This means that I won't be buying new plastic materials, and will be using as little plastic as possible that I already own. Obviously, I can't avoid plastic completely. This laptop is plastic. My phone is plastic. Most of my home is plastic. But whatever I can replace with a non-plastic material, I will.
I have already made a mistake; today at the store I bought a package of Go Raw Flax Snax which comes in a plasticized pouch. I didn't realize it till I left the store. But I'm not giving up. Shopping will be tricky. I already use muslin produce bags for fruit, vegetables and bulk items. And of course I always bring my own shopping bags. But it's hard when it comes to other items. The only way for me to purchase meat without plastic is to buy it at the meat counter. I was already regularly doing this since there are better pastured and grass-fed choices at the meat counter, and you can purchase whatever amount you want. I was dismayed to remember that they wrap the meat in a small sheet of thin plastic before wrapping it with the butcher paper. But it's a small amount compared to the amount of plastic in a typical shrink-wrapped Styrofoam meat package you buy from the meat fridge.
I had to forgo my usual smoked salmon because the entire package is plastic. Once I left the store I remembered there is a seafood counter as well, so I will check it for smoked salmon next time. Other things I won't be buying this month include kefir, butter (thankfully I'd just bought some more), cream cheese, deli meat, sliced cheese, basically all dairy except for yogurt. At my grocery store they carry a brand of yogurt packaged in a glass jar. I'm hoping to find cheese wrapped in paper, but I haven't found it yet.
Save the Oceans with this bracelet!
We are responsible with our plastic- we recycle about 95% of it. But recycling isn't the answer. New plastic is made from petroleum, and I don't want to support that process. Recycled plastic is better of course, but it's not always easy to find, and much of it still ends up as pollution. The process of recycling and reforming the plastic pollutes more than glassmaking. I know that paper processing is a polluter too, but it's less harmful overall than plastic manufacture, and is compostable. Of course you can recycle paper but the composting process is better for the environment and just makes more sense. So I compost as much paper as I can.
I have already failed miserably in my quest to bring my reusable mug to tea and coffee shops so that I don't have to use endless to-go cups with plastic lids. I often forget my mug, and sometimes I don't have room to carry it in my bag. But I still have this as a goal. Sometimes when I realize I've forgotten the mug, I take the paper cup without a lid and later compost the cup. Some shops have compostable lids, but those are rare and from what I've heard they don't biodegrade as well as they should. Another thing I've tried is making an effort to frequent the shops that serve drinks in ceramic or glass cups if you're not taking it to go. It's just hard for me to remember which shops do so.
Someday when I don't have such a tight budget I want to purchase Bee's Wrap food preservation wrap. It's made from beeswax and is reusable. There are food covers that work like plastic wrap, and they have sandwich and snack bags as well. For awhile I was using waxed paper sandwich bags but they didn't have a closure. I later purchased some heavy plastic reusable sandwich bags but they are awkward, don't zip shut well, and are hard to clean. And since they're plastic, that means that though they're not single-use disposables, they will never go away once I'm done with them.
Plastic doesn't go away. Think about that. Please.
This month, instead of celebrating "USA! USA!" I will be celebrating hope for the oceans, for the planet, for all of us, one non-plastic item at a time.
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