Addressing the staples part 1 - Bread

After a quick education in recycling symbols, today we tackled one of the daily staples in our house, bread, which we couldn’t live without. Due to a simple swap, we may actually be saving ourselves a tiny bit of money in the process.

Before we start, an introduction to those symbols

Having a nosy at the bread packaging for our preferred shop-bought loaf (Hovis Seed Sensation – we were hooked by the fancy name!) there’s a helpful label that tells me various recycling information. Over the last week I’ve become a little obsessed checking if this recycling information is or is not on products when I’ve been shopping. If it’s not there, I am starting to make a loud tutting noise or irritated grumbling, which triggers some funny looks from other shoppers. Anyhow, back to the label.

So, according to Hovis, the bag is LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) which can be recycled with carrier bags but not at kerbside. The tie is PP (polypropylene), which isn’t recycled. Now, I was pretty certain that the bag could go into the green bin round our way, so why was the label saying not at kerbside? Cue a trip to the Recycle Now website where there is an extensive list of what all those symbols mean. To save you a trip, below explains all:

Shows packaging that is collected by 75% or more of local authorities across the UK, for example plastic bottles.

Shows packaging that is collected by 20-75% of local authorities across the UK, for example some types of plastic packaging.

Shows packaging when less than 20% of local authorities collect it across the UK, for example crisp packets.

So it’s entirely possible that if you take the symbols at face value and don’t intimately understand your local recycling policy, you may be putting something in the grey bin that could be recycled. Ugh! Luckily, our council make this checking process a bit easier by having a “BINZONE” where you can check what you are going to throw away and what bin it goes in based on your postcode.

Good news is that I can recycle the bread bag. Unfortunately, the suggestion that the tie can go in the textile recycling shows a search engine that either needs work or likes puns.

Congratulations! You can recycle your bread bag!

What to do about bread

On to the inaugural first pass of the “Buying New Stuff” flow chart.

Step 1 – Do we need it? YYYYEEEEESSSS! Can’t really imagine life in the Harrison household without bread. So that takes us to…

Step 2 – Is there a non-plastic alternative? A quick trip to Waitrose (our local supermarket) shows a quick win to be had. Shop-baked loaves are wrapped in paper - job done! Normally we do our weekly BIG shop at some of the cheaper supermarkets in Didcot, so will be looking at the packaging of the competition soon.

Ah, but what about the cost difference? Well, admittedly we’ve always brought a relatively expensive loaf at around £1.40. If we swap to a white farmhouse loaf wrapped in paper, this is actually 5 pence cheaper. So, at three loaves a week, that’s 3 x 52 weeks a year x £0.05 = £7.80 a year saving.

However, as it was the first plastic redacted purchase, I did a celebratory purchase of the more expensive farmhouse granary loaf (that imaginary £7.80’s not going to last long, is it?). Now I just need to perfect the art of cutting the blasted thing so I don’t get wonky slices of bread….

Obviously, there is also the option of making it myself. In the future I will be having a whirl at making a loaf myself, which I am sure you will read all about on this page in due course. I’m also interested in working out what the cost of making my own loaf of bread is compared to shop-bought.

Right, time to do some research on milk...