Going (more) green…
For those who don’t know…I’m a hippie. I’m somewhat obsessed with simple green living. Not the trendy $300 organic jeans type, but the bring your own bag, teach the kids to recycle, go barefoot and hug trees (except I have allergies) type. I try not to buy many new books or movies, preferring to troll thrift shops and use (three) libraries, and netflix instead. I nurse my two year old, cosleep with him, (try to) practice gentle discipline and blah, blah, blah. Yea, I’ve got the credentials, but I hold two dirty little secrets.
1)I can’t give up paper towels: I’ve tried and tried but just haven’t been able to switch to cloth rags permanently. Which is like, nuts, considering how easy it would be for me to whip up some rags out of old towels or even just use old indian prefolds.
2)I wouldn’t say I have a ton of plastic in my kitchen, maybe an average amount? But I’ve been making an effort to get rid of it. I don’t visit MDC very often, except for the home focus forums and this is an oft discussed topic.
Lately when my plastic kitchen utensils wear out, I’ve been replacing them with wooden ones. I have almost eliminated the use of plastic cups and bowls in the house by simply moving said items out of the cabinet. When I find an inexpensive, heavyweight, and pretty one, I will be replacing our plastic juice pitcher with a glass one. The next step, and maybe the hardest b/c of the cost, will be to get rid of all my plastic tupperware type food storage containers and replace them with mason jars or other glass storage containers or pyrex. I have had no luck finding said items while thrifting, but I figure if I keep looking, eventually something will pop up.
Angrychicken recently blogged about this, so if you haven’t already seen it, check out her post on the same topic.
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Comments
Thanks for the link.
You know, when I think about plastics in the kitchen, I never think about cooking utensils! I mean, I have wooden utensils, but I’ve got some plastic ones, too. Is teflon a plastic? Probably.
That’s funny about the paper towels. That might have been the first and easiest thing for me to let go of. But then, I never really used them to begin with. I keep them around now just for cat puke, yuck.
My big downfall is prepackaged, uber-processed foods. Oy.
Posted by: Lisa | August 4th, 2007 18:24
I found glass pitchers at (gasp) Wal-Mart. They’re heavy, hold two quarts, and have an air-tight lid. Made by anchor-hocking. $3.97. My complaint is that the lid is two pieces and has to be disassembled before being put in the dishwasher. Other than that, they’re good. LMK if you find the perfect one!
Posted by: Tricia | August 4th, 2007 22:03
I got nice glass “tupperware” at IKEA. The lids are plastic but flat (easy stacking) and fit well in the fridge. I also got nice glass jars with metal lids (but with a silicone seal to keep air out) there.
Posted by: Gillian | August 6th, 2007 13:21
I would never have taken you for a papertowel girl. I really like to read about all the “green” stuff you can be doing and realizing how much of it I do without even thinking about it because so much of it is just logical and practical. The one green thing I read about that actually ticked me off though was a the effort for people to have none or only one child. Although I understand that we do tend to waste more and get lazier the more kids we have, I still thought that was ludicrous.
Posted by: Anna | August 6th, 2007 22:26
What are you doing with your plastics as you get rid of them? Seems that it would ok to keep what you have ie the tupperware instead of putting it back out into the world
I reconciled that it has already been made and hopefully one day tupperware will have a recylce program where in they take old bowls etc and reuse the plastic to create new ones.
We use towels and few paper towels. I use old newspapers to wash windows with because it cleans them better and no streaks.
I would love to have a glass pitcher. Let me know if you find a good one!
Posted by: Rosemary | August 7th, 2007 10:32