Plastic is EVERYWHERE AND IN EVERYTHING!!!!!!!
Dairy is totally out, so we will be vegan (as usual) as are all deli items like fresh meat substitutes, hummus and other dips. Don't be fooled by the 'paper' that dairy butter is wrapped in, it is neither paper nor foil, it is 'mixed materials' and is not currently recycled and that went for every brand I looked at, Organic and imported also.
Pasta is out as it is entirely packaged in plastic.
Rice, mostly off the menu, there are a few brands of boxed rice but you have the ubiquitous plastic window in ALL of the boxes.
Pulses, dried are always plastic bagged (the exception being Marrowfat peas) but there are plenty of tinned pulses.
Some fresh herbs are available but limited in comparison to what is pre-bagged. Mint, Parsley, Coriander and Dill were the only ones sold in loose bunches held together with a rubber band.
(On a side note, are these rubberbands actually real rubber? Or elastomer?)
Frozen food is actually quite decent in some cases, with vegetarian sausages, fingers,burgers and pies, quite often they are simply packaged loose in the box or, in the case of pies, will have their foil pie base. The same goes with a few sweet pies and other desserts. Cornetto's are, as ever, packaged in paper but most other Ice creams have some plastic packaging.
With fresh desserts, look out for 'Gu' brand as they use little glass ramekins with foil lids.
Sainsbury's
Yesterday I went up to Sainsbury's which is the largest supermarket within walking distance. It has a great deal of loose fruit and vegetables which is helpful, including mushrooms (but alas no paper bags for them any more). Off the menu will definitely be soft fruit i.e. berries and green leafy vegetables, which are always plastic wrapped.
What I needed?
I was looking specifically for coffee and walnut oil (not for cooking use). I was considering buying my normal coffee and then dealing with NP packaging when I run out, but even instant coffee in glass jars are topped with plastic, the tins have this plastic cap on them, the ground coffee I buy is in bags that are not recyclable. I was wondering if eventually I needed to look at some coffee beans and grinding them myself.
But my discouragement at the lack of anything suitable turned to joy when I found Illy, this Italian brand is TOTALLY METAL packaged!!!! It is sealed like a normal tin but the cap is also metal. Ground coffee.....no plastic.
At £6.50 though it is three times the price of the normal ground coffee I buy and despite the size of the tin, don't be fooled, it is still only 250g of coffee, which is only marginally bigger than what you get in a bag. This is a case of it being a LOT more expensive to buy ethically.
Oils are plentifully available in glass bottles and as I was specifically looking for Walnut oil, I went to Sainsbury's as the Walnut oil in there is sold in glass, whereas in Tesco it is sold in a plastic bottle.
Regardless, of the fact that most of the speciality oils are in plastic bottles, there is no way you will escape the scourge that is the 'plastic dripper' which is in every single oil bottle.
I spent a while looking at the rice here and as I stated above, most are packaged in plastic, but they have a range of Thai/risotto rices that are in boxes but the boxes have a small plastic window so you can see the grains. The one exception being 'Gallo Risotto Pronto' though this doesn't mean that there is no plastic bag inside it, though the product description makes no mention of one.
Looking for loose tea as teabags are apparently out, Twinings make a loose green tea in a small tin, but at £8.50 a tin. I think they are taking the ****. They have cheaper 'tea caddies' on their website but it seems they only have black tea, Chair or Rooibos tea, which I am not a big fan of.
Tesco's
This morning was the turn of the smaller Tesco, but the shop I most often frequent as it is closer, I was only looking for some food and as it is the last 'plastic day' I was mindful that there is a lot I won't be able to get from here as it is a smaller shop and fewer loose greengrocery items.
No Gallo boxes here either, all the rice came with plastic.
No loose tea.
Planet Organic
A place like this should be filled to the brim with ethical packaging eh? Think again, plastic was everywhere, especially in the household and beauty section, this week will be hard when running out of dishwashing liquid I can tell you!!!
In the 'gluten free' pasta section there were a few boxed noodles and such, however still had the plastic window.
However, I did find what appears to be a paper bagged coffee called 'Source' however at £5.99 it is only marginally cheaper than my tinned Illy coffee.
Also, I might have found a solve for my cooking fat problem, they had glass jars with metal lids of both Coconut oil (available at Sainsbury's too) and of Ghee. Now, I had not considered ghee before but I much prefer it to coconut oil as I really can't handle the underlying coconut taste it leaves behind everything it is cooked with.
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Some other things worrying me
Toilet paper - I did not see any Andrex wrapped in paper yesterday, though I admit not looking today, I just hope I am not close to running out and bear in mind as I usually buy a 9 roll bag of shop brand for £2/£3, it will really smart to have to spent that amount on only two rolls of fancy brand name paper.
Dishwashing liquid - I just have NO idea of an alternative. At least laundry soap has a box alternative but dishwashing does not.
Other cleaners - I am well and truly
Children's snacks - I have no chance here without spending 7x the amount I currently spend on a 7 packet multipack of kiddie crisps. This is afterschool succour for my LO and she is quite fond of it. We will be ok this week I think, but next week might be dicey.
Bread, I know, I will make my own and yes, flour is always packaged in paper but the yeast WILL be an issue if I run out of the stash I already have (crossing fingers).
Why is there plastic wraps behind my cardboard?
So, you brought the boxed item, be it cereal, sweeties crackers or biscuits and pleased with yourself thinking you have avoided plastic, only to find plastic wrappings galore inside that box. Truth is, there is a fairly good reason for some of that plastic and that is, avoiding infestation.
If you are a big social media user like I am, you know that not a season goes by without some 'There's a maggot in my X' viral video. There was one of one of my favourite chocolates ever.....Ferrero rocher. But this did not arise because there is an infestation at their plant, this happened because the box was stored somewhere that allowed an infestation to happen and believe me, having seen some truly appalling food hygiene, I can understand that can happen very easily. Even myself, a couple of years ago my sister and I found mites in our dry goods (flour or sugar, I have forgotten which) and had to empty the whole pantry cupboard out. Now I don't know which item the mites came in on, but the fact is, they came in and got out of one paper bag into another, the only thing that was safe were things sealed in strong plastic and THAT is why plastic is so ubiquitous (besides being very cheap and lightweight). Frankly, after that event I went out and brought large Tupperware to store my oats, sugar and flour so these things can be separate and will not allow an infestation to happen to all my goods again, but it is fairly sad that I needed to BUY plastic to avoid this problem, since had I not unknowingly brought an item with mites in it, it would never have happened. So, checking my rice, sugar, cereals and flour before storing them is a must for me from now on, but it is sad to realise, even if my shopping is plastic free (or even plastic light) my life is far from it.
