A few ounces in 42 days

Dieting is not fun to talk about, unless you are having great success. I’m not.

Since my New Year’s resolution to lose ten pounds of plastic this year, I have stayed vigilant, however the amount of plastic I have done without probably does not amount to more than a few ounces. At some point I will go to the post office and use a scale to weigh what my poly sacrifices add up to. This may be difficult, as you can imagine, estimating the weight of what you don’t have possession of will not be better than a wild guess. Regardless, I am fairly sure that in spite of my efforts, I have not kept more than seven or eight ounces of plastic out of my trash in the last 42 days.

Here are some of my successes and failures:

When I have purchased liquid or wet foods I’ve opted for the bigger plastic tubs and cartons when available only with plastic spouts. My thinking is; one quart of container only uses one lid, one pull tab and one spout, whereas the smaller half pints, use four of each plastic part. What happened to the old pinch and pull spouts?

In spite of my previous whining about not buying Newman’s yummy concoctions in the plastic bottle, I’ve made salad dressing. Once it mellowed, it was actually very good. It only took a few minutes to whip up, then I split the recipe, added garlic to one batch and got variety too.

Ed and I made a few unplanned stops at stores when we did not have our own bags with us but we hand-carried the few items we bought. (Ed is very into this and has reminded me more than once!) I lost my tomato seeds somewhere by doing this, so I now keep a few bags in each vehicle. Now we will always have bags for such unscheduled stops.

Luckily I found a farmer’s market just down the road where nothing is wrapped in plastic, and only a few non-local items have pesky plastic stickers. I took previously used plastic bags for small veggies or fruits which would scatter if dropped in a big canvas bag. I forgot to do this once — no big crisis for a few strawberries to roll loose in the bag — but I will work to make it a habit to have small bags on hand.

We seldom go out to eat but last week we did. I asked for a sheet of foil to wrap the leftovers instead of using their normal Styrofoam box.

This weekend I went with a group of women to an out-of-town conference and took a nasty fall off the no-plastic wagon. On the drive over we stopped at convenience stores (virtual havens of plastic). I was starving but didn’t buy chips or cookies. Instead a green apple made a nice plastic free snack. The conference breakfast was served on Styrofoam plates, with plastic cups and plastic flatware. At least I reused my Styrofoam coffee cup from the registration table twice; for my second cup of Joe and for my orange juice and I only took a fork. Lunch was a plastic-fest repeat. Ouch!

Dinner was better. We drank from glasses, and ate on china with metal flatware. I opted not to bring home the insulated plastic mug (wrapped in cellophane) with the plastic whistle and other plastic trinkets inside, giving them to a woman at my table who wanted them. Does that count as reducing–passing plastic along to the willing? If so, that cup was HEAVY! Only the enameled souvenir sailing pin came home with me.

Sunday we ate out a nearby restaurant before heading home. Two plastic cream containers were left for the trash as evidence I had been having coffee. I couldn’t go without food all the way back so I bought a plastic bag of chips from a rest stop vending machine. There was a grower’s market just next door to our hotel, I should have bought a banana before heading home. Hind sight and lesson learned.

So, even though I have been cognizant and vigilant of what I buy, of what I use or what I bring home, temptation is everywhere.

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