HEALTHY PLANET: PLASTIC FREE JULY: WEEK FOUR - THE WRAP UP (BUT NOT SARAN WRAP)

 

Plastic Free July is over for this year. I failed to be plastic free.  But I'll visit the whole plastic topic again in this blog and report on how I'm doing over time...

It's a little (a lot!) overwhelming isn't it?  How can we possibly be "plastic free"?

This chart, if one has better eyes than mine or a magnifying glass, is helpful, but just looking at it makes me want to give up before I start.

Plastic Free July has at times made me feel that way -- like giving up.  

By Week 4 my consciousness has been well and truly raised.  I wasn't UNconscious before, but you know how it is -- it's easy to just tune things out, overlook, and take for granted until one makes an intentional effort to be aware.  Now I am just gobsmacked at the plastic world in which we live.

Look around your home, your car, your workplace, your community.  Just sit in one indoor place and look around.  Count the number of items you see that are made, all or in part, of plastic. Or came packaged in plastic.  Or will be thrown in a plastic trash bag when you are through with it.  

There is no going back, of course.  So let's forge ahead!  Are you still with me???

I feel I've made some paltry efforts and that I'm also decades late to being a good earth steward.  I visualize all the "earthy" folks I know and admire who have forever been using old yogurt containers for storing nails or whatever; who have pantry shelves lined with Mason jars full of bulk-purchased beans and rolled oats; who have carried their own hand-sewn shopping bags into whatever health food store they frequent for buying their whole week's worth of organic vegetables and scratchy T.P.  You get the idea.  I have done all of that too -- occasionally.  But I confess: I've been lazy and inconsistent and cost-conscious. Convenience-Cheap is my hyphenated middle name. (Not really.)

So I'm heartily patting myself on the back for every effort I've made this month to make a better choice.  

Our local plastic bag ban has made it easy to take reusable shopping bags to the store -- or pay 8 cents for a paper bag, which "cheap" me won't do.  

I've always lamented those rolls of plastic produce bags if for no other reason than how foolish I feel trying to open one of them to receive my apples, especially in Covid times when spitting on my fingers to gain traction is so frowned upon.  I purchased fabric produce bags that I sometimes remember to take into the store with me; I think I'll get better at this.  

I have given up almost completely my beloved Saran Wrap using instead some silicone stretch covers I ordered from Amazon (I know...Amazon...another blog post about them!) that are technically maybe still a plastic product (some say rubber, some say not safe, I say no easy answer), but can be washed and used over and over.  I also often just put a plate over the bowl of whatever in the 'fridge to keep it fresh enough.  

At the bulk foods bins, which we aspire to use more frequently, we use paper bags when they are available, but often they are plastic.  We are committed to bringing our own reusable containers but that's a goal at this point more than a reality since we are unsure how that works re measuring the poppyseeds and not the glass jar we put them in. More info and experience needed.

And I'm learning so much about plastic recycling and what should go in the curbside bin (not everything), what will actually get recycled (not much), and finding resources for those things curbside won't deal with (not many).

So the bottom line is plastic is everywhere, all the time.  Increasing our awareness and changing our behavior is important.  It's also easy to believe that any individual effort is a drop in the bucket, a fruitless and impotent attack on an industry and a culture that just doesn't care.  But doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do is in itself a rewarding experience.  And every little bit really does help -- especially as we model that little bit for others and they adopt some of those practices and soon we've shifted the culture and put pressure on industries to meet our demand for a better way.  I want my grandkids to know I tried to help clean up some of the mess they are inheriting, not for them to notice that I contributed to it without a second thought.

And if bigger action is your thing....politics and pressure.  You know the drill: be aware of pending legislation; contact your legislators.  Vote for those who understand and care about all the contributors to climate change.  Write letters to the editor or post your views and actions on social media. Rally, march, speak out.  

The more we know, the better we can do.  Let's do better.

Here's to health, for ourselves and our planet...©

Read and Learn:  https://lifewithoutplastic.com/about-us/  (A book and website with lots of info; just google for more resources -- not gonna list them all here)

Watch and Learn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37PDwW0c1so  (Watch full doc on Amazon Prime, maybe elsewhere)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RDc2opwg0I  (YouTube of the PBS doc)