Wash That Plastic Right Out of Your Life

It’s very heartening to see how, when it comes to environmental issues, some people in the world are constantly pushing themselves past their minimum-effort comfort zones. Doing the least of what is expected is rarely (if ever) enough, but, for every person complaining about the loss of convenience, there’s one more person picking up the slack. Starre over at Eco-Chick, for example, is no longer content to shy away from plastic bags alone, and has now turned her sights to bigger goals:

I haven’t picked up a plastic bag in weeks now*, and I’m looking for a new eco-challenge. I think a wholesale elimination of ALL plastic from my life could be a worthwhile next step towards the continuing greenification of my life.** Why plastic? Yes, it CAN be great (plastic medical devices save lives and plastic helps reduce the weight of cars so they’re more fuel-efficient), but mostly, it’s evil.

Along with the stand-bys (reusable bags, bringing your own silverware for lunch), Starre has some wildly simple-yet-innovative ideas for eliminating everyday waste from your life:

Instead of plastic wrap try: A dish! (My father who lives in Australia actually taught me this one-thanks Dad!) Instead of putting plastic over a plate of leftovers, just use another dish of the same size or smaller. Want to be able to see what’s under there? Use a clear glass plate. For bowls, use teacup saucers (you can find these a goodwill for pennies. Food will stay moist and protected sans plastic, and the plates are reusable forever.

I can not believe I hadn’t thought of that before; it’s genius. To see the rest of the ingenious list, check out the page. You just might make some changes of your own.

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm and is filed under The Daily. 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.