Week Three of Plastic Free July was always going to be a tough one. It was our middle child’s birthday on Tuesday and also the last week of term. I seem to remember last year it was a difficult week as well and week three in 2016 also generated waste that impacted on week four.

Here is our plastic waste from Plastic Free July 2017 Week Three:

And here is our waste from the same week last year:

I think there’s a little bit of improvement there. For a start, our daughter didn’t have a party this year, which cut down on a lot of packaging waste. Secondly, family and friends were very considerate of our efforts to be plastic-free, which I thought was lovely and thoughtful. And since discovering I can recycle soft plastics with carrier bags at Morrisons, pretty much all of this year’s plastic waste is recyclable.

You can probably spot a linguine packet in amongst it all. I intended to make pasta during Plastic Free July, but this last week of term has just been crazy and I’ve been too busy and tired to contemplate it or plan it in advance. Now the children have broken up for the summer holidays though, we’ll hopefully manage some pasta making as a family.

I’m also hoping to have a go at making my own dishwasher tablets when I’ve sourced the ingredients.

Just a short update this week, as we need to head out for our daughters’ dancing classes. Let me know in the comments how you’re getting on. If you have school-age children, has the end of term had an impact on your Plastic Free July?