This July The Country House Company has accepted the challenge to radically reduce our plastic usage and take part in Plastic Free July. This week, under the encouragement of the newest and youngest member of The Country House Company team, we as an office took part in a Plastic Free lunch. Everyone was assigned the task of sourcing, making and creating different dishes to bring in with strict instructions that the food must not have been bought with plastic packaging around it. Shopping for our lunch was a sobering reality for us all as it was quickly realized that making lunch for nine people without plastic was a harder task then initially believed. However, the spread we achieved today demonstrates that it can be done! We had several quiches, salads, dips, fresh fruit and vegetables (some of which had been procured from a colleague’s garden) pasties and sausage rolls, cold ham, cheese, olives and bread. We all agreed that it was a healthy fresh lunch, far exceeding what we usually have for ourselves and it certainly beat the boring sandwich usually eaten at our desks. Also, we all gathered a further understanding and appreciation of how pressing the plastic issue is and how heavily embedded this material is in our lives. We also realized that going ‘plastic free’ can be achieved with a little time and planning.
This is just the first step in our ‘green initiative’ for July. Already we have orchestrated a product shift allowing our most prevalent contributors of plastic waste to be supplemented with green products that are made of vegetable-based materials and reusable durable alternatives. We will continue to change our habits towards plastic waste and make strides to implement environmentally conscious initiatives into our company. Apparently four of the biggest single-use plastic waste contributors are plastic bags, coffee cups, straws and water bottles which are now banned from the office!
Look out for more green initiatives as we introduce them and join us as we move towards a greener, cleaner future!
No ifs, no buts, no bags, no cups……………….
A couple of tips from our lunch
Take your own reusable container to the meat counter and cheese counter at the supermarket to avoid plastic wrapping, buy the bread from a baker or bakery counter wrapped in paper or in paper bag, more tips to follow.
Marishelle Gibson