Sustainable Practices

Plastic- overused and detrimental to the environment in so many ways, but convenient and relied upon in everyday life. A hard task to combat, plastic holds our food, keeps our water, and makes shopping a smooth process without a car. Thankfully moving to more sustainable practices isn’t as daunting as I originally expected. Like many worldly issues, plastic use can be targeted with a range of small lifestyle changes, one to suit every individual out there.

I have recently become part of the Jane Goodall Institute National Youth Leadership Council and we have been working on the Bye Bye Plastic Bags campaign started by two young sisters in Bali. We hope to see New Zealand changing its practices around single use plastic bags. It feels good to be involved with something so crucial and to see the difference that we are making every day. 

The hardest step is the first step:
I was both nervous and excited to start on this journey knowing that I would be limited on how much I could change with my current living circumstances. I was very wrong thinking that I needed to change everything I do from day to day, in fact our flat was already doing quite a lot more than I realised to help the environment.

We meal plan together every Saturday night figuring out exactly what we will need for all seven dinners and lunches to reduce the trips we take to the supermarket to one if possible. We then buy our vegetables at the fruit and vege market, taking our own reusable bags along (something we have done right from the start of flatting). We also do this for the grocery store, with both backpacks and reusable bags on hand, saying no to plastic bags other than for our meat. Thanks to my best friend Simran who bought me a gorgeous waterproof, reusable bag for my birthday last year, it has been extremely helpful! Last time I went grocery shopping for myself I took some of the fresh produce paper bags and used these instead of plastic bags. I may have looked silly trying to fit a head of broccoli into a tiny paper bag but I felt great knowing I was doing the right thing.

In our flat we also recycle any soft plastic we do have through our local supermarket soft plastics drop off and reuse some plastic bags for rubbish as this is put in a large dumpster (unavoidable). We then recycle plastic bottles, cans and paper. All in all I’m pretty stoked at how considerate our flat has been for the environment and lowering our plastic use. 

Other small changes I have made:
My mum recently sent me a wonderful care package full of goodies, my favourite being the reusable beeswax wraps from LilyBees Wraps (and of course the movies, chocolate and condensation window vacuum- all very handy). I use these wraps for my packed lunches and they keep my sandwiches super fresh all day, plus they smell amazing.

I have also bought a bamboo toothbrush from Common Sense Organics. This is the softest toothbrush I have ever had and there is no way I could go back!

My journey to living a more sustainable plastic reduced life has only just started, but I feel this change has already touched many people. I am excited to see my family and friends taking on the challenge and I have had so much positive feedback for this choice.

Thankyou for all of your wonderful support!