Hi! I saw a documentary about sea birds and how baby birds choke on microplastics and decided to go no plastic. I got some ideas like reusable racks, no paper towels etc but I am very overwhelmed with what to eat since every single thing seems to have a plastic package, I am talking even non dairy milk caps and frozen berry bags.

I feel so hopeless, do you have any useful infographics or a starter brochure? There is so much plastic around idk how to do it.

Hi Everyone

A little about me

I was never a tree hugger, but I was shocked when I realized we eat a credit card's worth of plastic every week in the form of microplastic. So I started looking for non-plastic products and quickly realized disposable cutlery products that claim to be eco-friendly are either made poorly or are not eco-friendly at all. So I founded a brand where we manufacture Disposable Bamboo Cutlery. The product and its packaging are 100% plastic-free. I am kinda picky when it comes to cutlery 😅, I would rarely if ever use disposable cutlery as they are usually ugly or feel cheap. But this cutlery is very different. I love them so much that sometimes I just choose to eat with them at home.

How to get a free set of 300 pcs Bamboo Cutlery?

I am looking for 10 US-based people who are willing to receive this product for free in exchange for providing feedback. If that's something you are interested in, please contact me.

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I just found one metal bottle. Cockroach has made house there. Like its pretty dirty. How should I clean it? Should I have to put out in sun (how many days?)

For years I’ve been making my own muesli in a 6 quart cereal storage container. After adding all the ingredients I roll it around until they are fully mixed. Recently I’ve become concerned about how much plastic is shedding into my otherwise healthy breakfast, so I searched on Amazon and Google for a “6 quart glass storage container”. I’ve found nothing remotely close to the right size and shape. Infuriatingly, most of the search results are plastic. Does anyone have a suggestion?

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Today I received silicone reusable "Ziploc" style bags.

They arrived in a plastic envelope, in shrink wrapped plastic. I really wish purveyors of these types of products would look at packaging alternatives.

🙃

My roommate is paralyzed from the chest down and uses a wheelchair. I'm his live-in caregiver. The way we do meals is I prep his meals in advance and put them in the fridge in containers, so he can eat his breakfast with oatmeal or heat up his dinner whenever he wants without us worrying about me being home at the time (I also have a full-time office job). I made the switch years ago to storing all my food in glass when needed, but he's the type who buys the cheapest of everything and uses the cheapest possible option, and I'm now genuinely worried about all the microplastics he's ingesting when microwaving his dinners. Glass isn't a good option for him because it's so much heavier -- he needs to carry it from the fridge to the microwave to the table either on his lap or on his tray in his lap (maybe he doesn't have to worry about Pyrex breaking if it accidentally drops on the hard floor, but that's because it's even heavier). Is there a lightweight, plastic-free material out there that's used to make food storage containers?

I am glad I did it. I thought it would be tough but I didn't expect the reaction I got from my husband....whom I told didn't have to participate. He was surprised at how hard it was. I started preparing a month ago for my one week trial. I prepared my menu in advance and made sure I could succeed and I still ended up with plastic in one-way or another.

I can't unsee all the uneccesary plastic at the grocery store now. I wish we could go back to a time when before plastic was invented and then just introduce plastic in very selected places. I do think plastic has a part in medicine and other areas but it is all around us now.

Did it change anything for me? I think I will bake bread more often. I am still wondering if I can find tortillas not in plastic. I did make my own sour cream. It tastes fine but isn't the right consistency. I got the recipe from "Zero Waste Chef" by Anne-Marie Bonneau.

I became friends with our county solid waste coordinator and I think I will trying working with her to help with recycling education. I think so many people in my area are very unaware of how damaging all this plastic is partly because they don't know that it isn't being recycled. And if it isn't or can't be recycled then we just need to get it out of our lives. EASIER SAID THAN DONE.

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I decided on tuna sandwiches for day five of the no-plastic week. I wanted to do ham or turkey but my local deli puts it in plastic. However I found that if I bring my own bag to the market, (which is one of their bags, washed and cleaned) then would hand me the meat to put in the bag and then give me the sticker for the price.

Before I knew this deli trick I decided on tuna sandwiches. And on the day of prep I realized that the mayonnaise comes in plastic. I had two jars in the fridge and both were plastic. What to do to get the tuna to stick together. I used cream cheese. Please don't tell me the foil wrapper on cream cheese is half plastic. Anyway...it worked. No one noticed.

Is there a brand of mayo that comes in glass? Do I need to make my own mayo?

I think that is what no-plastic week has done for me. I found more plastic in my house that I had imagined.

Day four of no-plastic week. Taco salad. I made handmade tortillas because I can't figure out a way to buy them not in plastic. I used Mesa to make them and they were not great. Then we baked a few to cut up for chips. What is a taco salad with out chips? They didn't taste bad it was wasn't the right crunch. Parts were crunchy and parts were chewy.

What to do? Maybe I could change to tostados. Can I find a local tortilla maker and go to her shop? Give up on corn tortillas and learn to make flour ones.

I remember once my family went to Ensenada Mexico on the Baja peninsula. We went to the grocery store and got fresh warm tortillas and put butter on them like bread. Do they still do that?

Plastic surrounds us....That and sugar. It is kind of scary.

I use a sugar substitute called allulose in my morning coffee. When I started thinking about how to not be engaged with plastic this week I forgot to take into account the things I bought months ago that came in plastic. I can't think of any artificial sweetener that isn't in plastic. So...maybe tea? Loose leaf of course.

When I first considered cutting out plastic over fifteen years ago, the first step was bringing my own grocery bags to the store. Then it was, just don't by plastic. So no sandwich bags, no zip lock, no garbage sacks. I spent a long time at that stage mostly because I had a merchandising job and the product came wrapped in plastic. And I actually thought all that plastic was being recycled. Now I am at the "How in the hell can I avoid this stuff" phase.

I think back to the good old days when I was a kid and we had milk delivered in glass jars and then the jars were returned. How can we get back to that? I am a little down. Sorry. I should end up on a more positive tone. Thanks for reading.

Day one of my no-plastic week. My husband and I went out to breakfast with our oldest grandson. I wondered if I was breaking my no-plastic rule since I ordered a side of hash browns. But I rationalized that hash browns are made from potatoes and the best way to make hash browns is to boil a potato the day before and then shred it. But I knew in my heart that the restauranteur got the hash browns pre shredded and delivered in a plastic bag. But putting that aside we enjoyed breakfast.

Then a dilemma approached. We had ordered too much food and no one wanted my left-over hash browns. I do have my own take out container but I didn't have it with me because we had walked to the restaurant. I knew the take-out container would be some styrofoam thing. I could have left the hash browns for the restaurant to dispose of but I knew it would just go into the trash and not be composted. And now that I have been reading my county's solid waste plan I know that they don't want food in the landfill because it makes too much methane.

I read a book once that explained that sometimes Jewish people rely on a non-jewish friend to do things for them on the sabbath. I forget the jewish name. Maybe someone knows and can fill that in. Anyway I turned my grandson into that person. I got the take-out container,(styrofoam) and put the hash browns inside. My grandson took them home.

Going no-plastic is so hard that you have to have other people help you not accept plastic into your life. That is how bad the situation is in the US right now.

I welcome your comments.

I made a trip to Fred Meyer grocery store and bought meat from the meat counter and had the service person wrap it in paper. I wanted to get some nuts from bulk food but they took their bulk food section out. I was able to get some rice in a box, Rice-a-Roni and Uncle Bens. The only thing that I got that was plastic was Nexium. I guess I have to have a no-plastic exception for my meds.

This is my menu plan for tomorrow's dinner: Chicken Schnitzel and Broccoli.

I got my chicken. Bread crumbs come in a cardboard container or I make my own. Eggs come in a carton, and butter comes in a paper container. I like buying fresh broccoli as it lasts about a week in the fridge.

For breakfast I will have an egg with some Swiss chard. For lunch, left over soup.

One thing I was regularly buying in plastic was bread and tortillas. So this week I have to make my own bread and tortillas. I feel confident about the bread but I expect the tortillas to be terrible. We shall see.

Please give tips or ask questions.

1. Stop buying plastic....no trash bags, zip lock bags or garbage can liners.
2. Stop accepting the plastic that is heaped on me. I am still on this step.

In my journal I moved from plastic packaged food to canned food and food in glass. But in my area I found that glass is not being recycled, or it is awaiting a better price point before recycling. So I decided to cut out a lot of item that a in glass. I still have a few bottle each time that I take to recycling but it has gone down a lot. The problem with glass recycling is that it is so heavy that just transporting it to the facility that can process it sucks up all the revenue from recycling it. I guess we can't expect recycling to be a revenue stream.

What are the your steps? Where are you at?

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https://lifewithoutplastic.com/dental-hygiene/

I generally buy store-bought bread and reuse the plastic bags for other things, like sandwich bags, or storing produce in the fridge. I have a no-plastic week coming up and I plan to make my own bread but then I thought about how to store the bread. To be pure, I don't want to rely on my washed out ,single-use plastic, that I keep reusing bag. Paper? Cloth? Metal box?

Hi, do you know of anywhere to purchase blackout curtains without plastic? I live in Sweden, so any EU based company probably works.

I moved to a new area and noticed they have cheese in a can. It is made at Washington State University and is called Cougar Gold. It costs about $50. It is a big can. I think it is more expensive than the regular cheddar but you get a lot more cheese. I bring it home and open it up. Then I freeze about half of it. The rest I leave in the fridge. It is a sharp white cheddar. Interesting.

Does anyone know of ways to buy cheese not in plastic? I was thinking of baby bell that is wax wrapped?

Are there any plastic-free lids that would fit this travel mug and thermos? https://www.stanley1913.com/products/classic-trigger-action-travel-mug-20-oz?_pos=2&_sid=a2b7a68bf&_ss=r

https://www.stanley1913.com/products/adventure-stainless-steel-all-in-one-food-jar-1-8-oz-1-1

I bought them before I started reading about microplastics and now I'm having buyer's remorse. I don't really care about the appearance, I just want something that fits and doesn't spill.

Just started my plastic- free journey. Went to the store and realized the sheer amount of plastic. Looking for a way to buy grocery staples (such as, but not limited to: oats, nuts, and coffee) without the packaging. I got no clue. And half the ingredients I need to make stuff from scratch come in plastic. Feels like a loosing battle. 🤦🏻

Is there any widely available nonplastic fill for bed pillows that's within an average budget?

Hi there! I need to buy a new shower curtain and I would really like a plastic free version. This is the first time I'm living on well-water and I'm more mindful than ever about how what we put down the drain ends up in our drinking water!!

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thanks for any help you can offer!

Hi all,

First-time poster here. I've been struggling to find reliable sources for reviews on plastic-free products for a while now as I want to find products that are proven to be plastic-free but also of high quality - so just browsing Amazon doesn't really cut it.

So, my question is do you know of any existing plastic-free product review sites or apps that could help me and others in the same boat? I'm looking for a platform that provides genuine and unbiased reviews on a wide range of plastic-free products.

If such a platform doesn't currently exist, would anyone else be interested in having an app or website like this? I think it could be quite a game-changer.

Any suggestions of sites or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks :)