Plastic Free For A Fortnight?

Overwhelmed by the amount of single-use plastic in her weekly shop Debbi Marco decided to change her ways and make her life more environmentally friendly

As I stuff yet another plastic bag in the bin from my weekly shop, my eight-year-old son, Sam, looks on disapprovingly.

‘That’s just going to go in the ocean and kill all the fish,’ he tells me.

My daughter, Matilda, five, chimes in too, ‘Don’t you care about the environment, Mummy?’

I always take my own bags to the supermarket, but when it comes to fresh produce, it’s either pre-packed in plastic or there is only the option of a plastic bag to put it in. I look more closely at the rest of my shop. The bread’s wrapped in plastic, and so are the beef and chicken slices I’d bought for the kids’ sandwiches. The chicken I’d got for dinner – more plastic, even the bags of rice and pasta were in plastic. Not to mention the rolls of clingfilm, along with bottles of shampoo and hand soap.

My husband Matt and I both feel guilty at how much plastic we’ve been using without realising it. Even the kids are keen for me to think about the environment more.

There had to be some environmentally-friendly solutions that wouldn’t cost me the earth or see me running to five different shops and markets.

I set myself two weeks to see if I could reduce the amount of single-use plastic we used. Here’s how I got on…

CHALLENGE: Chucking out the clingfilm