Category: Citizen Science

This year we made progress towards our using less plastics goal. I am going to share all of the links and ideas from previous posts, our continued progress on those ideas, and then outline my plans for continuing to use less plastic in 2014.

We started off in January making sure we use our reusable water containers more to cut back on our plastic bottle consumption. We are still using far fewer disposable water bottles but we could do even more in 2014.

We also made sure we had enough reusable grocery bags to use with our shopping. I have to admit that in the last few months I have forgotten my cloth bags quite a few times. I need to be much more diligent about getting the bags back into the car and remembering to take them into the store.

I have been better at not taking a bag if I can just carry the item from the store. This is something that is now second nature to me. It always surprises me when the clerk wants to put a single small item into a big plastic bag. I usually just take the item and hand back the bag.

I love my stuff bags and I have two of them now! I just need to really, really remember to pull them out and use them. I keep them in my glove box of the car so they are always with me when I am out shopping.

This has been the most consistent thing we have stuck with all year…using better compostable garbage bags. I am happy to say this is something that we have incorporated into our lifestyle. We also use less of them!

We use these all the time for lunches. My husband packs a salad every day and this container is the best ever. We loved it so much we bought two more so we all can make use of them when we are out and about.
We also purchased the soup container by Sistema and my husband is using that to take along hot foods in his lunch box.

We started off using the stainless steel containers quite a bit but I found that they are very heavy if I am carrying them in my backpack. If we are packing an ice chest to take in the car they work much better.

I have to say that we use very few plastic cups anymore. I don’t think I have purchased any at all since writing this post. We just reuse the ones we have or use alternative reusable cups.

Plans for 2014

I am hoping to switch over any of remaining plastic food containers to some like these glass ones. I think they will be better for storing and reheating leftovers. Of course these would only be for using in the home and not for taking out and about.

I have yet to start consistently using my reusable produce bags. I love them but it is awkward to pull them out at the grocery store for some reason. I need to get over it and just do it in 2014!

I know that I am still purchasing lots of plastic packaging for foods and consumer goods. It really takes some forethought and pick things with less packaging. Places I have cut back drastically are in convenience foods, juice, and cheese. I have lots of room for improvement and when I figure out ways to do so, I will pass on the tips.

How did your family do this year? Did you cut back on your plastic consumption?

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Using Fewer Disposable Cups

I have two tips for you that have saved me from wasting too many plastic cups.

#1 Ask for Recyclable Cups
When you eat out, make sure your take-away cup is not plastic.Ask beforehand because sometimes you have a choice between a plastic or paper cup. Our McDonalds has a $1 for any size drink policy. If you order a large, you get a plastic cup. If you order a medium or small, you get a paper cup. We make sure to order a medium on the rare trip to McDonalds. Wouldn’t it be nice if McDonalds had a recycling bin for all those large drink cups that get thrown in the trash can?

Sidenote: If you drink coffee or tea at Starbucks and are enjoying it in the restaurant, ask for a mug instead of a paper cup. You can also bring your own  personal cup and they will refill it for you (for a 10 cent discount). If you are purchasing a cold drink this will eliminate the need for a disposable plastic cup.

#2 Write Names on Disposable Cups
We recently had a graduation party and I realized if I put a Sharpie pen by the drink cups…people would write their names on them and then reuse the cup. This was a great savings in disposable plastic.

These are both really small ideas but I decided over time they would make an impact on our disposable plastic usage.We are keeping at this project and feel good about the progress we have made in using less as the months go by.

Any summertime tips for using less plastic?

This month we tackled another of our big plastic uses…..trash bags. I love my convenient lovely trash bags with their nice easy to use handles. But, after taking a really good look at our consumption of these regular plastic trash bags…we felt that this was an area we could reduce the number of bags or to use a more environment-friendly alternative.

Enter the Google Search!

Trash bags for our household trash –  
Pride Green Life Cycle Bags
Who knew there were such easy to find alternatives? We had always purchased our trash bags from Costco in bulk but a quick Google Search and we had some options to look for on Amazon.com. We found an alternative to our regular plastic trash bag that is a biodegradable plastic that says it will breakdown in 18-36 months which sounds a whole lot better than 1000 years! We went with these bags from Pride Green because they had the best reviews online. We have used them for a little over a month now and I honestly have seen no change in durability and ease of use. They have quickly replaced our normal plastic trash bags.

Compost Bucket Bags-
BioBag Food Waste Bags 

We use a small under-the-counter compost bucket for collecting our kitchen wastes. We have switched to using BioBag Food Waste Bags which are completely compostable. They are made from starches and will be consumed by micro-organisms in our soil. No fussing with these bags…we can just remove the full bag and throw the whole thing in our compost bin! No one complains about taking the compost bucket to the composter anymore.

Just in case you want to know about our under the counter kitchen composter looks like. We have used this for many years and are very happy with the convenience of having it right there for kitchen clean-up and food preparation time.

Any tips or suggestions for reusable produce bags? 

Next month I will be sharing our experience with our reusable sandwich and snack bags. 🙂

Another month of using less plastic and I can already see a huge difference in our attitudes and lifestyle. But, there are still some areas we could improve in. Our family is not seeking to totally eliminate all plastic but to greatly reduce the wasteful practices we were falling into without thinking.

This is the key…think about what you are purchasing and then how you are going to reduce your plastic consumption before you bring it home.

We have not cleansed the kitchen of all plastic. We decided that since we already owned all those reusable plastic containers, we would use them for now. They will be replaced with non-plastic alternatives when the time comes. For our family, this is a gradual process that will probably take a year to totally figure out how to make it work.

Thanks for all the suggestions from last month in your comments. I appreciate every one and hope you will keep the suggestions coming this month.

#3 Bringing less plastic home from the grocery.
Last month I shared how we are attempting to use all reusable bags for shopping….well, I still forget sometimes. But, I found an answer that is simple and easy…a reusable stuff bag. This bag from Chico Bag unfolds into a full size bag with shoulder straps (Diana’s suggestion from last month’s comments). You can purchase one on Amazon: ChicoBag Reusable Shopping Tote/Grocery Bag.I can attach it to my purse or keys using the clip provided and this way I always have at least one reusable bag to use at all times.

The other brilliant idea that my husband had was to ask at the meat counter and the deli counter if they could wrap our meats in paper rather than a ziplock bag. No problem! The meats come home and we put them in reusable containers at home instead which is one extra step but we don’t end up with plastic bags that we can’t reuse.

If all else fails, take the item without a bag if possible. We have done this at Home Depot a number of times this month and now it seems silly when they want to use a plastic bag to carry out one small item. It is just a bad habit.  (Makita spoke about doing this in her comment from last month.)

Have you found a product you like for packaging sandwiches for lunches? Leave me a comment!