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Day Seven and it's the last day of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge We certainly won't miss the extra hours spent searching for plastic free items. It certainly did take a lot of extra time but there's no doubt we learned where to get and where not to get things in future.
Today we got our dry cleaned item back from Elite Cleaners in a nice paper bag with no fuss.
Next for a bit of ham from the Meat Boutique and again not an issue packaged in a little tin foil, In fact we were so impressed we bought a Quiche as well!
Went to Supervalu to look for a lettuce and some salad things. Determined to remove plastic covering and present lettuce at counter on it's own but bar code was on the plastic and didn't really want any more explaining so sadly did without the salad!
Couldn't last any longer so today was a day for shower gels and shampoos etc and there is no escape from plastic heaven short of perhaps not washing your hair. Even using soap is out as soaps are in their plastic wrappers! Felt bad more than doubling our weeks plastic intake in one foul sweep but it had to be done.
What did we learn - Well shopping plastic free really is a vocation with frustration, wasted hours and empty wallets all part of the mix.
Yes a certain level of wrapping is needed for packaging, especially un-cooked food but why does it need to be plastic? Why it is perceived that something in a cardboard box also needs another plastic inner wrapper.
Why is it thought that fruit packaged in plastic is cleaner. After all the fruit had to be picked by human hands and should be washed before eating anyway!
Why can items like lettuce not be sold loose like they used to be. A plastic bag does not make it cleaner!
Lastly to shop plastic free costs a fair bit more money. Loose buns, fruit, meat etc etc all costs more. This could be the ultimate reason why more people don't make the effort!
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Day Six of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge and we are on the home straight!
It's beginning to occur to us that striving to be as plastic free as possible really makes you part of a tiny minority, albeit a minority that is increasing all the time, but you really can be made to feel that you aren't half wise, when potentially it's one of the wisest and most logical decisions to make.
There's a massive industrial effort out there to give us as much throw-away material as possible when we purchase our essentials, and the vast majority of it is non recyclable plastic that will sit intact in the ground for hundreds of years! - and yet when you strive to reduce your own personal amount, most people don't seem to 'get it' and think you're quite strange!
Day Six took us back to Fiveways and on the menu was fish, chicken, tinned tuna, bread, fruit. Got some lovely smoked fish and managed to get it in an foil tray but it ended up covered with cling film so not plastic free. Fruit wise, loose bananas did the job. Rest of stuff straightforward.
We have discovered this week that it would be impossible for us to live plastic free. It is all encompassing, It is though possible to greatly reduce your waste levels, despite cashiers thinking it strange that you are arriving at checkout with loose vegetables etc. Perhaps if more people did it, there might just be a rethink on the part of the retailers.
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Day Five of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge and it's getting more difficult by the day. Didn't count the past two days as the sum total of purchases was a newspaper and a tube of toothpaste, unfortunately plastic!
Today it was Milk, Fresh Cream, Bread, Spaghetti, peppers and Salmon steaks and also had to leave a pair of trousers to the Dry Cleaners.
Suitably packed in a plastic bag, (and yes it's one we have used many times) we headed to Elite Cleaners in Hill Street and we are assured that we won't be getting any additional plastic covering when we pick them up.
Supervalu was the location once again for the groceries and while the milk came in a tetra pack carton with a plastic spout, same as the one we got last week, the cream was impossible to get without plastic so we had to bite the bullet and buy it. At least it's the same recyclable plastic as the Milk Bottles.
Peppers were fine as was a bread baguette from Lidl just in a pure paper bag.
Spaghetti unfortunately was another item impossible to buy without plastic wrapping so we had to add to our small mound of plastic once again.
Who would have thought it would be difficult to get a couple of Salmon steaks on a Monday! Supervalu don't do the fish thing on a Monday and after trying Lidl we just gave up as frozen steaks were the only ones available and with all that plastic around them, they just didn't seem that necessary any more. Change of plan for dinner ....
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Day Four of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge
After a mad busy Thursday where no shopping whatsoever could be fitted in, Friday has certainly made up for it. We're entertaining tomorrow so shopping was certainly a lot more challenging.
Apart from the grocery shopping it was fish and chip takeaway night so the Genoa got a call. Initially we thought it would have been an easy one as they place their fish suppers in cardboard boxes and chips in paper bags but as luck would have it our order of three fish and two large chips meant that polystyrene trays were going to be used, until we asked for them not to and they just wrapped all in paper - the old way of course. A bit of a different way of doing things for the girl on the till but done with a great smile.
Today for the first time this week, a little bit of plastic has crept into our shopping. 5 very small items to be precise but no way to avoid. The plastic pourer on a carton of cranberry juice, also same on carton of Avonmore ordinary milk and the lid of worcestershire sauce bottle. We also were looking a selection of cheeses but nowhere could we find them plastic free until we came across Fivemiletown Cheese in cardboard wedges but when we got them home they were wrapped in plastic inside! (All in the interest of full disclosure)
A busy days shopping, taking in Curtis Butchers, Sunray, Philips's, Sainsburys, Tescos, Shelbourne, The Wine Company and Fiveways and all walking. This plastic challenge is making the weight fly off us!
We knew getting two pounds of steak pieces would be a challenge but taking our own empty tupperware container was not a problem for Curtis Butchers. Phillips's for the fresh vegetables was very easy with a large basket of loose veg for a fiver but nearly got caught at the till though as assistant was about to put everything in plastic bags before weighing them, so we had to put a halt to that.
A great selection of buns in Sunray wasn't a problem. Did see a nice pavalova but unfortunately the plastic base and dome over it meant it had to stay there. Hence back to the Shelbourne and a tasty plastic free pavalova. It was hard though to see all the extremely tempting reduced cakes and buns in the Shelbourne, but as they were all wrapped in beautiful shiny plastic we couldn't take any of them home with us!
Finding a bottle of lemonade in Sainsburys proved difficult but we got there along with lots of jars of sauces. Looking for biscuits both there and in Tescos just proved impossible and we decided maybe we didn't really need them anyway.
One observation today is that Heinz and HP seem to be moving their sauce bottles to plastic with glass ones in short supply.
The Wine Company wasn't an issue with thankfully plastic wine containers few and far between. Lastly finding a 1.5L tetra pack of Avonmore in Fiveways with just the tiniest bit of plastic as the pourer ended a long days shopping.
What we are finding already this week is that it takes twice as long to shop when you are cutting down on the plastic and also can prove more expensive.
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Day Three of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge.
We are running a bit late with the shopping today as just back from a meeting, but Fiveways was the latest destination on the circuit this evening. Simple shopping list tonight birthday card, toothpaste, fish, potatoes, Broccoli, cheese for sauce.
Well let me announce first of all, if you're expecting a 30th birthday card from us in the next month or so, sufficient to say we didn't get it tonight, as every single card in the very impressive display was wrapped in plastic.
We weren't holding up much hope on the toothpaste front and truthfully it looks like the tube we have, will have to last a little longer. Really don't want to start with the baking soda ...
Just missed the lovely Fiveways fresh fish counter unfortunately so had to settle for something from the freezer and a box of frozen fish did the trick. Obviously we are hoping the fish didn't injest any plastic when it was swimming about in the ocean as has been highlighted by recent investigations.
With the potatoes though we were on to a winner. Had noticed earlier in the week on our travels that the only way we were going to get the spuds in, was to buy a larger 5 or 10kg paper bag of them, but every bag we saw had see-through plastic mesh on the front - Until tonight when we discovered a perfect, all paper 10kg bag of Kerrs Pinks for just £3.99. If we were strong enough we could have bought two, but the walk home with one was excercise enough! It looks like Spuds with everything for the next while!
Broccoli was easily found loose in the Fiveways fruit and veg aisle but as seems to be the trend everywhere it was much more expensive, at £1.79 per kg compared to the lovely plastic wrapped ones beside them (that to our non expert eyes looked exactly the same) for £59p per 500g or £1.18 per kg. Which begs the question, are plastic wrapped cards cheaper than non plastic wrapped ones too?
Lastly finding cheese for a tasty sauce for the Broccoli proved impossible with all the cheeses on display wrapped in beautiful colourful plastic. We will have to try elsewhere tomorrow.
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Day Two of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge showed us just how easy it is to gather plastic without even thinking. Fresh from a brand new tooth filling at Yew Tree Dental Practice (Thanks Michelle) what else would you be thinking of apart from a few lovely sweets.
And so it was to Timoneys we went where lo and behold not only were there Raspberry Ruffles but also lovely sounding Mint Ruffles which were just crying out to be tried, so after very 'careful' consideration we opted for a mix of a quarter of both. It was not to be though! As soon as the jars came off the shelf, they were hastily put back on when we realised, yes of course ... Raspberry Ruffles have plastic wrappers! Needless to say the Cinnamon chews are proving quite a delicious alternative but may necessitate a quicker return to YewTree!
It was a small shopping day as all we needed was something for a sandwich so Dunnes Stores at the Creamery Quarter got a shout.
Forgot to say, yesterdays shopping list included natural yoghurt - for the porridge you understand but after much searching we had just given up on the idea that we would ever source non plastic packed yogurt. You can imagine then the excitement seeing natural yogurt in glass jars with foil tops in Dunne's, yes we are easily pleased! We'll need to wait till tomorrow to see if the fact that it's goats milk is an issue!!! The glass jars will certainly come in useful for sauces or dips.
A few slices of Brady Family Ham carefully packed in paper as it used to be, along with a single red onion made for a most delicious sandwich at lunch time.
The lady at the butchery counter wasn't immediately sure how to deal with our 'unusual' request but quickly suggested the paper option.
One thing I did notice on my wanders around Dunnes was the push to sell eggs in plastic containers as an alternative to the traditional paper cartons. 70% of the display had the plastic ones on offer with only 30% of space given over to the traditional egg cartons.
A red flag for later in the week is starting to appear though, with the possibility that we may not be able to obtain milk or the essential toilet rolls at all as there seems to be no options to purchase these items without their plastic container/ wrapper. Lets just hope supplies hold out.
Anyone got any ideas or will we be newspaper bound ...
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It's Day One of the Newry.ie Plastic Challenge and overall it has been a fairly straightforward day with all our needs met locally although cost certainly is an issue. We have decided to try a week obtaining as little plastic as possible along the way. The fact that many many plastics aren't recyclable and don't degrade was enough of a motivation for us to see how easy it is to live a normal life in Newry minus the plastic packaging!
Today's short shopping list was Bread, Carrots, Parsnips, Apples, Oranges, Chicken Pie, sausages, Buns so along with our reusable shopping bags off we went ...
First call today was at Supervalu in Hill Street in Newry. Bread was straightforward with waxed paper wrapping on the loaf. Loose carrots and parsnips again weren't an issue, but the fact that you seemingly always have to pay more for loose produce than for the same product packed in plastic bags, and sometimes in plastic bags with a polystyrene tray is just not on. Whatever the reason behind it or the sales model used we can't help think that it's just wrong and instead of encouraging people to leave plastic behind, it encourages it's use!
Supervalu certainly isn't alone in this though as it seems widespread everywhere. At 69p per kilo for loose class 1 carrots against 47p per kilo for exactly the same product bagged it just seems ridiculous. Oranges were even worse. We had wanted four ordinary oranges but saying they were almost twice the price of the plastic packaged ones at 45p each compared to 99p for 4, we decided two would do us. I know they were larger but we would have been very happy with smaller ones if we had the choice.
Supervalu did have very nice looking pies loose on foil bases so we will know for again but unfortunately it's very hard for us to go past William Baird's Chicken pie so we decided we would try them with our plastic free challenge.
Before the butchers, a sweet fix was on the shopping list and without any complications whatsoever we managed to get half a dozen lovely buns from the Shelbourne in a paper bag as usual.
On to Baird's in Canal Street and their cooked chicken pies were off our shopping list as they are boxed with a clear plastic top but fair play to them, they sold us an uncooked one wrapped up in a paper bag. An additional ten minutes or so cooking time will sort that out, in fact a delicious smell is wafting towards me as I type!
Home made Cumberland sausages again in a paper bag and stored in a different shopping bag helped us tick that off the list.
The local shops we visited today certainly didn't have a shortage of loose produce but it seems that we the shopping public have been encouraged to see loose products as "premium" and therefore we will pay more for them. If any of you know a place in Newry that charges less for loose product don't be afraid to let us know.
Newry.ie's campaign is inspired by many other local and national campaigns. The Friend's of the Earth #Sickofplastic campaign has been the latest one to catch our eye. See www.irishtimes.com to see how a campaign went on Saturday past, where people were encouraged to leave the plastic packaging from their purchases behind in the shop.
Please feel free all week to pass on any tips you use to reduce your plastic consumption or any local shops that make it easy to dispense with plastic.
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With potentially a lot of snow on the way from the so called "Beast from the East" it reminded me of the last and only 'big snow' I experienced in my life in January 1982.
Living at the time down a half mile long lane at Mavemacullen between Loughgilly and Clare, Tandragee there was no escape from the weather. We ended up cut off for quite a while with the combination of a persistant bout of heavy snow and strong winds causing heavy drifting and hedges trapping the snow from escaping.
I remember my father having to walk through snow that had reached the top of the hedge on our lane, to get a gas cylinder and other supplies at John Acheson's shop at Eleven Lane Ends.
My brother had left Belfast from work early on Friday, no doubt due to the incoming weather and had made it to just over half a mile from home before his Citroen car, (the one with the wonderful rising suspension) decided to give up and ended up in a snow drift higher than the car itself - Of course it made a great photograph for his snapper of a brother. I really thought I had made the big time when I saw them on the front and back page in the Armagh Guardian the following week and even one had made it inside!
If you have any stories from your own memories of the big snow of 1982 of how it affected Newry we would love to hear them from you below or via email to news@newry.ie
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