Plastic… it’s everywhere!

My wild Saturday night consisted of grocery shopping, who knew it would end up resembling a horror movie?

I head to my local organic, emphasis on healthy food, supermarket. I am tackling my commitment to eating less red meat and I’m buying ground turkey and even tofu! Fruits, veggies, my choices are looking AMAZING!

As I’m putting my items up on the conveyor belt I start to comment on the plastic packaging. By the time I get to the end I realize that EVERYTHING I bought came in a plastic package.

Everything

Now most of it is recyclable, and recycle I will, but I have a couple issues with recycling…

First, contamination is a huge problem, it’s a complicated system to make sure you are putting the right products into your recycling bin. How many people do you think truly do the research to make sure they are only putting the right products in the bin? Check your local recycle and post a list right on your recycling container, then you can compare the number to their list. How many more do you think don’t care about what they are putting in the recycling bin? Unfortunately it only takes one…

Whew, made it past the first hurdle. Next, is it clean?

A dirty container or an errant plastic bag can ruin an entire batch of recyclables and they end up in the landfill. And there they will stay FOREVER. Plastic does not decompose, EVER. It breaks down into smaller pieces, microplastics, but does not return to the earth as other items do when they decompose.

Alright, the batch makes it through and it is recycled into another useful item, such as carpet, fabric, or a lawn chair, then what? It can’t be recycled again so it ends up in a landfill, where it will sit forever, breaking down into tiny pieces.

Once it is manufactured it’s destination is decided, whether you recycle or reuse, your plastic will end up in a landfill (and hopefully not the ocean). The best course is to avoid it if at all possible.

Where do I start? Deep breath and remember… baby steps. How about reuseable produce bags, easy enough. I was going to buy a set at the store, guess what they were made of? Polyester *SCREAM*

After some searching, these are the ones I decided on. 100% cotton, reusable with the tare weight on the bag – I’ll let you know, as soon as I’m able to use them, how they work!

What do you use? Have any suggestions? I’d love to hear them!

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