The Red Pill
When things go wrong, it is often a beautiful reminder of how amazing things we take for granted are. These things normally “JUST WORK” and add so much value to our day-to-day life. On Monday I was presented with one of these opportunities. My internet stopped working for half a day… I was unable to work at all for 4 hours. It was a real pain in the ass. I let my colleagues down and worked that evening to make up for lost time.
But it was a beautiful reminder.
Other times, when things go wrong, they reveal a whole new world we have been previously blind to. They tear apart our reality and can rip our hearts. I can remember one such time, many years ago. I was out to dinner with a girl. I liked her a lot. We went to a Japanese restaurant in Camberwell where I had nasu dengaku for the first time (eggplant baked in the oven with a miso glaze 🤤). It was amazing.
After dropping her home, as we sat in the car and talked, she split up with me. My whole world came crashing down. As she walked off, I sat there in the driveway, feeling utterly hopeless. Heartbroken. When I switched on the radio, “Karma Police” by Radiohead started playing right then and there. The miserable, yet beautiful drone of Tom York could not have captured my emotions better.
A great example from pop culture is of course “The Matrix” where we see Neo discover the truth of the world he has been living in. The whole movie is based on this concept. Neo’s whole world, as it turns out, was a LIE!
When Morpheus says to Neo: “You take the blue pill; the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.” 🥶 Chills. SO Damn good!
My “Red Pill” moment, which led me to create PlasticFreeSupermarket, was the collapse of “REDCycle”. The irony here is palpable!
Red Cycle ~is~ was an Australian Company, that collected “Soft Plastics” at retail outlets such as Coles and Woolies, across the country.
The collection “bins” at supermarkets have disappeared, Soo too, has their website. I did a bit of digging and found a web-archive version which is in the links at the end, if you want to find out more about what Red Cycle was trying to do.
The Collapse of Red Cycle, made me realise my efforts to recycle plastic were futile. As I went deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole, the situation got darker and darker. The issues are not limited to soft plastics either, or just plastics recycling for that matter!
But I am not here to simply highlight the problems with plastic and make you feel guilty about every ounce of plastic that finds its way into your home.
I am determined to find solutions, that will scale GLOBALLY. And, this is the very start of my journey. This is why I have started PlasticFreeSupermarket.org.
For today, I just want you to become aware… Become aware of the packaging that makes its way into your home.. look out for these logos:
These logos are designed to help us, the consumers, make better recycling decisions. “Return to Store” icons appear on many of the products I purchase today. A constant reminder, of the SHIT storm that we are currently living in.
The truth is, these logos have only one purpose. To keep us coming back for more. To keep you buying more products from supermarkets each week, as they reduce their costs (and create “value” for investors) by packaging the majority of products they sell, in plastic. These conveniences which we continue to buy into have a very high “fee” attached to them.
As Seth Godin (link to his blog below) said in his newsletter this week:
“It turns out that a life lived conveniently isn’t always a better one. The cost of convenience ends up being too high.”
We are slowly starting to wake up to the “cost of convenience”. The true cost “plastics” are having on our earth.
I am still tumbling down that rabbit hole, in search of the truth; searching for solutions.
I just have one more favour to ask of you. Please forward this email, to one person. One Person who you know is ready to help create a plastic-free future!
🍻 James Foran
OH.. I almost forgot… my promise from last week’s newsletter!
Plastic Free Lolly Bag
It was slim pickings on the lolly aisle. It was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. All in all, we found a small handful of products, from thousands of options that fit the bill of Plastic Free (and Kid friendly).
While I despaired though, my boys rejoiced. My oldest son, who is 7 years old, had already done his homework. he already knew what he wanted, and, what was plastic-free. He was also eager to point out the failings of several products he desired. His favourite products that did not make the list were:
- Kinda Surprise: The outside wrapper is foil, but the toy and container inside the chocolate egg are plastic.
- Wizz Fizz: A personal favourite of mine, which does come in a paper bag, however, the tinny little spoon inside is plastic.
- Chupa Chup: We wanted this to fit because it’s the only lolly that my youngest son will eat!
Special Mention
- Pringles: Now this was an interesting one. Because my youngest son doesn’t like sweets or chocolate, we wanted something in there for him. We thought we had hit the jackpot when we found that the smaller “single Server” Pringles packs, don’t have a plastic LID! So, while these made it into the shopping basket and the lolly bag, the top “film” turned out to also be plastic.
The finalists!
- NERDS: Number one, purely because of the excitement that it brought my son when he found them.
- Mars Bar, Snickersand Milyway**I have grouped these together. This only applies to the Individual ones you can buy.. not the multi-packs! So look out! This is a new move by Mars, and one we are hopeful will catch on!
- Smarties: An oldie, but a goodie. But, like above, only the Single serve long boxes!
- LifeSavers: Get a whole lot more out of life!
For the bags themselves, we attempted to make bags out of “WhoGivesACrap” toilet roll wrappers. Let’s just say, we have some work to do to perfect this one!
We will do this again next year, and see how well we do. Let’s hope the situation improves!
Surprise. Nuffin to see here!
Nuffin! We were really happy to see these products make their way into the shopping basket. I am yet to try all the dips, but will do so in the coming weeks, and report back!
They are on a mission to remove 25 tons of plastic, by 2025!
These are available in Woolies and Aldi!
This company is based in Kyneton, Victoria. Please check them out, and let me know what you think! I am hoping to meet with them in the coming months to find out more about their mission!