The plastic-free challenge is officially at an end. It lasted exactly 30 days. It was not as difficult as we anticipated as we already put forth a considerable effort to reduce our plastic consumption. The biggest challenge we faced was changing our shopping habits. We no longer shopped at just one store and had to source fruits, veg, cheese, bread, etc. from a variety of different places. This took a lot of time, a little bit extra money, and a few…
We’ve been plastic-free for over two weeks now. So far, we’ve found the journey to be fairly easy and straight-forward. Yes, we’ve had to plan ahead what groceries to buy, where to get them, and what reusable bags/containers we’d need to take along but that’s a small sacrifice to make to reduce our plastic waste. But now, we’re starting to miss snacks. One of the things we’re quite accustomed to is having snacks around in the house. When we get home…
I said something in a recent blog post that has been niggling me all week. I proclaimed that some plastic items were unavoidable because making certain things such as detergents, shampoos and toothpastes would take too much time. This statement was naive. I’ve never tried to make these products and I assumed that they would be time consuming to make. Perhaps they are! I really have no idea. So, today’s post is about challenging mindsets and trying something new: making…
I chair the Environmental Action Committee (EAC) at my school (ISPP). The committee consists of 10 students and 5 teachers. Our job is to promote sustainable practices and encourage students (and members of the community) to take action. Our school has recently revamped their strategic plan to include the environment as one of the three main themes and so we have a lot of support as we try to turn ideas into action. We’re stoked. As one of our actions…
We’ve completed week 1 of the plastic-free challenge and I’ve been very encouraged by the conversations I’ve started through this blog and through my conversations with friends and family. Collectively as a small community we’ve been reflecting on our consumption habits and have discussed simple ways to reduce plastic waste. It’s also been interesting to share insights with people from around the world and how our experiences with consumerism are very different. For example, it seems that people in certain European countries…
As promised, below is our Google Doc of how we plan to eliminate as much plastic packaging as possible. Most of it focuses on food stuffs as that is what we consume on a regular basis. We’re a little stuck on what to do about [soy]milk and some of our pre-packaged staples like lentils/beans, dried fruits/nuts, and spices/salt. I would love any advice if you know where I can buy the later items in bulk here in Phnom Penh. As for…
I’ve known my whole life that plastic pollution is bad for the planet. I try my best to reduce my consumption by limiting my use of plastic bags, bottles and take away containers. When I lived in Canada, I took solace in the fact that certain plastic items could be recycled (not an ideal solution) but now that I live in Phnom Penh, recycling is not an option and [almost] everything ends up in the trash. Additionally, plastic consumption occurs…
Day 1 has come and gone and I have already broken the rules. Went out for lunch, innocently ordered a passion fruit juice aaaand forgot to say “no straw please.” I’m not used to uttering this phrase and I’m sure many of my plastic drinking straws grace rubbish dumps and landfills around the world. So, I hope this digression has taught me to ask for no straws because I am oh-so ashamed. Consequently, I’ve been thinking all day long: why the…
It is the eve of our plastic-free month and I’m having heart palpitations. I’m not sure I can do this. This week, my husband and I decided to collect all the plastic we generated in order to assess the impact our efforts will have over the course of the coming month. Almost every single thing we consumed contains plastic packaging. Food is the biggest culprit. Milk, yoghurt, eggs, cheese, dried fruit, nuts, cereal… All our staple foods come packaged in plastic….