" Would You Like Some Food With Your Plastic? "

Is it even possible to buy food without plastic wrapping?

That old saying:

" Would you like some fries with this? "

should change to:

" Do you want this wrapped in more plastic?"

Burgenland & Austria is fantastic in its recycling of rubbish. We had not been used to it while living in South Africa. When we first arrived here in Burgenland, it was rather daunting, funny & difficult to learn how to separate our rubbish. You know, paper, glass and the ever present plastics. Gosh, seeing the amount of rubbish we generate is mind boggling.

Unlike in S.A. we get given a roster of when each genre of rubbish gets collected. Just in case you think it is anything so silly as weekly, think again. More or less each category / genre of rubbish gets collected every 6 weeks. Yes, 6 weeks...even for the non-recycleable rubbish.

Surprisingly once you filter out the recyclable elements, the rest - rubbish is not that much. A black rubbish bin is ample for a 6 week period. But what scares me the most, is how much plastic we collect in a 6 week period. Bear in mind that we are more mindful of not having a lot of needless plastic when we go shopping.

When you toss rubbish out in one piece ( not having to separate materials ) you don't get a feel for how much plastic there is:

• Milk, yohurt and dairy products...all cased in plastic.
• Store bought bread...cased in plastic.
• A lot of vegetables...cased in plastic.
• Sweets and chocolates....cased in plastic.
• Ice cream....alas also cased in plastic.

It is jolly difficult to shop plastic free. Our way of life is geared towards this. We are more lucky than most because we live in the country side where we can still go to the Butcher, Baker & Dairy with our own basket and containers. Living in a big city makes it is not so easy, although that shouldn't stop us from giving it a go.

Being mindful of not consuming too much plastic should be second nature. All this plastic in our lives can't be good for us or can it? Interesting article in Scientific American.

If you don't recycle your rubbish already, why don't your do your own experiment for a 6 week period. Start collecting any plastic you generate in everyday living...you'll get a rude awakening about the amount of plastic you will have generated / used in that 6 weeks.

Biggi