How's everyone doing after week 1 of Plastic Free July?
Some good, some bad, and a little hungry over here. Good news first....
- Mr. Mimosa Goods went grocery shopping on Saturday and hit the bulk aisle and bakery counter (with his reusable cotton bags!). The only plastic he came home with was a sleeve of Oreos. Guys that's a big win. HUGE.
- I'm eating healthier since all my go-to snacks come in plastic.
- Found a plastic free shampoo bar that I like!
- Remembered to bring utensils, straws, mugs and water bottles with me everyday AND mostly used them!
Now, the bad news...
- Forgot to use the mug and utensils once.
- Had to choose between styrofoam containers or a child having a meltdown at an outdoor event. I chose the styrofoam containers that night.
- Realized some mostly paper items still have plastic. Pasta boxes. Paper bread bags. (Those little windows so you can see your bread and pasta. I'd never noticed them before...do we really need those?) I need to find alternatives.
And the hungry....
- I really, really miss potato chips.
How did you folks do? I've heard from some of you on Facebook - and love how we've worked together to source plastic-free tablecloths, promote a new community composting company, and find plastic free toilet paper! Whew!
I've also heard from some of you about challenges with plastic in Amazon boxes and other shipments. Also some frustrations with bread and a few heroes are starting to bake their own. This plastic free journey can get frustrating, so definitely keep talking about and working on the hiccups, but remember to celebrate the wins!
If you need some motivation, head immediately over to Plastic Free NJ's insta or website - www.plasticfreenj.blogspot.com. Here are her top swaps for newbies!
Reusable water bottle (can replace 167 plastic water bottles!)
Glass, bamboo or metal straw and cutlery – Choose to Refuse straws!
Reusable food wraps (beeswax wraps work best)
Reusable coffee cup (can replace 500 coffee cups!)
And, if you haven't yet registered on www.plasticfreejuly.org get over there ASAP. There are three levels, so don't be afraid - you can start with just refusing plastic bags! Just let us know you're participating in the challenge so that I can enter you in our weekly prize drawing. Congrats to Melissa Daciek who won this week's prize - and there are still four more prizes up for grabs.
Week 2: Beeswax Clingwraps Set of 3 Beeswax Clingwraps and a Beeswax sandwich bag
Week 3: Salvaged & Stitched Mason jar mug with crocheted koozie, crocheted dish scrubbie
Week 4: Cottie Basil Quilting Utensil roll with cotton napkin, set of Un-Paper Towels
End of month giveaway: $50 Gift Certificate to Mimosa Goods
Keep up the great work - this challenge is so much better with friends!
4 comments
Barkley, that’s great! The water bottles alone are a big step – and I’m going to move my cloths to a basket too. That’s a great idea. I have them in a cabinet, and it’s definitely more convenient to reach for a paper towel sometimes, so if they are right in front of my face I’ll remember more often.
I don’t know of a bulk store super close to us – I’ve gone to Whole Foods and also the Whole Earth Center. Whole Foods has your standard assortments of grains, nuts, dried fruits, and granolas. Whole Earth Center had more – and they also had bulk spices and some cleaning products and shampoo I think.
My sister told me to check out Sprouts and Moms, so I’m going to head there this week to see what they have too. Wouldn’t it be great if Aldi jumped on this?
Baby steps in our house, and I just discovered your blog so we haven’t gotten plastic free just yet. We have significantly cut down on paper towels and napkins by keeping a basket of cloth napkins on the table and making clean dish cloths easier to grab than a paper towel for small spills or wipe downs. And we have been carrying our reusable water bottles everywhere in this heat!
Bigger question is about taking your own containers to the store for certain dry goods. I keep seeing other blogs mention “bulk dry goods” like spices being available but not sure where to find them. Would love to take my own jars to refill for things like poultry or italian seasoning which we go through regularly. Do you know anywhere in our area that sells like this?
Also those scrubbies from salvaged and stitched are awesome!! :)
Yes! Those little things all add up too. I’m looking into these TerraCycle boxes here and it looks like they have one for contact lens packaging. Maybe your eye doc would be willing to sponsor one near you! https://zerowasteboxes.terracycle.com/
Discussion this AM: so difficult! Contact lenses; iphones; price tage they attached to clothing with that darn little plastic thread! Once you start thinking about it> OMG!
Im on a campaign to collect my daily disposable contact lenses and the blister pack they come in for recycle.
XO