Since July 1st was on a Thursday, I’m counting the end of this week as the end of Week 1. Unfortunately, I forgot all about it, and had already purchased food for delivery. Where I live, we are fortunate to be able to recycle most of our plastic waste. For the sake of transparency, I will discuss the items that can be recycled, along with that can only go to landfill. What won’t be included is medical waste and anything that was purchased prior to the start of Plastic-Free July.

There are a few things that I’ve bought in plastic that I typically wouldn’t: Takeaways- dim sum to be exact, and a tea from the local boba shop. And, my partner surprised my with some chilaquiles from a new place that opened up, which I’d been wanting to try. The food was okay. Don’t think I’d get anything from them again. In a normal scenario my food would be put in containers brought from home, as would any drinks. With the current rules, even though places are slowly accepting reusables again, only a lone Starbucks near me has started to do that. The cup from the boba shop, minus the lid, is something I will continue to use. The lid was recyclable and went in the bin, along with the food containers and couple of cups from Starbucks. The food containers from the chilaquiles place was all recyclable, where I live, as well. They was a mix of plastic and cardboard. Do I think plastic containers have a purpose? Yes, especially when they are made from 100% (or close to) post-consumer recycled plastic. In my opinion, keeping up a recycle program, taking into consideration the environmental factors, is better than continuing to deplete natural resources. That being said, I still prefer alternatives, my favorite is recycled glass, to plastic in most cases. Food aside, we’ve bought very little. We both needed undies, and I bought a second pair of period underwear. They are nice, but they have one fatal flaw–that will be for another post.

So, the final tally for this week:

Plastic Recycled

2 x dressing cups with lids

4 x lids

2 x Starbucks cups

Plastic Trashed

0 pieces

Total Plastic for Week 1

8 pieces

Not too bad. I honestly thought I would have had at least double that amount. Bulk bins are still closed here, and stores have allowed reusable produce bags. Well, if there is an issue with it, they’ve never said anything. How did you first week of Plastic-Free July go? What are you looking to do in the weeks to come?

Peace & Love, always!