In 2020, when the recycling collections stopped for a while, I realised that the only answer was to avoid buying things I could not recycle at home. This meant avoiding all the plastic packaging. I had to step up my game pretty swiftly as my recycling mountain was growing fast!
Finding Incredible Bulk and being able to refill my store jars without using plastic was a big help. They have a wide range of goodies as well as a helpful source of plastic free information and ideas on their website.
To avoid plastic packaging I found I was baking more things at home, such as fruit bars, flapjacks, biscuits, cake. I went back to making hummus and a range of pesto mixes using nuts and pumpkin seeds instead at pine nuts. I stopped buying fruit or vegetables wrapped in plastic, and stopped buying bread, pastry, and pasta. Like many others, I baked bread and found soda bread a great option as I could make it in 20 minutes.
My biggest change was to make my own dairy free milk as I had bags of tetra packs building up in the shed. I had made soya milk before but settled on cashew milk. I did not have heat it and with a good blender, I didn’t have to strain it.
It does take more time, but it has also made our diet healthier. Mum, who was living with us and had dementia, tried each new recipe without hesitation and enjoyed most of it. The meal that stopped her in her tracks was gazpacho soup. She definitely was not going to have cold soup, no matter how hot the weather! Happily she really took to eating soda bread and stopped having the indigestion she had suffered from for years.
I still miss things like crisps, but roast potato skins cooked with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt are a good substitute!