My Plastic Free July Challenge

As a volunteer at this year’s Ocean Film Festival in Poole, I agreed to have a go at their Plastic Free July Challenge.

There were two options: Avoid the big 4 (single-use coffee cups, plastic bottles, drinking straws and single-use plastic bags) or go the whole hog and try to avoid buying anything in plastic for the whole month.

As I’ve already cut the big 4 out of my day-to-day life, I decided I’d have to go the whole way. I’m going to be totally honest - I failed. But not through a lack of trying.

There are just some products that it seems impossible to buy not wrapped in plastic - examples include toilet roll, toothpaste, toothbrushes, mushrooms and salad.

That said, just by thinking about it, and taking the time to look, there were quite a lot of products where I was able to move away from plastic - ketchup (glass bottle), oats (by purchasing them from a store that sold them in a paper bag, rather than a plastic one), butter (by opting for standard blocks wrapped in foil instead of the spreadable ones in a plastic tub), and teabags (picking the only product in a cardboard box that wasn’t also wrapped in plastic).

What I’ve realised through doing this challenge is just how ubiquitous plastic is in our society - I mean it’s even part of our geological record now. It is, quite literally, everywhere. And avoiding it as much as possible takes a really conscious effort.

There are some steps you can take that just seem like no-brainers to me, such as using canvas shopping bags instead of plastic ones, but when you can’t buy something without having plastic packaging, what do you do? Never buy another toothbrush? Pick your own mushrooms? Use newspaper instead of toilet roll?

It isn’t practical, or necessarily safe, and I don’t know what the answer is. What I do know is that we need to use less plastic and that if, for example, we all made a conscious effort to buy the products in glass bottles instead of plastic ones, the latter would eventually stop being produced.

It’s not going to be a quick fix (if there even is one at all), and much though I’d love it, I seriously doubt there will be any legislation to support plastic-free packaging, which is a shame given how well that’s worked for single-use carrier bags.

One of my biggest problems with plastic is that it doesn’t go anywhere. It may get recycled but more often than not it travels the planet in the oceans or on the wind and it pops up everywhere. I’m a huge fan of the #2minutebeachclean campaign and I do one most days when I’m walking the dog, picking up everything from water balloons and plastic bottles to polystyrene and broken beach toys.

Just one of my #2minutebeachcleans

But all that rubbish still has to go somewhere and sadly that’s landfill. Personally I think that’s better than it drifting around in the ocean and making its way into the food chain, but it’s far from a perfect solution.

If anyone else had a go at the Plastic Free July Challenge I’d love to know how you got on - or if you found any ingenious solutions to buying items that always come wrapped in plastic.

Love the life you live. Live the life you love (or why I decided to become a freelance writer)

A good friend recently gave me this mug, and I thought the sentiment on it was very apt:

Yes, that is a dinosaur on my desk and I do have a shark tea strainer...

‘Love the life you live. Live the life you love’ seems a pretty good rule to follow, and it’s this ambition (not fuelled by the mug, that was a happy coincidence) that helped me take my first steps as a freelancer.

Let’s roll the clock back a bit. I accepted a good few years ago that retirement as a concept means something very different for me to what it means to my grandparents’ or parents’ generations. Whether I’ll even get a retirement is debatable at this point in time.

And that’s when I really started looking at my life. I count myself very lucky that I travelled a lot in my 20s and that I lived overseas for a good number of years. I’ve seen a lot, experienced a lot and, I think, am a better person for it.

But there comes a point when, no matter how good you’re getting at keeping that work-life balance mostly in your favour, you need a change. And for me, going freelance was the change I needed.

Nearly two years ago I had something of a realisation. I was kayaking in Portland Harbour - it was sunny, peaceful and I felt incredibly happy. I remember thinking to myself ‘I wish I could do this more’, and then quickly realised I could, if I was prepared to make some changes.

So I did some research, put in some hard work and a little over a year ago qualified as a stand up paddleboard (SUP) instructor. I spent most of my weekends last summer teaching at a watersports centre in Weymouth, loving every minute of it - it didn’t feel like work, it was fun and I was getting paid to be there, a magical combination. With summer on the way this year, I could definitely hear the beach calling me.

And that’s when I had my ‘put your money where your mouth is’ moment. I wanted to spend more time outdoors, I wanted to teach SUP more than just a couple of hours on a weekend and I wanted the freedom to enjoy the summer.

All that was holding me back were my fears. I did my sums, I rationalised, I talked to a lot of people about it, and the more I thought about it, the more the idea of spending my time working as a SUP instructor seemed to make sense.

But I enjoy writing. I didn’t want to give that up. Not to mention that, in the UK at least, SUP instructing is definitely a seasonal profession. So going freelance as a writer was the logical choice.

I could balance my love of the ocean and the beach with my love of language and (hopefully) be happier for it. So far I’m definitely happier and despite the stresses that come from working as a freelancer, I feel less stressed generally in daily life.

I’m still only one month into this journey and it may yet fail. But if it does, at least I’ll know I tried.

If any other freelancers or business owners want to share their rationale for choosing that path, please feel free!

Freelancing: the fear and the freedom

I’m reinventing my blog to talk about my experiences as a freelance writer. There may well be other bits and pieces that sneak in every now and then, but that’s all part of the fun.

So, I’m in my first month as a fully freelance copywriter. At the end of June I walked away from a full-time job to go it alone. I’ve been freelancing around that job for a good few years now, so I wasn’t entirely unprepared, but even so, going from the stability of a regular pay cheque to the uncertainty of freelancing is a bit nerve wracking.

The fear

I had my first taste of the fear a couple of weeks before I left my job. I suddenly had an “oh my goodness what the f**k are you doing??” thought racing round my head. Money (or the lack thereof) is, sadly, the thing that terrifies me most. It’s the worry of not making the mortgage payment, or falling behind on other bills.

There’s also a niggling sense of ‘what if I fail?’ in the mix, but that bothers me less. If this doesn’t work out and I have to go back to being gainfully employed then so be it.

But what do you do about the fear when it strikes? My approach was to go through my finances in detail, make sure I hadn’t miscalculated - and realising I’d be alright, at least for the next couple of months was a big relief.

I also can’t thank my friends and family enough for their constant reassurance that I wasn’t making a huge mistake, and that actually I’m not bad at stringing words together. They’ve helped probably more than they know.

The freedom

One of my major reasons for going freelance was to have more flexibility and freedom in my life. I’ve reconciled myself to the fact that my retirement age (which is already over 70) is only going to rise, so I need to enjoy every day now rather than wait for that magical time when I can afford to give up work - frankly I’ll be surprised if that ever happens.

I love the fact that I can choose to take my dog for a longer walk than usual if the mood takes me. Or that I can take a sunny afternoon off to chill out at the beach. Or that if I’m really not in the mood for writing (assuming I have no pressing deadlines) I can just leave it for a few hours and do something else. It’s incredibly invigorating to have that level of control over how I spend my days.

My first month has definitely had its ups and downs, but overall I’m feeling happier, more relaxed and very positive about the future.

How can I resist the chance to spend more time here??