Plastic Free July 2023 and year round

I thought that I would write up my “plastic free July” post with a summary of what I’m doing year-round (not just in the month of July) to try and reduce my use of plastics. Or recycle them. This is Sydney focused, with some mail-in options.

Soft Plastics

While red-cycle soft plastics recycling went on hold and then went bust, I was still gallantly saving my soft plastics in the hopes that a solution would present itself. And it has, sort of.

1. If you are one of the lucky residents in one of the council areas of Burwood, Camden, Campbelltown, City of Canada Bay, Hunters Hill, Inner West, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney, Penrith, Sutherland Shire, Randwick, Waverley and Willoughby, you can have your scrunchable soft plastics picked up and recycled by recycle smart. Apparently gets turned into feedstock oil, then resin, then plastics again.
2. If you are a resident in Hornsby Council area, then you can drop soft plastics for recycling to Thornleigh Community Recycling Centre, which also handles other types of waste.

According to wikipedia, there are 33 council areas in the Greater Sydney area. According to my list above, that’s 15 of the 33 (so less than 50%…) of the council areas in Sydney have provided their residents with a soft plastics recycling option.

I haven’t actually tested the recycle smart pickup service, however my friend in the inner west council area has reported back that it is a two bag pick up, and it’s only once every three months (once a quarter). The inner west council website isn’t great about promoting this service, and I wish that the pickup was more frequent than once a quarter. Inner West council have told me that the service is limited to 2000 pickups per month, they have twice that number in subscribers, and most households are using it to recycle soft plastics (meaning less of the other items are being recycled). Recycle smart also offers pickup/recycling of clothing, shoes, DVDS, small electronics items etc if you’re in one of the council areas listed above.

Medicine Blister Packets

Medicine blister packs/tablet packets which are a mixture of plastic and foil – did you know that you might be able to drop these off for recycling at a pharmacy near you? They tend to be “blooms the chemist” brand, but some other chemists do accept the blister packs, which is very useful. I have had a friend report back from Perth, that they managed to find a pharmacy that accepted the packets, so I am happy about that.

Oral/Dental hygiene

Things like floss dispensers, plastic toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes. In my travels, I have found that my stepping stones childcare centre in Leichhardt have a 24/7 accessible drop off point for teeth cleaning implements. It’s the driveway between the childcare centre and the park. Win!

For locations near you, have a look at terracycle public recycling locations (dental).

Pet food bags

Totally random, but the childcare centre in Leichhardt also has a collection point for pet food bags.

For locations near you, have a look at terracycle public recycling locations (pet food bags)

Coffee cups and lids

I don’t use disposable coffee cups. However sometimes my partner does, or I’m at an event where someone hands me a cup before I can refuse. And of course during the covid pandemic times, a lot of cafes were not accepting reusable cups. Most 7-11 stores have a coffee cup recycling station, however the dirtiness of the cups (half filled with coffee) makes me wonder how much of these are actually recycled. Do Simply Cups wash the collected cups before doing their recycling magic?

Batteries

This is probably the most mature collection model. It used to be mainly for secure hazardous materials disposal (so the leechate didn’t… leech out from landfill); and now recognising that there are valuable metals and rare earth minerals contained within, there are battery recycling stations at battery retailers, supermarkets (aldi and woolworths), home furnishing lifestyle stores (ikea, officeworks) and hardware stores (bunnings)!

Lightbulbs

I have used City of Sydney Library recycling stations, and ikea. Community recycling centres can also be used, but you may need to show proof of residency like at Thornleigh, above.

Sneakers/sports shoes/shoes/safety boots

Apparently these can be recycled into gym mats, floors, even a kid’s playground (equipment or the soft landing surface? Helllllooo microplastics!). If you’re in Victoria, they’ll even take work boots. Dammit. Why is there only one state or territory out of seven recycling safety boots?!? See Treadlightly for your local collection point, or use recycle smart if you’re in one of the council areas above. I’m a bit torn about this – is the potential generation of microplastics being washed into the water system better than landfill?!

stationary – pens, pencils, highlighters

I use officeworks, where you can also drop of computer hardware and peripherals.

Other recycling options

If you look at terracycle, you may find options for recycling make-up/beauty product containers, cleaning product containers, or food service wrapping (cling film, zip lock bags) near you. I have seen cleaning product and personal beauty recycling stations at Woolworths Crows Nest.

Mail in options

I’ve found these two mail in options.

Biome accepts beauty products, bras, bread tags, contact lenses, corks, dental/toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes, plastic cards, straws, food safe silicone products and stockings! Of course if you are in the Brisbane/Gold Coast or Melbourne areas, you should be able to find a physical store for an in-person drop off.

I have also been pointed towards the banish BRAD program for recycling of makeup items, dental/toothbrushes/toothpaste tubes, personal care items, plastic bottle top lids, writing implements.

Bulk Food Stores/Refill locations

Vale Alfalfa House Enmore, who closed their doors in March 2023. Blue Mountains Food Co-Op, Bathurst Food Co-op and Manly Food Co-op are still going strong.

Generally, I now use The Source bulk foods who have spices, seeds, nuts, flours, pasta, vinegars, oils, epsom salts and laundry powder. If you are a member, 10% of what you bought last time can be used as a credit towards the shop this time. Sometimes there are special event weekends with 20% off your bill.

If there is a Naked Foods near you, the first Monday’s of the month there is a discount off of your bill. Naked Foods Newtown closed in 2022 , so I can’t tell you how much the first Monday’s discount is anymore. There is also a small discount if you bring your own bags and containers.

I have spotted refill locations for ecostore, kin kin and abode type laundry/dishwashing/shampoo products at Supamart Tramsheds (Glebe) and the Well Store Rozelle. Other locations may be available. Unfortunately my partner who is the dishwasher in the house refuses to use anything that I’ve gone and refilled.

Some supermarkets also have a bulk bin for nuts and snacky chocolate based things.

Harris Farm Leichhardt have a peanut butter machine, olive oil dispensary and bulk bins for various kinds of nuts.

So dear reader, how are you going in your plastic reduction journey? Have you found that someone is now able to recycle something that you thought was previously un-recyclable? What is your favourite bulk foods store or are you a member of a buying co-operative?

Musing on bulk food goods stores

In response to the desire for less plastic, or during campaigns like “plastic free july“, we often turn to bulk food goods stores such as Alfalfa House, Blue Mountains Food Co-operative, Naked Foods, or The Source Bulk Foods (other brands are available).

This might ease our conscience as an individual consumer, but, plastic is still generated, just in a bigger format.

So are we really making a difference?

For example, I might have a one litre laundry liquid bottle. And I refill it from a 20L bulk square bottle like these ones at flora and fauna:

I do prefer to get laundry powder, but most of the stuff I can get still contains a lot  of salt, and contains optical brighteners which aren’t recommended for clothes. I did try using soap nuts in the wash; not sure if it cleaned my clothes. Next up is try making a soap nut liquid.

I know some bulk 25kg flours is sourced in a paper bag, but most other products – nuts, pasta etc do come in plastic.

With milk, I am re-using glass bottles for full cream milk via Harris Farm’s single herd milk scheme; but I am also travelling a 80km+ round trip to do so. (However, I am doing this journey  as part of other journeys).

I try to support those cafes that are accepting re-usable cups. If I do have to get a landfill coffee cup, I take advantage of 7-11’s scheme to recycle coffee cups and lids. 

Some random musings from a sleep deprived, over-extended, overly mentally loaded me.

2020 Review Thingo Part 1

Questions repeated from Shauna Reid 2017 Review Thingo, because the actual reverb thingy appears to have stalled on the interwebs.

This post is going to be published in two parts, mainly because it’s still a work in progress, but also because it’s the last day of January, and I really gotta get something out there! This is 2020.1.

Earlier “year in review” posts can be found:

2019 Review Thingo
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014 part one, part two
2013
2011
2010

1. What did you do in 2020 that you’d never done before?

Purchased an overlocker (serger) and a sewing machine. Both secondhand of course. I had been really getting into the regular sewing bees with the local boomerang bags group, so when the first Sydney COVID lockdown started in March, I bought these two machines second hand so i could keep making bags. The overlocker was heaps of fun – I overlocked all my bag & handle blanks, but never quite got around to sewing them together to make a complete bag. Adding to the list of partially complete projects.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for this year?

a. Reduce single use plastics by buying from bricks and mortar store, rather than online.

Yes, and no. All good until covid hit. I don’t think I bought anything excessively extra, but then it got to the point where I preferred to buy certain goods online (from independent stores), rather than go out. And then I would go and buy takeaway food, as a relief from the need to cook (because 8 hour workshops in person, turned into 8 hour workshops ONLINE. Very draining).
There was a brief period in which reusable coffee cups could be used in cafes (rather than single use landfill cups), but when Sydney had it’s “Northern Beaches” outbreak in December, that put those small gains to a screaming halt.
2020 reduce plastic usage: 0
March 2021 edit – cafes like Ragamuffin and Bourke Street Bakery have started accepting reusable cups again. Yay!
I’ll keep this resolution on the list for 2021.

b. Finish stuff, rather than have partially complete projects.
2020 finish stuff: 0
You know what I think it is? I’m like a magpie, easily distracted by something new and shiny.

c. meditate daily.
I didn’t meditate daily, but with the start of the coronavirus work from home lockdown in Sydney, I started off the day with a yoga, possibly the closest thing I have to daily meditation. I got to 90 days in a row before I fell off the wagon.
2020 meditate daily: 0.25

I have started (again) with an app that has a “new year’s meditation challenge”, to meditate at least 15 out of 21 days. There are short intros to various mediation concepts leading in, a bit less intensive than the meditate in may interviews. I made it to about 20 days consecutive, and then had one day off, and am now restarting.

A new one for 2021: Be kinder to myself. Daily grateful moments

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My friend Reg gave birth to baby Mia, about 3 months premature. This was in May.

4. Did anyone close to you pass away?

My bees. I realised part way through the year that although I have referred to my bees dying, I haven’t actually told you about it.

Early January 2020/late December 2019, it was so hot. Sydney was ringed by bushfires, smoke was in the air. My bees were under stress. Small Hive Beetle (SHB) can detect the bees under stress – so they moved in, which causes more distress, and so the spiral starts. I noticed some odd behaviour, even so much that I thought the bees were about to swarm. After chatting to some other beekeepers, I decided that I needed to get into the hive, but was hamstrung by the lack of other warre beekeepers available for about a week. In the end, I grabbed a beekeeper who was available and went in, but it was too late. The remaining bees (clustered on the outside), had disappeared, and i think the queen had died. Six hours worth of cutting out comb and then “cooking” SHB larvae in boiling water is not a task I would wish on anyone.

Now imagine that this was a beehive on a farm that is only visited once a month? All you would see is any empty hive filled with the vermin SHB, and probably wax moth. No bees.

5. What countries did you visit?

Australia! One of the emergency edicts brought in as part Australia’s covid-19 response was that Australians weren’t allowed to leave the country.

As various covid-19 clusters grew, this turned into state based or local government area based lockdowns, stopping various residents of certain areas entering/exiting one state or another. The police forces in Australia are generally state based (rather than city/county based like in the USA), so the majority of police were deployed to border towns and the roads between states.

I haven’t even left the state of NSW during 2020.

But then, with the various state and country based restrictions, NSW is currently at 14 days of no community transmission of Covid-19. That’s pretty good.

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked in this one?

These are the words I picked in last two years reverb:

Creativity

Sustainability

Engagement
and I will keep them again for 2021. Does that mean I have been lacking these things the past two years? Hmm.

7. What dates from this year will remain etched upon your memory?

The “very last play” I saw at the Opera House in March 2020, before the covid-19 lockdowns stopped all theatre in the state.
The “very first play” we saw in real life, all masked up after lockdown – Virginia Wolf’s A Room of One’s Own. Not the best play to discover that you can no longer concentrate on a monologue

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Maintaining a good LIFE/work balance while working from home. My routine generally involved morning exercise before I started the working day – yoga, a walk to the station, or a long bike ride. Then, my partner kept me honest at the end of the working day, by making sure I ended my day on time by going for a walk.

Also pretty happy that we haven’t managed to kill each other yet, and that we kept a few online “theatre dates” with the theatre crew via videoconferencing.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Finishing projects. Cleaning up.
I enjoy the end products of gardening. but never quite get around to planting the seeds or seedlings.
This is despite working from home. So my routine is now to do at least 10 minutes in the morning – repot or plant something, before I do my morning exercise and start work.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

No, thank goodness.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Hmm. The toy is still new, but I bought a pressure cooker, which I have wanted for a while. I had been eyeing off stove top pressure cookers, as well as electric. I ended up with an electric one.

This has actually been really useful during summer because I have been able to cook and not heat up the kitchen. Very happy.

12. Where did most of your money go?

Online shopping.
Our once-a-day coffee habit, no longer supplied by the cafes near the office, had to be supplied by me. I’ve worked out that we went through about 8kg coffee, April – December.
I’m still a bit wary about stepping into shops for too long a period. So if there isn’t a local stockist of something that I can run in and grab; yes, I have ordered it online and had it shipped.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Australia’s relative success in containing covid-19.
Jacinda Ardern’s re-election as prime minister in New Zealand.
The election of Biden/Harris in the USA.

Nine Weeks until Christmas 2020

The local farmers markets restarted in June 2020 after the first* NSW Covid-19 lockdown, and I have been visiting regularly, almost more regularly than pre-covid. There’s a little fence around all entry points, and you need to have your temperature taken and grab a squirt of hand sanitiser before heading into the outdoor venue.

It’s good to see all of the farmers and producers again.

Anyway, for my most recent visit, there was a sign up saying: “Nine Weeks till Christmas! Order your hams now!”

What the? Nine weeks till Christmas? What happened to 2020? How has it both managed to drag on interminably, and suddenly be near the end?

In other (garden) news, I thought I would get no guava crop this year. They normally crop around June-July. When I had nothing then, I thought my pruning mid-summer had snipped off all of the forming fruit. But it seems it was a combination of odd-weather and poor pollination. I got fruit in October. So very very late. The poorly pollinated fruits were smaller than golf balls, and instead of the rock hard “normal” seeds inside, I got little brown dots, a bit like rosehips. Because it is so warm, the guavas are almost rotten by the time they drop off the tree. What’s left I have been pureeing with apple sauce + tumeric + black pepper + cinnamon, and dehydrating. Sort of a guava chewy.

Over winter, I splurged a little and bought two fruit trees – prunus mume and a calville blanc d’hiver apple tree. Then I found out this new apple tree isn’t compatible with the current lot of apple trees that I already have, and not only that it is a triploid. Gonna be difficult to get apples unless I get another pollinator ….

Have also planted corn “seeds”, from last years crop. Germination rate is pretty good, nearly 100%. Hoping to have a break from the cherry tomatoes, but the seedlings sprouting from my compost have other ideas.

Have you discovered this too, dear reader, that your year has been both super fast and super slow? Have your fruit trees also cropped this year at an unexpected time? Let me know your thoughts.

Plastic Free July, 2020

Unlike previous years, I am not cataloging my usage (or attempt at non-usage) of plastic during this year’s Plastic Free July.

Cos:

1. It is depressing; and
2. Covid-19.

I am still heading to the bulk goods stores when I can, and refilling my dish detergent, milk bottles, laundry detergent, epsom salts etc. I’ve found some local shops that sell nuts & beans without packaging, I just take along & reuse a plastic bag when I head there. I am using my reusable N95 mask that I purchased during the 2019 Summer bushfire season. Who knew that it would come in so handy later in the year?

But look at this:

I got so excited when local (ish) bourke street bakery announced that after the Covid lockdown in March 2020 (& subsequent refusal to use any reusable cup); that from July they were accepting the “Green Caffeen” system of reusable cups. Woohoo!

I couldn’t find a copy of the updated advice from the Restaurant & Catering association, but here is something from the Northern Territory Government. Essentially, cafes can accept a reusable cup as long as (a) it’s a contactless pour; and (b) cup is clean/cleaned in a commercial dishwasher.

Not only that, Ragamuffin Cafe in Leichhardt is accepting *any* reusable cup, not just the green caffeen system.

So appropriate to the public health orders applicable to your area.

So get out there, be social but spatially distance so you can *support* these business that are supporting the reusable cup system (rather than those that don’t), and get caffeinated at the same time.

PS. I was sifting through my compost. Look what I found:

Yep, it’s the plastic liner of a single use disposable coffee cup. Each reusable cup you use, prevents the usage/creation of something like that.

Harvest Monday, December 2019

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the background behind Monday harvests, please visit the Our Happy Acres blog.

Harvested, took photos, went on Christmas holidays, forgot to post. Posting now!

Capsicum (sweet peppers):

Two small capsicums. These went into a chilli dish I made whilst in the outback over Christmas.

Blueberries:

Soybean seeds, blue butterfly peas, and purple tomatillos planted in November didn’t survive me going away. Purple “sapphire” seed potatoes and “midnight specials” potatoes have sprouted greenery. The greenery has (sort of) survived some 40 + degree days (104 F). It has been hot.

I have harvested one full warre box of honey, about 6 frames (6/8) from a second box. This is probably about 20kg worth of honey, unknown amount of beeswax.

Look at them apples:

I have had an incredible amount of pollination this year on my columnar (ballerina) apple trees. I shouldn’t have over 20 apples growing from a pot. I think because of the drought this year, there has been less in flower/less of a nectar flow elsewhere & since these are well watered I got A LOT of pollination.

We are now in “stage 2” water restrictions, with the main dams for Sydney at just of 40% capacity & a lot of bushfires going on (which needs water to fight them). Sydney is basically surrounded by a burning ring of fire. These water restrictions mean that now I can only water my plants with a bucket. Which is ridiculous because it is less targeted than a hose. I’ve had crop swap friends observe that they are actually using MORE WATER with bucket watering than they were with a hose. Surely, me growing plants that help keep the area cool & the bees & birds fed, as well as reducing food miles is a more useful deployment of water than someone washing their car (also with a bucket)? Makes me so angry. I got a few more unglazed terracotta pots & installed them as ollas in my raised garden beds.

So dear reader, what have you harvested from your garden recently? Do you have any tips for keeping plants going through water restrictions?

Harvest Monday, 4 November 2019

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the background behind Monday harvests, please visit the Our Happy Acres blog.

Super busy. Harvested a few snack-y type things, took photos, forgot to post.

Garlic

Probably harvested too early. But I’m about to go away, and the last time I left them in the ground over November (although technically I’m supposed to wait until the summer solstice), my garlic rotted. No seed garlic, I think it was a “rose” variety of garlic that I bought at a market stall.

Honey. About 12kg. I don’t remember harvesting in October before, it looks like there’s a bit of a honey flow going on.

More blueberries (Sunshine Blue), growing in a pot.

Planted more soybean seeds (endamame). I think I’ve planted about 30, and so far only 3 look to have germinated. Fingers crossed they survive!

Also planted some blue butterfly pea seeds and purple tomatillos. I think blue/purple is my colour of the year.

I left it too long with the purple “sapphire” seed potatoes, and the slaters have started to eat them. I’ve had more luck with the “midnight specials” which have at least started to sprout.

So dear reader, what have you harvested from your garden recently? Is your also garden dying from lack of attention?

Harvest Monday, 30 September 2019

Welcome to Harvest Monday, where we celebrate all things harvest related. For the background behind Monday harvests, please visit the Our Happy Acres blog.

I’ve taken a bit of a break with the harvest posts, mainly because the plastic free July is a bit draining, and, well, work.

Springtime asparagus

Very tasty. Not enough crop. I think the crowns are at least 4 years old? Probably more. I’m not sure on the cultivar, but I think Mary Washington.

A few Alpine Strawberries.

Taste like bubblegum. Very sweet. Very delicate. Can’t harvest and eat later, if you harvest you gotta eat straight away.

A couple of blueberries (Sunshine Blue), growing in a pot. Delicious!

Grapefruit:

Not mine. I knocked at the neighbour’s door and harvested theirs. Different to the last lot who didn’t realise that fruit grows on trees, these people just don’t eat grapefruit. I took most of these to a crop swap, and got some slow fermented saurkraut, blueberry tomato and “black cherry” tomatoes in return. The rest… kind of rotted. Fruit fly had got them already.

I haven’t done much in the garden apart from dig up bindis. I tried sprouting some soybean seeds so that I could harvest endamame this year, but the pods just rotted. Better try again.

I got some purple “sapphire” seed potatoes.

Hopefully (once I plant), I will get a good crop! I swapped out three at the crop swap, saving two. I do hope that’s enough.

I also bought some heritage raspberry canes. Should probably plant ’em.

So dear reader, what have you harvested from your garden recently? What have you intended to plant, but not quite gotten around to?

Plastic Free July 2019 The Wrap Up

In 2018, I counted 66 pieces of plastic used during the month of July.
In 2019, I used 65.

This is not much of an improvement. It just made me feel so down and out – despite my best efforts, I couldn’t reduce my plastic usage much .

This probably means that on average, throughout the year, I am using at least 780 pieces of plastic.

So let’s see what did I learn to do differently this year?

I found this slogan inspiring:

What a difference one word makes. “One can do so much” versus “One can only do so much”

I made much more of an effort to buy milk from Alfalfa House by using my reusable glass bottle. The milk comes from Country Valley Milk at Picton, on the edge of the Sydney Basin. Un(fortunately), my other half didn’t like that this was full cream milk *all the time*, and demanded that we return to using light milk (semi-skim) during the weekdays. Turns out you can have too much of a good thing.

I have switched to using a bamboo handle toothbrush. The bristles are still nylon/plastic, but there is less plastic total in the toothbrush. When I visited Great Barrier Reef/Lady Elliot Island in 2018, I was told that one of the most commonly found plastic items found washed up on the island are *toothbrushes*.

I am making a more conscious decision to eat a little less meat. So if I’m cooking, I eat mostly vegetarian, with a little bit of the meat from his portion. This doesn’t apply when it comes to brisket – in which case it is mine, all mine.

I found a local source of coffee beans (Circa coffee), that sells you coffee in a reusable container. That is just fabulous, and I will continue to use them.

But what also does my head in is this. White vinegar, woolwash laundry detergent. I can buy 2L white vinegar from the supermarket for $2. I can buy 1L woolwash detergent from the supermarket for $5.

The milk in the glass bottle, above cost me $1.87. It is 640grams.

The woolwash detergent that I have refilled cost me $7.93 for less than 1 L.
The white vinegar that I have refilled cost me $10.50 for less than 2L.

Why does the refilled product cost more than the product + bottle?

Note: I worked out later that it depends where you refill your bottle. I have found alfalfa house to be the cheapest place to refill, when I refilled 2L of white vinegar, it was less than the $10.50 I quote above

Plastic Free July 2019 Day 30

Continuing on my attempt at a plastic free month (or a month of cataloging my plastic usage).

On Day 30, I had a

Pork Chop:

Food. Supermarket bought. Hard shell plastic (bottom), softer top layer.

I also bought some socks, because they were on special. Two pieces of plastic, the “hook” that hangs on the supermarket rack, and “H-shaped” piece that ties the socks together. My other half has toenails that saw through socks like nobody’s business. Also the quality of this brand of sock has gone downhill since they shifted manufacturing offshore, so they are not lasting as long as they used to.

As an example, this is what the branding of socks look like after one single wash:

The iron on transfer is coming off. I guess you could call them NON BONDED Bonds socks. This is pathetic. Why can’t they “knit in” the brand name like they used to, instead of using a plastic iron-on transfer that clearly isn’t working?

Five pieces of plastic today.

Plastic Count: 65