This article was written for Annabel & Grace, which is now part of Rest Less.
Milk & More: I love any service that delivers and takes the strain out of shopping and so I was so happy to hear that the milkman has made a comeback. I listened to one milkman from Cardiff being interviewed on Woman’s Hour and he explained that it was the TV programme, The Blue Planet, that had woken everyone up to looking at how to reduce their use of plastic packaging and since then he has had such a surge of enquiries and registrations. Of course when everyone moved over to supermarket shopping then milk producers started to use plastic cartons as they are lighter to carry home. I went on to this website and typed in my postcode and up popped this message
Terry also delivers bread, fruit and vegetables, bacon, eggs, organic oats, butter and yoghurt, juices, teabags, household goods and so the list goes on and as they say it includes over 200 exceptional items.
“At Milk & More, we are passionate about encouraging people to eat well and live sustainably. We do this by championing smaller suppliers who we trust to provide the very best products for us to deliver to you.”
Most importantly they take the glass milk bottles away when you put them out and sterilise them before using them again. After 25 uses approximately they re-cycle the glass into new bottles. Milk & More have invested in brand new electric floats so they are contributing to reducing diesel emissions. The clink of milk bottles up the garden path first thing in the morning is a sound I have missed and now it can return.
Following on from this, since I now live in a household of just two from Monday to Friday, perishable goods such as bread and fruit, particularly in our central heated houses, can deteriorate faster than we can eat it. So I tend to package my bread into freezer bags of 4 slices and take a bag out every 2 to 3 days. That way I eat the whole loaf eventually. I do a similar thing with fruit and when it is starting to perish I take a bag and put in a handful of berries, a banana, perhaps some spinach or kale and then I have the ingredients for a smoothie and I take one bag out each morning.
Of course plastic water bottles are environmental suicide and you cannot be seen swigging from one without feeling a pang of guilt and some person watching you and quietly tutting. So buy yourself a reusable bottle. Swell produce beautifully crafted, non-leaching & non-toxic fashionable reusable bottles which are helping to reduce the 200 billion a year plastic bottles that go to landfill sites globally. Keeping your drink cold for 24 hours or your hot drink warm for 12 hours, these bottles are durable and made from stainless steel. Perfectly contoured to fit in your hand, and the new wide mouth shape, the Traveller, is optimal for a cup of coffee or adding ice cubes to your favourite beverage. It is also a much better size for your handbag.
We all now carry shopping bags in the car rather than pay the 5p at the supermarket but how often have you been caught out shopping in town and needed a bag for a few things. I now have an Eco chic bag permanently in my handbag. It is waterproof and it folds away into another much smaller bag. However I keep the latter for dog treats as it has a little popper fastening and it is perfect for carrying around when I am walking the dogs.
Please let us and all our readers know of any other tips that you have for saving the planet by adding a comment at the bottom of this post.