Plastic waste journal #1

Week 2

Week 1 was posted as a long rambling fb post. This blog should be easier to write in.

This is the recyclable plastic, which is a surprisingly amount smaller than the non-recyclable pile. The salad bins are from my stash of items I saved to use as reusable containers for shopping. However, the more I’ve learned about plastic the less comfortable I am using it to store food, so out they go! Pretty much all of the items here we either don’t use anymore, like the straw and the empty probiotic bottle, or we have found plastic free alternatives. I buy lettuce by the head–and it lasts so much longer! No more slimy lettuce leaves in a plastic container. I buy lemons instead of bottle lemon juice. A bar of soap instead of body wash. Peanuts from the bulk section instead of in bottles.

This pile is a little more daunting.

Much of it is from items we no longer buy, but are still using up our last supplies. I cringe each time I run the dishwasher and open up one of the little plastic packs for each pod. But the box was bought long before, and I will find a good solution before our stockpile runs out.

There are some items that we could not have avoided. For example, the tag attached to the key of the car we bought. At least it was a Prius with 47-ish miles to the gallon to reduce our oil consumption. Also, the flea treatment, Frontline. Our poor kitties get terrible fleas without it.

Two items that will be hard to replace: 1) The hair mousse! This is a little vain, but the hair mousse is also a hard one. I am definitely going to try to find a waste-free alternative, but I’m a little skeptical about the ability of things like lemon “hairspray” to calm my expansive curls. 2) The ice cream. The carton might look like paper, but it is lined with plastic and therefore not even the paper part can be recycled. Ice cream is my favorite food. No really, it is. I know how to make my own, but it requires cream, which is also sold in a plastic-lined container. There is still one more 1/2 gallon in the fridge from quite a while ago. I don’t want to eat it because then there will be no ice cream in the house and no good plan to replace it!!!

Things that I am proud are not in this pile: Mascara bottle! I learned how to make my own (although still working on the final formulation). Airline drink cups–we brought our own snacks at water bottles on the plane when visiting my grandma last week.