So, this turned out to be a longer break from from Blog than I planned. Navigating the summer holidays and return to school always takes a bit of effort but this year my eldest has changed schools too so we have had a whole new set of stuff to navigate. Anyway, even though I haven’t been posting I have been busy with our green plans. Here is a summary.

Plastic Free July was an inspiration, hard work and totally worth the effort all rolled into one! I signed up for trying a week plastic free at the beginning of July using the regular emails and Facebook posts through the month for support. How was it? Am I living a new plastic free life? Not exactly………. this is definitely a slow burn for our household but just that small commitment has spurred me on and many of the changes I made in July are now permanent in our routine.

While I had no realistic plans of making it through 7 consecutive days without buying any new plastic I did think that 7 days across the month would be practical.

• I concentrated on finding different packaging options for some of the things I buy regularly so as to avoid plastic as much as possible. I found great alternatives for ‘cook in’ sauces and soups. They weren’t always cheaper or the best sizes for us but again I have found some new brands that I now favour over products in plastic tubs. Shopping around was a little more effort but there were more possible alternatives than I expected to find.
• The children and I chose some bread recipes for the bread machine and made very successful pizza dough and focaccia dough that we then topped and finished off in the oven. I haven’t bought pizza bases since. We have also tried baking bicuits and cakes as an alternative to the treats we regularly buy which has also worked well if a little time consuming.
• We now use the green grocer for fruit and veg allowing us to buy most things loose. We very quickly noticed they had started making paper bags available for customers to put items in rather than the thin plastic ones – good job veggie shop.
• I have simplified my laundry care and now use an Ecover laundry liquid that I can refill at a local health food shop. I also refill our washing up liquid. The shop also stocks a range of plastic free soaps, shampoos and deodorants. I’ve swapped my usual deodorant for a more natural one in a spray bottle – I coped on all but the hottest days of the summer!

Final musings on Plastic Free July: I’m continuously disappointed by how much plastic packaging can’t be recycled because it has no symbol on it at all or because the producer chooses a type of packaging that just isn’t recyclable. I make an effort now to look for recycling symbols before I put something in the trolley – if I can avoid buying it I do.

I made a personal promise through July to give up buying individually wrapped snack and chocolate bars as a pledge to reduce my own plastic waste. I haven’t gone back to snacks on the go since. Our treat is an occasional packet of chocolate wrapped in card and foil like this one at Co-op.

Happy Green Days everyone. What are your green plans for the weekend?