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.  

Plastic is a remarkable product.  It keeps things sealed & fresh, it is lightweight, durable, and inexpensive.   We’d be hard-pressed to function without it.  Plastic is the poster child of modern convenience.

But it is also a plague.  The properties we love about plastic have seen it destroy the environments we cherish.  Having lived the last 4.5 years in Phnom Penh, a city that is seeing remarkable growth, I see the ugly side of plastic daily.  Everywhere you go, the streets are lined with bags, straws, and water bottles.  My daily commute to work gets dirtier and dirtier every week.  It has gotten to the point where I look around and all I can see is plastic.  It is abhorrent.  And this is just a small snapshot of the world.  Environments everywhere are threatened by plastic pollution.

And I’m part of this problem.

So, it’s time to take action.  This is my commitment to the environment for the next month.  It is also my attempt to teach myself about how I can alter my behaviours long term.  In the process, through this blog, I hope to teach you about steps that can be taken to lead a life of less plastic.  

The ultimate goal is to go 100% plastic-free but I know that probably won’t happen.  Whatever plastic we do consume will be saved for the entire month.  Throughout this process, I’ll blog about steps taken and challenges faced.  Then, we’ll see how we fared in comparison to this last week.  Wish us luck!