At the beginning of August I decided to take aim at my plastic consumption as my One Green Thing for the month. To help keep me honest, I also decided to keep track of my plastic by keeping it all in my garage. I started with a small wastebasket, then I graduated to two, and eventually it all ended up in a large black plastic bag. The reason that I kept having to increase my plastic waste storage capacity is that I produce more than I am willing to admit most of the time.
Now, the truth is that the plastic waste you see here does not represent my total plastic consumption for the month. I took a trip to New York at the beginning of August, and I did not bring all the plastic I consumed there home. There were several plastic containers from eating out, some candy wrappers because when I’m in the US I always buy sweets that aren’t available in Canada, and some plastic straws from restaurants. As well, I know that there are some plastic items that got thrown into the trash simply because I didn’t remember not to chuck them as I normally would. However, I would say that what you see in these images represents the majority of the plastic my kids and I consumed during August.
By the time the month was about half over, I was starting to feel discouraged. While I did the things I normally do to reduce my plastic consumption, like carry a reusable water bottle and reusable bags, and clean and store plastic bags that come into my house for reuse, I was still creating far more plastic than I would like. It felt as if the efforts I was making weren’t having any impact. In the midst of that, I had an epiphany – maybe I couldn’t completely give up plastic in one fell swoop, but I could target specific plastic items one at a time. Just as I had become accustomed to carrying a water bottle, I could become accustomed to other small changes, one by one.
I decided to start by making my own hummus. I grow my own garlic, so that’s plastic-free. I bought chick peas in BPA-free cans, and tahini, lemon juice and roasted red peppers in glass bottles and jars, in order to make it. I’m still perfecting my recipe, but it’s one less plastic container I’m creating every week, and I’m saving money while I’m at it. Is it a huge change? No. But over the course of the year I’m using 52 fewer plastic containers, and that’s something. Plus, I can build from here, and make other changes as I go.
I’m not sure if I would call my efforts at ditching plastic successful or not. I certainly consumed far more than I was hoping to. However, I learned something in the process, and took steps to make changes. In the end, I’d call that a win.
What steps do you take to reduce your plastic consumption? And do you have any great hummus recipes to share? I’m all ears!
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I’ve been making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of processed foods consumed by my family. I understand that this is a bit of a luxury and not everyone has the time or inclination to do so. One thing involved is making my own hummus. Another, revolutionary I feel, is to make my own Greek yogurt. It’s a little time consuming but mostly hands off so I feel it’s worth it. The other bonus: no little plastic yogurt containers! I need to buy the occasional container of Greek yogurt for starter but other than that I’m buying far fewer than before. And what a tremendous cost savings! Greek yogurt is fairly inexpensive in the US but in Canada, at least here in Ontario, it isn’t cheap.
Ok, and this whole blurb is to say that my favourite hummus recipe is from Angela @ Oh She Glows. Her recipes are amazing. Delicious. Healthy. And usually very easy.
Twitter: AmberStrocel
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I’ve been thinking about making my own yogurt, but I still buy my milk in plastic. I can’t decide if I would actually be saving plastic in the process. I’d love any insight you have to offer on that front.
And thanks for the hummus recommendation!
Here’s my breakdown: In Ontario, our milk is sold in plastic bags for about $4.25. One large plastic bag contains 3 smaller plastic bags with a total of 4 L. Each batch of yogurt uses 8 c of milk which is approx. 2 bags of milk. One batch of yogurt yields 3 – 4 c of yogurt depending on how patient I am and how long I strain it.
One batch of homemade yogurt = $2.83 + electricity costs to run the light in my oven overnight + 2 plastic bags for milk
4 c of store bought Greek yogurt = $3.99 * 2 + 2 plastic containers
I’m not really sure which one is worse for plastic consumption. We do recycle the plastic bags, and the containers when we get them, and we also send the large plastic bags that the milk come in to a group that ties (or fold or weaves or something) them into mats or rugs for third world countries. You can see I’m really up on the details of that endeavor.
Budget wise, the homemade yogurt wins. Particularly as I eat at least one batch a week for breakfasts.
Twitter: AmberStrocel
says:
Thanks for the breakdown!
No milk in bags here in BC. However, if I buy 4L of milk in a plastic jug and I can recycle that, it may be less plastic overall than if I buy the two separately. It’s a good question – but it would definitely be cheaper. Do you have a favourite yogurt-making method?
I use the recipe from Annie’s Eats; she provides a lot of details and pictures for each step. The only thing I do differently is I used the dehydrate feature on my oven to maintain a constant temperature for the bacteria to grow instead of the light bulb to generate the heat.
Let me know if you try it! It’s one of my favourite things.
Twitter: thejaninefowler
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Good call making small steps! One of the biggest things we did was switch from paper towels to cloth. I know that paper is probably not as bad as plastic, but we would go through paper towels SO quickly. Rags go right in with diaper laundry (although we don’t do much of that now as Sebastian is near fully potty trained, but still, probably less energy than it takes to make paper towels?) and we don’t even miss paper towels anymore. Which I never would have thought possible a few years ago! Just like the water bottle, once you make the change for awhile, it’s second-nature.
Your plastic consumption is still way less than ours. Bags are banned in Portland but not in the suburb I live in, which isn’t technically PDX. I wish they would just ban them here already so that we’d have incentive to remember to bring cloth bags! We have at least a dozen cloth grocery bags – including a few really nice, cute ones – but it’s so easy to forget, especially when dealing with a toddler and just getting out the door. Or maybe I’m just making excuses and need to buckle down.
Your small steps are really inspiring! I used to see similar challenges on Bonzai Aphrodite, a blog I used to follow. (Sadly she stopped posting, but her archives are still up I believe, and worth reading. She lives in Portland, so a lot of her stuff might be relevant to you. Power to the Northwest!)
Also, please post your hummus recipe when you have one! I’m not a big cook but seems like something I could maybe handle.
Janine’s last post … Better than thrifting – Family heirlooms
Twitter: thejaninefowler
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PS I don’t know when you changed it – I assume awhile ago – but I LOVE the new design/header. It’s inspiring me to change up my site. Love the combo photo header with the leaf logo. Per-fect.
Janine’s last post … Better than thrifting – Family heirlooms
Twitter: AmberStrocel
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Thanks so much! I was inspired to do it after visiting BlogHer. I wanted a logo that tied my various sites together, and I went from there. I still have changes to make, but I’m liking it so far!
Twitter: christyrollo
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I love this! I am going to steal your idea of tracking my plastic use over a month! I already know that I am going to be surprised by how much my family generates, even though I too try to be mindful of what we buy. It is interesting to me how many people justify getting plastic bags because they use them for garbage bags. I do use the large plastic garbage bags but I read recently about eliminating them if you recycle and compost (garbage should be dry then). I wonder how my municipal pick up would feel. Must look into that.