I really wish the plastic bottle return scheme was implemented. There was talk of a scheme where you would get 25p or 50p for each plastic bottle returned.
My main barrier to plastic recycling at work is, no incentive to do so.
With so many other priorities for the day, and the need to keep shared areas clear of objects, mostly everything goes into one bin.
I’ve even found my use of prepared meals including plastic drinks increase, because staff are not included in food, except when leftovers are available.
Some companies I worked for as an agency worker allowed staff to eat, however the policies weren’t too clear.
One session you could be invited to join in with the meal after the clients, and other sessions you might find yourself told off for taking unauthorised foods like a banana!
The long shift patterns, and unpredictable facilities for preparing own food, means that the good intention to make something at work, becomes side lined, and more pre-packed meal deals are needed.
Finally when the day is finished, I return home, where I live alone, and the motivation to cook from scratch is depleted even further at having no one to share or enjoy fresh food with.
I wish the small cash back for plastic bottles scheme was introduced, or similar ways where recycling can be incentivised, rather than an extra chore, when other demands are prioritised higher on the to do list.
Had a wellbeing call with a mentor at Rethink who is helping me on an adhoc basis, whilst I have some new starts in work and have some extra stresses to cope with, like we all do, with the inflation and upsetting news about the terrible tragedy in Ukraine.
She suggested I try Too Good To Go. I had before. I looked up the app and saw alot of choice available lately.
Here’s my list of Too Go To Go’s
1, One Pot – Tea shop for Bubble Tea – delicious teas, x 3. I had two and my neighbour had a catch up at mine, and had the other.
2, Cafe Nero – a well stocked bag of pastries, bread products like foccicia and bacon roll, plus a tomato soup.
3, OneStop – ham, bread, mushrooms, veg bag. If I added up the price of the items with the discounts, it was almost exactly the cost of the Too Good stop. However, as an alternative to ready foods, it was just what I needed, some more bread. I gave my neighbour the white loaf and one of the three hams expiring that day.
4, Starbucks, order cancelled, no stock, refund issuing.
5, Hotel Inn, really handy, saw a different neighbour, she was picking up too bags too! I’ve used their evening meal one about 3 times now. Teriyaki or curry chicken with daal or rice, and slightly dry mini naan. Usually a dessert like cookies or small cake portion. One day I had two boxes of delicious fruit salad. Another a slightly unappealing daal.
6, Soho Coffee, all good – a mixed bean slightly soggy sealed wrap, a nice glazed custard mini tart and a lovely big salad/cous cous meal, I’ll have tomorrow for lunch.
7, By the train station, a really good first bag – waffle chips, chicken pieces, a delicious toasted New Yorker sandwich and a quite nice toasted chicken sandwich.
8, The cafe/bar at the gym – a small tuna roll in cling film (given to my neighbour), a nice chocolate croissant and another pastry probably, I forget now. However it was nice to see the relaxed atmosphere at the gym and a cafe bar which is open upto 11pm. I must remember to go back with a friend.
Other positives
I enjoyed having some more social opportunities each day, the Holiday Inn was sometimes slowish to serve, but also some lovely chats, when you are patient and some other Too Gooders, who were great to chat to. One time, two ladies were on sponsored education in Bristol, living in a shared house in the city centre.
I enjoyed trying to converse with the Chinese people at the bubble tea, at first my conversation didn’t seem to be understood at all. But with google, and some direction about ‘what do they know about Banksy’ from their wall map of his work. It was nice to have a try at speaking with people I wouldn’t usually connect with.
Downsides
Is it really saving the planet? For hygiene reasons, all vendors are packing up the food in takeaway contains, which means it won’t spill out before you arrive home. There was quite a lot packing I had to throw away, because also it would be stained from the food inside, so I didn’t really recycle much of it.
You have to be there at a specific time to collect it. Although as I was returning home at 9pm and had some afternoons off, this worked well as I am already centrally based.
Overall
It was pretty good, gave me some motivation to get out of my flat and get warm by walking. The food was already ready to eat and so I didn’t have to spend much on reheating or cooking in my own house.
I enjoyed chatting to a few neighbours about it. And maybe I would look to find other people who will be buying some themselves to share with, rather than offloading some of it, onto the hungrier, nearer neighbour.
Shopping centre coffee shop pick up 5.30pm
At the Bubble Tea place – £4 for 3 drinksHotel prepared curry with rice, and fruit saladThe Banksy map which I used to prompt a conversation with the Bubble Tea staff
I was in the break room, toasting my crumpets and I thought, if I use abit of the Nutella it will be just lovely. Another co-worker arrived and I said I would pledge to buy another pot of the Nutella. However the jar was so empty I was scraping the last few cruds of chocolate sauce anyway. So I cleaned it out and put it out with some other recycling, even though other people thought ‘we don’t recycle here’ we actually do have a huge mega dry recycling waste crate which is sometimes mistaken for an extra bin.
I don’t know about you, but I’m finding the expense of food, travel really adding to the day to day cashflow burden.
When I have a day off, one of my favourite things to go and do, is have a Premier Inn breakfast. And of course, you usually are able to sneak one or two jam or Nutella samples home after your breakie.
My precious, Nutella, muh hah ha!Do you have a go to snack?
Employee perks, it’s difficult to get them right. My vote would be free toast and fruit for staff who work as carers. What are your experiences of employee perks?
My favourite work break room song to jam too with my imaginary break room band.
