fbpx
541.787.4395 (Pacific Time Zone) kristen@kristenoneillart.com

Plastic Salad? What happened here?

by | Apr 22, 2016 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Why does my salad look like a bunch of plastic bags? This was the thought that rolled into my mind as I made my lunch. I’ve become more aware lately of how much plastic is creeping into our lives. I am great with plastic when it is truly needed for the job, like medical supplies. But this is just getting ridiculous.

Apparently I'm having a plastic salad for lunch.

Apparently I’m having a plastic salad for lunch.

I looked down at my salad. The kale I had removed from a plastic bag. The celery and carrots were still in their respective bags. My cutting board is plastic. And to think that on our block we seem to have the smallest amount of trash on our curb during trash day. What is going on here?

Why I’m Not So Keen on Plastic

  • Plastic items take 450-1000 years to breakdown. As they aren’t make of organic material, they don’t really “decompose.” Imagine if Van Gogh had drunk water one day out of a plastic bottle, that bottle would still be around. Yikes!
  • Glass can do a lot of the jobs that plastic does, and it can be recycled endlessly!
  • There are a few “garbage patches” in the Pacific Ocean. Basically these are areas that have a LOT of garbage floating in the ocean. Due to ocean currents all the garbage ends of condensed in an area. Not good for any fishes, birds or other marine life that is looking for a snack and eats the plastic instead. Or gets caught and trapped in it.

Our family is going to change. A little here, and a little there. Reducing Plastic Use.

  • Grow our own vegetables this summer. We have a started a garden. We bought our soil from a local compost facility, not a hundred plastic wrapped soil bags. This will help get rid of all the bags that the veggies come in. If you want to reduce your plastic too, but aren’t gardening, try simple switches like buying loose carrots instead of pre-bagged ones.
  • Buying bulk. We are going to try a few different things here to figure out how to buy bulk without the transitional plastic bag moment. A few people have already given me great ideas. So kudos to them. 🙂 Cloth bags and pre-weighing mason jars at the market are the two ways I’m going to try out.
  • Be better about reusable bags. Really, those plastic bags just creep into your life if you let them. Some towns have already banned them. While I’m all for personal freedom, I’m all for personal accountability as well. So I’m just going to self-impose a plastic bag ban. Now what do I do about the trash can liner? Not have one?
  • Start replacing plastic with glass or paper whenever we run out of the plastic product. I’m looking at you hand soap bottle… However, I will be keeping plastic bottles in the shower until I can find a safe alternative. I don’t want broken glass in the shower – especially since I have kiddos.

Happy Earth Day. How are you saving the world this next year?