All we can do ...

All we can do in this fight against plastics, that seems to be everywhere at the moment ... and quite rightly so ... is to do our best.

We need to step back and recognise the difference between single use and reusable plastics. Embrace the idea of becoming more aware of the single use and letting them one by one slip out of our lives where possible.

Re-use as many times as we can those plastic things we get that although designed to be single use could in fact be used over and over. But then thinking about it that shouldn't that be the way with everything we purchase!!

I've always been pretty good at re-using glass jars, plastic fruit trays etc, but I had never thought until quite recently that the current trend for 'zip-lock' bags was anything but a convenience that then goes into the bin. So many frozen fruits and vegetables come in these now ... as well as some cheeses, including block cheeses.

My lunch yesterday for example was a good for highlighting to me the mix of re-usables and non-reusables. The bread sticks were the bake at home type that came in a plastic wrapper, the pre-cooked beetroot were the sort in a shrink wrap packet, so both of these wrappers had to go straight into the bin as neither were recyclable. But the mayo jar can be re-used over and over before it is finally recycled and the cheese bag once carefully washed out can be used as the zip-lock bag it is until it no longer works ... and then this particular sort can be recycled.

Of course the final component of my lunch was a glass of ice cold tap water straight from the jug in the fridge.

Yes that has a plastic lid, but this is what we must be careful not get too hung up on ... this lid will stay with this jug for a long, long time. The plastic tub I put the leftover beetroot in will also stay with me for a long time. This is why plastic was invented and worked on all those years ago, to be useful, to make life simpler and to help us. It's the unnecessary use of single use plastics we must challenge and fight against