Hairshirt? My foot!

Nicola & Pete plus daughters Lola, now 9 and Nell, now 7, spent last year exploring Britain in a carbon-light manner. Our spring 2008 challenge is to give up waste from 24 March to 24 April. Most posts are by Nicola (as it was her silly idea). This is how it’s going:

Shopping requires a few change of habits, but mostly it is quite easy. Here’s three simple changes:

1 MORNING CUPPA: switching to coffee beans hasn’t been much of a hardship. Many shops sell beans and you can get fair trade, organic, whatever you want. I don’t feel bad about grinding them up with our electric grinder as we have chosen an energy supplier, Good Energy, that only provides renewable sourced electricity.

2 TOILETRIES: I found a supplier of package free loo roll at the shop Unpackaged (see pic) in Amwell Street, N1. In theory I could make moisturizer from my larder contents (or dab on a bit of oilive oil). Not everything is possible - the woman who runs Unpackaged promises me that she’s working on a way to provide toothpaste in reusable packaging.

3 SWEET TREATS: I’m choosing cake rather than biscuits (because biscuits have to be made at home these days). As for cleaning up without a napkin, that’s easy, you just lick off the stickyness then wash your hands.

Verdict: the surprising benefit of seeking out zero packaging is our shopping bills have been slashed, and we are eating more healthy food. Sometimes it is even tastier. Phew.