Ocean Protection Through Plastic-Free Living
Washing your clothes can come with the obvious plastics, like those big plastic jugs of liquid detergent. But did you know your clothes could be shedding microplastics into our waterways? Here’s how to make your laundry is plastic-free.
Coffee and tea can come with a lot of plastics, including hidden plastics. Here’s how to avoid it.
I’ve been saving my trash in a “plastic audit” since October of 2019. I live a generally plastic-free lifestyle but I’m not 100% plastic-free…yet. So, to see where the last 1% of my trash was coming from, I started keeping track of all of it. At the end of each month, I look to see where I can improve.
A few reminders of the rules. This is just trash as a result of my purchases. My husband is not as stringent on plastic as I am, so he buys a weekly tub of yogurt and occasionally some bacon. Also, I’m not with my kids all day, so I don’t have control over what they use while at school or daycare. But regardless, my husband and kids don’t generate much more trash than me.
Finally, the city I live in provides compost and recycling along with trash pick-up. Now, given the state of recycling, I only recycle metal, glass, and paper. This generally includes a few cans of tuna and clams a month, a few glass jars of olives or mustard with metal lids, and junk mail. But even so, I try to reduce the amount of metal, glass, and paper we use.
So, now that we’ve covered the ground rules, let’s dive in! Here’s all my trash for the month of February!
Overall, it’s not too bad! I had a *face palm* moment a few months ago when I bought a box of vanilla, assuming it would have a glass bottle inside. Instead, I found a plastic bottle. Always a bummer! I saw a glass bottle with no box but it was twice the price. After I ran out of this bottle, I went with the glass version which was also organic!
Another outlier this month was the wireless charger. I had an Apple gift card, so I splurged on this wireless charger. I’ve been dealing with swimmer’s ear for a while (thus the ear drops). I didn’t want to use my AirPods while listening to music at work, since I could only use one side and I wasn’t sure if the constant uneven charging would affect its battery life. So, I use a regular cord headphone and only put it in the non swimmer’s ear, ear. Long story short, I needed something that could charge my phone at work while I had my headphone cord in.
I’ve also been changing our breakfast and dinner routines. I added a grilled cheese meal for the kids which results in bread purchases. Normally, my husband is the only one who eats sliced bread, but since I’m making the kids grilled cheese on Fridays for dinner, I’m now adding bread bags to my pile. In general, I don’t eat sandwich bread. I get loaves of Sourdough baguettes wrapped in paper. They’re from a local bakery that delivers to Whole Foods or my local grocery store. So, for grilled cheese nights, I’ll make an avocado toast with this sourdough loaf:
After a roadtrip to my sister-in-laws, I started buying cereal for a quick breakfast option. My kids probably only eat it once or twice a week, so it’s not too bad. I used to be able to buy cereal in my bulk bins but haven’t seen it since COVID.
Finally, one big improvement is I’m shrinking down my plastic from cheese! We decided to stop getting the big blocks of Parmesan cheese from Costco and just stick to the cheeses I can get at the deli. Now, if I could just find an option for cream cheese, we’d be set!
What do you think? Are you interested in a trash audit? If not for a whole month, what about a week or even a day?
For related and random posts, check out:
I love tacos! Between tacos for dinner, breakfast tacos, and tortillas for snack, there are a lot of tortillas being eaten at my house. Here’s how I get them without plastic.
The majority of items found at beach cleanups are food related packaging. Buying groceries without plastic is one of the fastest ways to reduce your plastic footprint.