The tupperware cupboard

This weekend I did some serious organizing and I started with purging the plastic crap in the kitchen cupboards. I shifted away from Tupperware about a year ago and started storing all the food in Anchor’s glass containers but I have held onto all this stuff in case I need to go to a friends house with food or give someone a meal etc.. Well, I don’t want to give my friends food in plastic either so I am removing the temptation and encouraging innovation.

The alternatives that I have on hand are glass jars, tin plates and stainless steel containers. My idea is to buy the sturdiest tin and tin foil that I can find so that I can reuse them as much as possible. I am also starting to use tin foil and wax paper instead of ziplock bags and I can tell that my dependence on zip locks is going to be one of the hardest to give up. What will I put my 30 lbs of berries in? The answers are coming. I am sure of it.

I have also seen washable cloth bags at the Eco-store in town, The Green Room, and I like the concept but am wondering how well they work for things that aren’t completely dry. Has anyone out there tried them?

Plastic Alternatives

Starting today I am on a mission to reduce plastic in my home. I have started reading Slow Death by Rubber Duck and I can see that it is time to make a change in my life.

I have always been as environmentally and socially conscious as I can be in this world of every changing theories. Two years ago, I stopped storing food in plastic and invested in glass anchor containers.  I got my daughter glass bottles and a stainless steel sippy cup. I can see now that these were good beginning steps.

My goal with this blog is to inspire others to reduce the plastic they purchase and for others with the mission of reducing plastic in their homes to gather here so that we can share our ideas and support.

As I looked around my house yesterday I realised just how much plastic there is around us. This keyboard, monitor and computer chair are largely plastic. I know that eliminating plastic will be a near impossibility but I will start with what I CAN do and go from there.

My posts will be short and sweet (well, they may also be short and bitter) as I am also busy with family, jobs, friendships and life.

I will leave you with an excerpt from the book:

“The truth of the matter is that toxic chemicals are now found at low levels in countless applications, in everything from personal care products and cooking pots and pans to electronics, furniture, clothing, building materials and children’s toys. They make their way into our bodies through our food, air and water. From the moment we get up from a good night’s sleep under wrinkle resistant sheets (which are treated with the known carcinogen formaldehyde) to the time we go to bed at night after a snack of microwave popcorn (the interior of the bag being coated with an indestructible chemical that builds up in our bodies), pollution surrounds us.

Far from escaping it when we shut our front door at night, we’ve unwittingly welcomed these toxins into our homes in countless ways. In a particularly graphic example, it’s been estimated that by the time the average woman grabs her morning coffee, she has applied 126 different chemicals in 12 different products to her face, body and hair.

And the result? Not surprisingly, a large and growing body of scientific research links exposure to toxic chemicals to many ailments that plague people, including several forms of cancer,reproductive problems and birth defects, respiratory illnesses such as asthma and neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

We have all become guinea pigs in a vast and uncontrolled experiment.

At this moment in history, the image conjured up by the word “pollution” is just as properly an innocent rubber duck as it is a giant smoke stack. “

-From the book Slow Death by Rubber Duck