Well I am not sorry the plastic challenge is over, it was a challenge that I failed almost everyday! The struggle to find fruit and veg, seeds and nuts not in plastic was pretty overwhelming and made shopping miserable. Even on days when I didn’t leave the house plastic seemed to often present itself amidst layers of packaging in parcels. I spent a great deal of time having dilemmas such as whether to go organic but have the product in plastic. Or driving to a range of shops such as bakers, farm shop or greengrocer increased my carbon footprint, rather than if I had just driven to the supermarket. I often used to buy refills as they had less packaging but inevitably that seems to be made of plastic!

So what have I learned? ….I will keep vigilant about excess packaging and I will email Supermarkets to ask about their policies on plastic and discover if they are looking to try materials such as the cornstarch cellophane or the seaweed plastic rings that are compostable or biodegradable.

We must keep things easy for people e.g paper bags or compostable bags should be given out where plastic bags are currently given away by shops (or sold for a minimal amount). Shops like Marks and Spencer should have scales at every till point to weigh loose produce.

I feel I must end on a postive note. I intend to flag up good packaging regularly and hope little by little things will change!