Oh it’s that time of year again. The time of… SWEETIES. Sweeties everywhere! In little metallic or plastic wrappers. In cellophane. And plastic pots for collecting treats, parties with disposable cups and cutlery and plates… Balloons…
It is a single use plastic nightmare (or hell?! Or heaven?!) I cannot in good conscience keep watching blinking documentaries about plastic in the ocean and ignore this in my own life. Plastic plastic plastic. Plastic in gullets, plastic in nests. Plastic in drains, in turtles, in ocean forests, on the ocean floor, in whales.
Sometimes I want to forget about it. Sometimes maybe it has been a week or two since I saw anything that troubled me. Sometimes I feel unmotivated. And sometimes I just want my old life back! The easier one! The more fun one! Being plastic free (or at least aware, if not free) can mean feeling like a fun sponge. It means tutting at things that other people think are AMAZING or LOVELY or KIND or CELEBRATORY. It means wondering why on EARTH those lovely people are buying plastic cups when they could have bought paper ones; how your friends managed to miss the memo about plastic straws; why your family walk around with takeaway cups of coffee and packet sandwiches. It also means staring at balloons and just hating them – how grumpy is that?! It means being agog when people let off chinese lanterns or clumps of helium balloons that will almost certainly litter the ocean until they break up into smaller, more edible yet still indigestible pieces.
Fun sponge.
And now it is Hallowe’en – one of my favourite times of year. And you know why?! Those wonderful little individually wrapped chocolates from cadbury’s that’s why. I LOVE them! And they are great for trick or treaters! And I can take the best ones out first and eat them myself in front of the telly later! YEAH, Hallowe’en!
But not this year, dear friends. This year I cannot buy these. They are dreadful pollutants, easily blown away in the wind and made of a material that will never break down, only ‘up’. So I have not got any in. Instead I have bought some big marshmallows, dipped them in chocolate and sprinkles and will be handing them out instead. Of course, there is packaging with this but no where NEAR as much, and it is recyclable or reusable. This is great for the world! YEAH! Imagine how much room in the world those horrible little chocolate wrappers take up between now and New Year?! Unconscionable.
So, friends, do take a moment to try and think of an alternative to the usual. Marshmallows are easy, fun, everyone likes them and they don’t leak or melt. Big packets of things is also the way forward – a single big pack of haribo, for example, would be better than those multipacks. Until we can all get to a refill store for our treats or pick ‘n’ mix isn’t absurdly expensive we have to make do as best we can. Avoid the teeny wrapped chocolates (don’t get me started on the new kitkat variety pack being advertised. What stupid timing to bring out a new individually wrapped single use plastic product! As if nestle weren’t bad enough. As if kitkats weren’t my favourite chocolate. Sob). Or get big packs of sweets and make twists of them in some tissue paper instead of giving out plastic multipacks. (It would look more thoughtful too.)
Am hoping that in looking forward to what we can do (and be) we won’t have to keep looking back. In the meantime I will keep staring longingly at the celebrations and heroes and quality street and roses tubs in the stores, steel myself and walk on by. I got marshmallows dipped in chocolate at home, s’all good here 🙂
EcoTykki 