Single Use Plastics, Re-using, Re-purposing and Recycling

 

Single use plastics and people talking about them seem to be everywhere I look at the moment.  It's funny isn't it that when you think about something and maybe read about it or watch a programme about it, suddenly it's everywhere.

I was sat mindlessly chewing the legs off my Christmas Gingerbread Man ... you have to eat them legs first so you can say goodbye to his face ... watching a Youtuber teaching me all about re-using plastic bags when I suddenly thought 'you're teaching your granny to suck eggs here'  ...

... because in my kitchen draining over the cutlery tub before being put away for possibly the fifth time was a zip-lock bag, a regular occurrence here in the lodge.

It always makes me smile when I think about how many times I use some things, just take my green Stay Fresh bags from Lakeland for instance.  At £6.99 for just 20 that might seem expensive ... indeed at 35p each it is ... but when you think that I usually have around four on the go at any one time and these get used and used and used until they can longer be used and then they are suddenly very good value.  I can honestly say that I have used each of my current on the go ones more than 35 times each making them less than one penny each.  And thinking of the money they save me by keeping my vegetables fresh for such a long time I have saved so much money.

I remember last year visiting my Mum and she was really upset after watching a programme about cotton buds and their environmental impact when they had plastic sticks.  She had a new pack purchased months before waiting on her table to remind her to ask me what to do with them.  'Should I throw them away' she said 'and get some of the new ones with cardboard sticks'.  It only took me a moment to point out that if she used them one by one as she occasionally did and then throw them away it would be much better than putting the whole tub in the bin and  rushing out to replace them.  They would be thrown away in either instance ... but we should use what we have first. 

And that's just it isn't it, those of us of a certain generation were brought up to use what we have, keep what we buy for so much longer and not to replace things for replacing's sake.  We grew up with the milkman delivering our milk in returnable glass bottles, using our own shopping bags to carry groceries home from the shop.  Having our fresh produce and our fish and chip suppers wrapped in paper, and in the case of the chips it was actually recycled newspaper.  I remember taking a pile of newspapers to the chippy with a friend and being rewarded with a scallop each ... the Manchester version, which is a thin slice of heavily battered potato which was deep fried with the fish and usually for sale at 2d each.

Google Image

I think we were the original re-users, re-purposers and re-cyclers.

Sue xx

Boxing Day Nibbles

 

Boxing Day was lovely, and as good as Christmas Day for us.  

Knowing that Alan had yet to have his final Christmas present gave me something to look forward to and him a lovely surprise.  I had paid for the latest James Bond film on Amazon Prime, and although they are not my cup of tea, making an event of it with a trayful of nibbles and a couple of drinks each made it more than passable.

I had the film ready to roll when Alan came over armed with a plate of meaty nibbles for himself and his pint pot full of beer, and we settled down to almost three hours of action movie, with the dogs watching our every mouthful and being given little dogs treats of their own every so often. 

Then yesterday we had our only visitors of the festive period, with Alan's sister and partner coming for the day from Scotland.  We had a lovely lunch with Alan preparing the soup starter and me making some 'Christmas Leftovers Pasties'  They had specifically asked for non-Christmassy things so soup and pasties seemed ideal.

We also started a new family tradition.  

We had put together a Christmas hamper for them in a tinsel-adorned shopping basket and Alan had delivered it when he went to stay with them at the start of the month ... they returned it yesterday re-filled with Scottish goodies.  Think beer, Irn Bru, Veggie Haggis, Tunnocks Snowballs and Wafers etc etc.  We loved it and after a chat between us all decided that they would get it back next year re-filled with goodies.

Now it feels as though Christmas is over and I am itching to make a start on taking down the decorations.  I will do it in my usual surreptitious way, emptying a shelf here and there and gradually cleaning up as I go along.

I had a brainwave yesterday.  

I had put the now empty advent calendar into the bin ... being of such mixed construction it couldn't even go in the recycling bin ... and I felt guilty, but I knew I did not want to be buying little things to refill it for next year.  Apart from next year being my year of not spending I don't want any more stuff. 

Then the brainwave struck as I was reading the magazine with the bauble picture above  ... what if I put the little Christmas decorations into each of the drawers, filling any gaps I have left with some festive coloured trimmings from my sewing box and then next Christmas as I open each drawer the contents will go onto the Christmas tree or be dotted around once again.  Meaning that over the course of December the Lodge gets gradually more and more festive.

So we have a new family tradition and I have a plan that helps me tidy up after this Christmas and prepare for the next.

Sue xx  🎄