My Family's Escape from Plastic
We chucked our handy snack-stashers. Are we eco-nuts?
Health fears lifted the lid. Image by Nora Kelly.
I said goodbye to a few old friends this morning.
I dropped Sabrina and Duncan at day camp and continued on down the road to my community's recycling depot. There, I walked up to the big green "mixed plastics" bin and tossed in my FridgeSmart stackables, Ziploc Twist n' Locs and, perhaps most painful of all, my beloved half-cup-size Rubbermaid Servin' Savers -- indispensable snack-stashers that fit perfectly inside my kids' lunch boxes.
All these little tubs are now gone, casualties of a recent pact between my wife and me to minimize the amount of time our family's food spends inside plastic containers.
It was a watershed moment for the two of us -- the latest stop in a journey that has begun to wander into territory that I once reserved for a class of people I once referred to as "eco-fruitcakes." It has taken us beyond social norms, outside the fuzzy boundaries of mainstream consumer behavior.
Go ahead and laugh
It's now socially acceptable to forgo plastic bags at the store -- even Ikea is calling them "so last year." But my Servin' Savers purge represents a far more radical act.
I can hear you snickering out there, and I don't blame you. As far as eco-resolutions go, this one is probably both ridiculous and futile. We know that the lion's share of our food -- yogurt, milk, berries, applesauce, nuts, cooking oil, you name it -- is sold to us in plastic packaging. For decades, industry and government scientists have assured us these "food grade" pots, tubs, and sacks are completely benign.
They're lightweight compared to glass -- which means less of a carbon penalty from shipping -- and of course they're recyclable. And as a former Servin' Savers evangelist, I know the convenience is unbeatable.
But here's the thing, Mr. Industry and Ms. Government. I've been struggling with a few trust issues as of late.
BPA blues
You see, when Sabrina and Duncan were infants, we often fed them pumped breast milk that we warmed up inside polycarbonate Philips Avent plastic bottles -- bottles that we recently learned were leaching bisphenol-A, or BPA.
Unless you've been living on Baffin Island for the past six months, you know that's bad news. Earlier this year, Health Canada declared that chemical "toxic" and stated that there is "some concern for neural and behavioral effects in early stages of development" for low levels of exposure.
On its Avent website, Philips today touts a redesigned BPA-free baby bottle that the company assures us it is developing "because we know that needs sometimes change."
Needs do change, yes. So do paradigms. And the thing is, I'm presently undergoing a shift so foreign and clumsy that it feels like puberty all over again. It boils down to this, Philips: I don't trust you anymore. My consumer confidence has plummeted. In fact, it's in the basement.
And it isn't just you; I'm not tying this shift inside my head to this specific named chemical, this particular crisis-management episode. I'm not going to feel reassured when you switch over to a "safer" replacement that is equally convenient for me and profitable for you.
That weird plasticky taste
Oh I know, I know: The third-party research is solid; polypropylene and everything else with a number inside a triangle is perfectly safe. Plastic will remain a staple of our lives for many years to come. Hey, I'm touching it as I write this story.
But I don't trust that science anymore, and as a result, I'm no longer going to eat off the stuff. I'm no longer able to brush aside the odd taste the water in my squeeze bottle assumes after it's spent a hot day under my sea kayak's deck rigging. I'm not going to microwave yesterday's macaroni in the fresh-saver locking-lid container and then serve it up to my family. I'm not doing any of that anymore. This stuff is petroleum, and I've lost my enthusiasm for its endless miracles.
Maybe my Tupperware purge won't mean a damn in the big scheme of things -- petty acts of consumer disobedience don't often cast so much as a ripple. But radical or not, Elle and I have set down some new ground rules around our place. Eventually we'll get our hands on one of those Japanese stainless-steel lunch kits, but in the meantime, I'm packing Duncan and Sabrina's lunch boxes with small glass mason jars and wax paper.
The wax paper is ok, but the jars suck. They're heavy, and the counsellors at day camp are not very pleased to see my kids dealing with them on their field trip to the beach. After all, glass is a liability. It breaks.
Uncharted territory
I don't know where this one is going, because the truth is, I don't know who to trust. I find I'm running confidence problems in my head: I score one point to Canada's new government for standing up to the Canadian Plastics Industry Association on this one -- the lobbying has been intense. But then I dock two from that same agency for not telling me sooner, when I had two screaming babies around the house.
Please don't paint me as a Luddite who would do away with life-saving medical devices and send us back to the oxen in the fields. It's just nowhere near that clear-cut. Indeed, there are many scenarios where plastic is the more sustainable choice. I think of my lunch-kit reboot as the start of a personal investigation into my relationship with plastic; we can't live without this stuff, but I wonder if maybe we can learn to live with less of it, or figure out how to deploy it more thoughtfully.
In the end, we only have our own gut to guide us on this stuff. And laugh if you will, but from here on out, mine is going to contain a few molecules less of Rubbermaid's latest injection-molded god-knows-what.
Related Tyee stories:
- We Can Be Garbage Free
Trash is a choice. Time for 'Cradle to Cradle' design. - Earth's Eighth Continent
It swirls. It grows. It's a massive, floating 'garbage patch.' - Raising a Brand-Free Kid
From day one, you've got to fight Winnie the Pooh.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
katch
31-07-2008
I moved to India, and over
I moved to India, and over here everyone uses stainless steel. You can hop over to Main and 49th and grab yourself metal boxes to carry your food in. Also, they have stackable containers called tiffens. They lock together, different compartments. Just so you know.
ME2
01-08-2008
The three "R"s
Though I find Glave's arguments aesthetically seductive, before I came out strongly one way or the other, I'd need to know the amounts of energy needed to create the product from plastic, glass or metal.
Then I'd like to know how much energy/water is required for washing the glass/metal container vs simply recycling the plastic.
My final consideration would be knowing how much energy is required to recycle these materials.
My guess is that plastic would win in all three individual categories. This is strongly indicated by the fact that plastic is the cheapest of all three to buy simply because it requires the least energy in manufacturing.
Our obviously huge failure then, lies in our lack of concern re recycling the plastics we generate.
cavers
01-08-2008
That doesn't seem nuts at
That doesn't seem nuts at all to me. Plastic is pretty useful stuff, that's for sure - but why do we absolutely need to store food in it?
Mason jars are worth another look. Glass does break, yes, but why not wrap it in a wool sock or something to make that somewhat less likely? The best thing about glass jars is that (if they don't break) they last forever - way more than one can say for stainless lunch kits from Japan. There are enough glass jars in anyone's house, I'd wager, to replace a set of Tupperwares. You don't have to go off to the store and buy something new...
alive
01-08-2008
obese from snacks?
This may be a good time for many families to consider why they keep and store snacks?
Look at your waistline and decide if a snack really is such a good thing?
The medical plan will thank you
Stump
01-08-2008
Sell them bottles
Nothing like a good health scare to move some product. SIGG can't keep up with demand for their bottles.
My cursory examination of the topic is that the risks associated with BPA are real, neglible, and vastly overstated.
If BPA contamination is so disruptive to our systems, doesn't it invalidate most medical research done using Nalgene and similar products, due to the fact that endocrine disruptors may affect the outcome?
redheadwalking
01-08-2008
The bigger picture
I also struggle to find alternatives to plastic. I've started using glass jars to store leftovers but I find they're heavy to carry if I'm taking food out with me. Stainless steel sounds like a good option but it still means further production and consumption - and is this use of resources really necessary? I think what will need to happen in the future is a complete reorganization of our geographies and day-to-day lives so that we eat most of our meals at home or make food with others wherever we are.
Dan
01-08-2008
your R's must be different
The problem with the argument (ME2, others) to just "recycle the plastic" vs. washing glass and metal, is that plastics aren't truly recyclable. They can be melted down to make something else, and then from there they can make another item - but it's life is indeed finite. Unlike metals and glass that although they use more energy can be melted down and rebuilt infinite amounts of time.
It sounds very much like the other weak arguments I've heard about cloth diapers ("it take's more energy to wash cloth diapers than to make my disposable pampers") - which is a lame excuse mostly said by people who use disposables to justify their use and so they can sleep at night. Same goes for plastic containers.
Good for you James for making that switch. And as cavers says - we probably have the glass jars in our very homes - and if not - swing by your mother's place - she's got them for sure.
jglave
01-08-2008
Your Comments
Thanks, all for the comments and feedback. I'll probably pick up a couple set of the Indian tiffens sets for the kids lunches in Sept. As for the glass jars, I've actually been hoarding them for a fair while now; I've got a good collection.
The irony of all this (well, one of them, anyway) is that my dentist told me to get a night guard to protect my teeth, which I grind in my sleep. Guess what it's made of? Yeah, plastic. So all night long I grind away on this thing and doubtless swallow the particles that result. Sigh.
ps... about the grinding. Yeah, I know, treat the problem, not the symptom. Slow down your life. Sign up for yoga. Go to Hollyhock. Sorry, not going to work, not going to happen...
snert
01-08-2008
Wax paper comes from where?
Talk about a disposable society. Let's all throw away perfectly useful items for 'the cause' with absolutely no thought given to the fact that the carbon footprint for keeping them is zero.
Ian Weniger
01-08-2008
Reuse that glass!
I remeber the canteen I had from scout camps in the 1970s, a steel discus with a canvas cover. That cost a couple of bucks at Canadian Tire. Those SIGG thingies now cost 25 bucks! Even a dollar store sells 300mL aluminum bottles for well over a dollar. Daylight robbery, as Wallace would say to Gromit.
I found some duct tape and wrapped empty SOBE bottled. A lot of small (half-litre or less) glass bottles take a lot of punishment, or at least aren't terribly fragile. I mean, for the last thousand years, people weren't walking around in fear of shards every day, begging for some inventor to rescue us with cans, plastic and tetrapaks, right?
The worst that happens to my home taping job is the bottle breaks and the tape holds the mess together safely as I toss it in the garbage.
Big ups to Cavers with the Mason jars. I didn't think of using wool sox to cover the jars. Way easier to wash the jars after using 'em; I only put water in the bottles because dish soap isn't great for the tape job.
talksduringfilms
01-08-2008
glassism the vegatarinism
good luck!
we cut out plastic a little over a year ago after a failed attempt in '98 around the time of the zeno estrogen findings. all of our food containers and plastic toys went to value village. maybe "snert" can pick up some of our old stuff. at the same time i happily got some glass ware and a nice iron skillet to replace the non-stick.
as for the curry containers, well i hope you don't like soup all that much. for everything else the are pretty sweet.
one big discovery was that dried beans are far superior to canned beans, but the soaking, not sure how my grandparents managed to feed everyone.
if anyone can tell me what the lining is in the sigg bottles i would sure appreciate it. looks a lot like plastic to my eyes.
kudos on the snack less post! fruits with thick skins.
lynn
02-08-2008
Something else to factor into the equation:
...remember this one from The Tyee:
Although no official title has been given to the mass yet, a popular label thus far has been "The Great Pacific Garbage Patch."
As suggested by the name, the island is almost entirely comprises human-made trash. It currently weighs approximately 3.5 million tons with a concentration of 3.34 million pieces of garbage per square kilometer, 80 per cent of which is plastic.
Due to the Patch's location in the North Pacific Gyre, its growth is guaranteed to continue as this Africa-sized section of ocean spins in a vortex that effectively traps flotsam.
Van Isle
02-08-2008
Hey Lynn, I was told that
Hey Lynn, I was told that the huge garbage dump in the Pacific Ocean is refered to as the "8th Continent". And it really isn't between California and Hawaii but a little more to the North and West. Midway Island has tonnes of that crap wash up on it's beaches daily.
lynn
02-08-2008
Hi there, Van Isle:
Hi there, Van Isle:
A friend sent me this link to a series on that "8th Continent".
It's a series of twelve videos made by a film crew that ventured there. I can't vouch for the series as my computer is basically garbage ;-) and it takes so long to download that I give up before I even begin....but just going on first impression of the series, it looks quite interesting.
Here's the link to series three but you can access all twelve videos from this site:
http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308604
Cheers, L.
Moat
03-08-2008
Plastic Nightguard?!
jglave wrote:
On top if it all, you are grinding down those silver amalgam fillings and swallowing the mercury. Then you are waking up and washing your teeth that neurotoxin - fluoride. We all do it!
Ack, one cannot hide!
anemi
04-08-2008
Tupperware
Now let me make certain I understand you correctly here. What you are saying is that I should take you and the Mrs. off our Tupperware Party list for this Tuesday night? Fine, but you could just have easily called. Also, Stanley has a new gig as the neighborhood rep for Fuller Brushes. Since you are otherwise now available Tuesday, how would a visit then suit? Thank you!
monnibo
04-08-2008
Good For You
Good for you James. I am looking forward to reading your new book -- Almost Green -- and making some own changes to my lifestyle.
kepstein
05-08-2008
Don't dump...just change the use
I completely support switching from plastic to metal/glass for your food...my family is doing the same but I would say that instead of dumping all your plastic at the recycling centre it might be worth finding other uses for it instead of entering it into the waste cycle.
We now use our tupperware for playing in the sand at the beach and storing a variety of things...crayons, sidewalk chalk, clothes line pegs, nails/screws, the dozens of little cars that just have to go everywhere with us, etc. You get the point.
kepstein
05-08-2008
toothbrushes
Something I forgot to mention in my last post...
After deciding not to eat out of plastic it occurred to me that it was sort of irrelevant given that we still use plastic toothbrushes. I’ve found a source (ordered online, still can’t find somewhere local that sells them) for wooden toothbrushes so we’re giving those a try…