From collecting mine and my flatmates single use plastics in a week I discovered that we accumulated a lot of plastics.

We collected 73 pieces of single use plastics per week. 

That’s 18.25 pieces per person.

I sorted out all of these plastics in my room, and I was surrounded by them, as you will see below.

I divided each packet into 8 categories of crisps, other snacks, vegetables, fruit, herbs, bread/pasta, tangerines (which we seem to eat a lot of!) and food stored in mesh packaging.

So here are the statistics!

Crisps: 31.5%

Snacks: 28.8%

Vegetables :12.3%

Fruit: 6.8%

Herbs: 2.7%

Bread/pasta: 9.6%

Tangerines: 5.5%

Mesh: 2.7%

I also made a short video of me sorting through the plastics into these categories, of which, should be below to watch.

Alongside this, I also measured how much plarn (plastic yarn) can be made from one plastic bag. I had three choices of plastic bag, a Sainsbury’s bag, Tesco’s bag and a blue plastic bag I got my local corner shop. Here are my findings:

The Tesco bag made the most plarn out of all of the bags. However, it just might look chunkier as I adjusted the yarn width to about an inch on this one.

The Sainbury’s bag was similar but made less because the handles were integrated into the bag design where as the handles on the Tesco bag were added on.

The blue plastic bag made the least amount of plarn because the bag was smaller. The plastic was also thinner so it is more useful when sewing than using it for knitting or weaving. I also love the colour of this bag.

There you have it. Some initial workings on my war with plastic. Let battle commence!