One Green Thing: Taking Aim at Plastic

It’s Enviro-Mama Thursday here on Strocel.com, and today I’m targeting plastic. It’s my One Green Thing for August. But before I get into that, I want to update you on my One Green Thing for July, which was eating at least 10 local meals. So, how did I do? I’d call it a success.

During July I ate local meat, including beef, chicken and pork, local eggs, local cheese, local cherries and berries, local veggies and I even made my own local ice cream. I ate a lot of potatoes. My one downfall came with my exceptions to the local ingredient rule. At the outset I gave myself a pass on cooking oil, salt and pepper, sugar and vanilla. However, I also fell down on bottled salad dressing, vinegar and spices. I really should have just made a blanket exception for condiments and spices, instead of saying cooking oil, salt and pepper. But still, I feel like I pulled my local eating challenge off, with 11 completely local meals under my belt, and a whole lot of local food consumed for the whole month of July.

Some local cheese

This brings us to August. As I considered what to do for my One Green Thing this month, I was thinking about my upcoming trip to New York. I knew that whatever I chose, it was going to have to be something that I could do on the road. Eating local, for instance, would be a serious challenge when I’m travelling. Reducing my plastic consumption, on the other hand, presents some challenges while travelling, but I think it’s something I can still work at.

My plan is to keep the plastic waste I produce during the month of August. I am not going to keep my husband’s personal plastic waste, but I will keep anything that is purchased for our family or for the kids. With Jacob’s birthday happening this month, this should be particularly interesting. This is an exercise in awareness. I’m experimenting to see what plastic I can get rid of, what plastic I can’t, and how being mindful about it changes my consumption. I’ll take photos and share my progress with you at the end of the month. I’m not setting a goal to achieve, though – I’m taking a baseline.

My plastic waste from 2009

I’ve targeted plastic once before, collecting my plastic for two weeks back in July 2009. It was surprising to me to see what I produce and consume. The other thing I’m hoping to discover during August is how my plastic habits have changed in two years. Have I gotten better, stayed the same or gotten worse? Has my increasing awareness compensated for the fact that I have older kids who eat a lot more food, much of which is wrapped in plastic? I guess I’ll find out this month.

If you’ve taken steps to reduce your own plastic waste, I’d love to hear about it. What do you do to reduce how much plastic you throw out and recycle? What plastic could you just not live without? And do you have any tips to share? Leave me a comment and let me know!

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