Category: dairy

Eating Ice Cream for Breakfast — Plastic-Free & Zero Waste

Did you know that Saturday was International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day? Well, it was. Unfortunately, since I’m trying to avoid ice cream packaging waste (All ice cream containers are lined with plastic), I didn’t have any in the house.  And I could tell my freezer was feeling a little sad.
So, remembering [...]

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Learning Where My Food Comes From: A Field Trip to Straus Dairy Farm

After reading Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and seeing the film, Food Inc., I added the task “Visit farms and ranches where my food comes from” to my ongoing, never-ending “To Do” list.  And it sat there.  And sat there.  Until a couple of incidents spurred me to get serious.  First, reading about the [...]

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Cheese Crazy (Plastic-free!)

I can has a 12-pound block of cheese?
Um… yeah. I was dying for cheese and went just a little nutty. I discovered that Perenzin San Pietro is coated with natural beeswax instead of paraffin (a petroleum product) and that The Pasta Shop near my house carries it. Of course, The Pasta Shop [...]

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Cheese Foolery! Year 2, Week 39 Results: .4 oz of plastic waste.

I really let myself get fooled two weeks ago. In a way that I’m sure Organic Needle will understand! You’ll see what I mean in this week’s tally. All new plastic again this week:

1 ZRNet Internet card. I mentioned this one in my post about plastic gift cards. The company [...]

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Dairy Wars: Battle of the Milk & Cheese

The last two posts were about coffee. This post is about what goes in the coffee. Well, half of it is. The other half is about cheese. Anyway, I need your input. I confess I haven’t been using my soy milk maker as regularly as I’d planned, opting for cow’s [...]

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Plastic-free yogurt? Well, almost. Plus ways to use whey.

Turns out we do have an almost plastic-free prepared yogurt here in the SF Bay Area. Saint Benoît yogurt comes in a reusable, returnable ceramic container and is sold at Whole Foods, Berkeley Bowl, and other natural foods stores. As with the Straus milk containers, you pay a deposit which the store refunds [...]

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Sending things back…

You’ve heard of paying it forward? This post is about sending it back. And no, I’m not talking about that mean thing that sport fishermen do. I’m referring to unwanted plastic that shows up my my doorstep unsolicited. I’ve decided that in addition to e-mailing or sending a letter to the company, I’m just going [...]

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Store Report: Rainbow Grocery

I’ve mentioned Rainbow Grocery in quite a few posts, and now I’m going to explain it, so those folks who are not lucky enough to live in the SF Bay Area will know what I’m talking about. Rainbow Grocery makes me wish I still lived in San Francisco. There’s a certain familiar smell [...]

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Week 7 Results: 4.9 oz of plastic

Okay, I know this photo is not as creative or fun as the previous ones. It’s a gray, drizzly day and the photo fits the mood I’m in. So let’s just cut to the tally:
Items used this week but purchased before the plastic project began:

8 Refresh Endura single-use eyedrop containers (#4 plastic).

1 Ak-Mak [...]

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Frozen Foods Summary

Most frozen foods contain some plastic. Of course, the ideal way to reduce plastic waste would be to avoid these “convenience” foods altogether. But that’s not always practical. So, here is an ongoing list of the amounts of plastic hidden inside packages of frozen foods.
Feel free to e-mail me info to [...]

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