I´ve been Being- PALL Plastic A Lot Less since November 2008, helping many others to become PALL but never actually blogged about it. (you can see my CV above).

There were many reasons for this;  one I´m not a writer. (I struggle with writing, I´m sure the grammar police will be out in force.  Spell check can´t even work out what I´m trying to say half the time. Feel free to correct mistakes you see and send them to me!) But I am a photographer... so I decided to make my blog visual.

Two; I know that blogging takes time and commitment. What if no one reads it and I feel I´m talking to myself? What if a lot of people do and then I´m caught up in emailing and responding?  To blog six posts one month and nothing for three months is not the idea. My life doesn´t generally have a pattern, so chances are neither will my blog, now I´m thinking maybe that doesn´t matter.

Three, and perhaps this is the most important one; For a while, if there is such a thing – I was TOO passionate. I say a while, I mean years! Everywhere I looked there was plastic and those images in my head; the ones of Albatross chicks slowly dying, Whales beached full of plastic, marine life in all shapes and forms entangled, was hard to shake. I personally encountered a Dolphin, that had died from entanglement and a teenage Leatherback Turtle that had died from ingestion of just one plastic bag.

I was overwhelmed, plastic, it´s every where, killing constantly.  I couldn´t understand, I had my eureka moment, but others weren´t. If I´d of blogged I would have ranted, and that would have achieved nothing!  That´s not to say I didn´t, I did, believe me, just not online world to see…

Hindsight, it´s a wonderful thing. One day, I changed. Just like that (don´t ask me why, I´ve no idea!)  Suddenly I realised what I, and others I´ve been involved with have achieved over the years. Individual actions really do add up, I know that now.

I’ve learnt also, people respond to a more positive approach, to be solutions focused helps others see a different way.

Now I´m in a position to help others who are having that overwhelmed feeling.

Also I wondered; does the world need another blog about plastic pollution prevention?  Now I´ve decided. Yes.  Even though I see a lot of blogs, people doing incredible things, some living plastic free.  Out in the real world, the physical world I walk around in Being-PALL is still a very unique way to live.  The more people actively living it, and blogging their stories and tips the more normal it´ll become.  My good friend came up with the term PALL – Plastic A Lot Less, after that it was hard to forget and time to get on with it!

People are asking me all the time, they have been for a long time; What do you do about this? How do you get by with not using that?  I still have my passion, in fact it´s grown in a positive way.  I´ve been helping people PALL for six years in the real world, now´s the time to also help people I don´t know PALL their lives.

Every refusal adds up.  By PALL-ing ourselves, we help to PALL the world!  Might sound cheesy, but it´s true.

Like I said in my about page, I´m still coming up upon obstacles all the time.  I don´t claim to be perfect, there´s always more anyone can do, but I´ve managed to live PALL  – Plastic A Lot Less for six years, and that´s a good as place as any to start.

Sometimes I might backdate and blog about things I´ve done the six years before, other times it will be new challenges and stories.

So, here´s to the next 6 years of Being-PALL, and blogging. Thank you for joining me.