“Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And people follow them not because they have to; they follow because they want to.“

Simon Sinek.

Many of you who are reading these weekly posts are possibly wondering – ‘Why has Shea become so passionate with saying NO to plastic bags?’

This image visually sums up my WHY we are refusing plastic bags and is the answer to your question, until a concise slogan is confirmed.

The purpose of this blog and ultimately the journey, is to respect today and to preserve our tomorrows. Days like these are spectacular and when we tread lightly, leaving places either exactly how we found them or better (refer to a previous article introducing Take3 ), our lifestyle as we know it is preserved.

This is the motivation behind consistently creating positive habits to reduce, reuse, recycle, repurpose and upcycle.

The more people who consider this thought process as normal, the higher the odds are of future generations experiencing days such as shared in the image above.

Start with working out your WHY and then take actionable steps to make it happen!

Here are some of the ways we have found to reuse the plastic bags which still manage to enter our home  Read more »

Did you know South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Australian Capital Territories are the Australian States which already have a ban on Single-use Plastic Bags?

Queensland Conservation are working hard toward seeing Queensland join this list as the fifth state of Australia and have set a goal for as soon as 2015. They are inviting us to join their Plastic-bag Free March Campaign and see first hand how easy it is to ‘Kick the Plastic Bag Habit.‘

Done!

But what to do when the friendly delivery man walked this pile of plastic bags into our house – how do you order your groceries online and have them delivered any other way?

Can Online Grocery Shopping be Plastic Bag-Free? 

Online grocery shopping has come about in our house as placing an order and having it delivered takes seriously less time than getting organised, with an almost two-year-old in tow and head to the supermarket.

Since committing to yet another activity, blogging, family members have strongly suggested the need to reassess other time-consuming chores. Looking from the outside in and trying to remain true to The Year of Striving for Balance, this want-to-be Super Mum needs to realise there are only so many hours in the day and downtime is also important!

So what on earth am I going to do about those plastic bags?

STEP ONE

There was pre-thought put in during my recent online grocery shopping order. Of course, the items had to arrive in something and our designated personal shopper didn’t call into home first to pick up the reusable bags…

So this was one idea, putting a note on the top of the order:
‘Please use the minimum amount of plastic bags when packing this order’.

Clearly that made no difference…

The tally from this shop was:

• 20 bags
• 93 Items
• 4.65 items in each bag

This isn’t at all in sticking with our commitment of Plastic-Bag Free Shopping.

STEP TWO

Putting in a call to the supermarket Customer Service Department explaining our household stand against Plastic Bags. There must be an alternative solution against the online grocery shopping order arriving in them, right?

The Official Position Around Online Grocery Shopping Plastic Bag-free

This request must have been a first for the Customer Service Representative who answered the call, as she put me on hold to talk to her Supervisor.

The solution was – Read more »