- This two-week challenge should be called
Welcome to My Hangry Life.
A tale by Zeta.
(upbeat funky music) (squeaking)
I set myself a challenge
of going two weeks without single-use plastic.
And it was frickin' hard.
Basically, for two weeks,
I was gonna not use single-use plastic,
so anything you literally use once and then throw away.
And seriously, at this point,
if you're still using straws,
what's wrong with you?
I thought my habits before going into this challenge
were pretty good, you know,
I've got my keep cup for my coffee every day,
I use reusable bags.
I try and use beeswax wrap to wrap my food.
I just don't think I really realized
what I was getting myself into.
I've been up for about half an hour,
literally Thursday.
And I've already touched my phone, which is plastic,
washed my hair with plastic bottles,
washed my body with soap in a plastic bottle,
combed my hair, put oil in my hair, all plastic.
(clicks tongue)
It's not single-use, but still.
This is gonna be a pretty long two weeks, I think.
Yay.
I just kept messing up.
So, I flossed my teeth.
My dentist would bloody love me,
this plastic-free challenge
technically already failed.
Guess what?
Might not be going to the toilet for two weeks.
Stay tuned for a plastic-free alternative.
Why is spinach in a plastic container?
Guess I can't use that.
I don't know if I'm actually hungry
or if I'm just hungry because I know I can't eat a snack,
but I want a snack.
(plastic rustling)
Guess this bad boy is my after school snack.
Or maybe another.
Very vegetarian.
Almost thought I should have milk
on my porridge in the morning,
but no.
Plastic on here.
No cardboard at all.
A little bit of shopping after work
and I used my bag!
So I think it was a lot of me trying to figure out
what I could and couldn't do.
Something I'm realizing more and more
is being a plastic-free gal in a plastic--
(burbling)
Plastic-free world is you have to be really organized,
which isn't my strong point.
So, that's gonna be a test, I think,
as well as living with no plastic.
But we can get through it.
Maybe I'll learn more than one thing from this challenge.
For the first few days,
instead of finding plastic-free alternatives
and finding different things that I could eat for breakfast
and lunch that didn't have plastic,
I kind of just stopped eating.
So, (laughs) not the greatest solution,
seeing as I am the most hangry person on Earth.
Jason.
- [Woman] Will you stop watching his out?
It's Shaun! - Shaun!
You know what?
You will join the 27 club and you still take the fall!
(laughing)
I haven't eaten breakfast for about four days.
Because I just don't know what to eat.
So, gotta solve that.
Yeah.
(beep)
(goofy old timey music)
(beep)
One of the most challenging things
about this two weeks was food.
And I don't know what that says about me as a person,
like that's what my life revolves around is food.
What can I eat on the fly?
Like, what can I grab and go?
Couldn't think of anything,
literally nothing.
Sort of like vegetables,
like sweet potato,
can not eat rice,
can not eat meat.
That's, that's, you know.
Being organized, I think really would have solved
a lot of my issues of not knowing what to eat,
not knowing, you know,
a plastic-free alternative
to something that I needed to use.
And I don't know if it was just because I couldn't have it,
but I was noticing plastic everywhere
and in everything.
Headphones, plastic.
Phone, plastic.
Phone case, plastic.
Computer, chair, bed,
toothbrush, like, everything.
So, not only am I basically vegetarian,
I also can't have any condiments,
like, why is there plastic on this?!
Ahh!
I got this curry paste,
doesn't have plastic on the top,
and a lot of them do.
Like, what the (horn) is the point of plastic on the top?
What's the point?
We've already got poppy thing.
(lid popping)
So just use that to see if it's like good or not.
I think I started to notice
other people's plastic habits as well.
I started to get really irrationally angry at the world
when I would go shopping and stuff like that.
Sohan, what did I make you do?
- Made me buy this.
- [Zeta] Why?
- 'Cause I wasn't using a keep cup.
- [Zeta] And how many coffees do you have a week?
- Five, but my mom took my old one,
and I wanted to get a pretty one
and this is really pretty,
so now I have one, now I have one, that's good.
- [Zeta] It's good, well done, I'm so proud of you.
- Thank you so--
- I literally just watched a lady
put every single thing she was buying in plastic bags.
Like, dude, bananas don't need to go in a plastic bag.
They have their own, like, casing on them.
What are you doing?
It like really, ugh.
And she was really like,
she was putting this giant bunch of kale in a plastic bag,
like really, really struggling to get it in
and I was like, you know?
Like, what are you doing?
Just wash it when you get home.
Also, whoever invented plastic,
you are both an angel and a devil.
It's so damn convenient,
but that's why it's so bad.
It's such an easy, lazy option.
Some of the things I learnt
over the two weeks that I went without plastic
was you can actually save money by not using plastic,
so you can take your own container to certain food places
and you literally get a discount
for bringing your own container.
Like, you can save money by not killing the world.
Got my smoothie in a cup.
Mm.
Look at me being all organized.
I just got my morning coffee, favorite time of day,
in my keep cup, mm.
It's toilet paper delivery day!
Ooh! (paper rustling)
(thumping)
Oops.
I get this huge box of toilet paper delivered.
You can actually go online and order it
and it comes to your doors.
And it has 48 rolls of toilet paper
and it's all recycled and natural
and like, plastic-free, it's all wrapped in paper.
So it's good for the environment, good for you,
good for your life.
Well, except for this.
The sticky tape that came on it is plastic, so like--
Because I opened it, and I'm not using plastic,
does then that count as plastic?
And what do I do with it?
Help!
I think this is a really good example
of little changes that you can make that are so easy,
like this is all wrapped in paper,
there's no plastic, it's good for the environment,
it's something that you need to use every single day.
Yeah, and it's almost more convenient
because it gets delivered to your house,
like, to your door.
I think my habits definitely changed,
like I didn't really eat meat,
so I became pretty much vegetarian for two weeks.
I saved money in certain areas
like taking my own container to places
or not eating out, not getting takeaway,
not online shopping.
I'm really getting better
at finding plastic-free alternatives
to things that I use every day.
My diet has definitely changed,
not that I was a massive meat eater before, but--
Ooh, sun.
I've definitely cut out a lot of meat
because it's all wrapped in plastic.
And also, I'm kind of okay with that
because I've wanted to go more vegetarian for quite a while,
so this has been a really good way to do it.
This is all of my yummy, yummy plastic-free produce
for the week.
Don't know, the label isn't plastic, right?
(suspenseful music)
I don't know.
Anyway, I'll finally be able to eat, yay.
And I got some massive, massive sweet potatoes.
Mm!
At a bulk food store, which I was like,
the whole point of a bulk food store
is that it's bulk, so it's cheaper.
It ended up being a lot more expensive.
These were more expensive to fill up at a bulk food shop.
Than it would be to buy at the supermarket.
What?!
The dish washing liquid was about eight dollars,
and it's not even full.
Clothes washing liquid, I probably filled this up
about halfway and it was $12.
$12!
This whole thing cost me $16 to buy.
That's insane.
Look at me being organized and not hungry.
Got some rice in a paper bag from a bulk food shop.
Look at me go.
Yummy, yummy brown rice, mm.
Ohp, that's too much.
I filled up my shampoo and conditioner
at the bulk food shop,
and it was actually really good.
It wasn't too expensive, my hair feels nice,
so I am pleasantly surprised.
I definitely learnt a lot over the two weeks
going plastic-free.
It's so easy for us to be lazy and just use it,
but alternatively, it's also easy to be organized
and find plastic-free alternatives.
I think I realized a lot of areas
where I used plastic unnecessarily.
I'm in a wave at a place
to figure out other areas of my life
that I can reduce waste, reduce plastic.
And just make, like, little changes every day,
like, do I need that snack?
Do I need that Mentos?
Do I need that something covered in plastic?
(energetic electronic music)