Builders

I mentioned earlier that having builders in needing to be fed copious quantities of tea had resulted in me buying milk in plastic bottles. I failed to mention that as they drank their way through all the tea in the house I also needed to buy more tea. Now I'm sure Unpackaged could have supplied me with plenty, but alas I needed tea now. (If I've learned nothing else it's that there may well be plastic free alternatives to many things but they may require planning and not be available to the spontaneous shopper). A perusal of the supermarket shelves for Fairtrade certified tea showed plently of boxes of teabags wrapped in plastic, a few boxes with no plastic wrapping (heads up to Teadirect), and a few unplastic wrapped boxes of loose tea. However I'm assuming all of them would have the bags or the tea in "foil" bags within the boxes and I think the foil is really plastic these days. So there's another fail.

However the bigger way that I've completely fallen down on my plastic free Lent is in the building materials. The builders are actually doing work on my garden and the raised beds are now lined with plastic. So far so 'oh well at least it's for something long lasting'. But alas, deliveries of sand and cement have come in plastic sacks; the brick were shrink wrapped in plastic and the dumper bags full of soil appear to have been dumped in the skip rather than re-used. (Though I'm hopeful that if I post on Freecycle that they're there someone may find a use for them)

So really in the light of all that plastic the odd straw, or drink container lid or Timeout wrapping seems restrained.