My grocery store has a lot of fruits (apples, oranges, etc) and vegetables (beans, broccoli, potatoes etc) in open cases. I try to use those when possible, and I stopped using the plastic bags the store provides, and have substituted mesh bags I bought on Amazon. (Search in the category “reusable produce bags”.) The checkout scale even has an option to subtract the (minimal) weight of the bag.
I have long wished there was something to be done about our Rx bottles - SO many of us take multiple medicines daily (OTC and Rx). Why can’t we rinse them out and reuse them when we pick up our monthly refills? Same goes for all the lotions and potions we use daily at home (shampoo, conditioner, face cream, toothpaste, etc.)! I have switched to glass for most of these things, but not all the brands I use provide large/XL “refill” containers to then transfer to my glass and metal containers at home. And it’s kind of a moot point if even the refill bottle is also plastic. I’d gladly switch back to metal tubes of toothpaste (my shampoo and conditioner brand is only available in metal tubes or glass) - but is metal & glass recycling just as problematic as plastic? And where/when will consumers get real & consistent clarity from our Gov’t on how we can push for reusable and/or *truly* recyclable items? Why aren’t companies forced to clean up their act? I fear that most people either don’t know, or just don’t care. Or both. But if WE don’t demand it, how will our dependence on plastic ever end? So frustrating!
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I’m trying to. I have mice, so large glass jars and pasta jars (tall and square or round-faceted at the base) are a great place to store food and avoid critters. I have a minimum of reusable plastic sandwich boxes or small storage containers (ziploc) and try to avoid plastic bags (sometimes it’s unavoidable). I take my refillable coffee mug with me and a reusable straw. I take cloth bags shopping or use boxes the store is recycling anyway. Sometimes I get convenience store bags but use them to dispose of cat litter. I’m trying to! I drop off bags at recycling collection points and recycle anyway.
Once, groceries always came in paper bags, or were packed in reused cardboard boxes at checkout. Wastebaskets were oval metal with wood or metal bottoms. No baggies in any size. Lunch came in paper bags or a metal lunch box. At home the only plastic wrap was Saran. Sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper. Straws were skinny paper tubes that got soggy. Milk containers and yogurt cups were waxed cardboard with crimped paper lids. Milk bottles were glass and reusable with crimped paper lids. Sodas were in bottles that I collected and returned for the 2-cent deposit.
Then the Hefty man promoted bags on TV that obviated the need wash out metal trash cans. Honestly, plastic snuck up on us—early there were toys, cheap jewelry, hair accessories or pill boxes that snapped shut poorly, or a plastic transistor radio, intentionally made to last a while. It was single use items that sunk us.
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