PLASTIC FREE JULY: DAY 14

Day Fourteen:

Do you keep a re-usable bag handy for those impromptu shops?

If you aren't in this habit already then you could try start today!

I love the eco-bags that you can get at Foodland, each with a different environmental message along with artwork. These are long-lasting and easy on the eye. I keep two in my car to use for shopping and if they come into the house after a shop they are emptied and left waiting at the front door for me until I next leave the house to put them back in the car.

If I go window shopping I take one with me, just in case I make a purchase. Don't be that person who goes into 5 different shops to buy 5 different T-shirts and gets home with 5 different plastic bags. It's just not sustainable...

The more we stop accepting the plastic bags at all shops, not just the supermarkets, the less plastic there will be in the world.

Say NO to plastic!
Re-think your thinking..

PLASTIC FREE JULY: DAY 12

Day Twelve:

If you are already pretty good at recycling you will know that you have to remove lids from bottles before placing them in the recycle bin...

BUT...

...DID YOU KNOW...

YOU CAN NOW RECYCLE THE LIDS TOO! :-)

It is now recommended to place all plastic lids in a large plastic bottle (i.e. fabric softener or 2L milk bottle) and once the bottle is full you can place it in the recycle bin. This way the small lids don't get stuck in the sorting conveyer belts as they would if loose. And can now be recycled too with same plastics.

You can do this for steel and aluminium lids as well. Steel lids will be magnetic (you can test them using a magnet) and can be placed in steel tins (also magnetic), once the tin is nearly full you can clamp it shut and place in recycle bin. Aluminium lids are not magnetic and should be placed in aluminium cans. Just make sure that all the steel lids as well as the tin are magnetic and all the aluminium lids as well as the can are not magnetic so as not to mix steel with aluminium. 

I have two empty glass jars at the kitchen window-sill, one labelled magnetic and one labelled non-magnetic. Each time I take a lid off a bottle I test it and place it in the right jar. Once the jar is full I put the lids in the correct can that I have saved and rinsed for this purpose. When the can is full enough, I clamp it shut and put it in the recycle bin. Easy!

Re-think your thinking...