Breaking The Plastic Addiction: Week 2 Checkpoint

Here is our total damage for Week 2 at a distance.

(Review Week 1 Here) 

 

 

Week two of our Plastic Challenge is finally over! (8.20.12-8-26.12) In my opinion, we consumed MORE plastic this week, unintentionally of course. Johnee' begs to differ but that's neither here nor there. This week we had additional stuff going on such as our Juice Fast (heading into Day 5 now), and 3 RAW! Food clients to cater to. With that in mind, I don't think we did THAT bad, right? Let's take a closer look...

 

How did we accumulate these plastic containers? The dates were not for us this time! Raspberries, Alfalfa Sprouts, Roma tomatoes, Blackberries, Blueberries, Fresh Figs helped us prep for our Fast, and one damaged biodegradable Eco-Products container that we couldn't use for deliveries.

 

Solutions? Buy a sprouter so we don't have to buy sprouts in PLASTIC containers.

Pick individual tomatoes or those that come in cardboard boxes. Buy dates from BULK. The fruit? Eh..well it's going out of season so that solves that for now..and we have consciously switched to all bio-degradable plastic for our RAW! business so that gives us peace of mind for the moment.

 

Organic fruits and vegetables are cheaper when you buy in bulk BUT they come in large plastic bags (carrots, navel oranges) or plastic netting (onions, lemons), or bundled with a plastic band (chard, spinach, beets). We love seeded grapes but they always come in plastic too! These is one plastic grocery bag simple because we were one re-usable bag short.

 

Solutions? We COULD buy each fruit and vegetable individually or go directly to the farmer which we are looking into as we search for organic wholesalers. Grocery stores are looking like the plastic SET-UP.

 

We made a few dishes for others using flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and almonds which are conveniently packaged in plastic from Trader Joe's. There is also a Ziploc present that housed a piece of vegetable.

 

Solutions? Flax, Almonds, and Sunflower seeds are available in bulk. Although the price may vary, it's a solution none the less.. 

 

 Those pesky PRODUCE BAGS! This coming week should look much better because we have been saying f**k the bags and just putting stuff in the cart. Oh, and we are on a farmers market mission this week as well. The CVS bag comes from the tail end of our feminine cycle.

 

 

How our Plastic Usage has Improved

• We ate out LESS this week. Not at ALL, actually :) This means less plastic utensils and plastic eating containers.
• NO raw snacks (unless prepared at home) This saved us much money on our womanly cycle too.
• We had less grocery bags because we have been remembering our re-usable bags :)

 

Did You Know? - Plastic Facts

• Plastic contains natural gases and petroleum that are extracted from the Earth by "Fracking". Fracking (breaking gas-containing rock by injecting shit-tons of chemically induced water into the ground) contaminates our water supply especially in low income areas.
• Drilling for natural gas allows methane to escape into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.
• Oil drilling is a problem and we are all VERY dependent, whether we use petrol for gas or are struggling with plastic addiction. The state of the world rests in our hands. Let's not be so selfish!
• ALL plastics contain an array of additives that determine it's strength, texture, flexibility, color, and other characteristics. Some plastic chemicals mimic the natural hormones that our bodies produce, causing early puberty in females, reduced sperm counts, altered functions of reproductive organs, obesity, diabetes, and even breast, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancers.
• The effects of these chemicals are increased in children because they are smaller and still GROWING!
• Some plastic chemicals include BPA, BPA-Free Alternatives, Phthalates, Lead and Cadmium, Styrene, Antimony, Animal Fat (not vegan friendly!), Antibacterial Chemicals, Toxic Flam Retardants, Perfluorinated Compounds, and MORE!

Feel free to LOOK UP any of these chemicals on your OWN or stay tuned for our Week 3 update to our Plastic Trash Challenge! This isn't an easy road to ride but we never said it would be - but it WILL be worth it. We are manifesting that! Special thanks to Beth Terry and her wonderful book, 'Plastic Free' that has guided us along our journey. Stay tuned!



Breaking the Plastic Addiction - Week 1 Checkpoint

Inspired by Beth Terry, author of 'Plastic Free', we have taken on the challenge of Breaking the Plastic Addiction first, by being self accountable for our plastic consumption. We have attempted to keep, list, and photograph any and all plastic that would normally be thrown away or "recycled". Talk about a reality check!

In our last post, Breaking the Plastic Addiction - Self Accountability we showed our first 3 days of plastic use. Here are the remaining 4 days to close up our first plastic-conscious consumer week.

8.17.12

A Friday Night at Khepra's :) The container from our raw meal, bottle from coconut water, cup from mango pudding, utensils, and bag.

8.18.12

Plastic bag from forgetting our reusable bag at the farmer's market. TJ Maxx bag from mandolin purchase, cherry bag,  Date container from preparing a raw dessert for a party we attended that night.

Not pictured: Plastic plate and utensils from party

8.19.12

Empty Shea Butter Container, Coconut Oil Container which is odd because we normally purchase it in glass. Ziploc bags that housed lemons and peppers, plastic wrap that held another vegetable.

Not Pictured: plastic applicator from feminine products, plastic wrapper from feminine products

8.20.12

Whole Foods bag from Collards, Date container..again..plastic utensils and wrappers from salad, wrappers from Kitt's Organic bars, plastic from opening a pack of sheet protectors from Staples

Not Pictured: plastic applicator from feminine products, plastic wrapper from feminine products

Total Plastic Damage

 2 people. 1 week.  This much plastic!

What We've Learned So Far...

• Most of our plastic comes from FOOD. We don't over consume much in other areas.
• We kicked the water bottle habit about 8 months ago and that helped A LOT! 
• Produce bags accumulate quickly.
• Farmers Markets save us money and require less plastic.
• We consume a lot of Dates. If there are none in the bulk bin, DON'T GET THEM!
• Keep reusable grocery bags in the CAR.
• We have a Raw Food business, there is no reason we should spend that much time at the Whole Foods bar. Period.
• We can make our own raw snacks too..
• Use matches.
• Feminine products are a plastic trap.

We will be keeping with our Plastic Trash Challenge and posting weekly with more plastic info and updates on our consumption habits. Stay tuned!

What have you learned on your plastic-conscious journey?



Breaking the Plastic Addiction - Self Accountability

In our effort to be as sustainable and as unharming to the earth as possible, we realized that we have some very un-economical ways of living. A lot of these "bad" habits were broken with the change of our diet, but one thing still remained: THE PLASTIC ADDICTION!

We were truly awakened about our bad habits when we ran across the book, 'Plastic Free - How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too' by Beth Terry, the author of www.myplasticfreelife.com.

Our eyes were opened immediately when we took a look around us; from the plastic container the shea butter was housed in , speakers with plastic shells, clothes baskets, and even all of the containers that I house my jewelry materials in. Everything is plastic! We were saddened to realize our favorite raw snacks from Whole Foods were also housed in a plastic casing. How sad! How could we do this? How can we really make such a BIG and conscious change without losing ourselves in the proccess?

Well, any great change starts with a bit of education. So what is the big deal with plastic?

• Plastic comes from Polymers meaning plastic is something synthetic that was derived from something natural.
• Plastic is made of Fossil Sources such as petroleum and natural gas.
• Although all plastics are not created equal, they all contain toxic chemicals.
• PLASTIC IS NOT BIODEGRADABLE and often sits in giant landfills in the middle of the Pacific where innocent and unknowing birds and sea animals feed on it.
• Plastic harms the entire ecological makeup from the land, to the water, to the animals, down to the fossil fuels.
• Plastic manufacturing plants cause much pollution and harm both employees and the surrounding community.
• Recycling factories take our plastic bottles and downcycle them into carpet or some other synthetic fabric which means that the production of NEW water bottles is still continuing.

Getting back to 'Plastic Free'...
Beth Terry decided to take control of her mindless consumer habits and began a Plastic Trash Challenge that made her self accountable for her 'trashy' impact on the world. She decided to save, list, and picture anything plastic that was used up or purchased for a week (and eventually longer) to be truly aware. With trash piling up in your face instead of a landfill, it's a sure wakeup call. By the end of the following year she was down to ONE grocery bag full of plastic for the ENTIRE year!

So with that in mind, we took to our own version of a Plastic Trash Challenge and we actually have been keeping daily tabs on our consumption. Here are the results for the past 2 days:



Day 1 - 8.14.12


This day we had a plastic container from the Whole Foods bar with 'biodegradable' plastic utensils, 2 bags of raw snacks, condiments from the bar, date container (none were available in bulk), plastic utensils, plastic packaging for plasticware, ziplock bag that was housing half a lemon, and our lighter conveniently died when we decided to take this plastic challenge.

Day 2 - 8.15.12

This time we have tons of produce bags from a trip to the international market. Seeded grape bag, cherry bag, blueberry carton, bags from spinach and romaine, and the plastic wrap that housed our endives. This would have been more but, we remembered ONE reusable bag and went to a farmers market the same day. No plastic there.

Day 3 - 8.16.12

Wholefoods bag, Date container from Johnee's secret 9-5 date addiction, Salad container from Whole Foods, 'biodegradable' utensils, 2 condiment cups with lids, plastic wrappings from utensils.

2 people, 3 days, That much plastic!

We are currently housing all of this plastic in a paper Whole Foods bag(s) for now with our Plastic Bible nearby.

We challenge you to do the same! Learn to be a responsible consumer and begin your plastic challenge today! Change starts with YOU! We are going follow up in a few days to talk about all we've learned during our first plastic-conscious week! Stay tuned! <3