Sheena Brockie’s pledge was to live a waste-free life and throughout the year she has learnt how to make her own cleaning products, challenged parish Constables on their recycling policies and has been at the forefront of a campaign that made some Jersey businesses give up using plastic straws.
But it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the Islander, who works in finance, because she says she is still challenged by the prevalence of single-use plastic.
Mrs Brockie (47) said she had managed to buy products such as fruit, vegetables, bread, fish and meat without needing to use plastic bags or containers, but added that she had struggled when it came to dried goods.
‘The biggest problem has been when I have needed to buy things like rice and pasta,’ she said. ‘Lots of things come in cardboard and that’s fine, because I can recycle them. It’s the same with tins, but there are still some food packages that I can’t recycle.
‘My biggest problem throughout the year has been trying to reduce the amount of single-use plastic that I am using.
‘I started to make my own cleaning products and facial scrubs because the things I was using come in plastic bottles and also contain plastic microbeads.
‘Making things from scratch is not practical on a daily basis, but I have tried my best.’
Mrs Brockie is now aiming to offer tips, methods to make products and lists of places to buy plastic-free goods every day throughout January on her social media sites.
In July she encouraged a number of businesses, including the Boat House Group, Loaf, Big J, Barannes and Rhona’s in Gorey, to swap their plastic straws for more environmentally friendly alternatives.
She said: ‘It seems like people are really picking up on the impact of single-use plastics now. At the beginning of the year it was seen as a bit of a novelty, but now people are wanting to make changes.
‘The Straws Suck! campaign was successful, but what still frustrates me is that I am still going for a drink and ending up with a straw in it. Plastic straws should be banned wholeheartedly.’
Last month, Mrs Brockie took a tour of the recycling depot in St Helier and has since met five parish Constables to discuss recycling options for Islanders. Recycling currently falls under the remit of each individual parish and not the Infrastructure Department.
She said: ‘I have asked to speak with all parish Constables – we all need to be working together if we are going to improve the Island’s recycling rate.
‘We are never going to be efficient if all the parishes are working separately.’
To find out more about Mrs Brockie’s waste-free journey, visit her blog at thegoodjerseylife.com.
