Why #PALL? In a nut shell: Plastic is designed to last forever. We use it for moments. There’s a lot of us, having a lot of moments!
Our Oceans are turning into plastic soup. A plastic smog. Millions of animals, from birds to whales, are suffering long agonising deaths because of it.
The chemicals, either leaching from products, or eaten via fish fingers are entering and effecting us. We are paying for it, both with our health and our money.
Every second breathe we take comes from the oceans.
This Leatheback turtle washed up on the beach I did my first beach clean, years later. I called a scientist and she came and dissected her.
She died from the ingestion of just one plastic bag. She was a teenager. Leatherback´s can live a 100 years, they are now endangered.
I was an avid recyler, that’s the answer right? Actually – what I did was put my plastics in another box, not giving it a second thought. I suppose I thought there was a recycling fairy, it was in a different box, sorted, because that’s what we´ve been taught – to recycle.
But when it comes to plastic that simply isn´t enough. It´s a complicated process and most is only down-cycled (Only one step further from landfill) – if anything happens to it at all – and is shipped around the world, mainly to Asia. It requires huge amounts of energy and doesn’t stop the need for virgin plastics.
This article in the Independent by @SirenaBergman explains it in full detaial, and is a down to earth read. “Recycling is the grown-up version of squeezing our eyes shut, sticking our fingers in our ears and shouting “lalalalalala!”.
We are simply consuming too much. There is no “away”. We need to reduce the amount we use in our everyday lives and purchases.
So that’s why I and now many others #PALL – #PlasticALotLess join us!
When we PALL our lives we help to PALL the world. Cheesy maybe, but true!
Being-PALL 
Fantastic blog and yes the world needs loads more plastic free bloggers – hundreds of them!
When you first decide to go plastic free it can be overwhelming. It seems that everything comes plastic packaged from soap to shampoo to moisturizer to toothpaste and you have only just got up. Breakfast cereals, bread, milk yogurt and marge, tea and coffee are all plastic packed. Can of coke? Nope – tins are plastic lined! Coffee to go? Those paper cups and paper sugar sachets are also plastic lined!
And so it goes throughout the day till you return home sweaty and malodorous because you didn’t apply your plastic packed deodorant clutching a cardboard box of eggs and the only unpackaged veg you could find in Lidles! Which isn’t even a vegetable but an unripe avocado.
How fantastic then to stumble across people who have already sourced a range of plastic free alternatives and listed them in their blogs! But we need more.
Why?
Well some solutions like solid shampoo from Lush can be accessed UK wide but many are local. There is only one place as a far as I know that does plastic free olive oil in West Yorkshire. Great news for people in Todmorden but it stills leaves the good folk of Folkstone in a quandary! More people have to list their local plastic free sources to create a network of plastic free shopping blogs.
And blogging isn’t just about sharing information but also indicates that there is a market for different products, natural products that can be composted and unpackaged products that don’t result in a bin full of everlasting trash. I don’t want my courgettes presented on a plastic tray swathed in clingfilm but unless I blog about it, only my long-suffering husband knows how displeased I am.
(For Uk based plastic free resources check out http://www.plasticisrubbish.com)
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The plastic wrapped veg on polystyrene trays really get to me too!! Especially when it’s the organic produce in supermarkets that’s wrapped 😦 I rarely step foot in supermarkets these days, I do all my shopping at small local weekly markets and it’s great 😀
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Hi Jasmin,
Thank you for your comment. I have barely been in supermarkets for years I avoid them as much as possible, but when I´m with friends it´s different. It´s also interesting just to walk around and see… before running for the hills! Give me a local market any day. 🙂
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Thank you Pam for your comment and your support. I’m for one happy you blog your blog has helped me out a lot over the years. I’m happy to have finally joined the other bloggers out there!
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