Day 18

Today I was let loose in a sweet shop. Neath Market boasts a sweet stall, which is huge. Guess what, they still do paper sweet bags. The sweets are all in glass jars or boxes on the counter. I can just go around and around choosing sweets all day. There must be hundreds of varieties there. Every day now I find more cardboard wrapped items I can purchase so I am slowly but surely building up a dossier of environmentally friendly packaged foods and goods with the milk bottle standing tall and proud at the top. I love glass, I always have. It is clean, wash a milk bottle in fairy soap suds and hot water and see it sparkle. Plastic will never sparkle as glass does. Then there are the colours, the ruby colours of glass. The Romans brought in glass to this country and examples survive until today. Coloured glass over one and a half thousand years old. I know plastic will last in the land-fill longer. I wonder will anyone ever get excited about unearthing a plastic milk bottle. I think not. I found baking tins in Neath without plastic packaging and bought a new stainless steel frying pan with only a cardboard label hanging on the handle. No thank you I smile, no plastic bag as I pull a canvas bag out of my shoulder bag. I have a few more in there also for emergency purchases. I found organic muesli in the market with the porridge oats, cardboard wrapped and I looked in Boots to see what I could buy. Not a lot, but if I ever need a new nail-brush or loofah or natural sponge I am ok. No plastic on those. I remember when we used to get toothpaste in little tins. Well you cannot get them any more. I am afraid if you use toothpaste it is impossible to get it unless you use a plastic tube. So the sage leaves and salt will be my only tooth cleaning products. Oh I discovered in Boots natural bristle brushes, with plastic covers on. I could have bought a plastic brush though without plastic on. I shall have to weigh up my options and keep my hair short. All in all a good day scouting for supplies.