Jen’s Plastic Free July Update

Jen the Magical Mapper here! It’s already July 20th and I’m just now checking in. I’ve been doing ok, but not the best, with my Plastic Free July challenge. There were a few times I slipped up, and a few times when the pandemic has made it impossible to meet my goals. I’ve also been realizing just how many of my appliances and objects in my house are made of or contain plastic!

Food Packaging

One time I slipped up early on was when I forgot that frozen pizza comes wrapped in plastic (and the box itself is lined with something that makes it non-recyclable). The pizza made two meals for me though, so at least it doesn’t count as single use? A lot of my other food products also come in plastic. I am addicted to cheese. I try to at least buy the biggest size I can find (assuming I can eat it all before it goes bad) because there is less plastic packaging that way. And I got takeout once (some delicious yellow curry) that came in a new plastic container I hadn’t seen before, AND it came in its own plastic bag (my friends brought it over to me and each of our orders were packaged completely separately even though we ordered and paid together as one order). I washed the container and will try to find a way to reuse it. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it yet, but if you have ideas, please share them in the comments!

Frozen pizza comes wrapped in plastic!

My takeout came in a new plastic container, inside of a plastic bag! :( I washed the container and will try to find a way to reuse it.

At least I bought the bigger bag… although I usually get the 32 oz bag for less plastic packaging waste.

I use my dehydrator for cherries, morels, and other fruits and fungi!

Appliances

I had a cherry tree in my back yard until I chopped it down earlier this month (it wasn’t healthy and it brought itself 2/3 of the way down on its own, in my defense…) and I’ve been either freezing cherries to use later or dehydrating them. My cherry pitter is mostly plastic, as is my dehydrator. Looking around my kitchen, I’m noticing my coffee pot, toaster, blender, and many other small appliances also contain a lot of plastic! The good news is I have gotten many years of use out of them and will continue to use them into the future. If it comes time to replace them, I will likely either buy from a resale store or try to find non-plastic versions if they exist.

Groceries

The final place I’ve been struggling with plastics is at the grocery store. I haven’t actually been to the grocery store in months but have been either having my groceries delivered or doing pick-up. I remembered to request that the shopper not put my produce in plastic bags for my second delivery of the month, but I haven’t been able to get paper bags for my groceries. My last shopper said the stores have been out of them for quite a while (even though plastic bags are banned here - the ban was relaxed because of the pandemic and the fact that we’re not allowed to bring our own bags at this time).

Wrap-up

Overall, I’d say I’ve been pretty successful this month. I have had a few plastic-wrapped snacks that I had purchased before the challenge started, but instead of eating individually wrapped breakfast bars I've been baking muffins on the weekend to eat for breakfast during the week. It definitely takes more time and planning to reduce plastic use, but if I continue to make these changes I’m confident I won’t miss my old ways!

Are you participating in the challenge? Let us know how you’re doing in the comments!