One woman’s crusade to buy her 5-a-Day plastic-free

To wrap or not to wrap? Here’s the tale of one woman’s crusade to buy her 5-a-Day plastic-free. Member Alyson Green takes up the challenge – how did she fare?

I’m not absolutely sure what started my challenge to myself to see how far I could reduce the amount of single-use  plastic I brought into the house with my weekly shopping, but I think my interest was piqued by an update programme “War On Plastic” fronted by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Anita Rani, then David Attenborough said something about it, and September was round the corner, so it morphed into a month-long challenge to see what I could achieve within the time and the budget I have available every week.

Not having half a dozen kinds of shampoo and ten different types of household cleaner available to reduce, I didn’t see much scope for plastic saving except when it comes to pre-packed fruit and vegetables. Now, I don’t generally believe in re- incarnation but I concede that I might be entirely wrong there and had a previous incarnation as a fruit bat. I can live without many things but fresh fruit is not one of them, and I also account for generous quantities of vegetables.

“Only five?” I thought, when the five-a-day mantra came in. It’s where a sizeable chunk of my non-negotiable food budget goes, and I admit to not paying enough attention to the fact that most of what I was buying came in the kind of plastic which those of us of a certain age would recognise as cellophane. Whatever its scientific name, its most important characteristic is its total non-recyclability, and who knows how long it takes to biodegrade in landfill? So that was my challenge for the month of September – how much of what I would normally buy could I buy without plastic packaging, where could I buy it and within my budget could I buy the same amount or would I need to cut down?

I live in a big town; within a five-mile radius of my house are branches of all the major supermarkets, numerous discounters, even a shiny new M&S Simply Food, so you might think there would be plenty of options. Don’t all the supermarkets pay lip service to reducing plastic by selling loose fruit and vegetables? Yes, if you want to defeat the object by putting it in a plastic bag. My nearest, Morrisons, took away the plastic bags and replaced them with paper – very good, except bag supplies are erratic and in September they had the bright idea of putting a plastic panel in the paper bags. What’s that about? Not a word of explanation on the website.

So what about greengrocers or markets? Scarcer than hen’s teeth. My nearest greengrocer is more than two miles away – it’s averagely priced, not as good as it used to be, and the market is a shadow of its former self. There is a farm shop about three miles away, but the quality is indifferent probably due to lack of turnover and it’s expensive. I haven’t found anywhere to buy an unwrapped stick of celery.

I’m persevering in the face of inconvenience and expense, but, as I suspected, it isn’t for the faint-hearted or the poverty-stricken. No wonder we are drowning in plastic!

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