It’s Plastic Free July, and I'm challenging myself to find alternatives to single use plastic for an entire month - and to write a daily blog on the most interesting parts of the experience. Today I searched for some plastic free sushi.

I often buy sushi for lunch as it’s fast, cheap, and healthy. But every shop I know serves it in single use plastic containers! To get past this, I ordered sashimi off the menu so that it would be served on a reusable tray.

Despite there being a refillable bottle of soy sauce on the counter, the server still gave me my own soy sauce in a single use plastic tub. I apologised and handed it back to her, saying that I couldn’t accept plastic.

But now I’m wondering, is the sushi off the menu also kept in single use plastic, and simply transferred onto a reusable tray for dine in? If that’s the case, is the original container reused or thrown away? It would be good to know if I’m actually achieving anything by dining in!

Microplastics

I also mention microplastics, because as a seafood eater, I consume around 11,000 pieces of plastic a year. Each of these pieces are coated in chemicals, and the larger the animal, the greater the toxicity that has bioaccumulated.

I work hard to reduce my intake of toxins by choosing natural food, cleaning products, and personal products - yet I regularly consume agriculture and industry chemicals through seafood.

But rather than put me off seafood, it’s made me more determined to clean up our oceans - because the entire food chain is being poisoned. If I think plastic pollution is disgusting to eat, so do the thousands of marine animals that have no choice.

This is why through Plastic Free WA, I’m asking our Government to tackle microplastic pollution in wastewater.

What’s your experience? Does the thought of microplastics put you off seafood?

Inspired? Start your own challenge here!