For me, this happened last week when I completed by practice Gold Duke of Edinborough adventurous journey. It was so much fun but all good adventures come with a small price - lots and lots of plastic.
For our two dinners, we took vegetables, couscous and pasta however we had to put it all in plastic zip lock bags. While these are re-usable bags, you don't want to be carrying empty plastic bags for no reason and they often became dirty and wet along the way. All my clothes and my sleeping bag went into plastic bags as well as my mat.
For me, surrounding myself with so much plastic was hard and it was definitely not what I wanted to be doing during Plastic Free July however sometimes you do have to make sacrifices. Luckily, I was able to make a few little changes to ensure that I used as little plastic as possible.
1. By in bulk
Some bulk food stores sell hiker's mix already made (The Source definitely does) however I prefer to make my own, especially as I am allergic to nuts. So before I left I stocked up on dried fruits (apricot, apple, peach, pear), cranberries, choc chips, coconut flakes and some pepitas and sunflower seeds. I mixed it all in a sip-lock bag (so that it would last the four days) and stuck it in the side of my pack. This is by far my favourite snack and I love that I can make it just about plastic free!
I also bought oats in bulk for my three breakfasts which was awesome on those chilly mornings with a bit of brown sugar ;)
2. Re-used old pack liners
3. Bring fresh foods
To me this doesn't sound appealing or at all healthy but more importantly, there is so much plastic involved. Girls were going through 2 of these every day and that is a lot of single-use plastic.
With my buddy, we chose to bring fresh vegetables for dinner which we can buy plastic free and ultimately produce little-to no waste. We carried carrots, zucchinis, sweet potato and potatoes, all of which we cut up in front of the fire, boiled in our trangia and eat with fresh couscous and pasta. The only waste we produced was the tops of the carrots which can be thrown into the bush to biodegrade or carried out if there is a bin nearby.
Well I'm off tomorrow to do my qualifying journey and I can happily tell you that I am feeling much more prepared with much less plastic - but lots more warm clothes this time!!!