Getting Ready for Plastic Free July

I can't believe it's July already.  Tomorrow, we start the Plastic Free July challenge.

If you haven't heard about it, Plastic Free July is all about eliminating disposable plastic (i.e. plastic that is meant to be used once, or very little, and then thrown away) from our lives for an entire month.

What makes single-use plastic so bad?  
It is destroying our oceans.
It is harmful to wildlife.
It is harmful to us.

The "convenience" is not worth it.

Ten Eleven things you can do:

1. Take reusable shopping bags.
2. Bring your own water bottle.
3. Say no to straws, or bring your own glass straw.
4. Bring your own travel mug for tea and coffee.
5. Don't use coffee pods.
6. Buy dry goods (beans, rice, etc.) from the bulk bins in your own container.
7. Use vinegar, baking soda and bar soap for cleaning.
8. Bring your own utensils.
9. Shave with a safety razor.
10. DIY personal care products.
11. Compost your food scraps.

Some posts to get you started:

How to Shop in the Bulk Bins
Deplastify Your Bathroom
Plastic-Free Shaving: Using a Safety Razor
DIY Deodorant
Less Toxic and Plastic-Free Laundry Routine

Plastic Free July's website has even more ideas.  So does Beth Terry's.

I am a U.S. blogger, but if you are in the U.K., check out Plastic is Rubbish, she has a whole list of wonderful bloggers over there who are also participating in Plastic Free July.

What will I be doing?
As I mentioned in the lead up to Zero Plastic Week, I sometimes fell victim to the convenience of tea bags.  Although the tea bags themselves were compostable (Not all of them are! Be careful, most are made with plastic in the bag itself!), the wrappers were not.  I have been buying tea in bulk since then, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Meat is the biggie.  Sometimes they will put it in a container for me, sometimes not.  And to be honest, I get sick of asking, so I settle for the plastic-wrapped variety.  I kind of just avoided it during Zero Plastic Week, but I won't for Plastic Free July.  The butcher paper they use is plastic lined, so that won't work, either.  Any tips?

Most metal jar lids are lined with a little bit of plastic, and while I can't say that I will be entirely giving up glass jar food items, I will make an attempt to make some homemade strawberry jam and tomato sauce this month.

I will also be more specific with WHY I am refusing items.  I have been at times handed straws (already in my drink), bags, etc. while eating out, even when I specifically ask for none.  I think if I say "No straw please, I try not to use any single-use plastic," it might be a little more effective.  Hopefully this will not come off as rude, as I know the waitstaff is just trying to do their job, and do not want to listen to me tell them about dying sea turtles.  What do you say when refusing a straw when eating out?  Is there a better way to get your request across?  Or do you just ask for no straw and hope for the best?

Sign up for Plastic Free July here.

My Un-plastiversary: Plastic Free July

Last July, I took up the Plastic Free July challenge.  I had been making small changes before that, choosing less harmful cleaning products and reusable cloth napkins and towels instead of their disposable counterparts, but last July was when I really made the decision to reduce the (large) amount of packaging I had been consuming.

It has been a great journey.  It has helped me simplify.  Not having a thousand different products in the bathroom, not having boxes and boxes of close to expiring (or expired!) processed food in the pantry.  Speaking as someone who is not always naturally organized, this has made a difference when not much else has in the past.  Being able to see all of our food clearly in glass jars.  Being able to reach the back of our bathroom cabinet.  Things are easier.

But most importantly, using less disposable plastic greatly lessens our environmental impact.  Plastic trash is a  big problem, and using a product that lasts so long for such an ephemeral purpose as single-serving food wrapping seems illogical.  There are uses for plastic.  Our modern technology depends on it.  My cello case is plastic, which makes it lighter to carry, yet still protects the instrument.  But things that get thrown away instantaneously?

Wherever we are in this journey, we can all be a little more mindful of what we are throwing away.  This July, I will again be participating in Plastic Free July.  I challenge you to come along on this journey with me!  There are two ways to participate:

1. Giving up ALL single-use plastic for the month of July (food packaging, shampoo bottles, personal care products, etc.).

OR

2. Refusing the TOP 4 disposable plastic items: straws, plastic bags, plastic bottles and coffee cup lids.

I will be continuing along with what I did for Zero Plastic Week, and refusing all single-use plastic.  How will you be participating? :)  Are there any disposable plastic things you aren't sure you have an alternative for?

Zero Plastic Week: The Results

So, as I am sure you have all been waiting for, here is all of the plastic I have collected during Zero Plastic Week:

• 1 magazine bag
• 1 piece of packing tape
• 2 envelope windows
• 3 produce stickers
• 4 milk caps
• 5 milk rings

Note: cat not included in plastic tally

I also have two stickers from Whole Foods (bread and cheese) that haven't gotten thrown out yet.  So they should probably be counted in the tally.

This was eye opening, because even though I have been pretty diligent about my plastic consumption, I still created waste.  More than I thought I would.

But it wasn't hard.  If you get into a routine, and plan just a little in advance, it is pretty easy.  If you didn't participate in Zero Plastic Week, don't worry, Plastic Free July is right around the corner! :)

How was your Zero Plastic Week?

Zero Plastic Week: Day 1

If you have been reading recently, then you know that this week is Zero Plastic Week.  The goal is to not use any new single-use plastic for the whole week (i.e. plastic wrap, shopping bags, coffee cups, etc.)  Since the challenge is only a week, they say that you can use plastic you already have (i.e. bottles of shampoo).  (Plastic Free July will certainly help you take care of those things :)

So I started out my morning with oatmeal and tea, both of which were bought in bulk with my own containers last week.  I'm always pretty good with grains and oats, but I have been a little lazy with the tea, as I have to make another stop because the Whole Foods near us does not carry it.  Which is not an excuse, so I made sure to pick some up.

We are very lucky to have returnable, glass-bottled milk (that is bottled on the farm!) available to us.  However, they do use plastic caps, which is how I ended up with this piece of plastic this morning:

Any thoughts on how to recycle the caps?  Our municipal recycling does not take them...

I will be updating everyday this week with our plastic-free solutions and any more plastic trash we manage to accumulate.  And that's what this is really about-garbage.  Garbage that is ending up in our oceans and polluting our natural resources.  There are uses for plastic (like the keyboard I'm typing on, for instance), but we need to re-think how we are using the material as a disposable commodity.  Here is a great piece from the BBC on plastic pollution in our oceans.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, I am giving away four bulk bags from The High Fiber so you can shop plastic free, too!  The giveaway is over on Wednesday, so enter now! :)

Zero Plastic Week: June 9th - 15th (Get a jumpstart on Plastic Free July?)

I just heard about some awesome people in the Netherlands who are hosting a Plastic-Free Week in June. The premise?  Use no new disposable plastic for an entire week. (No plastic shopping bags, produce bags, throw away coffee cups, etc.)  If you are up for the challenge, here is their website and you can join the event on Facebook.

Not sure where to start?

• Bring your own bags to the supermarket
• Shop your farmers market for produce that has less packaging (I've found this especially helpful for finding spinach and cherry tomatoes)
• Bring your own water bottle and coffee mug
• Say no to straws, or bring your own glass or stainless steel one
• Bring your own lunch to work or school
• Make your own yogurt and beans (dried beans are cheaper anyway!)
• Buy your bread from a bakery or make your own
• Shop the bulk bins and use your own bags
• Say no to disposable coffee pods!
• Make your own cleaning supplies (and how to do laundry without plastic)
• Use bar soap instead of liquid

(Martha's directions on making yogurt, which are super easy; a great recipe for homemade bread, I make this all the time; how to cook dried beans in the crockpot)


For more ideas, visit Zero Plastic Week's website, or Beth Terry's, or Plastic Free July's

what can I do now?

I think it's really important to take slow steps in this journey.  If we try to do too much at once, it can be overwhelming and hard to build habits.  Educating yourself about environmental issues and alternatives to a disposable lifestyle is already a great step in the right direction.  So what are some easy things you can do right now to reduce the amount waste you produce?

1. Bring your own bags to the grocery store.  We all have reusable bags sitting in our homes, apartments or cars.  I even had some in college.  You just need to use them!  Put some in your car, by the front door, wherever it will be easiest for you to grab them.  They make collapsible ones you can put in your purse or pocket.  Get into a routine--put them back in your car or right by the door after you are done unloading them.  And reusable bags aren't just for grocery shopping--you should use them at the mall, department stores, pharmacy, wherever you would normally use a plastic bag.

Also, how many times have you been carrying an overstuffed plastic grocery bag only to have it break, or the seam split?  One of the great things about choosing reusable options, is that they are often more durable and more pleasant to use.  Canvas shopping bags just work better than their flimsy plastic disposable counterparts.

But what if you don't remember to bring your bags?  If I forget to bring my bags to the store, I either go back out to the car to get them or carry everything back by hand or in my purse.  Plastic bags are no longer an option.  The countless plastic bags we consume every day have a direct result on ocean life.  I used to consume just as many as anyone else, asking for double bags, getting bags when I only had one or two small items.  But then I started reading about what happened to them after we were done with them:

http://news.discovery.com/animals/endangered-species/plastic-bags-fool-turtles-into-hunting-them-130612.htm

http://oceanwildthings.com/2012/06/sperm-whale-death-by-100-plastic-bags/

2. Ask for no straw when you eat out.  This is another big one.  Straws are also a huge source of pollution in the oceans, and we don't really need them.  It is no inconvenience to the restaurant to give you a drink without a straw.  It actually saves them money.  If you like drinking out of a straw, there are glass straws that you can buy and bring with you.  I have a straw from Glass Dharma that I bring with me.  And they're much more fun to drink out of than the plastic ones!

Also good to remember, straws don't just come with your water and iced tea, they come with cocktails and milkshakes, too.  I've been tripped up by this more than once!  Here is a post by Plastic is Rubbish showing the amount of discarded straws they were able to pick up just walking the beach.

3. Bring your own water bottle and coffee/tea mug.  According to this article, by buying single bottles of water, we are paying 2,000 times more than the cost of tap water.  That is astounding.  If that is not enough to convince you, then how about this: tap water is more highly regulated than bottled water.  Don't be willing to pay that much of a markup for an inferior product just for convenience's sake.  Bring your own bottle from home.  Refill at water fountains.  We have been convinced by these companies that we need their product, and even when money is tight, we end up spending it on a completely unnecessary thing.

How about hot drink cups?  We're probably all aware that styrofoam is bad, but what about those paper cups?  Well, they're lined with plastic.  Beth Terry from My Plastic Free life wrote a great post on sneaky plastic (it's in milk and juice cartons, too!).  I've never had a problem bringing my own travel mug to a coffee shop, and some places will even give you a small discount.

4. Don't use disposable coffee pods. I was again, guilty of this, too!  These things produce so much waste, and are so much more expensive than even gourmet coffee bought in a bag.  You end up paying for packaging.  Why not buy a nice bag of coffee and use a french press or drip coffee maker?  They brew a better cup of coffee anyway.  Once again, we are paying for convenience.  Another concern I have with these systems, outside of their wastefulness, is the fact that you are heating up the coffee through plastic.  (Here is just one article that discusses the issues with heating plastics).  If you have a brand new machine, and don't want to donate it, there are reusable filters that you can use (Keurig makes one), but they still are made from plastic.

Even if you can only do one of these things, that's still something!  We must lead by example, and show others that there are better, easier options out there.  We have to remember that our disposable items go somewhere after we are done with them, and oftentimes that "somewhere" can be quite problematic.  Have you started doing any of these things yet?  Which one have you struggled with?  (Bottled water was hard at first for me!)  Is there something else you think should be on the list?

(Note on water bottles and reusable bags: if you don't have any reusable bags or yours are in bad shape, I would advise against buying those cheapo ones you see at the grocery store checkout counters.  They are also made of plastic, and don't hold up very well, especially after washing.  Instead get some nice sturdy canvas ones.  Ecobags has some nice ones.  But if you already have bags, use those!
Now for water bottles: look for bottles made out of glass or stainless steel.  Even plastics labeled BPA-free can still potentially leach not-so-harmless chemicals. I use a Lifefactory bottle, and Kleen Kanteen makes an entirely plastic free stainless bottle, which is awesome!)