Plastic, plastic everywhere

Well, I am back from my grocery shopping. How did I do? Not so well.

I gave in to a few temptations but managed to curtail only a few unwanted plastic purchases by just not buying what I wanted. I walked past the salad dressings when I discovered that even my favorite, Newman’s, has gone to plastic bottles. I had Ed swap out his plastic milk jug for the paperboard one. Same for our coffee cream. I could not resist the bag of romaine hearts on sale for half the price of the loose lettuce. I also bought the convenient pre-washed bag of greens.

Going down my receipt it looks dismal. I always knew there are obvious unwanted plastic purchases that came with the food I intended to buy, but I did not know just how ingrained it was in my shopping habits.

I am not going to count, at least for now, the tiny plastic stickers found on each and every piece of fresh fruit or vegetable in the produce department to aid the checker. I may start peeling them off and putting them … well that is just passing the problem on to someone else isn’t it? Never mind that idea.

I’ll count obvious plastic packaging, no matter how small, except for those pesky stickers. This will include caps, pull tabs, lids, bags; all the plastic that is exposed as the product sits on the shelf. I will also report all the hidden plastic we don’t see. For example, the plastic bag inside the box. Read more