this is an easy one and I will just buy my gorp from the bulk aisle.
