Day Four

Today we targeted some more plastic challenges when it comes to consumer choices...and now I really have something to write about!

The first thing is life with a baby...and all the plastic that comes with it. It's not only all the toys which is a concern since they love to put everything in their mouth. (we have some wooden toys which are a good alternative but they are hard to come by and often pricey which limits them as a choice for many) The majority of the toys that were gifted or passed on to Sasha (not to mention the toys her brother has!) through our network of family and friends have at least some element of plastic. Except all the stuffed animals...though some of these have a filler made from recycled fibers of plastic...or plastic eyes and noses.

Diapers and wipes are two things we chose to buy today...and plastic comes along with both of these purchases. When Sasha was born we were using cloth to avoid the disposable kind, but when she ended up on anti-biotics after a urine and kidney infection last June we switched to the non-chlorinated Seventh Generation diapers as we really wanted to keep the moisture from her bottom and minimize our environmental impact because of this choice. We are considering going back to cloth once we are given the okay from the urologist that she is recovered from her deflux procedure and can finally come off the drugs. (if you want to follow along with this adventure in Sasha's life I refer you to our family blog listed in the links to your left)

We have plastic bottles for her formula feeds and have looked into buying glass ones, however she will not need them soon...and of all the varieties of plastic for bottles my findings so far are that the Advent bottles we use are of the best kind you can use for baby. Though we haven't ruled out the glass bottles completely as they would be great things to pass on to another family when we are done.

Her formula (plastic lids) and cereal (recyclable cardboard box is wrapped in cellophane plastic, and has a plastic spout for easy pouring) are other things we chose to buy today which use at least some plastic for the containers. Soon she will be off the formula. So the biggest change would be making our own cereal I suppose with bulk ingredients...if can find a place to obtain bulk without plastic.

Which leads nicely to my conversation with the manager of my corner store - Famous Foods (Mark laughs that I call this my 'corner store' as it's 16 blocks away and uphill the whole way home) I told him a bit about our family project and how we were looking for ways to decrease the number of plastics we bring home.

For those of you unfamiliar with Famous Foods, the majority of their stock is bulk food items, which they package in different sizes - in plastic bags. Omnivores that we are we also frequent this store for our meat as they have hormone free organic everything - chicken, pork, beef, buffalo. But of course all the meat products are wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam.

So first I asked him if it was at all possible to reuse the bags for the bulk items we buy often (like organic sugar and baking goods), and due to health and safety violations this is not possible. Could we bring in our own containers for meat? Absolutely not - again for health and safety reasons which is easily understood when dealing with meat.

(I made the choice not purchase meat today - we still have a few cuts in the freezer. Now we will explore butcher options in our radius as they often wrap in paper...but as this leads to a paper or plastic choice, therefore packaging to contend with, the vegetarian option becomes ever more appealing...)

Then I asked if the bags used for the bulk items were recyclable, which they are not. Had they looked into alternatives which might be? Too expensive.

At this point he had clearly expressed that he can't do anything other than what he is doing (and Famous Foods does a lot really!), and I sensed I had caught him off guard with my questioning...so I expressed my appreciation for his time and for answering my questions. After all, we had never thought to ask all these questions before and you never know if you don't ask right?

His "can't" in mind is translated as 'not able to'...and here are the obstacles as I see them so far:
- alternatives are few and pricey (is it really a surprise that money is an obstacle?!!)
- health and safety concerns (valid when talking about food)
- time (would require research and networking) and often time = more money

The bigger worry for me was that he seemed very turned off this idea because of his focus on people who return bottles without cleaning them. I understand this view - who wants to undertake any kind of initiative which requires reusing things when people can't even wash a bottle before getting their refund on it? I'm sure this is a big frustration to all of the staff who become responsible for rinsing these things for the folks who didn't do it themselves.
So add to the list of obstacles - educating people to be responsible for their role in bottle and container return programs!

Now, what if a hundred (or few hundred) regular customers expressed and interest in a "refill-your-container" program? And what if these wise consumers were willing to pay a small fee for this convenience (just think of the time you save not having to deal with the waste of packaging at all!)

I would like to return one day, not loaded with questions, but armed with a plan of positive action to fill a void for consumers like us who are looking to leave as small a footprint as possible - perhaps a fee based container reuse program where oft purchased goods can be bought without having to constantly deal with its packaging. Maybe if the logistics were figured out for him he might be open to it?

Well, there are still many of my favorite stores I haven't had the chance to ask questions of yet...I'm curious to see how other managers will respond to queries on continuing efforts to minimize packaging further. I suspect there are many who are up to the challenge...especially if other folks keep asking about it too ;)

4 days down: 2 days successful at no new plastics in the home.