365 days to be greener

About

My name is Sam Mackley and my main roles in life are as a mother to two under fives, slutty housewife to the lovely James and MD of a company selling breastfeeding clothes on the big interweb.

The reason for starting this blog is to track our progress as a family in reducing our plastics consumption over 2010. We have committed to doing one thing a day that will make a difference to our waste production, and I want to record our successes, failures, top tips, links and recommendations on places to shop. There is no plan. There is no strategy. I am going to run out of stuff, buy stuff, break stuff, need stuff and all I am going to do is try and make sure that in conducting all of our usual business, I make a plastic free choice rather than go with my old habits. Then I will record it here. That’s it.

I would say we enjoy the same levels of consumption and waste as most average families. Perhaps we are a bit more abstemious than some as I gave up my job to look after my children and as yet my internet business doesn’t provide anywhere near the income we were used to when I was working. We live on my husband’s salary and we try and do that sensibly.

We recycle what the council lets us, we use a meter to track our power consumption, we compost our own waste…but then we also filled two bin bags with wrapping paper this Christmas and I am petrified at the expense and difficulty of buying my food plastic free…. never mind my toiletries, toys, garden equipment, DIY kit, clothes (buttons / zips?!)…!

The list of things I think I will fail on is all but endless. Hence trying. We love a challenge!

I also found lots of resources on the web but all of them seemed very evangelical and written by people that have been able to simplify their lives in ways I can only dream of. I don’t care about the plastic base in the pizza at the instant when I am buying it – I care that my children will eat it and I know I won’t have the time to make one from scratch that day…another reason to record how we do. I am hoping this will help me in my quest to become more organised and therefore be a more thoughtful consumer. (Why am I shopping for last minute pizzas? I knew they would need to eat – they do it pretty much every day!)

I haven’t conjured up another few hours in the week to deal with the loss of speed and convenience that so much waste is a product of….you won’t hear me suggesting we all make our own muesli for breakfast when if like me you have been up since 5am with a crying baby and have to get a petulant four year old to nursery by 8am, the last thing on your mind is what to do about the plastic bag that the Cheerios come wrapped in!

So, here we go – an honest account of a year of plastic reduction…God help us.

Note to possible contributors – Please, please feel free to comment, advise or vigorously pillory. I am not doing much research prior to starting – if I had time to do that I would cook my own damn pizza as well…if you know a smarter way of doing something that I am experimenting with, please don’t hold back. You could save us all a lot of time and electricity by posting a useful link or top tip, and that makes everyone happy!

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