Ok, so you already bring your hip reusable bags to the grocery store. Refusing plastic grocery bags makes a great stride in solving the plastic problem, but we can do more! Here are a few tips for plastic-free grocery shopping that goes beyond the canvas bag, and a picture of my food at the checkout:

1. Don't leave your reusable grocery bag behind! Before I started the plastic challenge, I forgot to bring my reusable shopping bags.... quite often, actually. So here's a gentle reminder to have a system to remember. If you drive, keep them in your car. If you walk or bike, collapsible brands (like Chico Bags) are easy to stow away in your pack or hook onto a key chain. 

2. Let your produce go naked! Do you really need a new plastic bag for one onion? Nope. For a stalk of celery? Nope. When I first started letting my produce go naked, I was embarrassed and thought that the cashier might be agitated with me. Well, all that anxiety was unwarranted. No cashiers have even said anything about it, let alone show any sign that they are bothered by a naked onion. 

3. Bring bags for produce! When your produce can't go naked, bring some cloth bags to dress them. I use a combination of bags that I bought from a crafter on Etsy and bags that my mom sewed from old t-shirts. 

4. Bulk up! If its available, buy dried beans, nuts, grains, pasta, flours, snacks, pasta, and spices in bulk. It's usually cheaper, and you can avoid unnecessary plastic packaging or cans lined with BPA. I use the same cloths bags for most bulk items. For spices, I use glass spice jars that I rescued from the side of the street. (By the way, spices are WAY cheaper in bulk, like $0.40 instead of $4.00!!!). For flours, sugars, and other bulk items that don't do well in cloth, I bring glass jars. Simply take the jars to the weigh station or customer service. They will weigh the jar and subtract that weight when pricing your bulk item. I think this is the biggest barrier to buying in bulk, but don't worry. People that work at grocery stores are usually super friendly. 

5. Eat healthy! Refusing to buy food in packaged in plastic means refusing to buy processed foods that aren't good for you anyway. Stick to fresh foods and whole grains. You will automatically see a drop in your plastic waste. 

6. Never shop without a list! I go grocery shopping about once per week. Before I head out, I pick 4 to 5 meals and make a list of the ingredients that I need to buy. This prevents impulse purchases and generally makes planning my week easier. 

Give these tips a try, and let me know how they work for you. 

 

 

 

I ran into a bit of unexpected plastic these past couple weeks from Christmas gifts and medical stuff for Digby after he fractured his paw. Here are the details:

WEEK 49 (all new plastics):

• plastic wrapper from bag of t-shirts: Gordon got for Christmas
• two stickers: I treated myself to a new pair of Tom's shoes, which come with almost no packaging, other than a few fun stickers. They were on a shoe hanger at the store, which they kept to reuse for another pair of shoes. 
• lots of envelope windows
• 3 rubber bands and two bit of foam: from a garden flag I got for Christmas
• toothbrush wrapper: I forgot my Preserve toothbrush when I visited my family, so I had to buy one made from non-recycled plastic. 

WEEK 50:

• 9 syringes: holding 2 mL of Digby's pain medication. There will be more syringes plus a plastic cone in next week's tally. His cast probably contains some plastic too.
• wrapper from glass bottle of chili sauce: not a necessary item, but the bottle will last us a long time.
• wrapper to package of sponges (old): We have switched to a natural cellulose sponge that came attached to a wooden handle with a metal wire. 
• broken hair clip (old) 

 

I'm not much of a drinker, but I fell in love with this dark and stormy at a new bar and restaurant in Berkeley called Origen.
When I asked for the drink sans plastic stirrer, the mixologist presented me with a renewable, sustainably harvested wooden stirrer. He then went on to tell me how he only uses a wooden muddler and convinced the bar to invest soley in wooden muddlers.
I am excited to go back and try a meal off of their "farm to fork" menu.

I'm visiting my family in Pennsylvania for the holidays. While I absolutely love spending time with them, it drives me crazy to break free from the Berkeley enviro-bubble and not have the luxury of buying food in bulk, let alone finding quirky items like vital wheat gluten. I took a trip to Mr. Z's tonight to stock up on food for the holidays and to put my plastic challenge to the test. 

Not too shabby! I brought some cloth bags for produce and canvas bags to carry out all the groceries. The only plastics from this purchase were: a lid from cocoa, tag on a bunch of carrots, cap and wrapper from ground ginger, a small window on a box of pasta, and a few cans lined with BPA. Healthy meals with lots of fresh produce don't require tons of plastic, no matter where you are! 

Hi friends! Sorry for the absence. Life has been a bit busy, and as such I have not had as much time to keep up the blog. I have continued my weekly accounting of plastic waste. Below are the picturea of my plastic waste for weeks 38 through 46 of my plastic challenge, which puts me at 10.5 pounds of plastic waste after 46 weeks of trying to live without new plastics.

A significant amount of new plastic waste shown here is the packaging from a vacuum that my mom got me as a gift (not to mention the new vacuum). An additional source of new plastic is from our new cell phones and their packaging. Gordon and I made the switch from AT&T and Verizon to Credo Mobile. It's true my previous phone was held together with tape, but it worked just fine. For social reasons, I was happy to finally make the switch. 

 

 

This week, I had the great opportunity of giving the annual carbon cycle and climate change lecture to a group of enthusiastic undergraduate students at UC Berkeley. I gave mention of my plastics challenge. One of the Graduate Student Instructors may have her sections try out their own plastics challenge for a couple weeks! (Note to ESPM c12/ ENG c77 students: Thanks again for your attention and questions. Please feel free to email me or comment here with questions and ideas.)

As a reminder to my new readers, the rules I set out for my plastic challenge are (1) Do not buy new plastic, (2) Continue to use my existing plastic goods to their full extent, and (3) Keep a record of my weekly plastic waste. Everyone in my apartment participates in the challenge - me, my partner (Gordon), and our cats, Digby and Stoker.

Our plastic waste was minimal and a huge improvement from last week, but some was avoidable. Check out the details below the picture.

 

New plastics (acquired after February 1, 2011):

• Energy bar wrapper: Gordon picked up a few of these on his recent week-long field campaign. If you like energy bars, try out this versatile recipe from No Meat Athlete. 
• Two caps and wrapper from canola oil: I just love baking, but I do end up using a lot of canola oil. I am going to try to switch to Earth Balance vegan butter sticks, which come in foil paper. 
• Spoon from Gelateria Naia: We always opt for a cone, but this time our server put a spoon in the cone! They claim their spoons are made from biodegradable materials. However, I have learned that most compostable plastic is not composted, even in Berkeley where we have curbside compost bins. Commercial-scale compost facilities deal with a lot of plastic contamination. Often, if compostable plastics are not clearly labeled, they also get pulled out and send to the landfill. Even if the compostable plastics make it through, they often don't actually break down as fast as the other organic waste. 
• Plastic wrapper: Gordon got this when he bought cheese. He brings his own container to the cheese counter, but sometimes they slip in a sheet of plastic.
• Magazine wrapper: Gordon gets a couple magazines and they randomly arrive wrapped in plastic. I keep encouraging him to contact them or to cancel his subscription. We'll see what happens. 
• Flea medicine tube: Digby and Stoker get fleas. A lot. Serious fleas. Ew. Unfortunately, we are going to continue to use this plastic-wrapped toxic stuff. We switched from Frontline to Advantage, which come in little tubes. We bought the tubes for big cats, applied half of the medicine on each cat. This eliminates some plastic! Thanks to our friend, Michael, we realized that all the flea medicine costs the same amount. That is, the tubes for large dogs costs the same as the tubes for tiny kittens. 

Old plastics (acquired before February 1, 2011):

• NONE

Oh boy. What a week! Digby and Stoker brought fleas into our apartment last week, so Gordon and I were inspired to do some major cleaning. As a result, there are a lot of "old" plastics in my weekly tally. The old plastics were those that I acquired before starting this blog on February 1, 2011. We also picked up a few pieces of new plastics, some of which could have been avoided. Here's the breakdown:

New plastics:

• two bubble envelopes: One envelope contained birthday artwork from my nephew, Andrew, and niece, Morgan. The artwork made my day! The other envelope contained a yoga dvd that Gordon ordered online. The dvd itself is plastics, comes in a plastic case, wrapped in plastic, and shipped in a plastic bubble envelope. ARG! If he had told me he was going to buy the yoga dvd, we could have looked at other options. For example, one less plastic option would have been to get a used copy instead.
• dvd wrapper: see above.
• liner from cat food bag: I haven't had the time or motivation to make my own cat food yet, so for now its a mix of dry and wet food. The cans are lined with BPA, just like almost all other canned foods. The bags of Wellness dry food are mostly paper but have a thin plastic lining.
• ring from cat toy: One of the cats' toys - a gift from their Uncle Brad - is attached to a string with a small plastic ring. We accidentally sucked it into the vacuum and ripped the string. The rest of the cat toy is still in tact. 
• food container: I got this at a catered workshop and was able to reuse it three times before I broke it. It is number 5, so I will be dropping it off at the Preserve Gimme Five recycling bin at the Whole Foods on Ashby. Preserve collects #5 plastics and turns them into toothbrushes and razors. You can find your local collection bin here.

Old plastics: 

• two gift cards: These are some of Gordon's old gift cards that were still in our drawers. Gift cards are made of PVC, one of the most toxic kinds of plastics. We will be sending these away to be recycled and remade into new gift cards by Earthwork System. According to Earthwork System, "Over 75 million pounds of PVC material from plastic cards enters our waste stream each year." 75 million pounds each year, just for gift cards! Wow! That statistic blows my mind. Check out this old post by Beth Terry about other options for gift cards disposal or reuse. 
• Piece of rope: another small piece of our 60 meter long rope cut off as it frayed at the ends.
• two energy bar wrappers: Although I love Luna bars, Gordon and I have completely moved away from energy bars, except for Gordon's recent field campaign. I found these in the pocket of ski pants. If you like to eat energy bars, you might want to check out this easy versatile recipe from No Meat Athlete. 
• little plastic bag: Came with an old pair of shoes that Gordon bought a while ago. 
• broken bike light cover
• dvd: from an old energy policy booklet. Not relevant today.
• plastic bag: an old ripped bag from my craft bin. 
• sunglasses: I bought these cheap sunglasses less than a year ago, and I didn't take very good care of them. The side is broken, and the lenses are scratched. I try to me more mindful of my stuff now. I didn't replace them with a new pair because I have been able to use an old pair of Gordon's sunglasses. But, I wonder, are there plastic-free sunglasses? 
• book binding: We cut this off one of Gordon's old conference programs before we recycled. (all the little black rings)
• the letter "S": S is for sucks. As in, this plastic letter "S" sucks. It's not mine, and Gordon claims to have no recollection of how he got it. 

My friend, Casey, works for the nonprofit What If? Foundation. She frequently visits Haiti to help improve access to food and education for Haitian children. She recently shared this touching story with me:

"This seven year old, Jean-Marie Etienne, walks over 3 miles to the food program every day with his 2 year old sister, Magdala, and their reusable container.  They save half of their meal and put it in the container to bring home to their mother (who was paralyzed during the earthquake).  When I asked this sweetie about his container he told me: "I wouldn't want to use anything else but this container to bring home my mother's dinner.  It is more than just a bucket, it is a sign of hope for my family. Even if we could afford throw-away plates I would not buy them.  On my birthday last year when we went to my aunt's food cart for a special treat, I brought this container instead of using the styrofoam plate.  I hope that someday all of the trash in our streets will be gone and that money will be spent on trees, not guns...that is the world I dream about for my family.""

I thank Jean-Marie for his hopeful words and for a dose of perspective. What kind of world do you dream about for your family?

 

 

 

Here are the last three weeks of my plastic tallies. I have now completed 35 weeks trying to live plastic free. I had a bit of trouble with plastic wrapping around climbing gear and an accidental cup. On the bright side, I am in love with my new plastic-free toothpaste option - Lush toothy tabs! 

Week 35, October 2nd, 3.24 ounces

New plastics:

• plastic cup and lid: Ack! This should be an easy one to avoid. I went to a coffee shop with Gordon. We got two drinks and asked for them "for here." One came in a reusable mug, while the other came in this plastic cup. 
• lid and scoop from protein powder: I get all my protein from real food, but some in my household think they need extra. There are hemp and soy protein powders available in bulk, but that someone is also afraid of plant estrogens. 
• tag from personal anchor system: My very awesome birthday present from Gordon came only with this small plastic tie. 
• bag of cat food: This one is tricky. It is mostly paper, but it is lined with plastic. I decided to weigh the whole thing since it was hard to separate, and since it is all headed for the landfill. Making my own cat food is still on my to-do list. One step at a time! 
• tube of toothpaste: I still have a couple tubes of toothpaste in my bathroom, but I recently picked up a trial box of Lush toothy tabs. They are basically little baking soda tablets that you break up with your teeth and brush with the foam. I have been using them for a week now and love them! I'll post more about them soon. 

Old plastic:

• two bags of spaghetti: We now buy all our pasta in bulk. It's super easy, and quite a bit cheaper. 

Week 34, September 25th, 1.50 ounces

New plastics:

• six plastic wrappers from cams: another climbing gear purchase. We can't help ourselves! We could have bought these wrapped with less plastic from REI, but at $100 cheaper we decided to buy them online. 
• two Frontline flea medicine containers: what a waste! The cats have tons of fleas now. We are going to stop by the pet store tomorrow to get new arsenal, which will most likely contain plastic. Argh! Cats!

Week 33, September 18th, 0.51 ounces

New plastics:

• two race numbers and time bands: from the Petaluma Moo Cow half marathon. I don't feel too guilty about this plastic waste thanks to all my sponsors who stepped up to reduce their own plastic waste! Thanks again everyone!
• cookie wrapper: I got this from a workshop which had catered lunches. I could have not taken it, but a vegan lunch was put together just for me. The cookie was delicious.
• three envelope window: can't remember what they are from exactly. The amount of junk mail I receive has drastically decreased since starting this challenge, but I get the occasional crap plus the much appreciated reimbursement checks in the mail. 

Old plastic:

• window from box of pasta: we buy it in bulk now.

 

I finished the Moo Cow half marathon at a time of 2 hours 3 minutes and 17 seconds, all the while thinking about my twenty eight sponsors and the steps the are taking to reduce plastic waste. 

After the race, I was so proud of myself. I never imagined that I could run that far. It felt painful in the moment, but a sense of accomplishment as I ran through the finish line. I hope you all feel as proud about the steps you are taking to reduce your plastic waste, and I hope you can go an extra mile.

And the winners of the raffle are - drum roll -

Stainless steel food container: Lindsay! Lindsay already does so much to reduce her plastic waste stream. She makes her own vanilla, creates liquid soap out of bar soap, totes reusable shopping bags, and brings tupperware to restaurants for leftovers. She sponsored my race by participating in a shoreline cleanup at the Berkeley Marina the day before the race. We got placed in a special hotspot where a substantial amount of trash gets deposited from upstream to the coastline. We found nearly 700 pieces of glass, 400 bits of plastic, lots of wrappers, and 36 straws! 

Bamboo utensils: Erica! Erica decided to write to bird journals to ask them to stop wrapping their journals in plastic. As an environmental scientist, she is setting a great example. 

Glass straw: Barbie! Barbie sponsored my race by making the switch to really cute cloth sandwich bags which she purchased from Etsy. Who needs single-use plastic ziplocks? 

Grocery bag: Logan! Logan is now using soap bars instead of plastic bottles of shampoo.

Grocery bag: Missy and Andrew! This team proves that you can never be too young. Andrew started bringing home his friends' plastic water bottles to recycle, and is always sure to bring his reusable bottle to school. His mom will be writing the school in an attempt to improve recycling in the classroom. 

Congratulations to the winners, and thank you so much to each of my sponsors! I will be following up with each of you.