Can we address the elephant in the room?
As we guiltily bring home our plastic wrapped items and takeaway coffee cups, the new rules surrounding COVID19 have made life a bit trickier for those of us who were trying to minimise our impact on the environment.
Last week we visited Harris Farm in Leichhardt, usually a stronghold of plastic-free packaging, and were surprised to see that we were the only people in the store still using our mesh bags. In fact, one particularly cautious customer, wearing a paper mask, was using two plastic bags as gloves to put her fruit and veg into a third. She then discarded her glove bags after each item and got new ones. I kept my requisite 1.5 metres away and refrained from comment. People are very frightened, and I’m certainly not going to judge anyone for doing what they feel they need to in order to stay safe at this time.
Then there are the official instructions to wash our hands for 20 seconds. We have lever taps in the kitchen thankfully, but I’m troubled by all the times a tap has to be left on for 20 seconds while folks are lathering up. Parts of our state continue to be in severe drought and strict water restrictions still apply – I’m not sure how rural folks are coping with these directives.
But on the flipside, the environment appears to be thriving with most of humanity in lockdown. For the first time in 30 years, the Himalayas are visible from the northern Indian state of Punjab, due to an unprecedented reduction in air pollution. The photo below is from this CNN article…
Paradoxically, even though we’re bringing in more plastic packaging than we have in the last couple of years, our weekly rubbish output is actually slightly less than it was before lockdown. Which made me realise that a determining factor in the amount of waste we produce is not just what we buy, but how often we buy it.
We’re only shopping for fruit, vegetables and groceries once every nine days or so. The beeswax wraps are making a huge difference – using them means loose leaves and spring onions go the distance between shopping runs without turning to mush. Even more importantly, our approach to food has shifted slightly – we didn’t throw out much in the past, but now almost nothing gets wasted. As we’re all at home, leftover dinners become lunches the following day, single portions get stashed in the freezer, yesterday’s roast becomes tomorrow’s nachos.
Pete has managed to perfect his soldier fly hatchery – I’m sorry, but you’ll have to Google or YouTube on how to make one, as it’s too complicated for me to describe and I don’t really understand how it works anyway. I had a quick look and found this Gardening Australia fact sheet on them.
This is Pete’s second attempt, and my only contribution has been to sew seams as directed. It’s made almost entirely from recycled materials (I think he bought a honey tap for it), including the boys’ old toy box, shade cloth from Reverse Garbage, a leftover bit of roofing and two used kimchi containers.
In our backyard, particularly in the warmer months, it works brilliantly. Much better than the Bokashi bucket. The soldier fly larvae voraciously gobble up all sorts of food scraps and leftovers, and then pupate into what can only be described as chicken crack – the hens completely lose their minds for them. We had at least 30 little pupae to feed them yesterday. Coupled with our two worm farms, almost no food scraps other than bones and avocado pips end up in the red bin these days.
At home, we’re doing our best to toe the sustainability line – we’re still using our cloth napkins, teflon baking sheets and crocheted dishcloths. All the neighbourhood bakes are going out wrapped in paper. I have had to use plastic bags to share bread flour, because exploding paper bags loaded with kilos of wholemeal are never a good thing. Buying in bulk and decanting continues to work well – we end up with one large plastic bag which we try to reuse, rather than ten small ones. And we’re still taking our reusable mesh and cloth bags to the shops when we do go.
Ordering in has been tricker – we had an arrangement with our local Japanese restaurant to provide them with our own platter, but that’s temporarily on hold as all food outlets are obliged to use disposable serving ware at present. That means we’re not able to take our own KeepCups to cafes either – as a result, I’ve only had three takeaway coffees since lockdown began. And even though I’m keen to support our local restaurants, we haven’t ordered many takeaway meals – partly because it’s never quite as good as the food we make at home, and partly because Small Man gets very distressed by all the single use plastic coming into the house.
Going out so infrequently means we’re using less than half the petrol we were pre-lockdown. And as we’re not going anywhere, clothes are getting washed less often, shoes aren’t wearing out, and bad hair days have given me the perfect excuse to don increasingly bizarre hats.
As you might recall, we had solar panels installed at the end of last year, and a Tesla battery at the start of 2020.
So far, it’s been fantastic. It used up the funds we’d been saving for a new car, but it was well worth it – since the battery was installed, we’ve achieved carbon neutrality (just) in electricity terms. We’ll still have a utilities bill to pay, because we’re charged three times more for the power we draw down from the grid than for the kilowatts we send to it, but that’s okay – our motives for making the shift were never purely financial. We won’t be able to perform as well in winter, but it’s encouraging to know that it’s definitely making a difference. Here are our stats at the time of writing…
Hmm. It’s always good to write this stuff down. It’s been simmering in the back of my brain for a while now, but it’s nice to have an opportunity to put my thoughts in order.
So here’s what I think.
During this slightly crazy time, we can only do the best we can in unprecedented circumstances. There’s nothing to be gained from beating ourselves up over things which are outside our control. Instead, let’s continue to nurture our green mindsets and try to make sustainable choices from the options presented to us. We can’t buy loose salad leaves at the moment, but that’s ok. What we can do is make them last longer by storing them carefully and not wasting any of them. We can support our communities and be more waste-conscious at home, particularly if we find ourselves with a bit more free time. And we can take the lessons we’re learning during this crisis – on frugality, kindness and creativity – and use them to live richer and more rewarding lives post-lockdown.
I hope you all have a lovely, gentle day, dearhearts. Thank you for letting me ramble on. ♥
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Yes, nurture our green mindsets! I love you and your rambling mind :) And my daughter baked a great loaf with your instructions despite the fact it was 103F/39.4C where she lives!!
thank you.
I’ve been struggling with how to support local cafes and restaurants on one hand, but the waste on the other. I’m with Small Man and just can’t bring myself to get takeaway with all the plastic containers. Last night we finally finished up all our fresh food, so we’re going to order a pizza tonight – I can deal with putting the pizza box in the compost or recycling! It’s such a conundrum, I really want to help local businesses but it’s so hard to break years’ worth of habits!
I think single use products will be necessary until we can vaccinate against Covid19. Manufacturers of single use products will have to rise to the challenge and make them ALL biodegradable.
Still so much is unknown and yes it frightens the bejesus out of me especially as I suffer with auto-immune disorders and heart problems. ‘Stand with your face to the Sunshine and the shadows will fall behind you”
Celia, thank you for your posts every morning, they are always wonderful whether funny, thought provoking, inspiring, informative … you are a real treasure always looked forward to and greatly appreciated, more so than ever in this time of pandemic and people’s sometimes irrational or outrageous reactions to same.
Congratulations on your carbon neutrality re electricity, would love to have solar panels, maybe this year.
Thankyou
Celia, sounds like a pretty balanced approach. We don’t eat out a lot anyway and, though I’d like to support local restaurants, we haven’t brought in any takeaway meals. It’s been strictly home cooking since all this started.
Thanks so much for your wise words and encouragement. It’s perplexing that our current circumstances have changed the trajectory of my attempts to improve sustainably. Our farmers market is closed for now so shopping (quickly) at my local grocery store has meant an increase in packaging. And, although in NZ we can now order coffee and takeouts, I’ve completely lost the taste for them because of the non-disposable containers but I feel guilty not supporting our local cafes. However the desire to ‘make do’ has certainly been piqued by these times. I love your blog and learn heaps from it. Thank you.
It’s been lovely to read your ramble. I so love to see your sustainability in action. Our shopping habits have changed a lot. It’s like we’ve been preparing for covid19 for years. From city to country living and since we’ve been here our consumption has gone from on demand, takeaways, eating out and supermarket at least weekly to fortnightly, then 3 weekly… Here in the village we eat mainly at home anyway but since covid19 supermarket visits are now at least 5 weekly with small veg and fruit top ups from local growers or the co-op and eating exclusively at home, focusing on using what we have in our pantry and freezer… which is always well stocked by necessity. We’re fortunate to have chooks although dropping egg numbers are of concern… hopefully the 4 new hens will start laying soon. I think we are better off. When we shop we are only replacing what we use, and we’re using less, so less is coming in.
If you know someone who dyes wool naturally they would love your avocado pips to dye with. We are not coffee drinkers ,no problem there and the foxes roaming around the house at night yapping puts off getting chooks again also with the grandchildren living in Qld.we do try to go there at least once a year for about 6 weeks.and hard to get reliable secure chook feeders where we live.still most goes into the compost not that much in the bin.and when making a meal for my son the other night to take home didnt have a plastic bag for him to put it in in his new car,chilli con carne hope it got home without spilling.
Avocado seeds and skins are most useful for ecodyeing., I pop them into freezer bags and eventually do a cook up with vintage laces for use on my homemade cards, crazy patchwork. They yield the most gorgeous vintage pink colour.
Just a FYI….in Arizona USA we are no longer allowed to bring in our own bags etc into a grocery store at all. The only option is to use their plastic bags or have your groceries loaded back into your cart with no bags. This is what I do and reload everything into my bags when I get to the car. It is no big deal to do that but don’t see many people doing it. I wish the cashier would tell the people they do have a choice.
As you know, the single use plastic in Tokyo used to drive me mad and now it’s ramped up 100 times worse. Eugh. But it won’t be forever. This too shall pass…..
I always love your sustainability posts. They are always inspiring and thoughtful and kind. It such an interesting issue during the Covid19 crisis. The lack of plane flights must have a huge impact. However I read that the global emissions will bounce back and that one bad thing about the crisis is that the international glasgow emissions meeting was cancelled so countries wont be held accountable.
One of my big concerns is all the online purchases. I bought a couple of games online and was horrified at all the plastic packaging. It makes me look forward to buying what I want in the shops with my own bags.
It also reinforces something I have experienced and reflected on – that when we are stressed it is hard to be as green as we like because we can revert to old habits or not have time to separate rubbish. And I think that despite some advantages, the global stress over the next few years/generations will not be kind to the environment.
I agree with you, Celia. I think we can only do the best we can in our own individual circumstances, weighing up for ourselves our priorities, capabilities and concerns.
At our place, eating at a restaurant or getting takeaway is a very rare thing as it’s very expensive for us. Today though, I purchased a small iced cake from my local bakery, to share for Mothers’ Day afternoon tea, as a way of supporting this little business. I bought a Mothers’ Day card from my local newsagent and picked up my fruit and veg order that I’m getting through a box scheme that supports local farmers.
These are choices available to me. It’s what I can do but I’m conscious that other people may have to or want to make different choices for a whole variety of reasons.
Meg
I look forward to your writings each morning Celia. This one is especially thoughtful and wise. Here in CA we have to use the groceries bags, thankfully paper which I use in the worm bin or recycle. And in our county the take out meals are in cardboard, not plastic. But, like you I find we are not ordering out very often and we have much less food waste than before. My veggie garden is getting underway and I hope to cut down even more on visits to the grocery store. Stay well and safe.
Totally adore you. Such a kind heart. I’m forever thankful for you sending my first starter and teaching me to make my first sourdough and another starter after we got flooded last year. The world should have more people like you. I haven’t been ok to start one now with flour so low but will soon :) One good thing is we got our veggie garden going after a few years of not using it. I’m going to have things I can’t buy like jicama and wing beans. My first artichoke is growing too!
The plastic thing has been on my mind for a while. While safety is a priority the abandon in the way all plastic reducing initiatives have been thrown out the window is worrying. It’s as though it was only skin deep and everyone needed an excuse! Thoughtful post Celia – really appreciate the way you’ve put it in context.
Thanks for this post Celia, for me it was thought-provoking and nourishing.