Plastic

When I was younger, "paper or plastic?" became a common question.
In the interest of saving trees, people promoted plastic bags.
If only we'd skipped directly to reusable bags then.
There is so much focus on bags, that we forget the rafts of polymers we have everywhere else.
Own a bottle of shampoo?
What's your computer casing? Or your telephone?
Even waxed paper is really lined with a plastic.
Some cars are plastics.
I signed a pledge about two years ago to refrain from buying bottled water.
I used a Lexan bottle. Bisophenol A. Yay. So I saved up and got a Sigg.
I now have brightly colored craft storage with stickers all over the outside.


So I knew, intellectually, that the average house has loads of plastic.
I've been using up plastic-packaged goods in the bathroom. I felt like I was starting to see a difference. Wooden soap dish, bars of shampoo and conditioner, liquid soap bought by the half gallon and diluted (Dilute, dilute, dilute, OK!)

Then I cleaned in the kitchen today, a put off for many months clear-out.
Wow. And gross.

I buy a lot of groceries in bulk, which means plastic bags when you don't take your own containers.
I reuse the deli-style containers until a fatal crack develops. I was happy to see how many glass jars I had in use.
But I have a lot of plastic, some of it rather high quality.
Some will get donated to whichever of my three charities calls next.
Some I will keep because the size is convenient, but I will be eying glass canisters for the contents.
I want to donate whole the plastic is still high quality, so that someone will get good use out of it.
I also had lots of plastic bags of a few ounces of this and a few cups of that.
Now I have a lot of labeled jars, and this looks better to me.

What small change would you like to make in how you live?