Have you noticed that almost every single thing in the supermarket comes in plastic packaging? I never really noticed it too much until I started this journey and tried to stop buying anything that comes in plastic packaging. Well, I am doing my best, but I think if I cut everything out I will either spend most of my life in the kitchen making everything from scratch, or I will starve. Neither sound too appealing. I am just going to have to accept the fact that I will have some plastic in my life. Sigh. Fortunately most of it can be recycled.
I have tried to reduce the amount of waste by either buying in bulk, so larger containers rather than small. The yoghurt was a big one. We had so many yoghurt pottles, and now I buy a tub of yoghurt and put it in a little jar for work or daycare. At least most of the plastics in my trolley can be recycled, but I am conscious of the fact that New Zealand has a big recycling dilemma at the moment with China no longer taking our plastics. The WORST culprit in my trolley is the coconut milk container. It looks like cardboard, but because they have a plastic or foil lining, we can't recycle them in New Zealand. I really need to find an alternative. Maybe I just buy canned coconut milk and water it down. Or is it just the same stuff but in a can? If I'm really keen I could just buy a whole coconut and milk it, is that a thing? I have to try it at least once.
If you are wondering why there is hardly any food in my trolley for the week, it's because I also shopped at the butcher, the fruit shop and Bin Inn. All those places I can shop waste free with my reusable bags and containers. Yay!
My husband came back home this week, so there has been a lot more going into the bin. He is very good at trying to follow all my crazy rules, but sometimes he does just roll his eyes at me. Like when we got takeaways on the weekend and he got a drink in a throw away cup with a plastic straw. I didn't have a reusable cup there because we didn't have my car. When I questioned him about it, he was like "well what was I supposed to do?" If it was me, I would go with out the drink, I don't need all that sugar anyway. But sometimes we just have to be forgiving of our loved ones, and tone back the crazy eco freak inside of us.