Bye Bye Plastic Food Storage Containers and Bags

Every time I turn around, there is more bad news about plastic. I could go on a big rant about plastic, but I won’t. Instead, I want to talk about plastic and its relationship with my food. First it was Bisphenol A (BPA) in my plastic drinking bottles. Then it was BPA in canned food (it is used in the lining of cans) especially for acidic foods like tomatoes. So we cleaned out our water bottle collection a few years ago (replacing them with metal water bottles) and stopped buying canned food this past year. We really didn’t buy all that much canned food, mostly beans and canned tomatoes. Last summer as the local farmer’s market was coming to an end, we bought a 25 lb box of Roma tomatoes and diced them up then froze them. We also started cooking our beans from scratch.

This was a good start, but we still had a bunch of plastic food storage containers that we used for lunches. Even though I tried my best not to heat food in them via the microwave, it occasionally happened especially at work. My second confession is our somewhat frequent use of plastic bags. We mostly used larger bags for freezing vegetables. The small snack bags made it easy to pack items for school lunches. I have to admit that while I know how bad they are for the environment, they can be pretty darn convenient at times. So I rationalized my behavior by using them sparingly and reusing when possible. That was until last month when I discovered from a blog that I follow (My Plastic-free Life) that animal fat is what makes the bags nice and slippery. I have no idea how I did not know this little fact after all of these years of not eating meat!

In my fit of disgust, I made several changes on the food storage front to complete our transformation:

• I replaced the plastic drink pitcher and all of the plastic food storage containers with glass versions from the Container Store. This was an easy fix.

• I replaced Lily and Semira’s insulated lunch bags (in to which went plastic bags and storage containers) with very cool metal bento boxes from Planet Box. I had to find something with built in containers to replace the plastic ones. The kids love the new lunch boxes because they could customize the plain metal with different magnets. Lunch has become much more exciting because there are small bites of more different foods. Both kids are eating more (especially the healthy things).

The outside of the boxes with the set of magnets each kid picked.

The inside of the boxes. Each comes with two round containers (sidekicks) to hold liquids.

• I replaced my insulated, dog chewed lunch box with a metal tiffin (from To-Go Ware) identical to the one Steve bought a couple of years ago. I admit it, I made fun of Steve when he bought his tiffin. I did, however, make sure mine is a bit fancier. It has a nice bag and a set of bamboo utensils to go with it. I plan on keeping a plate at work to heat the contents in the microwave since the metal won’t work. This is the downside of the metal vs. glass option.

My lunch set comes with two big round containers that snap together as well as a sidekick to hold liquids.

• I will continue to eat the food in the freezer that is in plastic bags as long as I defrost the bags so they do not need to be microwaved. After that, all food in the freezer will be stored in glass jars. We already do this for about half of our food so I know it works. I will just need to buy more jars this summer.

After the discovery of the animal fat in the plastic bags, I decided to explore a few of the plastic bag manufacturer’s web sites to see what they had to say. What I found is such a great example of irony. The most well-known plastic bag manufacturer takes great pride in telling you their products are BPA free. Very safe! Then they have an entire section of their web site (under the heading of” Sustainability”) exposing how environmental they are including how to divert the bags from the landfill by recycling them, how some of their products are made with wind energy, and how the boxes that hold the bags are made from recycled cardboard. Really, there is no way to make using plastic sustainable! I don’t care if they are made with wind energy or whether you can recycle the box they came in. The reality is millions of these bags sit in landfills. They do not decompose EVER. And recycling is so limited because most municipalities do not take bags. And I have yet to see any of these special recycling drop-offs for food storage bags. Do these companies really think that people will fall for this? What a great example of trying to sustain the unsustainable! Oh yeah, I never did find that complete list of chemicals and other ingredients that my food has been touching all these years. Somehow I am not surprised!

I can't say that I am solving the world's plastic problems with these minor changes. If you want some inspiration on that front, check out Beth Terry's blog at Myplasticfreelife.com. She is amazing! On the other hand, I have definitely become more aware of the vast amounts of plastics all around us. This awareness has certainly led to more thoughtful personal decisions as to whether to buy a particular product or not. I just wish I didn't have to try so hard to find plastic-free alternatives for many of the products I like to use. Some days I have the energy to go the extra mile; other days I don't. I guess this makes me human.

The Annual Birthday Party Showdown

Semira celebrating her 5th birthday last February

At the risk of ticking off half or more of my friends, I apologize in advance. But I have to get my ongoing issues with children’s birthday parties off my chest. It is something I just can’t escape especially with two kids being invited to endless birthday parties (already three in January)! And it is very timely as we begin planning for Semira’s 6^th birthday.

Let me say that I am not a scrooge and I don’t hate the concept of having a birthday party for your child. I have problems with what comes with these parties, namely presents and loot bags. Here’s a recap of a recent conversation in the Prager Household.

Me: Semira, have thought about what you want to do for your birthday this year?

Semira: I want a gymnastics party.

Me: Like last year? That’s great. Gymnastics is fun for both boys and girls.

Semira: Mom, can I get presents this year?

Me: Nope.

Semira: Ugh! (Followed by grumps, snorts, and crossing of the arms, etc.)

Me: Semira, it's too many presents. You do not need 20 new things, half of which will be junk and the other half you won't play with much. We will still buy you a nice present. We can look online later for something you might like.

We search and search online for something. It is obvious Semira has no idea what she wants (except for a DS which is a big fat NO). She can’t even think of anything (probably because she doesn’t watch TV). So I do a Google search to find out what toys were the hot items for girls her age this Christmas. What do we find? Nothing she is all that interested in or anything I am willing to buy. Sorry, I won’t be spending $200 on a giant plastic toy. I just can’t do it and sleep at night. We finally come up with a dog that barks, pants, walks, etc. I think it is silly, but whatever…it was the lesser of many evils.

Later that same night, all four of us are in the upstairs bathroom getting ready for bed and brushing teeth. I give Steve a quick recap of what we settled on for a present.

Me: So Semira would like this dog that barks, pants, and walks for her birthday. We looked a lot and so much of what we found was S-H-I-T (I spell it out).

Lily: Ooooohhhh Poppy, Mommy said a bad word! I know what she said. Can I say it? Can I say what she said?

Me: Sure, go ahead.

Lily: Mommy said SHIT!

Me: Yes Lily, I did say that most of the toys we found were shit.

The moral to the story…Lily can spell! (I am still working on losing the sailor talk). But the other point is that my kids are trained to expect A LOT of presents on their birthday and that they never leave a party empty handed. Birthday parties go something like this: Invite the entire class plus some other friends you know, have an activity (swimming, gymnastics, games, etc.), eat cake, open presents, and give everyone a loot bag on the way out the door. I can’t count how many birthdays like this we have been to since my kids have been about three years old.

Well, guess what? My kids don’t receive a boat load of presents because Steve and I banned presents after Lily turned three years old. The amount of presents she received was too much for us. That was it! We decided no more. In my excitement, I thought I would mention my new idea to a circle of girlfriends. My assumption was that most others would agree and want to do the same thing. What a win, win…we all reduce the number of gifts our kids get and the number we have to buy. The feedback I received was just the opposite. Let’s just say the response was lukewarm at best. I was stunned.

When I was growing up, all of my toys as well as my sister’s toys fit into one wooden toy box that was kept in our basement. There were a few exceptions like bicycles, miniature dollhouses, and the Barbie dream house. Today, all I see is home after home swimming in toys (including my own). Toys are like everything else. Kids play with 20 percent of them 80 percent of the time. It seems like the rest are just sitting around or getting in my way. They really don’t care about them (until you attempt to give them away)!

I feel an immense sense of guilt from all this. It is such an incredible waste of resources. Everything is crappy plastic full of chemicals made in developing countries by poor adults and children working under terrible conditions. Half of it breaks within the first few weeks. The rest collects dust. You can no longer give toys away either these days with all the toxic chemicals. Many charities no longer take them. So off they go to the landfill! Let’s pollute the earth some more. The thrill for my kids lasted all of 15 minutes and now I am stuck with the lasting effects of the stuff. Besides the social and environmental issues I help create, I now have more stuff in my house causing me mental angst because I hate clutter and I hate fighting with my kids over clutter.

So what do I do? Well, we will be having another round of present-free birthdays this year. And they will be loot bag free as well. I think we will have a piñata and kids can take a few pieces of candy home with them. Next, I am telling the world what I really think. A handful of my closest friends and family know how I really feel. But really in my quest for maintaining peace, I usually just shut my mouth and go with it (yes, I buy gifts for other kids, although I try to keep them small and non-plastic). But in my heart, I can’t believe other parents don’t feel the same. Wouldn’t it be nice if birthday parties were simply about the gathering itself? Only good can come from this: less stuff to buy, less stuff to receive, and less stress associated with stuff. Happiness comes from the celebration, mainly the gathering of friends and the fun, not the stuff you give or receive. At the end of the day, this is the message I want my kids to hear loud and clear.

The Soda Maker

We are not big soda drinkers in our family. (Well, Semira would be if we let her!) But we do have an addiction to club soda. And to make matters worse, I like it in the can. The bottles tend to go flat quicker than I can drink them. Over the last few years, we have bought A LOT of club soda. I am guessing on average at least 50 cans a week. We recycle all the cans, which is a pain when you live in a town without curbside recycling pickup. Well, the guilt of the cans finally got to us so a few months ago we bought our very own soda maker. The soda maker came with two bottles and the carbon dioxide cartridges are refilled so you simply return them for a new one.

While we recycle, many Americans do not. Roughly half of all aluminum cans end up in the trash in North America. Meanwhile recycling aluminum uses only 1/20th of the energy of creating new aluminum. Making aluminum is messy business. If you have been reading the news lately, you get the idea of how environmentally damaging aluminum production is. That gross red sludge oozing through Hungry is a toxic byproduct from aluminum manufacturing. Although recycling is good, it's still the last of the three "r's" so perhaps we need to be thinking of using less.

I dislike the plastic bottles that come with the Soda Stream, but overall am happy with other aspects of the product.

1. It literally takes just a few seconds to make a liter of club soda.
2. No more trips to the store lugging all the cans of club soda. They are heavy.
3. Entertainment for the kids... They like making their own soda.
4. We control what is in their soda. We are using different 100% juice concentrates so they can make their own fruit flavored sodas. In the end, it's regular juice diluted with carbonated water. How bad is that once a month or so?
5. It is way cheaper than buying soda or even the cheapest club soda at the store.
6. It is better for the environment...no cans to be made or recycled and savings of transport of our soda from wherever it is made to our grocery store. The carbon cylinders are reused.

A few weeks ago I was in Cheyenne for a doctors appointment so I took the opportunity to run some errands. I went to Bath, Bed, and Beyond to exchange the empty carbon cartridge for a new one. The clerk had no idea what to do with my request so she called the manager over. Twenty minutes later I am still standing there while three people figure out what to do. I was told that no one has yet to return the empty cartridge. Long story short, the manager digs through stacks of papers in her office to find the contract with Soda Stream. I then get my $15 credit for the empty cartridge and get a new one. I got the impression returning something to be reused was an alien concept for a store!

It is sad to me that everything in our society is either disposable or a piece of crap that breaks. The amount of waste produced for short term pleasure is just astonishing. The really sad part is that no one seems to care much about it. Sure some people care a little, but not enough to make any drastic changes to the system. What if we drank less soda? What if we all made our own soda? What if we reused glass bottles over and over again? The pictures below are from our trip to Ethiopia two years ago. Soda is served in glass bottles that have worn off labels or no label at all. I can't imagine that this would ever fly in the U.S. There would be a revolt!

Beer, Mirinda (orange soda), and Ambo (club soda) - Ethiopian style

Saved bottles outside the restaurant

In the end, making your own carbonated water in reusable bottles is not going to save the environment. It does, however, give one the opportunity to think about what our kids consume, the cycle of resources, and how "disposable" our culture has become. If we're this footloose with material items, at what point do we start treating people in the same way?