As January draws to a close I can’t help but reflect on the previous year, and of course now is around the time of year that a lot of resolutions start to go out of the window. In general I don’t make resolutions besides just trying to live a more zero waste lifestyle… and that’s where I need to make a confession: I intentionally purchased some single-use plastic.
Let me back up to the start here and explain the events that led up to my purchase. Back in August my Grandad was diagnosed with a brain tumour and the doctors decided that treatment would be more detrimental in this instance so me, Paul and Grue packed up some stuff and moved back home for a bit to help take care of my Grandad until the end. My Grandad passed away peacefully at his home on the 17th November 2017. According to Hindu tradition the funeral should take place within 12 days, so we held the funeral on the 25th November. More people came to the house in the morning to pay their respects than we had anticipated and when we arrived at the crematorium not only were all the seats full but there were about as many people again standing up – it was nice to see that my Grandad had touched so many people! It was also one of those days where we experienced all seasons in one day: it was very foggy and cold to begin with, there was then a quick flurry of snow. On the drive to the crematorium the sunlight was almost blinding but nice and warm and then later on there was heavy rain and strong winds. Grandad used to love those days!
Anyway, the following morning, on the 26th November my Fitbit battery was low so I put it on to charge and then realised it had been a while since I last let it sync with the app, so I opened up the app and let it do its thing. After a little Sunday morning Snooze I had a quick look at my Fitbit stats and noticed that my resting heart rate had risen dramatically. Normally there are some daily fluctuations but my heart rate seems to have climbed and for just over a week had been fluctuating around the new much higher levels. I suddenly remembered an article I had read in which a man had asked for help in solving why his wife’s Fitbit stats had also done the same thing. Remembering the answer I went to the shop and purchased a home pregnancy test. Actually, I got 2 as there was only 1 type available: a Waitrose own brand twin pack.
The result was positive! Baby Hill is due 3rd August 2018. It’s been a crazy time mourning the loss of my Grandad but then also looking forward to welcoming a new life – still feeling a little torn at times to be honest.
There are a lot of things that will forever be out of my control from now on, but I will certainly do my absolute best to raise this baby with the least amount of environmental impact possible. Standby for future posts about cloth nappies and why we won’t be using plastic baby bottles. On that note, I should say that I will be aiming to post monthly rather than weekly from now on.
On the whole I know 2 little bits of plastic aren’t the end of the world but then I think about all the waste going to landfill and I can’t help but feel guilty. I was so happy when China announced it would no longer take the UK’s plastic waste, I thought it would finally force us, as a nation, to face up to our disposable plastic addiction and make a change for the better. Paul then pointed out that we’re far more likely to find some other developing nation to take our plastic instead… and I’m back to feeling pants about what we’re doing to our planet.
I wish you the very best of luck if you’re still hanging in there with your resolution(s) but I would also like to ask you to make 1 more, right now: please pick at least 1 thing to change towards a more eco-friendly lifestyle – reusable water bottle instead of disposable plastic ones? Can you go the rest of the year home cooking all meals to avoid takeaway/ready meal containers? Can you walk/cycle more? Even take your own reusable coffee cup? There are so many things we can change and over the coming months I’ll be attempting to bring you more ideas for easy changes. I just need you to commit to changing something. Right now we in Britain throw away enough waste to be able to fill the Royal Albert Hall in just 2 hours! That is simply not sustainable, but we can all work together to change that – it all starts with just 1 little change at a time. Lets not bully some small extremely impoverished nation into becoming our dumping ground. Lets not force someone else’s child have to scavenge through our litter to earn a living instead of going to school. Lets take responsibility for our own s**t for once. Lets make it so that the odd bit of disposable plastic (such as a pregnancy test) isn’t one day going to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Lets save the effing planet!
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