9 ms·

Plastic Free July

73 points by sexy_seedbox 7y ago

2T1Qka0rEiPr 7y ago
Interesting read, but I still think the sentence in the article which most resonates with me is: > Buying without plastic is a privilege. It’s the pricier goods that are plastic free. Perhaps people still need to lead the way by first buying the more expensive, plastic free alternatives, before we see a real change, but to me this is still the biggest kicker. The article also says, "frozen food doesn’t depend on plastic to keep it fresh or to protect it from spoils". Is that true? What about vegetables (peas, sweetcorn etc.) I'm probably being thick, but what else do they come bagged in?
- danw1979 7y ago
  I've never seen frozen vegetables in anything other than plastic bags. I read it that the OP was buying ready meals and other cardboard-packaged stuff only in the frozen aisle.
- dEnigma 7y ago
  Frozen vegetables here in Austria more often than not are available in little cardboard boxes. But a lot of them, I think mostly the larger sizes, are also sold in plastic bags.
  - tonyedgecombe 7y ago
    There are a couple of shops near us that sell loose frozen fruit and veg which you could put in your own containers. It is much more expensive though, there is nothing like this at Aldi.
chiph 7y ago
That's really difficult. As you can't even buy canned goods, as the can has a plastic liner sprayed on it to keep the steel or aluminum from corroding from acidic foods like tomatoes.
- mjlangiii 7y ago
  It is, agreed. For tomatoes, buy fresh ones as you need them.
  - Symbiote 7y ago
    I live in Denmark, and here I think it would be worth calculating the different CO₂ and other pollution costs in transporting chilled, fresh tomatoes from e.g. Italy, vs. cooking and packing them in Italy and transporting that. Keeping something refrigerated isn't cheap. The wasted coated paper carton would be incinerated here, and used for electricity and heat.
- benj111 7y ago
  Is that realistically a concern? Recycling cans is economically viable, so they aren't just going to be getting dumped, and the plastic isnt likely to escape in the mean time.
- II2II 7y ago
  Experiments like this are better at pointing out things that we take for granted. Sometimes the things that we take for granted have negative consequences and no real benefit, such as the author's boxes with plastic windows. Other times there may be negative consequences, but some benefits. Your example of the plastic protective layer fits into that category. With respect to long term impact, we are better off taking other approaches. Reusable glass may sound great, until one realizes that they end up with mountains of glass in the place of mountains of plastic. While there are places that will take back glass jars for reuse, a lot of glass simply ends up being recycled. The actual issue is packaging. To see how much of an issue this is, start saving the realistically reusable packaging instead of recycling it: glass jars, plastic tubs, cardboard boxes, etc.. For most people, the amount that they collect is in extreme excess of what they can reuse. Getting back to the original point: don't fret over that plastic sprayed liner, plastic tub, or plastic bag. In a lot of cases, it serves a legitimate purpose. It is far better to think about what it says about us. The author illustrates that in the article. He discusses the impact of convenience meals in his life. He noticed that he was ordering a lot online rather than supporting local producers and vendors. The lessons that Hayes takes away from his experiment may be different what other people learn, yet they are lessons all the same.
runj__ 7y ago
While I appreciate the effort I find that plastic is an excellent way of reducing food waste which environmentally should have a larger impact than the packaging itself [1]. Glass bottles vs. plastic ones also seems like a fairly straight-forward issue, the energy required for transport and the fact that they sometimes break doesn't seem to be worth the perceived re-usability. Either way, an experiment like this seems to be a good way to find just how dependent we are on plastic/packaging rather than trying to be kind to the environment on a macro scale. [1] https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...
- benj111 7y ago
  You do have a good point. Plastic wrapped cucumbers seems to be the poster child that gets rolled out because it increases the shelf life so much, I envisage use always using at least some plastic, it's advantages aren't going to disappear. But we can do better, I've seen cucumbers with a 2nd outer plastic bag, you don't need that. All the packaging with mixed materials at the moment can't really be recycled, theres a huge amount of plastic packaged, and plastic made things, that don't need to be. Its worth pointing out that lots of people are coming at this from different angles. Some people have seen Blue Planet and don't want to pollute the ocean, some people want a sustainable solution, and some people want a low/no co2 solution. Neither of these perfectly aligns. You're looking at it from a co2/energy point of view, there are others who see plastic as unsustainable because it can't be infinitely recycled, so the glass in still better.
paulcarroty 7y ago
Cool quest. The number one question is: how to handle water without plastic. Suggested glass bottles for milk aren't effective here.
- Xylakant 7y ago
  Tap water is superior to bottled water in many places and doesn’t need carrying either. Have a reusable (metal) bottle to take along. If you live in a place that can’t make tap water safe to drink, I’m sorry for you. You’ll probably have to stick to plastic. (There’s also bottled water in reusable glass bottles around here, but that’s really heavy)
  - gambiting 7y ago
    And in many places, tap water is vastly inferior or straight up unsafe to drink over bottled water. When I was growing up the only way to safely drink tap water was to boil it first, which is a major pain in the ass if you just want to drink something.
    - esotericn 7y ago
      If you just extend the metaphor slightly and have tap water mean 'comes from a tap' rather than 'comes from a municipal supply' it still works. The supermarket that currently has thousands of individual plastic bottles could have a big tank with a tap on it. It sounds more like a trust thing. You need to know that the water is safe. If you know it's safe, you're good.
- ioquatix 7y ago
  In Japan, in Chiba, for 500 yen, you can buy a 4 litre plastic bottle which you can reuse over and over again for drinking water from the local super market. Maybe you have a similar system available if you check.
  - fiblye 7y ago
    No reason not to just drink tap water. It's one of the few places in Asia where it's completely safe.
danw1979 7y ago
This sounds like a great idea - go without something for a while and you'll appreciate it and notice it more when you go back to using (hopefully less of) it. It sounds like a significant challenge to do this outside of an urban environment that is well served with "alternative" retailers though. A friend nearby, leading a similar suburban-supermarket lifestyle to me, tried a slightly different thing for a few months - all single use plastic was disposed of in a very visible location (a clear plastic (doh) sack in the kitchen) as a reminder of how much you've used. Apparently it was very shocking. Other motivational ideas: - any plastic you use goes to landfill. In your back yard. - Collect all your plastic waste. Take the 10% that would on average (globally) end up in the ocean. Chop it up and add it to your meals. See if you like it as much as the seabirds and turtles do. - Admit that any plastic you send to recycling is just going to get "recycled" into energy anyway. Incinerate it at home instead.
- benj111 7y ago
  "- any plastic you use goes to landfill. In your back yard" Even if it does end up in landfill, id be more confident of the rubbish actually staying in a landfill, than a shallow pit in the garden. What happens if a mouse finds and eats it? Its in the food chain. What happens if $burrowing_mammal digs it up? Plus you're removing it from official figures. Some politician can look at the figures and declare "problem solved" when in fact it dispersed all over the country, and virtually impossible to fix.
- heavenlyblue 7y ago
  Is that a joke? - 10% of the plastic I dispose of doesn’t end up in the ocean because I live in a civilised country that disposes of it in the places made for it’s disposal. - Plastic is incinerated in special chambers that make sure everything burns to a simple combination of CO2+H2O, while your home probably doesn’t have the necessary equipment to do so.
  - danw1979 7y ago
    Yeah. I wasn't being serious.
spodek 7y ago
One of the greatest misunderstandings of acting to clean our air, land, and water is that it's a burden or chore. In my experience, it's the opposite. I recommend taking on similar challenges. I bet you'll enjoy them and incorporate them into your life as improvements. I challenged myself to buy no packaged food for a week. I made it 2.5 weeks at zero and the experience improved my life so much I decided to keep going using as little packaging as I comfortably could. As my cooking skills improved I bought more fresh fruits and vegetables and, from bulk bins grains, dried beans, nuts, and dried fruit. I shopped increasingly at farmers markets. I came to see Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other markets as wastelands with more garbage than food in them. I was throwing my trash out once every other week, then once a month. Now the last time I emptied my garbage was September 2018 and the time before that July 2017. Here's a video showing my garbage the first time I went one year without filling a load: http://joshuaspodek.com/year-emptied-garbage http://joshuaspodek.com/year-emptied-garbage. My food tastes better, costs less, is more convenient, and connects me with my community more, as more people come over and I've visited the farm where most of my vegetables come from. If you also believe that we need institutional changes from corporations, government, etc, the fastest, most effective way is to start with personal behavior, building on it, and leading others.
- kthejoker2 7y ago
  Serious question: how does it "cost less"? As OP notes, buying without plastic is a privilege due to the luxury goods pricing model attached to eco-friendly products.
  - esotericn 7y ago
    This is not the case in the UK except in very specific promotional cases. Fruit and veg without plastic is available at your local supermarket. It can be a bit annoying to weigh it - you can use reusable bags for that - an easy one would be that you can get at least 10 uses out of the clear plastic bags you take the stuff home in for example. Processed stuff is harder sure. I tend to not really eat that stuff, staples are cheaper anyway. I agree that most people don't do this - well over half of the supermarket is full of items I'd never even consider buying - but that doesn't change the fact they could. I actually think there's a hump in the middle of the distribution. Essential basic foods are cheap and generally come loose (or at least you'll get 15kg of rice in one big bag). There are some exceptions like frozen vegetables. Processed middle of budget stuff like pre made sauces, ready meals, pre packaged small cuts of meat etc - yeah that's full of packaging. Then you have the signalling products whereby basically you're paying silly money for ready meals in cardboard boxes or whatever.
frosted-flakes 7y ago
> This didn’t mean we could buy ice cream. And on the hottest July day on record. In Ontario, Chapmans ice cream (and other brands too, probably) is available in cardboard boxes which unfold, leaving you with a perfect rectangular block of ice cream sitting on a flat piece of cardboard. Otherwise, ice cream generally comes in rectangular-oval tubs made of cardboard. The only plastic is in the rim of the lid. You can also get no name "ice cream" in 4 litre plastic buckets, but that generally has so little cream it's technically "frozen dessert".
- beatgammit 7y ago
  Yeah, I don't live in the UK, but I don't think I've purchased ice cream with plastic in years. The hardest part for me would be milk. I buy milk by the gallon (usually a gallon per week), and my kids love to drink it. I make yogurt and occasionally make cheese, so we would probably not suffer too much if we can get milk relatively cheaply. Milk does come in cardboard containers, but I'm pretty sure they're lined with plastic, not wax, and I honestly don't know where to get milk in glass containers. Meat would also be hard since it always comes shrink wrapped in plastic and I don't know how to get it otherwise. We have a butcher nearby that would probably work with us, so it's solvable. Instead of trying to eliminate plastic, maybe I'll try this with eliminating all waste. Food scraps will go to the compost and packaging will need to be recyclable. It would be interesting to see what I can cut out that isn't recyclable.
  - techer 7y ago
    After a few decades I've seen the return of a milkman on my block. Glass bottles that are picked up at the time of delivery. Not sure about the overall environmental impact though as the milk is driven to your door. In the 80s I recall them being delivered in electric vans. Actually called a milk float. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float
- cco 7y ago
  Those cardboard tubs will have a plastic liner and thus be un-recyclable and non-compostable. Nearly no consumer cardboard containers for non-dry food are pure cardboard, they all have liners to protect the cardboard. Very few will have a wax lining but that is the legacy method and more expensive than plastic so they are few and far between. The litmus test is does the packaging begin to break down after 10 or so minutes holding wet food, if yes then the packaging is likely just paper, i.e. cardboard, if it can sit in a fridge for 48 hours without issue it has plastic.
ericdykstra 7y ago
Plastics are bad news for your own health, the environment, and ecology generally. I've been cutting out my personal exposure to estrogenic items (a good list here, check the guy's book if you're interested in the gritty details: https://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/estrogenics.html https://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/estrogenics.html), and it has, as a result, lead to less plastic use overall. Depending on where you live, it can be pretty hard to find non-plastic alternatives for some products; for example: unless you have a butcher that will give you meat served in butcher paper, your meat is probably stored in plastic. However, many things are easy to eliminate, such as low quality cooking oils stored in plastic. It's easy to find olive, avocado, coconut, mct, and other cooking oils in glass containers and to use those (and butter) instead of canola, soy, or vegetable oils. Do what's reasonable personally for your and your family's health, and advocate for bans and restrictions on environmental plastics in your countries, as that's really the only long-term solution.
DenisM 7y ago
So what’s wrong with plastics? If not recycled they go to landfill and stay there, buried. No greenhouse gas emissions, no ocean pollution. If one wanted put efforts into ecology one would be more productive reconsidering their commute options - each commute trip in a car is a gallon of gas that goes straight to CO2.
exabrial 7y ago
Ask your butcher to wrap in butcher paper or waxed paper, which can be recycled, composted, or at worst it will break down much quicker than plastic. You could also bring Tupperware with you and have them tare it out. No reason this should be more expensive than pre-packaged meat.

73 points by sexy_seedbox 7y ago

Interesting read, but I still think the sentence in the article which most resonates with me is: > Buying without plastic is a privilege. It’s the pricier goods that are plastic free. Perhaps people still need to lead the way by first buying the more expensive, plastic free alternatives, before we see a real change, but to me this is still the biggest kicker. The article also says, "frozen food doesn’t depend on plastic to keep it fresh or to protect it from spoils". Is that true? What about vegetables (peas, sweetcorn etc.) I'm probably being thick, but what else do they come bagged in?

danw1979 7y ago
I've never seen frozen vegetables in anything other than plastic bags. I read it that the OP was buying ready meals and other cardboard-packaged stuff only in the frozen aisle.
dEnigma 7y ago
Frozen vegetables here in Austria more often than not are available in little cardboard boxes. But a lot of them, I think mostly the larger sizes, are also sold in plastic bags.
- tonyedgecombe 7y ago
  There are a couple of shops near us that sell loose frozen fruit and veg which you could put in your own containers. It is much more expensive though, there is nothing like this at Aldi.

chiph 7y ago

That's really difficult. As you can't even buy canned goods, as the can has a plastic liner sprayed on it to keep the steel or aluminum from corroding from acidic foods like tomatoes.

mjlangiii 7y ago
It is, agreed. For tomatoes, buy fresh ones as you need them.
- Symbiote 7y ago
  I live in Denmark, and here I think it would be worth calculating the different CO₂ and other pollution costs in transporting chilled, fresh tomatoes from e.g. Italy, vs. cooking and packing them in Italy and transporting that. Keeping something refrigerated isn't cheap. The wasted coated paper carton would be incinerated here, and used for electricity and heat.
benj111 7y ago
Is that realistically a concern? Recycling cans is economically viable, so they aren't just going to be getting dumped, and the plastic isnt likely to escape in the mean time.
II2II 7y ago
Experiments like this are better at pointing out things that we take for granted. Sometimes the things that we take for granted have negative consequences and no real benefit, such as the author's boxes with plastic windows. Other times there may be negative consequences, but some benefits. Your example of the plastic protective layer fits into that category. With respect to long term impact, we are better off taking other approaches. Reusable glass may sound great, until one realizes that they end up with mountains of glass in the place of mountains of plastic. While there are places that will take back glass jars for reuse, a lot of glass simply ends up being recycled. The actual issue is packaging. To see how much of an issue this is, start saving the realistically reusable packaging instead of recycling it: glass jars, plastic tubs, cardboard boxes, etc.. For most people, the amount that they collect is in extreme excess of what they can reuse. Getting back to the original point: don't fret over that plastic sprayed liner, plastic tub, or plastic bag. In a lot of cases, it serves a legitimate purpose. It is far better to think about what it says about us. The author illustrates that in the article. He discusses the impact of convenience meals in his life. He noticed that he was ordering a lot online rather than supporting local producers and vendors. The lessons that Hayes takes away from his experiment may be different what other people learn, yet they are lessons all the same.

runj__ 7y ago

While I appreciate the effort I find that plastic is an excellent way of reducing food waste which environmentally should have a larger impact than the packaging itself [1]. Glass bottles vs. plastic ones also seems like a fairly straight-forward issue, the energy required for transport and the fact that they sometimes break doesn't seem to be worth the perceived re-usability. Either way, an experiment like this seems to be a good way to find just how dependent we are on plastic/packaging rather than trying to be kind to the environment on a macro scale. [1] https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-...

benj111 7y ago
You do have a good point. Plastic wrapped cucumbers seems to be the poster child that gets rolled out because it increases the shelf life so much, I envisage use always using at least some plastic, it's advantages aren't going to disappear. But we can do better, I've seen cucumbers with a 2nd outer plastic bag, you don't need that. All the packaging with mixed materials at the moment can't really be recycled, theres a huge amount of plastic packaged, and plastic made things, that don't need to be. Its worth pointing out that lots of people are coming at this from different angles. Some people have seen Blue Planet and don't want to pollute the ocean, some people want a sustainable solution, and some people want a low/no co2 solution. Neither of these perfectly aligns. You're looking at it from a co2/energy point of view, there are others who see plastic as unsustainable because it can't be infinitely recycled, so the glass in still better.

paulcarroty 7y ago

Cool quest. The number one question is: how to handle water without plastic. Suggested glass bottles for milk aren't effective here.

Xylakant 7y ago
Tap water is superior to bottled water in many places and doesn’t need carrying either. Have a reusable (metal) bottle to take along. If you live in a place that can’t make tap water safe to drink, I’m sorry for you. You’ll probably have to stick to plastic. (There’s also bottled water in reusable glass bottles around here, but that’s really heavy)
- gambiting 7y ago
  And in many places, tap water is vastly inferior or straight up unsafe to drink over bottled water. When I was growing up the only way to safely drink tap water was to boil it first, which is a major pain in the ass if you just want to drink something.
  - esotericn 7y ago
    If you just extend the metaphor slightly and have tap water mean 'comes from a tap' rather than 'comes from a municipal supply' it still works. The supermarket that currently has thousands of individual plastic bottles could have a big tank with a tap on it. It sounds more like a trust thing. You need to know that the water is safe. If you know it's safe, you're good.
ioquatix 7y ago
In Japan, in Chiba, for 500 yen, you can buy a 4 litre plastic bottle which you can reuse over and over again for drinking water from the local super market. Maybe you have a similar system available if you check.
- fiblye 7y ago
  No reason not to just drink tap water. It's one of the few places in Asia where it's completely safe.

danw1979 7y ago

This sounds like a great idea - go without something for a while and you'll appreciate it and notice it more when you go back to using (hopefully less of) it. It sounds like a significant challenge to do this outside of an urban environment that is well served with "alternative" retailers though. A friend nearby, leading a similar suburban-supermarket lifestyle to me, tried a slightly different thing for a few months - all single use plastic was disposed of in a very visible location (a clear plastic (doh) sack in the kitchen) as a reminder of how much you've used. Apparently it was very shocking. Other motivational ideas: - any plastic you use goes to landfill. In your back yard. - Collect all your plastic waste. Take the 10% that would on average (globally) end up in the ocean. Chop it up and add it to your meals. See if you like it as much as the seabirds and turtles do. - Admit that any plastic you send to recycling is just going to get "recycled" into energy anyway. Incinerate it at home instead.

benj111 7y ago
"- any plastic you use goes to landfill. In your back yard" Even if it does end up in landfill, id be more confident of the rubbish actually staying in a landfill, than a shallow pit in the garden. What happens if a mouse finds and eats it? Its in the food chain. What happens if $burrowing_mammal digs it up? Plus you're removing it from official figures. Some politician can look at the figures and declare "problem solved" when in fact it dispersed all over the country, and virtually impossible to fix.
heavenlyblue 7y ago
Is that a joke? - 10% of the plastic I dispose of doesn’t end up in the ocean because I live in a civilised country that disposes of it in the places made for it’s disposal. - Plastic is incinerated in special chambers that make sure everything burns to a simple combination of CO2+H2O, while your home probably doesn’t have the necessary equipment to do so.
- danw1979 7y ago
  Yeah. I wasn't being serious.

spodek 7y ago

One of the greatest misunderstandings of acting to clean our air, land, and water is that it's a burden or chore. In my experience, it's the opposite. I recommend taking on similar challenges. I bet you'll enjoy them and incorporate them into your life as improvements. I challenged myself to buy no packaged food for a week. I made it 2.5 weeks at zero and the experience improved my life so much I decided to keep going using as little packaging as I comfortably could. As my cooking skills improved I bought more fresh fruits and vegetables and, from bulk bins grains, dried beans, nuts, and dried fruit. I shopped increasingly at farmers markets. I came to see Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and other markets as wastelands with more garbage than food in them. I was throwing my trash out once every other week, then once a month. Now the last time I emptied my garbage was September 2018 and the time before that July 2017. Here's a video showing my garbage the first time I went one year without filling a load: http://joshuaspodek.com/year-emptied-garbage http://joshuaspodek.com/year-emptied-garbage. My food tastes better, costs less, is more convenient, and connects me with my community more, as more people come over and I've visited the farm where most of my vegetables come from. If you also believe that we need institutional changes from corporations, government, etc, the fastest, most effective way is to start with personal behavior, building on it, and leading others.

kthejoker2 7y ago
Serious question: how does it "cost less"? As OP notes, buying without plastic is a privilege due to the luxury goods pricing model attached to eco-friendly products.
- esotericn 7y ago
  This is not the case in the UK except in very specific promotional cases. Fruit and veg without plastic is available at your local supermarket. It can be a bit annoying to weigh it - you can use reusable bags for that - an easy one would be that you can get at least 10 uses out of the clear plastic bags you take the stuff home in for example. Processed stuff is harder sure. I tend to not really eat that stuff, staples are cheaper anyway. I agree that most people don't do this - well over half of the supermarket is full of items I'd never even consider buying - but that doesn't change the fact they could. I actually think there's a hump in the middle of the distribution. Essential basic foods are cheap and generally come loose (or at least you'll get 15kg of rice in one big bag). There are some exceptions like frozen vegetables. Processed middle of budget stuff like pre made sauces, ready meals, pre packaged small cuts of meat etc - yeah that's full of packaging. Then you have the signalling products whereby basically you're paying silly money for ready meals in cardboard boxes or whatever.

frosted-flakes 7y ago

> This didn’t mean we could buy ice cream. And on the hottest July day on record. In Ontario, Chapmans ice cream (and other brands too, probably) is available in cardboard boxes which unfold, leaving you with a perfect rectangular block of ice cream sitting on a flat piece of cardboard. Otherwise, ice cream generally comes in rectangular-oval tubs made of cardboard. The only plastic is in the rim of the lid. You can also get no name "ice cream" in 4 litre plastic buckets, but that generally has so little cream it's technically "frozen dessert".

beatgammit 7y ago
Yeah, I don't live in the UK, but I don't think I've purchased ice cream with plastic in years. The hardest part for me would be milk. I buy milk by the gallon (usually a gallon per week), and my kids love to drink it. I make yogurt and occasionally make cheese, so we would probably not suffer too much if we can get milk relatively cheaply. Milk does come in cardboard containers, but I'm pretty sure they're lined with plastic, not wax, and I honestly don't know where to get milk in glass containers. Meat would also be hard since it always comes shrink wrapped in plastic and I don't know how to get it otherwise. We have a butcher nearby that would probably work with us, so it's solvable. Instead of trying to eliminate plastic, maybe I'll try this with eliminating all waste. Food scraps will go to the compost and packaging will need to be recyclable. It would be interesting to see what I can cut out that isn't recyclable.
- techer 7y ago
  After a few decades I've seen the return of a milkman on my block. Glass bottles that are picked up at the time of delivery. Not sure about the overall environmental impact though as the milk is driven to your door. In the 80s I recall them being delivered in electric vans. Actually called a milk float. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_float
cco 7y ago
Those cardboard tubs will have a plastic liner and thus be un-recyclable and non-compostable. Nearly no consumer cardboard containers for non-dry food are pure cardboard, they all have liners to protect the cardboard. Very few will have a wax lining but that is the legacy method and more expensive than plastic so they are few and far between. The litmus test is does the packaging begin to break down after 10 or so minutes holding wet food, if yes then the packaging is likely just paper, i.e. cardboard, if it can sit in a fridge for 48 hours without issue it has plastic.

ericdykstra 7y ago

Plastics are bad news for your own health, the environment, and ecology generally. I've been cutting out my personal exposure to estrogenic items (a good list here, check the guy's book if you're interested in the gritty details: https://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/estrogenics.html https://www.ajconsultingcompany.com/estrogenics.html), and it has, as a result, lead to less plastic use overall. Depending on where you live, it can be pretty hard to find non-plastic alternatives for some products; for example: unless you have a butcher that will give you meat served in butcher paper, your meat is probably stored in plastic. However, many things are easy to eliminate, such as low quality cooking oils stored in plastic. It's easy to find olive, avocado, coconut, mct, and other cooking oils in glass containers and to use those (and butter) instead of canola, soy, or vegetable oils. Do what's reasonable personally for your and your family's health, and advocate for bans and restrictions on environmental plastics in your countries, as that's really the only long-term solution.

DenisM 7y ago

So what’s wrong with plastics? If not recycled they go to landfill and stay there, buried. No greenhouse gas emissions, no ocean pollution. If one wanted put efforts into ecology one would be more productive reconsidering their commute options - each commute trip in a car is a gallon of gas that goes straight to CO2.

exabrial 7y ago

Ask your butcher to wrap in butcher paper or waxed paper, which can be recycled, composted, or at worst it will break down much quicker than plastic. You could also bring Tupperware with you and have them tare it out. No reason this should be more expensive than pre-packaged meat.