Sunday, July 6, 2014

Plastic Confessions

Plastic Confessions

This week, for No Plastic July, we didn't exactly manage to avoid all the plastic.  Here is one week's worth of plastic waste for my family of four, from left to right and top to bottom:

I had ordered something from Amazon and when it arrived it had those inflated plastic bag packing fill.

We had a weinie-roast for the 4th of July, and I had a choice between trying to get sausages from the meat counter without the plastic waste, or of getting the certified ethically raised and grass fed beef hotdogs.  In this case, my feelings about humanely raised meat won out over the plastic issue.

Packaging for some deli meat I had bought for packing the kids lunches to camp this week (I bought it before I signed up for the challenge).

The rest of the plastic there on the upper right was all packaging around the small batch of fireworks we did at home for the 4th.

Two packages of the kind of gluten-free pasta we like the best.

The little plastic seals wrapped around salad dressing and vitamin bottles, the plastic seal around a frozen juice concentrate, a plastic cap from a jug of juice, another from a creamer container, and the plastic film sealed over a tub of salsa.

Plastic cling wrap that was around a block of cheese I bought at the co-op.

Three clam shells that held strawberries and blueberries I bought to make my red-white-and-blue dessert for the 4th.  Unfortunately, we can't recycle clam shells and I hate to buy berries in them, but it was all I could find.

And, finally, the plastic straw, lid, and cup from a Starbucks stop during a 2+ hour drive to visit my family.  I forgot to pack reusable cups for the drive, and when my husband really wanted a coffee stop we had to go for it.  The kids and I did without since we didn't have our cups, but he had an iced coffee.

Let's see if I can do better next week!


2 comments:

  1. I have tried this before. It is incredibly difficult. Plastic is EVERYWHERE! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tracey, yes! This week shopping for food my daughter observed that "all the food I like comes in plastic" and it really does. It's not going to be 100% possible with a gluten free diet, either, since allergy safe food is often given extra packaging to keep it from contamination. But it's still worth trying, and definitely makes me conscious of the choices I'm making.

      Delete