Taking a stand against single-use plastic has to start somewhere… right?

So I started a movement. It began with a solitary stand. All alone, I ripped the plastic wrapping off the cauliflower I was buying at Pick n Pay and handed it back to the cashier, ditto the polystyrene tray underneath.

Fed up with plastic

Then I did the same with a double pack of mangoes, also packaged in polystyrene and plastic. Finally I took the bananas out of their plastic bag and handed that over too.

‘There!” I said sternly. Call the riot police! Fetch the water cannons! Hold the front page! The cashier shrugged and put it all in the bin.

But it’s a start, right? Because we need to stop the glut of unnecessary synthetic packaging that is still used in shops – and the only way to let the shopkeepers know that we don’t want it, is to hand it back, to make it their problem.

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There’s no ‘health and safety” compulsion, no earthly reason at all to pre-package many food-stuffs – and where there is, there are certainly greener options.

For instance, a cauliflower comes neatly protected in its leaves. That’s how I buy them in Dublin. There’s simply no need to strip it and then rewrap it in plastic – and even if you feel a light layer of unrecyclable, non-biodegradable, petroleum-based cling-film is essential (it isn’t) then why, oh, why does a cauliflower also need a polystyrene tray?

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Someone told me recently that SA is a world leader in polystyrene recycling: we make polystyrene into insulation bricks. I suspect, however, that we’re a leader because many countries are rejecting polystyrene completely.

Similarly, bananas do not need bagging up. I usually buy them in bunches, or at worst bound together with a paper label. Most fruit and vegetables can be sold loose, and even multi-packs of apples or naartjies don’t need a plastic bag.

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A thin, uncoated cardboard box is all that’s re-quired, being readily recyclable and far quicker to biodegrade. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle are the Holy Trinity of environmentalism, in that order.

Reducing is paramount, both what we consume and what we throw away. ‘My” movement already happened across Europe – nothing to do with me – resulting in more thoughtful packaging, and recycling bins in supermarkets.

The Cauliflower Crusade (South African Chapter) needs more members. Please, join us.