Name: Deirdre

Week: 1

Personal Info:

I am a member of a four person household (2 big, 2 little.)

I am the writer of the blog: www.theslowlifeblog.com, and part of my story is to live more intentionally and slowly. One thing I do is scrupulously recycle, compost and limit our consumption. Though I know there is still a long way to go.

Our community accepts more plastic than I expected, though sadly not the blister packs or filmy plastic/bags.

I was surprised by how little I have here in the photo…but have to confess there are about 2 dozen of those food bags (the kind from inside cereal boxes or that contained food from the super-market) that didn’t make it into the picture. We are also missing one gallon container (that had milk in it.)

Total items: 40

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
1. Milk Gallon Jug #2
2. Yogurt cup #5
3. (2) water bottles #1

Items: Nonrecyclable
1. Glue stick
2. (2) vegetable dye containers
3. (2)Plastic shopping bags (these I can bring to my local grocery store, but I’m not sure if they recycle them or do something else with them)
4. Miscellaneous plastic bags (approx. 29)
5. Bulk soap holder bag
6. Salad blister pack

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
~Milk jug (I went out today and noticed that Whole foods has milk in glass bottles- just like in the “old” days- there is a deposit but if you return the jar it is refunded note:I bought one bottle!)

~Yogurt cup (I could make my own or buy a larger container and dole it out into a bowl as needed)

~water bottles (Should have remembered a drink in our reusable aluminum jugs that day -it was hot!!)

~Glue stick ??

~Veg. dye (not all together necessary to have could use beet juice, etc.)

~Plastic shopping bags (no excuse to forget my fabric totes!)

~Plastic bags (buy in bulk as much of these items as possible)

~Bulk soap holder (use the bulk bins at the coop Bronners, etc.)

~Salad blister pack (buy loose leaf)

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?

All of it!

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?

The glue stick is an interesting one. I could make paste I suppose.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?

I need to remember to plan ahead a bit better. I must remember to bring my reusables when I venture out to shop, take a walk or whatever.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?

I will remember my water jug from home and my reusable shopping bags!

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?

This is just a small snapshot, one week of our consumption. We have reduced considerably from the past, but there is still a ways to go, especially as I plan for back to school.

Just uploading this picture…from my plastic camera onto my plastic computer…there they are sitting right under my nose. I suppose the best thing to do is to find a way to recycle them when their no longer usable.

Name: Kirsten Roche

Week: 2

Personal Info:
Kamloops, BC, Canada
Female
In a relationship, living together
Work close to home, a 20-minute bike ride
No children!

Total items: 15 (2 not shown)

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
*strawberry box
*raspberry box
*mini eggs wrapper that is partly biodegradable so I’ll place it under this category

Items: Nonrecyclable
*bag from frozen mango chunks
*little plastic seal and lid from carton of soymilk
*plastic sponge
*bag from loaf of bread
*empty stick of lip balm
*the plastic viewing window from my new stick of lip balm
*wrapping from a cucumber I bought
*medication wrapping
*plastic spoon from the Indian food I bought at a festival the day before

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
*plastic sponge- have already replaced sponges made of cellulose and plastic with dish cloths that can be washed and reused again and again. I bought this plastic one ages ago and used it way longer than I should have but it’s life is lived and it’ll be the last one I buy!

*bag from loaf of bread- I am unable to go to our town’s farmer’s market because it’s only open Saturdays from 10am til 2pm and I always work until 3 on Saturdays, but if my mom goes I can ask her to pick me up a loaf

*wrapping from a cucumber I bought- definitely won’t do that again, I was in a pinch when I went grocery shopping and bought it out of necessity but from now on I’ll either buy cucumbers at a different store or ask my mom to get one at the farmer’s market for me

*bag from frozen mango chunks- may be able to switch what kind of fruit I use to something I can buy fresh, however it’s tricky because the only cheap fruit I can really get here that’s appropriate for smoothies is bananas and I’m currently boycotting Dole and Chiquita. If I can find some bananas from another brand I will gladly switch to fresh fruit!

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
*Mini Eggs wrapper- I read on the Cadbudy website (which I visited after noticing recently that the packaging for the Mini Eggs has changed and no longer feels plastic-y) that their packaging is now between 60% and 100% biodegradable, depending on the product! I had the feeling that the packaging was biodegradable which was why I bought it when I had a chocolate craving, but I’m excited to see that it’s true!

*no more using plastic spoons! Try to eat before I go out so I don’t have to buy takeout food at the festival
What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
*little plastic seal and lid from carton of soymilk- no alternative

*empty stick of lip balm- only alternative is that brand online that offers chapstick in biodegradable packaging, but the amount of gas (not to mention $10 shipping fee) used to ship it does just as much bad as buying plastic. Will continue to hunt from alternatives closer to home though!

*the plastic viewing window from my new stick of lip balm- no alternative that I have found yet

*medication wrapping- no alternative

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
*switch what kinds of smoothies I drink

*see if anyone I know is going to the farmer’s market and get them to pick some things up for me

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
*bread wrapping. Try to find bread that is not wrapped in plastic!!

Name: Leanne Daharja

Week: 1

Personal Info:
I’m a married mum of two kids, living in Dunedin, New Zealand.  The plastic rubbish tallying I’ve decided to do is just for me – for now. I’ve been separating out my personal rubbish, plus anything I participated in the use of.  If I even had one slice of bread, the bread bag went in my tally, for example.

Total items: 21 items. I’m horrified. I didn’t know I used that much plastic in a week for just me!

Total weight: Didn’t weigh. Sorry!

Items: Recyclable
Bottles – diet coke, diet coke, orange juice, lemon juice.
Container – multivitamins (says it can be recycled).

Items: Nonrecyclable
Food packaging (11 items):
2 bread bags
carrot bag
onion bag
plastic cellophane wrap from bulk noodles
plastic bag from chinese horse bean snack
plastic cover wrap from plum sauce jar
plastic cover wrap from soy sauce bottle
plastic ring from lid of new jar of peanut butter
2 bread tags (little plastic gizmo)
yoghurt enzyme bag (we make our own yoghurt from this).

Consumer goods packaging (2 items):
plastic packaging from command hook package
plastic packaging from oven mitt package.

Bags (3 items):
Three produce bags (the light plastic bags you put apples or whatever in supermarkets before getting them weighed at the counter).

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
I really need to get off the Diet Coke!
Produce bags at the supermarket – we’re gradually setting our property up to grow our own food, so these are reducing. I’ll look online to find some re-usable replacements for them.

Plastic wrap covers for bottle lids etc – a hard one though. We’ve already shifted to as many glass bottle products as possible in the main, but even so they are often sealed with plastic over the top of the lid. I feel like I’m fighting a great wall of plastic!

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
I’ll try to reduce what I can by shifting to glass and alternatives, because I see plastic as a real problem. I’d be willing to quit the Diet Coke, or at least go to small glass bottles while I wean myself from the caffeine!

I’m happy to quit the chinese snacks, although they remind me of home and are comfort foods :-(

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
Juice is an issue.

We buy it for the kids to sneak in their supplements (olive leaf extract, acidophilus etc) but I can’t resist drinking a bit too.

My son’s autism has improved dramatically with our regime of biomedical intervention, so the juice is a non-negotiable. I had about 2 glasses of it, but even if I stop drinking it, they still will.

There is one glass-bottled juice available – we might try that to see if the kids will drink it. But it is vegetable juice instead of orange. I’ll try to hunt out an affordable orange or apple juice not packaged in plastic.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
We’ve already made the big one – moving to a property where we can grow a lot of our own food. This was done for peak oil and organic food reasons, rather than plastic, but we’re finding our plastic consumption dropping as well.

More fresh food, if I find reusable produce bags, and less packaged stuff, as well as more bulk foods, should reduce the plastic load.

We already eat a lot of bulk and fresh stuff, with very few processed foods, but we probably need to cut out processed and pre-made stuff entirely. But right now I haven’t the time to learn how to make soy sauce – and I haven’t the inclination either!

We’re also buying bulk more.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
Multivitamins. I’m shifting to a glass bottled brand with a metal lid. That’s easy! :-)

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
I’m horrified at the amount of plastic I produced – for just me! – in one week. I didn’t think it would be that much. I thought I was pretty green.

This has been an eye opener that I really needed to do. Now I need to find ways to reduce it.

I also became more aware when shopping, because I was REALLY thinking about my plastic rubbish for the first time. Everything is in plastic! It’s nuts!

Things have to change. But they won’t unless we, the consumers, push the issue.

Name: Tess Giles

Week: 1

Personal Info:
I’m based in the UK, about 50 miles from London in a medium-sized town. I’m a single woman, mid 50s, child-free and live alone, apart from two cats, in a small house with a small garden. I do interim work projects, so sometimes I’m based at home, sometimes work away. We have road-side recycling collection once a week for paper and card, food scraps and garden waste, glass and some (not very many) plastics.

Total items: 26

Total weight: 13.5 oz

Items: Recyclable
One plastic bottle of dishwasher cleaner

Items: Nonrecyclable
Wrapping from a bunch of flowers.
Two small carrier bags I got when I didn’t have my canvas shopper with me.
One carton that had strawberries in it.
One small bag from mozarella cheese.
Two pasta sauce tubs.
Two cakes/desserts containers.
Two cartons from pre-prepared salads.
Two cartons from pre-prepared fruit salad.
Two large yoghurt tubs.
Various sheets of plastic wrapping/bags including bag that had fresh fish in.
Pointy thing from box of dates.
Two band-aid wrappers.
The shrinkwrap from a DVD.

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
All the pre-prepared sauces, salads and cakes, which I tend to buy when I’m busy and/or depressed. Carrier bags.

I could learn to make my own yoghurt. I already have a yoghurt-maker I’ve never used.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
It’s difficult here to buy soft fruits not in plastic tubs. I’d be willing to give them up or find places that sell them direct and not in plastic (although then there’s petrol to consider).

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
Band-aids, strangely!

And wrappings for fresh foods like fish and cheese,which I would prefer not to give up but would if I absolutely had to.

And the dishwasher cleaner. I think it’s better use of energy overall to use the dishwasher since I already have one. Perhaps use the cleaner less often.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
What became crystal clear to me looking at this was that a lot of it could be avoided if I were better organised – bought fresh food and made the time to cook it.

Find my collapsible cloth shopper bag and carry it with me always.

Rent or download DVDs, don’t buy them.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
Pre-prepared meals.

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
I was really shocked at the amount. I’ve thought of myself as quite environmentally-friendly, but it seems that I’m far too prone to treat myself “just this once”.

Name: Kirsten Roche

Week: 1

Personal Info:
Location: Kamloops, BC, Canada
Gender: Female
Relationship Status: Dating
Work Status: Away from home, within biking distance!

Total items: 30

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
*a 2-Liter bottle of Sprite and the lid to it
*a Styrofoam to-go container- number 6

Items: Nonrecyclable
*14 wrappers for individually-wrapped Black Diamond Cheese Strings
*bag from inside my cereal box
*bag from organic frozen mango chunks
*package from organic tofu
*2 plastic ties from frozen orange juice from concentrate cylinders (what would you even call those?)
*a 2-inch by 2-inch piece of plastic from the viewing window for a box of spaghetti
*the lid from a carton of soymilk
*a package of Pad Thai Sauce
*a plastic cork from a bottle of wine (though they donate 10% of their profit to saving wetlands- I would have expected a regular cork!)
*a package of ear plugs
*lid from to-go container

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
*buy my cereal in bulk and either bring a fabric bag for it or re-use a plastic bag over and over
*I could buy orange juice in the two-liter cartons but I think that the lid for those uses about the same amount of plastic…let me think about it more!
*start buying pasta in bulk
*make my own pad thai sauce or opt for the glass jar of it instead of the individual packets
*Take-out container: bring own container when going out for dinner instead of requiring a Styrofoam container…I almost never take food home in plastic containers from restaurants. I usually ask to see if they use cardboard or styrofoam but this particular restaurant was a vegetarian, sort of hippie kind of place so I mistakenly assumed they would use cardboard and did not realize it until the food was already in the box!
*buy bottles of wine with a regular cork instead of plastic cork
*ear plugs package: I rarely buy or wear earplugs but the neighbors upstairs were exceptionally loud when I had to wake up the next morning for work. Although I rarely use them, in the future I will buy a pack of 5 pairs which uses about the same amount of packaging as my single package with one pair.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
*cheese strings: have been needing to kick the addiction for a long time, if only for my health, but this challenge has really put the fire under my butt to stop buying them for the sake of the environment! I go through lots of these and I believe this was the thing I needed to really feel motivated to stop ;)

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
*bag from organic frozen mango chunks: I can not find frozen fruit here that is not wrapped in plastic and sadly fresh mangoes and other fresh fruits are too expensive to put in the amount of smoothies I make
*package from organic tofu: no alternative
*the lid from a carton of soymilk: no clear way for me to lessen the amount of plastic from the lid (although the lids are very small)

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
If I start to buy pasta and cereal in bulk I can likely cut the amount of plastic I use by at least 30%. That also saves on cardboard too, meaning less overall waste. Kicking my cheese string addiction cuts my plastic by about another 20%, and is much healthier for me!

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
The cheese strings and boxes of pasta

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
It is actually possible (and easy) for me to reduce my plastic consumption even more, by upwards of 40 or 50%, just by making a couple of small changes! I;m very excited to start.

Name: Rebecca

Week: 1

Personal Info:
Vancouver, Canada. Two people – one part-time, one full-time working

Total items: 19

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
1. An ice cream cake container that we brought to our friend’s house and shared in the benefit (Not pictured)

Items: Nonrecyclable
1. Styrofoam base – it has a #6 recycle symbol, but our curb-side program does not take them
2. Cling wrap over styrofoam
3. 2 creamer containers from cafe – I thought these were recyclable but there is no number
4. Tea bag package – has a shiny layer that I think is plastic
5. Straw
6. Stick from a q-tip
7. Seaweed package
8. Wrappers from pollock sticks
9. Butter wrapper – not sure if it contains plastic or not
10. Net bag from onions
11. 3 rings from lid seals of bottles still in use
12. 2 apple stickers
13. Grocery bag we reused as a garbage bag (Not pictured)

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
1. Cake container – bake a cake instead of buying one – though ice cream is hard to source plastic-free
2. Styrofoam and cling wrap – make my own dim sum buns instead of buying packaged ones
3. Creamers – say no to plastic in cafes as they must have a bigger jug of cream somewhere
4. Tea package – try to source tea loose-leaf in tins
5. Straw – say no to straws!
6. Net bag – buy onions in bulk with my own bags
7. Apple stickers – look for apples without stickers, maybe at farmer’s market

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
1. Pollock sticks for making California rolls – guess we can create a new roll if we can’t find a way to source pollock with no plastic

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
1. Butter wrapper – I bake a lot to cut down on packaged foods. Haven’t seen an eco-friendly wrapper for butter yet.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I’ve been trying to reduce my plastic consumption for a little while now. The hard part is thinking ahead to refuse plastic that people may bring you, like straws and cream containers. The other change is trying to buy less convenience foods when you are hungry and tired.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
I am giving up onion and potato bags and buying in bulk now.

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
Reducing your plastic consumption can be pretty easy, but it takes awareness. You first have to realize how much you’re consuming and where plastic hides, before you really figure out how to cut down on it. That’s why this challenge is a great exercise!

Name: GraceOnline

Personal Info:
Who: A cat and two humans, one full-time employed, the other semi-retired; frequently graced with the presence of grandchildren;
Where: San Francisco
Biggest plastic challenges: Keeping the cat well fed, healthy and her litter box clean without plastic–not happening, yet; resisting the urge to buy plastic-wrapped, shiny, plastic toys for the grandkids.
Biggest plastic boon: Monster city-wide curbside recycling program with few restrictions. Most of our plastics are trucked to the front door of the city’s multi-million dollar recycling center, where they are sorted on a giant Rube Goldberg conveyor belt system, then baled and funneled out the back door onto ships that head for China and the Pacific Rim. We can only hope that mountains of plastics are not sitting in someone’s back yard, as we see in The Story of Bottled Water video.

Total items: 29

Total weight: Approximately 13.5 ounces (I had to estimate the weight of the kitty litter bag as it is filled with clean litter. For sanitary reasons, I had to discard the empty one prior to weighing as I had used it for dirty kitty litter when I changed the box early in the week.)

Items: Recyclable
1. Strawberry clamshell – #1
2. Medjool date clamshell – #1
3. Shampoo bottle – #2
4. Pill bottle – #2
5. Medicine bottle (for grandbaby) – #2
6, 7, 8 & 9: Individual apple sauce containers – #5

San Francisco does not require sorting plastic. They accept all plastics except bags, wrappers or film (think Saran Wrap) and items mixed with metal, fabric or rubber. Most of the plastics are loaded on ships for China or countries in the Pacific Rim where they are made into new products and likely shipped back to us, all glossy and shrink-wrapped.

Items: Nonrecyclable
1 & 2. Toilet tissue packages
3. Frozen blueberry bag
4. Kitty litter bag
5. Trash bag (Partially filled with household non-plastic, non-recyclables, non-compostables and the day’s kitty litter gleanings)
6 & 7. Intimate product liners
8. Toy package bubble
9. Brown sugar sack
10. Godiva shipping cold pack bag
11 & 12. Cheese packages
13. Tortilla package
14. Toy package bubble
15 & 16. Cat medicine tablet holders
17. Toy package
18 & 19. Cut corners from kitty litter bag & tortilla bag
20. Toothbrush package

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic?
1. The strawberry container and the blueberry sack are easy to eliminate by buying fruits only in season at the Farmer’s market and carrying them home in our own reusable containers.

2. The individual apple sauce containers are an aberration at our house and unlikely to be in our recyclables again. Typically, we buy applesauce in glass jars, but now that I am semi-retired, I hope to make homemade.

3. The plastic trash bags are being phased out in favor of compostable bags. While they will not break down in the landfill, they will biodegrade quickly should they be released into the environment.

Possibles:

1. Shampoo bottle: Only one of us still uses commercial shampoo. The other (me) has already switched to no-poo, which means no new shampoo/conditioner bottles coming into the house. My sweetie is undecided, but considering trying no-poo.

2. Intimate product liner: I am searching for intimate products without plastic liners and have purchased a few organic cotton ones for trial.

3. Medjool date container: We are looking for a bulk source of organic dates where we can fill our own reusable container. These are an important part of our diet, so an alternative absolutely must be found.

4. Toy packaging: We’re grandparents. One of us can’t stop buying cutesy toys on a whim. Wherever possible, we plan and choose sustainable wooden and handcrafted toys for our grandchildren, but plastic seems inevitable in toyland. We can do more to reduce, however, and will continue to work on it.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
1. Brown sugar sack: While we can buy organic raw sugar in bulk, we have not yet sourced brown sugar in bulk, but we keep looking. I am researching ways to add molasses to recipes in lieu of brown sugar.

2. Tortilla and other wrap packages: Again, because I am semi-retired and have more time, I am looking into recipes for homemade tortillas and other wraps so we can avoid those packages. This would not be possible if I were still working 50-60 hour weeks.

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
1. Toilet tissue packages: I’m constantly trying to think of ways to minimize and ultimately replace. Write your suppliers and ask them to package in recycled paper!

2. Pill bottles: Alas, necessary, and again, write the suppliers! The more who write requesting glass bottles, the more chance we’ll have of achieving change.

3. Medicine bottle for granddaughter: We have to keep a supply of this doctor-prescribed over-the-counter brand on hand for her overnight visits, and no other packaging is available.

4. Godiva ice-pack shipping bag: Not essential, but it came in a gift package, and I am unlikely to dictate to friends and family what they may or may not choose as gifts. I will, however, continue to show my preferences by example, through my writing, which some of them read, and through topical discussion. We keep such items in the freezer and reuse, but I have four of them now, and this one had to go to make room for fresh-frozen foods from the farmer’s market. Just realized I could have advertised it on freecycle.org. Duh!

5. Cat medicine tabs: We cannot source any other method for the cat’s life-saving medicine.

6. Kitty litter bag: We buy the most ecological we know of, but I must write the manufacture regarding packaging.

7. Toothbrush packaging: So far, I have found no toothbrush packages that do not involve plastic.

8. Frozen berry (and vegetable) packaging: While I will source fresh farmer’s market fruits and vegetables wherever possible, it is likely we will continue to use frozen berries and some vegetables in winter months. Eliminating these from our freezer is a long-term goal and will require changing our expectations of what we should have available to eat on a moment’s notice. This will take gradual, habit-changing practices.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I already made one that has made a huge difference: Partial retirement. Had I not semi-retired in the last year, we would have a much larger plastic problem. Like many people, I worked 50-60 hour weeks and all too often opted for quicker, easier solutions. With more time available, I can assure I get to the farmer’s market every week, where I can purchase the freshest whole foods and carry them home in my own reusable containers.

I also have time to relearn old skills, such as breadmaking, and to experiment making foods that I previously bought in packages during the years I worked outside the home. These included bread, tortillas, wraps, jams and jellies, frozen fruits and vegetables, sometimes soups and beans.

The biggest lifestyle change would require a move to an apartment or home large enough to accommodate a deep freeze capable of preserving large quantities for up to a year without significant loss of flavor or nutrients. Such an acquisition is unlikely in the foreseeable future.

My dream lifestyle change is to live and work in an ecologically conscious community with communal kitchens and gardens where we could share some, but not all, food growing, gathering, preserving, preparing and eating. I vision and write about such a community in the fictional Village of Ordinary and in its companion blog, Building Ordinary.

Until this or something better is possible in our lives, we will continue on our current path of gradually reducing plastic consumption, one awareness, one problem-solving moment after another.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
We have purchased compostable trash can bags, which we will use for non-compostables/non-recyclables, including kitty litter. We won’t exactly start this week though, because we still have a stash of the regular plastic bags. When our current supply runs out, we will begin using the compostables. I know of no ecological benefit to throwing the unused bags still on our shelf in the trash.

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
We need to re-grow our society from the ground up. Ours is a tear-on-the-dotted-line, disposable, throw-away, consumption-addicted culture. We as individuals are the only ones who can change that, by voting with our dollars, asking manufacturers to change, and spreading the word about the need for systemic change until the movement for making conscious, life-enhancing, Earth-preserving choices has reached critical mass. You are doing a grand service to us all by founding and maintaining this blog and running this challenge.

Name: Barbara Watts

Personal Info:
My boyfriend and I live together in St. Petersburg, Florida. When he heard I was going to do this, he said he wanted to participate also. We are both in our 50′s. Bob is going to school in the morning and work in the afternoon. I am working from home right now. I watch my 5 month old grandson 5 days a week, but I did not include his diapers.

Total items: 40

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
3 gatorade bottles
1 water bottle
1 chinese food tray #5
1 brita filter – goes to gimme 5
5 shopping bags – get reused or go back to store
1 bread bag – get reused or go back to store
1 bagel bag – get reused or go back to store
1 styrofoam egg carton goes back to store

Items: Nonrecyclable
4 styrofoam meat trays and plastic
4 styrofoam coffe cups with tops
1 chip bag
2 veggie wrappers
1 grape bag
1 coffee bag
1 spice container
1 milk container not recyclable in our area
1 ice cream carton
1 oatmeal top
4 emergenC packets
1 frozen dog food bag
3 baggies
The trash bag at the top was our trash for the week. That includes all the babies diapers. 1 trash bag

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic?
The shopping bags are something I am trying to help Bob with. He has a hard time remembering to take cloth bags. I have one in my purse, so I usually don’t need plastic. We did find coffee in a paper bag. Bob needs a good alternative to the styrofoam coffee cups. I have invested in glass storage containers to get away from baggies. I am also looking for a good way to carry take out food.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
All of Bob’s stuff (haha jk)
That’s hard because I have already done a lot of giving up and switching.

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
We live in the city and don’t have easy access to a farmers market or farms. The essentials would be:
egg cartons
meat trays
ice cream carton – yep essential
frozen dog food
bags that fruit and veggies are packaged in.
milk or half and half cartons
bags for bread products
corn chips

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I did just switch from liquid shower soap to bar soap. Easy change I had not thought of before. I tried to go no-poo for two weeks but could not get it right. My hair was a mess. I am now using a high priced shampoo from the health food store and wish I could get the no-poo thing to work. I am planning on making cloth bags for the fruits and veggies we can get unpackaged. There is a new bar-b-que place that just opened up and I asked the owner if I could bring my own container for take out. Little things like that.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
no more baggies for me. I am going to ask Bob to keep a couple of cloth bags in his truck.

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
The exercise was a big help for us. I didn’t realize how fast it would pile up. Now I can see more clearly where we need to cut down. We didn’t save our plastics this week, but will start again on Saturday.

Name: Jennifer

Personal Info:
I’m in Saskatchewan, Canada. Plastic recycling is virtually non-existent here, but I found a company that will take 1-7. The catch: they charge $2.50 per bag, even when it’s dropped off to them! This is just one more reason to cut back, though, because I can no longer in good conscience throw it in the trash.

Total items: 20 (19 shown)

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
Tortilla bag (new, #4)
MAYBE the pasta bag (old)

Items: Nonrecyclable
Brita filter (not shown, recyclable?)
Chip bag (new, SHAME on me)
Strawberry bag (old)
Tofu wrapper (new)
Brownie wrapper (old. Found it in the freezer)
Disposable contact container
Tab from oat milk (new)
Oat milk container (new, not shown)
Security seal from Coconut milk ice cream (new)
Lentil bag from farmers market(new)
Spice bag (new. I try to buy bulk, but it’s hard to find organic, fair trade)
Stupid food picker upper from bulk baked goods section (new)
Mint wrapper (Old. Found in my pocket)
4 Produce stickers (new)
Envelope window (new)

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic?
I could easily buy the lentil mix in a larger brown bag, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money until I tried the product. Next time, no plastic!

I could easily not buy organic, fair trade spices… but I like to when I can.

I can easily buy pasta in bulk, and have switched to doing so already.

Food picker-upper. If there hadn’t been a staffperson standing right there, I would have picked my own cookies out (carefully) with bare hands.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
The brownies – they weren’t very good anyway. It was a one time thing awhile ago.

Individually wrapped mints. I don’t take them from restaurants anymore.

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?
Contacts

Tofu

Oat milk (husband likes this kind the best… I’ve heard of making almond milk, but what about oat milk?)

Produce stickers – They’re even on my farmer’s market tomatoes.

Berries – I’m torn here, because I like to drink green smoothies for breakfast, but it is impossible to buy fruit plastic free. My plan is to go to a u-pick this summer and triple what I frozen myself last year.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I need to learn to make things like wraps, pitas, tortillas, and bread-y things instead of relying on my husband to do it. It would also require freezing this stuff so that we don’t have to buy it when we’re in a time crunch.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
Chips. After a stressful few weeks I felt defiant and bought them even though I knew better (health and waste-wise).

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
I thought I was doing well this week, but once it is all laid out before me it does not look so nice. This week was much worse for new plastic, and I justified it all because I was stressed out.

I also imagined what the daily plastic would look like in a household where the majority of food comes from a package… Scary in so many ways.

Name: Condo Blues (http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/)

Personal Info:
I live in Columbus, Ohio with my husband and dog.

Total items: 11

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
1 Milk jug #2 & cap
1 mustard bottle #2 & cap
The hard plastic caps will be recycled via Aveda

Items: Nonrecyclable
5 plastic bags – I will reuse these for doggie pickup
1 plastic wrapper from a stack of junk mail sales postcards
1 plastic laundry soap wrapper
1 plastic pill blister pack
1 plastic frozen yogurt spoon

What items can I replace with plastic free or less plastic?
First off the frozen yogurt spoon because I was caught off guard that day. I went to brunch w/ my husband to a restaurant that uses real utensils & didn’t bring my own. Later we wandered around and found a new yogurt shop & were tempted into a plastic spoon. The plastic pill blister pack is prescription and now comes in metal. I make my own laundry detergent and used Zote because I couldn’t find Fels Naptha which comes in a paper wrapper at my grocery store. I could and do often use bath soap in the mix but I think a laundry soap works a bit better.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
I’ll stick to locally made ice cream with giant fruit chunks on an ice cream cone instead of the frozen yogurt in a cup – yeah a big sacrifice I know :)

I’d love to get off of the on time pack of cards mailing list but I’m not sure who sent it. It was for all old people things like grab bars and whatnot. I shredded the paper and added it to my compost for carbon.

What Items are essential and do not have a plastic alternative?

The milk to be sure. My husband drinks gallons of Ohio sourced hormone free milk and this is how it comes. We prefer to get our vitamins and minerals from the food we eat than from taking supplements (that often come in plastic bottles.) Our other drinks are plastic free – coffee, tea, juice, tap water, and the occasional craft beer.

We keep frozen vegetables on hand for in between shopping trips since we have winter. The farmer’s markets and our CSA haven’t started up yet. It will be interesting to see how our plastic changes once we start having vegetables delivered in our CSA share each week.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?

I cook using a little of this and a little of that. 9 of my plastic items are from bulk items. I cut and shred hunks off the big bar of laundry soap to make powdered batches of laundry detergent. The other ingredients come in cardboard boxes. I could yell at the little girl who puts the advertising bag on my doorstep each week not to but I can’t be that mean. I shred the flyers inside for carbons after I read them for my compost and reuse the bag for doggie duty – we’re required to bag it and paper doesn’t work very well.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
I already replaced the plastic pill pack with foil. I’m a mustard fiend and like having different flavors in my fridge. I should go with ones in glass jars. And suffer through that local ice cream on a cone instead of yogurt in a cup. The bread – I was curious about how a gluten free spelt bread tasted and bought it.

Are there any other conclusions I can draw?
9 of my plastic items are from bulk/non one use items. 5 of the items (the bags) are going to be reused for the dog before being put in the trash. I do try to buy multiuse size as much as possible. My city has plastic recycling but I still try to make mindful purchases because I have to take all of my recycling to a city dumpster. We don’t have curbside pickup and I’m a bit lazy so I try to make purchases so that the recycling bin won’t fill up quickly either :)