Small vacation summary

Well I was able to finish my vacation. Hurrah! There was one incident of plastic use, a milk container, which I needed for my breakfast.  I was in a hotel and didn’t have any other option :(. The plastic itself is recyclable so hopefully it got recycled but I wasn’t able to see it through. I should start to keep a tally or something.

Then I had a week left in Australia which was quite easy to be plastic free. I used my plastic Tupperware container. I ate a lot of pasta in my last week :P.

 I will really miss this pasta place. The owner recognized me (or at least my container) and complimented me on how sustainable I was being. He also mentioned that I was the only one doing it. I'm not surprised :P Not many people carry around plastic containers. Which is too bad. I have gotten some free meals out of it :P.

 

Now I am in New Zealand and I will be evaluating the ease to be plastic free here. Challenge one: getting my family on board with the plan...

Pre - post-vacation-update rant

Well I am angry. I am not sure what caused this anger, other than a few minor things and the inability to sleep in my hostel last night... yah that could be it. Either way, I am sick of living in this disposable waste society. Get it together Australia!!! Thank goodness I am leaving soon. Gah. 

The story:

Since I was feeling a bit blah and could use a pick-me-up I decided to have a coffee at the airport. I shopped around for the best price and I saw an organic fair trade stall! Hurrah. I decided that price aside I would support them. Luck would have it, they were also the cheapest!!  I am not quite sure how that worked out but I wasn’t going to question it. All excited I got out my travel mug (so I wouldn’t be creating any unnecessary waste J) and approached the counter with my money. And then it took a turn for the worst. My take away mug is too tall to fit under the machine (which I know) and so she was unable to make me anything. Well no, that isn’t quite true. She could make me a coffee in her paper cup and then I was allowed to pour it into my own mug from there. And then she would throw away the cup. Well yes, that is exactly what I wanted, what a wonderful suggestion. So I walked away from that and went to another coffee shop, this one with the ability to make to stay coffee. 

Full of hope and anticipation I held onto my mug and approached the counter. Sadly only slightly better news here. Apparently (according to “Skybury Coffee”) reusable mugs pose a huge health and safety threat with all the disease and contamination that the carry. The mug is not allowed to cross the counter line. Again, they offered to make me a coffee and I could pour it into my mug. I took them up on this offer since they at least could use reusable glass to make the coffee, unlike the first place. 

Clearly you have to pick and choose what to support. What is better – less waste or fair wages? Well if we don’t decrease our waste eventually we will be living in a dump. If we don’t support fair wages then some people will continually be living in a dump. If we boycott the industry together no one will get wages fair or not and we will end up with some really cranky North Americans. Gah.

This did bring up one question for me, as all great scientific research starts. What kind of contamination could possibly occur with the bringing of your own mug? It seems quite odd to me that this problem has never occurred to Canadians. To my understanding, Canadians are very concerned with health and safety. You know, kids can’t touch each other at school or day care anymore because tag is such a dangerous game. Don’t let them wear scarves because they might choke (not that it is cold in Canada in the winter or anything...). But the most important one of all, don’t let their backpacks touch!! That is how all diseases spread. How is it possible that a country so that so clearly controls health and safety could miss such an important issue? We allow take away mugs everywhere!! In fact, most places even give a discount to customers who bring them. Oh dear. Clearly Canada is going to go downhill. Thank goodness all the coffee drinkers in Australia will be safe.

Plastic free vacation??

Hello everyone! It has been awhile since I have posted anything about my plastic free journey. I have taken 3 weeks off from work and have been touring around. 

My first couple days in Brisbane were very easy to accommodate because I was mostly alone. I was hanging out with people but every time we went out I was able to choose plastic free options.

It got a little bit harder once my tour started though... There were times when we had to buy our own meals and my choices were pretty limited. In the food courts for example, most places only have plastic utensils and plates. And of course, I would forget my container. I tended to chose sandwiches then. 

The included breakfasts were an issue. I could handle it, but had to have dry toast. The real trouble started on the sailing ship. We weren't allowed to bring glass onto the ship so plastic was the only option. I had some wine in my water bottle and am happy to say that all the plastic on the ship got recycled. So I didn't feel as bad with the box of wine I had.

I am only 2/3 done with my vacation so I am sure there will be more to tell. Until then...

Hurray for Smoothies!

                    I got to have a smootie in my water bottle today. No plastic waste for me :D

                                                   Mango and passionfruit yumminess to go.

Weekly Review

Well it has been another couple of weeks on my plastic free challenge. I am half way through the month and so far things are going pretty well. Shopping for myself has been quite easy. I bought a few groceries and then spent most of the time going out to eat. I forgot my take away container at a pasta restaurant and so I put my left overs in my coffee mug. Haha it worked quite well actually.

I haven't run out of anything that requires plastic yet (deodorant, tooth paste etc) so that is good. One of my coworkers gave me a reciepe for toothpaste. I think I will probably try it when I have run out of my own.

One thing that has been a bit of a struggle lately is people offering things to me that have come in plastic. It seems like a bit of a cop-out so accept them. For example I went to a picnic and someone offered me chips. Mostly everything at the picnic came with plastic waste. Still, it felt like cheating...

I have two new challenges approaching me this week. The first one (and a tough one) is a headache I have ben suffering from. I got a migraine on Tuesday and I have been fighting it ever since. Now I have run out of medication :(... I will do my best to reduce the plastic waste (aka having a reusable bottle) but with migraines... I dunno. They are pretty awful and ruin things. Like today, I should be touring around Brisbane but I can't be bothered. I just want to sleep and get rid of this headache. Especially before my tour starts.

Which brings me to my next challenge. I have booked myself on a tour which starts on Thursday. I have no idea what that means for plastic use so, I brought my water bottle, my coffee cup and a set of travel tupperware. Hopefully that will be enough for the tour.

I guess I will jsut have to wait and see...

Woah!

This was shared on my facebook page.

 
 


It is probably the grandest effort so far of re-purposing plastic bottles. I wonder of stable this is, how long it will last, how weather resistant it is? Certainly this is not a viable option for winter in Canada. I wonder how we could adapt it to be more viable. Hmmmmm

Perhaps it is just decoration? It is quite hard to tell from the picture. It would be interesting to follow up on this house 10 years down the line...

Weekly Review

Well I think that it is time for another weekly review. So far so good really. After the conference (where there was heaps of plastic use and waste :() I managed to make it back to Melbourne. I was too lazy to get all the way to the markets for groceries so I went to Coles instead. Not my cheapest move...

I did manage to get all the vegetables I normally would get though. I even bought spinach! I used the same paper bag that you put mushrooms in. I am not sure what the store policy for that is but I did self check out. I guess it isn't a big deal? I bought enough veggies for two weeks I'd say. Then I have one more week before I hit the vacation scene! I think that is going to bring a whole new level of challenge for me. Should be pretty exciting.

The other exciting thing that happened to me this week was hitting up the new Pasta place near work. When they were getting ready to open I stopped in and asked if I could bring in my own container for take away and they said yes. So I tried it :) The owner complimented me on my good idea! I'd like to say that it could catch on, but I have a feeling at some point there will be a food safe issue of some kind :(. For now though I will keep on using it!

I got pumpkin gnocchi with a basil pesto sauce and it was absolutely delicious!! (Bonus, they actually made the dish wrong, and when I offered to eat it anyway so it wouldn't get thrown away they told me someone would eat it for lunch. Hurrah to no waste!)