My friend, Renee LeMieux, sent me a link to this article, A Life Without Plastics? written by Trine Tsouderos, a Chicago Tribune reporter and mother of two small children. Tsouderos decided to minimize buying of anythin g made of plastic or packaged in plastic for a week. She writes about this experience.First of all, she buys several stainless-steel cups for her family and a rubber pacifier (instead of plastic) for the baby. Then the paper diapers. It made me wonder which plastics I would choose to replace first.
This also got me thinking about how much less plastic and packaging I've used since practicing macrobiotics, a whole-foods way of eating, over the past 10 years. Much of the food I buy comes from a bin (whole grains & dried beans), or it is only put into one thin plastic bag if it's a vegetable. Some things are prepackaged, but not overly packaged (a plastic bag with a box over it). I frequently don't take the plastic bag and put the vegetables directly into my shopping cart as Tsouderos did.
I could do better and be even more conscious about this (now I will) to minimize my plastic use even more. There are things we can do and they don't cost money because we usually have them in our kitchens.
Like plates ... One easy thing I do is when putting away leftovers or storing a big salad for later use. I use a dessert plate (or, dinner size) to cover a bowl of food. No plastic wrap needed or plastic containers (though I do use plastic containers). Just place the plate on top of the bowllike a lid. In the past I've had some nice glass versions of Tupperware (a mental note is made to look for some new ones!).
And, paper grocery bags ... Another thing I have done in the past is to avoid plastic garbage bags by using brown bags from the grocery store to line my kitchen wastebasket. When full, the bag goes into a large (yikes!) plastic barrel (which could be replaced with an aluminum one) and brought to the curbside. The paper bag also could be deleted if you're using cloth bags and the trash can go directly into the wastebasket. Or, one paper bag could be reused, dumping the trash directly into the metal trash barrel that goes out to the curb. I would not miss those smelly plastic trash bags at all!
I do drink water from Crystal Springs (Maine), which comes in the large, hard plastic containers, but recently have been drinking filtered tap water instead. I vacillate between drinking filtered tap water which still contains flouride and water that may containpthalates. I haven't totally decided what to do on this one so I continue to use both. Does anyone know of a filtering sys tem t hat takes out the flouride?
Remembering to have a stainless steel cup in the car at all times is a good tip (and an easy one!) for beverages outside the home. No stainless? How about an old mug or something that can be slipped into a purse? Imagine the cups you could save? (Hmmm ... I'm thinking ... this could be a future "Cup Challenge.")
I liked Tsouderos' article, as it made me conscious that we all can do better to make changes to reduce our plastic, or packaging (waste) consumption in general, even if they're small changes. We can go from bad to good, or from good to better ... depending on where we are. We can be a little inconvenienced for our health, the health of our loved ones, and planetary health. We just have to be conscious, and then make the effort to do it. And, to be a little more creative, or inventive. Think about it, what did our mothers or grandmothers use?
Let's be creative and inventive! How will you reduce your use of toxic plastics and unnecessary packaging?
My friend, Renee LeMieux, sent me a link to this article, A Life Without Plastics? written by Trine Tsouderos, a Chicago Tribune reporter and mother of two small children. Tsouderos decided to minimize buying of anythin g made of plastic or packaged in plastic for a week. She writes about this experience.First of all, she buys several stainless-steel cups for her family and a rubber pacifier (instead of plastic) for the baby. Then the paper diapers. It made me wonder which plastics I would choose to replace first.
This also got me thinking about how much less plastic and packaging I've used since practicing macrobiotics, a whole-foods way of eating, over the past 10 years. Much of the food I buy comes from a bin (whole grains & dried beans), or it is only put into one thin plastic bag if it's a vegetable. Some things are prepackaged, but not overly packaged (a plastic bag with a box over it). I frequently don't take the plastic bag and put the vegetables directly into my shopping cart as Tsouderos did.
I could do better and be even more conscious about this (now I will) to minimize my plastic use even more. There are things we can do and they don't cost money because we usually have them in our kitchens.
Like plates ... One easy thing I do is when putting away leftovers or storing a big salad for later use. I use a dessert plate (or, dinner size) to cover a bowl of food. No plastic wrap needed or plastic containers (though I do use plastic containers). Just place the plate on top of the bowllike a lid. In the past I've had some nice glass versions of Tupperware (a mental note is made to look for some new ones!).
And, paper grocery bags ... Another thing I have done in the past is to avoid plastic garbage bags by using brown bags from the grocery store to line my kitchen wastebasket. When full, the bag goes into a large (yikes!) plastic barrel (which could be replaced with an aluminum one) and brought to the curbside. The paper bag also could be deleted if you're using cloth bags and the trash can go directly into the wastebasket. Or, one paper bag could be reused, dumping the trash directly into the metal trash barrel that goes out to the curb. I would not miss those smelly plastic trash bags at all!I do drink water from Crystal Springs (Maine), which comes in the large, hard plastic containers, but recently have been drinking filtered tap water instead. I vacillate between drinking filtered tap water which still contains flouride and water that may containpthalates. I haven't totally decided what to do on this one so I continue to use both. Does anyone know of a filtering sys tem t hat takes out the flouride?
Remembering to have a stainless steel cup in the car at all times is a good tip (and an easy one!) for beverages outside the home. No stainless? How about an old mug or something that can be slipped into a purse? Imagine the cups you could save? (Hmmm ... I'm thinking ... this could be a future "Cup Challenge.")
I liked Tsouderos' article, as it made me conscious that we all can do better to make changes to reduce our plastic, or packaging (waste) consumption in general, even if they're small changes. We can go from bad to good, or from good to better ... depending on where we are. We can be a little inconvenienced for our health, the health of our loved ones, and planetary health. We just have to be conscious, and then make the effort to do it. And, to be a little more creative, or inventive. Think about it, what did our mothers or grandmothers use?
Let's be creative and inventive! How will you reduce your use of toxic plastics and unnecessary packaging?