Last week Beth, Fake Plastic Fish,, wrote a little post about what bloggers are doing to reduce their plastic. And since I want to sit at the cool table too…I wrote my own little blurb.

What inspired me to think about plastic specifically? You Bethikins! I’ve always had my eye on trying to use reusable & recyclable products over non-recyclable, hence the creation of Organic Needle products. But honestly, I thought that as long as it was recyclable it was a free pass. It was reading Beth’s blog that I began to see the error of my ways and the detriments of plastic recycled or not.

I have in no way come close to Beth’s success in ridding my life of plastic, but we have certainly come a long way in the past year without too much effort. Here’s how we approach plastic reduction on 3 fronts. I give you…The Slacker Approach to Plastic Reduction:

1. Replacing disposable with long term. The bags were the first to go in our house more as a reduction of clutter…the fact that it reduced plastic was a bonus. Also on the easy list, Sigg bottles replaced plastic disposable water bottles. Bonus.. a big money saver. Reusable lunch containers replaced disposable plastic. Now this still requires some plastic…my 5 year old can’t have glass containers…but having reusable containers means a tremendous reduction in the amount of plastic we use.

2. Another easy step was/is simply switching products to ones that come in non plastic or less plastic packaging. Like mayo…plastic jar or glass jar? Easy…don’t even have to switch brands. (There is some controversy about this choice since glass is heavier and, therefore, uses more fuel. Still tinkering with that one.) Sometimes we have to rethink our thinking about things entirely…like shampoo. We now use Burt’s Peppermint Shampoo which comes in a paper box and eliminates the bottle completely. Added bonus..the shampoo bar keeps your hair moisturized so it also eliminates the need for conditioner.

3. This one takes a little thought…but not too much. We have reevaluate how much we “need” things that only come in plastic. If it is in a clamshell…probably not coming home with me. We used to buy a lot of seltzer in bottles. We are surviving without it. Bread? We bake our own. **Now we do have our failures. Yogurt…just can’t make my own. Snack foods like fruit snacks, Kashi bars, Fruitaboos are hard for the little boys…and the big boy to part with.

For me…the biggest challenge comes with business. All of my fabrics and supplies come in giant protective bags. And honestly…they ain’t cheap so I guess I would be a little annoyed if they arrived tarnished and unprotected. I try to buy in bulk on the roll where I can…which significantly reduces the amount coming. I also try to reuse the bags over and over to protect various projects from my little helper’s jelly hands. (Murphey’s Law of Sewing: The More Expensive the Fabric-the More Interesting It Is to Jelly Hands.) I have found ways, mainly by stealing them from other people, of shipping without the use of plastic for the most part. Right now my big challenge is getting my nuts to their destinations in one piece without the use of bubble wrap. It is definately a work in progress.

So thanks to Bethikins and her big ol’ brain & blog, we too have started down the less plastic path. Besides being a less toxic path, we are also finding it has less clutter, less waste, and actually is a bit of a cheap ride. I’m all about the cheap and easy.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 6:37 am and is filed under blogtastic, plastic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.