Plastic Free July Update: Day 10

 10 days into Plastic Free July and it hasn’t been without it’s challenges. But the successes have so far outweighed the failures!

We’ve just arrived home today from a week in Wellington. Traveling plastic free wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. On our flight we asked for our drinks in our Keepcups and the air hostess thanked us for bringing our own cup. The downside to flying is that all the snacks come packaged in plastic. On our flight up I refused a snack, but on the way home I caved in to the Cookie Time biscuit. 

Shopping was easy to keep plastic free. I just refused plastic bags in every store and had my wee pack down New World shopping bag in my handbag if I needed it. 

I used my stainless steel straw for my McDonald’s drink one evening, but failed in not asking for no plastic lid as well! Any other drinks we bought from the grocery store we just chose glass bottles and it was cool to see all the restaurants and bars in Wellington had embraced cardboard straws. 

All our shampoo, soap and face bars travelled well in small Clip-It containers. And our hotel was pretty awesome in that you could pop a card on your bed to request the cleaners make up the room & clean the bathroom without using any electricity, chemicals or water. The venue that photographer's conference was held at also had environmentally conscious practices in place including a compost bin option along with recycling bins. We filled up our drink bottles each day from their water filter station too. 

Other successes so far have included buying meat from our local butcher in my own reusable containers. Our main failure at the start of the month was having to buy a block of Colby cheese which opened our eyes to the fact you really can’t buy everyday cheeses not plastic packaged. My limited research into this is that you either have to buy more boutique-type cheeses by the wedge or wax round, in waxed paper or make it yourself. Our other groceries so far have been easy enough to find plastic-free packaged options for, with the help that we’d already started buying ingredient foods from our local bulk bin store.

Now that we’re back home this week I am sure we’ll face some more challenges in our next grocery shop. But I’m going to have a go at making both butter and sour cream this week instead of buying it.
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If anyone has ideas on sourcing full cream not in plastic packaging and also any solutions to the cheese issue I would love to hear from you!