Zero Waste Week starts at lunchtime!

So I just found out it’s zero waste week in UK, and some other European countries, starting tomorrow. The website calls for pledges  — so sign up here if you’re game!

I’d not heard of Zero Waste Week until recently, and I was initially a little put off by the name. Zero Waste? How can I do that? But then I realised this was a classic ‘all or nothing’ thinking pattern and that really the only important thing is that we all do something!

So my small contribution is going to be with my weekday lunches.

Old habit: I mostly bring my own or I get takeaway from the canteen and bring it back to my desk. Both of these styles of lunch involve unnecessary packaging. My own lunch has plastic wrappings around my sandwiches and I’ve got into the habit of making my coffee with individually wrapped coffee bags. Canteen takeway involves a cardboard box and plastic cutlery.

New habit: For packed lunch I’ve invested in some smart metal food boxes (I have this irrational hatred of plastic food boxes that’s nothing to do with plastic migrating into my food, though that’s also a bit freaky and To Be Avoided), for coffee I’m returning to using a glass cafetiere jug as I used to (and just exercising willpower to stop myself making/drinking the entire pot — the reason I stopped using it!).

And takeaways from the canteen — well, I’m going to try to eat on a real plate with real cutlery actually in the canteen, and not back at my desk. I hope this doesn’t mean I’ll end up taking my laptop to the canteen, rather than my food to my desk?! If I go the whole hog (inappropriate phrase 😉 !) I’d like to couple this with some mindful eating and taking a break from work in the middle of the day. But I might be, er…, biting off more than I can chew all in one go.

More generally I was excited to hear recently that our local council accepts more forms of plastic than I realised, so I’m already upping my plastics recycling and thinking twice about what plastics come ‘free’ (!) with things I buy. There’s plenty of scope here if I can be bothered to think about it. And that’s surely the aim of Zero Waste Week.

Final thought: A Lazy Girl Goes Green just posted a great piece with a thought-provoking infographic about water consumption, so this might inspire you to see where you could try saving, if my lunch dilemmas don’t apply.

Is anyone else in?