Tuesday 30 September 2008

Day 23

Oops-a-daisy! Caught out again. Told you how sneaky it is.

But let's start with the good news. I got as far as dinnertime again. Porridge for breakfast. Quaker porridge oats come in a cardboard box with no inner wrapping. Milk comes in a glass bottle and golden syrup in a tin.

Lunch at work was a bowl of homemade leek and potato soup and a chorizo sandwich. We have a microwave at work so I often take in leftovers from the evening before. There was another birthday today with bite size cakes. They looked yummy but they came in unmarked plastic containers so I gave them a wide berth. Fortunately there were a few pieces of cheesecake left over from yesterday so I didn't go without! And in case you think we're always eating cake at work, we're not. It's just two birthdays back to back.

Dinner was a chorizo and chickpea stew served with basmati rice, runner beans and yoghurt. The chickpeas and tomatoes came in tins. The vegetables came from our organic box and a neighbouring allotment. The basmati rice, like the porridge oats above, came in a cardboard box from Lidl. The yoghurt was homemade. The olives came from the Olive Shed where they were weighed directly into my own reusable plastic container. The chubby little chorizo sausages were similarly placed in my Tupperware box but it wasn't until I got them out at home that I spotted the labels - 5 of them, when I only bought 4 sausages! I thought at first that they were made of paper but, on further investigation I discovered, to my horror, that they are in fact plastic. There is no identification mark on them so I cannot rightfully put them in a recycling bin. Oh dear!

Well I tried and will carry on (being) trying! There were more conversations at work, including one with a few kids who had spotted me in the local paper. It's shame that I'm always the first any one's heard of it. It hasn't been terribly well publicised. If is runs again next year I think it would be a good idea to get local shops in on it, perhaps vying with each other to offer customers the more waste-free merchandise.

I wonder how many others have taken the challenge and how they are faring?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another successful Day, Just Gai - well done. The sausage labels thing is just another learning curve.

I hope everyone else is doing well too and enjoying themselves

I have a feeling today is going to be a definite zero waste day for you :)

Mrs G x

Anonymous said...

Hi Gai,

Were the 5 labels removable? If so, take them from the food item in store. Any fruit I take has all labels removed and left in the loose fruit packaging.

Zero Waste can be a solitary experience but there are good contacts to share the burden.

After 6 months doing Zero Waste, it becomes normal practice.

just Gai said...

Dear Mrs Green
Your feeling is spot on. Today was a definite zero waste day, and another article in the Evening Post to boot!

Hi John. I'm afraid I didn't notice the labels until I got home, so leaving them in the shop wasn't an option on this occasion.

esther said...

I'm still far awa, especially as my family doesn't really share my vision of things (and that's really hard sometimes) but as far as just for me, I know I'm getting there. I probably will not ever have a zero waste week (eventhough the idea creeps on me, little by little) but I'm trying very hard to keep my waste down!

just Gai said...

Merci Esther. Faire quelque chose c'est toujours mieux de rien faire. Bon courage!