Our Plastic World: Taking a Personal Inventory

Plastic is everywhere and used for nearly everything: bottles, can linings, computers, televisions, appliances, auto parts, food containers, dental fillings, rain coats, shoes, jewelry...and that's just a tiny sample. It's never-ending.  Plastic is lightweight and the materials used to make it are cheap making it very popular in our modern culture. The materials used include chemical compounds with names such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and/or bisphenol A (BPA). Problem is plastic of any kind is toxic.



Toxic cash register receipts??? Really?

BPA, or Bisphenol A, is a hazardous material used for making all kinds of food containers. It then leaches out of the container and into your body via air, ingestion, and skin absorption. Heat and grease compound the toxicity and magnify the exposure. Through various scientific studies, it has been linked to cancer, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, reproductive abnormalities, neurological problems, and obesity. In addition, it is a well-known endocrine disruptor and is detrimental to thyroid function. Unfortunately, most plastic baby products are made with BPA and pregnant women are advised to avoid contact with BPA. In addition to most plastic items, BPA is also found on cash register receipts! With all these studies confirming the same scary information, why is it still being used?

I've heard the recycling numbers on the bottoms of plastic containers will indicate safety usage levels. Avoid buying anything plastic with the recycle numbers #3 (polyvinyl chloride), #6 (polystyrene) or #7 (bisphenol A, or BPA). Initially this led me to believe all other numbers are safe, but I doubt it. One rule of thumb is soft plastics are supposed to be the worst with the harder, more durable types less problematic. Still, a chemical is a chemical no matter what kind of pretty words are used to describe it, or in this case, whatever the number. In the last ten years, many products have switched their packaging from glass to plastic again for convenience and cost, and I've stopped using those products. When given a choice, I try to opt for glass, metal or wood.

For years I've been trying to rid myself of plastic since testing positive for phenol sensitivities nearly ten years ago. Regardless of the testing results, I can't stand the smell of plastic nor the taste of anything stored in air-tight plastic. Early on I threw away all my old Tupperware and stopped buying Ziploc baggies.  I remember hearing about the new continent being formed out of plastics located somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and this motivated me to start using cloth shopping bags. I started collecting metal buckets for gardening and using glass jars for much of my food storage or any storage. I exchanged my lead-laced plastic window blinds and replaced them with washable, cloth curtains. I bought porcelain light fixtures for my closet lighting instead of the plastic variety. All my dishes, glasses, cups and bowls and other tableware/serving items are ceramic or glass. I threw away my blender with the plastic pitcher and opted for a glass pitcher type, but the casing is still plastic. Unfortunately, the plastic one worked better. These are the sacrifices that are made with a plastic culling.

This got me thinking...even with all the changes I've made, how much plastic do I still have in my life? So I wandered the house taking inventory:

I have three large and five small plastic storage totes although with this last garage sale, I sold a few. I can't stand how they make things stored in them stink, but they are convenient for grouping all my camping equipment in one place. I just have to offgas anything I want to use out in the fresh, open air before I use it. Had I not been rushed into this last garage sale, I might have sold them all and I regret not doing just that.

 

On occasion, I do accept a plastic bag from a store and then use them for waterproofing or anything I need to seal airtight-ish. I store my lettuce in a large glass bowl, but without a plastic cover it gets wilted in a very short amount of time. I try to avoid the plastic grocery bags as much as possible, but their convenience sometimes gets the best of me.

How did we ever not use plastic for food storage? I vaguely remember from my childhood leftovers stored in glass bowls with tin foil over it, but according to my cousin, tin foil is just as toxic. Most of the time I use a plate on top of a bowl, but sometimes cave to the convenience of a recycled Ziploc bag or plastic container. Recycling and reusing a plastic container makes me feel better about it, but I wonder if old, constantly-reused plastic gets more toxic with wear?

Keeps bugs out of things.

I also have collected recycled five and four gallon buckets and use them for outside storage and camping.

At one point I attempted to use paper bags for garbage or just tossing the garbage bits into the large PLASTIC garbage can, but I have to admit, it's messy and stinky. It involves constantly cleaning the garbage can which is a gruesome job. It's horribly inconvenient. Unfortunately, I like the convenience of a large plastic bag for garbage so I buy the kind that compost. I've thought about buying a metal garbage can, but they are so inconveniently noisy! The whole neighborhood would hear me dragging a metal can out to the street in the early morning hours. I hate noise. (Poor me! What an inconvenience!)

I have yet to give up all those recycled yogurt containers I used for freezer storage. Glass has been known to break in a freezer and that sounds inconvenient to say the least. I used to use them for paint because the necks are so much larger than glass jars which makes dipping a brush easier, but I've replaced all the paint storage yogurt containers with glass jars.

Hardly even used...

My dish soap and shampoo bottles are plastic. So is my brush, comb and toothbrush. My new thyroid medication is in a plastic bottle and the tacks on my bulletin board are plastic. My clothing hangers are plastic. Every CD case I own is plastic. My wheel barrel is plastic. There is no getting around plastic encased computer equipment. Even my new heaters, although they are metal on the outside, the insides are all plastic. (I watched their installation. Who would have known?) Trying to rid oneself of plastic in a plastic world is a huge challenge! Coupled with living in an area that rains nine months out of the year, waterproof plastic is a huge convenience. Yep, I said convenience again. I guess prioritizing convenience over health makes me the quintessential modern woman. Damn.

Well, this is an eye opening experience. I don't plan to throw away my computer or my car just because it has plastic components. In a perfect world....

One step at a time.

My current focus is the plastic water bottles I use for water. I use the one gallon jugs with the #2 recycling number. These are supposed to be safe. Or safer. Hmmm...I don't know. I hate the idea of water sitting in the plastics too long and the filtered water machine I use deposits very warm water into the plastic containers and that can't be good.

It's been a challenge finding some kind of replacement especially since I must transport water from an hour and a half away which means hauling three to five gallons of water every week in and out of my house, but after reading an article on how these plastics might directly affect thyroid function I thought I'd make more of an effort especially with food/water storage.


Online I found one gallon water jugs for sale. The price per jug was only $4.00, but they are in a case of four so a mandatory $16. Unfortunately due to the weight of glass, the shipping fees cost more than the jugs!!  I wasn't sure I'd need four. My co-op sells water jugs for $10 each and I thought maybe I could get away with buying only two as a test. Putting a gallon of water into a one gallon glass jug makes it REALLY heavy and lugging them to and from my vehicle is more difficult. With plastic I could carry two in one hand. Not so with glass. I also have to be very careful HOW I carry the jugs whether they are filled or empty as there is always a risk of breakage and condensation or water drips on the outside make them slippery. Drop a plastic water bottle and it bounces. Not so with glass! Even driving with glass jars too close together and they clank dangerously against one another. Damn. Plastic is just so convenient!

Two jugs weren't enough as I was running out of water too quickly. My co-op ran out of stock so I went to another co-op and asked if they sold one gallon glass jugs. (I should have just bought the case of four! Not thinking....) The woman looked at my jug and said, "We don't sell them, but on occasion we have empty vinegar jars in the back that look just like that one. You just have to wash them." Did she say FREE!? I had to replace the lid as it had a plastic lining that no matter what I used couldn't be washed enough to rid it of smell, but the glass is wonderful!



What is the difference between these two jugs?
The one on the left cost $10. The one on the right was FREE!

It's definitely an adjustment to learn how to carry, transport and store glass containers, but I think it's healthier. If we all stop using so much plastic, perhaps the powers that be will stop making it?

Becoming plastic-free is challenging, but I'll get there! Eventually.