PREPPING FOR PLASTIC FREE

Though I'm unsure why the month of July was chosen, I do know that Plastic Free July is an initiative started in Perth, Western Australia that challenges people to go a month without plastic – either by seeking alternatives for a few key items or going cold turkey on everything packaged. Though I haven’t posted any updates for a couple of months (oops), my own efforts to keep my plastic consumption down have ebbed and flowed with varying degrees of success over 2013. My usage of single or short-term use plastic is way down but I have fallen afoul of hidden packaging on a couple of occasions (namely with appliances, most companies use very little plastic in their packaging these days but you still get the odd anomaly). While I’ve been making decent inroads, it’s probably a good time to try and kick start some new habits for the areas I still haven’t tackled yet. So I’m going to try and go completely plastic-free for the month, and will post a tally of any plastic I do accumulate, plus tips on what I use in an average day and how I found a replacement for it.

RE-IN-CANE-ATION

I have a knack for spotting good *trash* (and here, as everywhere, I'm stunned at what people are willing to throw away) and after seeing this one sitting around on the street for a few days I decided to take it home and turn it into a herb planter. I'm starting a modest tropical style vegie patch this year, and as I'm still a green thumb in training, the most sensible option is planting in containers that can be moved around the garden til I find the optimum spot.