Location:, Belgium

Name: Ellen and Pedro

Week: 1

Personal Info:

Two vegetarian people and two non-vegetarian (;-)) cats, trying already to contain our waste. We shop once every two weeks so we take the challenge two weeks at the time.

Ellen and Pedro’s personal blog:

List of plastic items REFUSED this week. (Yay!)
So far none, we take this as our ‘baseline’ fortnight.

Total items collected: 23

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
2 cola bottles, 3 milk bottles

Items: Nonrecyclable
6 trays of veggie burger
2 packages from veggie sausage
4 trays that contained fruit or vegetables
1 chips container (gift)
2 cookie packages
1 package of cheese cubes
1 butter container
230g plastic wrappers, lids, misc

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
milk bottles – although the organic milk comes in plastic and not in glass, we prefer animal well fare over the glass…tough choice.
cola – there may be cans
pay more attention to misc plastic wrappers of general items
no more fruit in trays

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
packaged cheese cubes

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
we’ll discover along the way

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
Veggie burgers seem to come in plastic containers only, maybe we can buy them separately at the health store.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
Disheartening how much misc plastic we use. Next shopping hopefully we can reduce this waste.