A Facebook post from the Food is Free Project, encouraging composting, and featuring an article, about it now being illegal to throw food and food waste in the trash in Seattle, sparked a whole chain of thoughts for me as did the lively debate in the comments section left plenty to ponder...
Between our wormery and compost heap all that is left is recyclables and our bin stays mostly empty - that is until visitors come to remind me that not everyone thinks this way ... and after they leave I have to re-educate my impressionable almost-12 year old all over again that mindlessly chucking things in the bin is not cool nor supportive of sustaining mother earth.
Once we started composting and feeding the worms daily another problem emerged - everything in SA is wrapped in plastic and double plastic .... packaging is a real problem. Shops opt for plastic bottles instead of glass, Chris has taken to heart my anti-plastic campaign (everything ends up in the ocean) and when he was allowed to purchase a soft drink over festive season (usually we create our own) he opted for a returnable glass bottle from Robbies in Kenton... he loved the idea of being able to return it, but after two trips to Port Alfred he came home very disappointed as he couldn't find anywhere to claim his deposit, of course we'll go back to where we purchased it but it highlighted again the use of plastic in consumer products.
While our weekly organic veggie purchases do arrive in a box, a few items are in still in plastic bags and Route72's Jo Wilmot and I often chat about the dilemma of even organic fruit and veg arriving at the store in cling-wrapped polystyrene containers and pondering what alternatives there are.
I felt like I'd achieved something mammoth when I went to refill my olive oil container at The Bakery in Kenton-on-Sea/Bushmans last week - well done Mark and Kieren for offering this service (and recommending this delicious SA product) and for using paper packing for wrapping up your artisan breads and other purchase and allowing your clientèle to bring their own egg-boxes to refill their stock.
Lotions, potions, shampoos, you name it all come in non-returnable plastic containers - that is unless like us you opt to create body and earth friendly products for yourself, not entirely cutting out the plastic dilemma but at least minimising it.
Would you opt for shops, where you purchase products by refilling your container, pay for content not packaging ... mmmm this could lead to the next debate about corporates, consumerism, am hearing the capitalist groan even as I type this ... My fantasy is to walk into a store where you buy organic produce in either compost-able (paper short term use/natural cloth bags long term use - think alternative to those nasty thin veggie bags and shopping bags) or refillable and/or returnable containers. If we're going to support local, then perhaps an incentive would be for local producers to encourage returns by offering a little discount upon the next purchase if the client returns the container. Wait my soapbox moment isn't over yet, think local employment, someone has to make those bags with your shops logo sewn (uh-huh - no ink, unless its earth friendly) on to it. Eco-bricks are a great way of re-using plastic bottles already in circulation and indeed there are a variety of great recycled products around but we do need to come up with alternatives that phase plastic out too.
From local restaurants fazing out plastic bottles by offering alternatives and offering predominately locally sourced produce in the strive to becoming sustainable establishments, Kenton-on-Sea is ideally placed to becoming the next South African transition town where organisations and businesses actively champion greener, more ethical practices in line with the already existing Kenton Cares ethos and movement.
But just for today though ... think before your trash food or food waste and have a GREEN day!
Between our wormery and compost heap all that is left is recyclables and our bin stays mostly empty - that is until visitors come to remind me that not everyone thinks this way ... and after they leave I have to re-educate my impressionable almost-12 year old all over again that mindlessly chucking things in the bin is not cool nor supportive of sustaining mother earth.
Once we started composting and feeding the worms daily another problem emerged - everything in SA is wrapped in plastic and double plastic .... packaging is a real problem. Shops opt for plastic bottles instead of glass, Chris has taken to heart my anti-plastic campaign (everything ends up in the ocean) and when he was allowed to purchase a soft drink over festive season (usually we create our own) he opted for a returnable glass bottle from Robbies in Kenton... he loved the idea of being able to return it, but after two trips to Port Alfred he came home very disappointed as he couldn't find anywhere to claim his deposit, of course we'll go back to where we purchased it but it highlighted again the use of plastic in consumer products.
While our weekly organic veggie purchases do arrive in a box, a few items are in still in plastic bags and Route72's Jo Wilmot and I often chat about the dilemma of even organic fruit and veg arriving at the store in cling-wrapped polystyrene containers and pondering what alternatives there are.
I felt like I'd achieved something mammoth when I went to refill my olive oil container at The Bakery in Kenton-on-Sea/Bushmans last week - well done Mark and Kieren for offering this service (and recommending this delicious SA product) and for using paper packing for wrapping up your artisan breads and other purchase and allowing your clientèle to bring their own egg-boxes to refill their stock.
Lotions, potions, shampoos, you name it all come in non-returnable plastic containers - that is unless like us you opt to create body and earth friendly products for yourself, not entirely cutting out the plastic dilemma but at least minimising it.
Would you opt for shops, where you purchase products by refilling your container, pay for content not packaging ... mmmm this could lead to the next debate about corporates, consumerism, am hearing the capitalist groan even as I type this ... My fantasy is to walk into a store where you buy organic produce in either compost-able (paper short term use/natural cloth bags long term use - think alternative to those nasty thin veggie bags and shopping bags) or refillable and/or returnable containers. If we're going to support local, then perhaps an incentive would be for local producers to encourage returns by offering a little discount upon the next purchase if the client returns the container. Wait my soapbox moment isn't over yet, think local employment, someone has to make those bags with your shops logo sewn (uh-huh - no ink, unless its earth friendly) on to it. Eco-bricks are a great way of re-using plastic bottles already in circulation and indeed there are a variety of great recycled products around but we do need to come up with alternatives that phase plastic out too.
From local restaurants fazing out plastic bottles by offering alternatives and offering predominately locally sourced produce in the strive to becoming sustainable establishments, Kenton-on-Sea is ideally placed to becoming the next South African transition town where organisations and businesses actively champion greener, more ethical practices in line with the already existing Kenton Cares ethos and movement.
But just for today though ... think before your trash food or food waste and have a GREEN day!