Why I’m trying to go 100% packaging-free (Part I)
It’s not the obvious.
Although, of course I want to do my bit on an individual level to cut down on personal packaging waste.
It also had nothing to do with London Climate Action Week and certainly wasn’t at all on my radar when I started. Although for me, it does add an extra layer of awareness to the challenge.
Before I go any further, I should definitely add that I’m not there yet!
Just curious. Just trying.
I set off on this journey about a month ago and honestly, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be with my current lifestyle, being on the go a lot. Back in 2021, I did a packaging-free month as part of my Free-From February initiative and managed it relatively painlessly. But then, like everyone else that year, my office was on top of my kitchen!
As I said, I’m trying. I’m trying to unpick comfortable old patterns and train myself to adopt new habits. It’s the least I can do as an Empowerment coach, lol! And despite environmental action being at the core, this was very much intended as a social, organisational and economic experiment.
The impetus came from watching a Robin Greenfield documentary over Easter about his journey into absolute minimalism i.e. offloading all his possessions one by one. Though it started with him exploring his relationship to waste. Well worth a watch.
But then, it got me thinking. How could I organise my work and personal life in such a way that making packaging-free consumer choices actually becomes more not less convenient than so-called convenience options?
How could making the seemingly more awkward choice in fact save me time, money and energy, enhance productivity on a business level, and probably mean I end up eating better too?
All it needed was discipline and structure.
All 😅
Definitely not quite what I had imagined in terms of scheduled food prep. After working a hectic week and having zero desire to spend time in the kitchen at the weekend, particularly in 35°C, I hit inner resistance big-time!
It’s challenging.
I either prepare it myself or go hungry. I exaggerate. I’m fortunate to be able to get loose fruit and veg from the nearby grocers, as well as anything from bulk grains and tea to oils and washing detergents at my local packaging-free store.
The experiment is also providing a great opportunity to connect with neighbourhood stores and community. The reactions are fascinating, and overwhelmingly positive, when I pull out a clutch of pre-used paper bags, foil packaging and jars to store my purchases. Some cashiers don’t immediately clock that the food is from their store.
Admittedly, I probably eat about 4 times as much watermelon in this heat by buying them whole – and with absolute pleasure – but stingy supermarket chopped fruit portions, to me, feel like some of the most wasteful bits of packaging around. Down the hatch in a matter of seconds. The whole meal-deal phenomenon… No comment.
What the experiment has curbed so far (close your ears, Retailers!), is unnecessary impulse buying. It has made the supermarket experience simpler, faster and more streamlined, most of the store being off limits. You look at an environment with fresh eyes when you hone your needs and focus. Rather like fasting.
In this respect, creating healthy consumption boundaries can actually make life simpler and less demanding. That feeling of being overwhelmed by so many kinds of strawberry yoghurt, granola and peanut butter – all same, same but different – Suddenly vanished!
At the moment, I keep homemade vats of iced tea and coffee in the fridge. And they stay chilled if you transport them in a thermos flask rather than buying a plastic or aluminium container – that leaves you with a semi-boiled beverage within minutes.
Sure, it means planning ahead. But for me, it’s more of a question of habit and changing ingrained patterns of behaviour that I only repeat because they’re familiar.
And no, I’m not going to stop eating and drinking out. But I do object to ordering a drink-in coffee, as I did yesterday, and having it arrive in plastic with the sun beating down. The café also only supplies plastic cups for guests who want of swig of water with their coffee, which many do.
I’m sure I wasn’t the only visitor at Reset Connect last week to find it ironic that the café stand in the centre of a sustainability-focused expo space, was geared to a to-go profit mentality, rather than sit-down connection, as the event name implied.
Reset in progress. To be continued.
