I was pretty nervous about Plastic-Free July (PFJ). So many products in our lives contained plastic, and it was going to take a lot of brain power to think ahead and plan alternatives for an entire month. To continue from a previous post that discussed the effects of plastic on our bodies and the environment and what PFJ is, I wanted to follow up on my experience trying the PFJ challenge.
Prepping
Before PFJ started, we needed to have a game plan while considering our lifestyle. We go on a lot of trips: we travel to do field work for our jobs, and we backpack and camp on the weekends. We needed to have easy food to travel with, which, a lot of the time, comes in plastic.
Locate the bulk food stores near you We are fortunate to have small bulk food stores near our home, both 30 mins north and south of where we live (but pretty close to where we work). While buying produce isn't cheaper at these stores, the bulk food section was fairly affordable.
Audit your fridge and trash: where is the plastic coming from? In the kitchen, dairy and dairy-alternatives were the main sources of single-use plastic for us: all the pull-tabs on milk cartons, plastic seals on yogurt, and bags of cheese. In the bathroom, floss, toothpaste, toilet paper packages, shampoo bottles, and soap containers made up the bulk of our plastic waste.
Make a plan Because we needed to avoid single-use plastics (and ideally all plastics), we had to create a plan that would circumvent the convenience of fast plastic access. This involved creating a meal plan and thinking of ways to homemake food items to avoid packaging, planning ahead for trips (work and weekend trips), and fitting in time to go to more diverse grocery stores (bulk food and produce stores).
Leading up to Day 1, I picked up some things that would help me avoid plastic purchases. I made homemade granola with oats and cranberries bought in bulk, 2-ingredient mozzarella cheese using milk that came in a glass jar, and banana chips using a dehydrator that would help snack cravings. I also starting phasing out the plastic that I had in the house; you can't really go plastic-free if you buy everything you need in plastic before July starts, right?
The PFJ Successes
Having a go-bag
We found out that, when traveling, it's easy to get stuck with disposable, single-use plastics, so, we had a bag that contained some essentials: reusable coffee cups, silverware (or sporks), cloth napkins, and some Tupperware containers in case we got food to-go (to avoid plastic containers/bags). We put this to use on our 4 hour drive to the Adirondacks: we brought leftover stir-fry in Tupperware that we could eat on the road, we stopped at a gas station and picked up chili (that we put in Tupperware) and cold brew coffee for the morning (in our to-go coffee cup).
It took an extra minute to remember and grab the go-bag, but it felt so much better to not have to be stuck with tons of trash on the road.
Reusing what you have
When backpacking, you really can't carry glass jars, cans, or bulky Tupperware (it won't fit in a bear canister). We did have some unused Ziploc bags that were at least a few years old and some bags that we've reused a couple times. So, we transferred canned beans, banana chips, and granola into these bags for easy/ lightweight carrying with the goal of washing and reusing the bags at home. We also pre-made PB&Js that we put in the bread bag, tortillas (we had bought these sometime in June, and they came in a plastic bag), almond butter (it comes in a plastic container that we will reuse to fill with bulk food), brownies that I made before the trip, and fig bars (we had a large box that we were working through for the past month).
After the trip, I cleared out our food bag/bear canister. Ziploc bags were washed and dried to be reused, bar wrappers were, unfortunately, trashed, and compost was added to the freezer. All things considered, there wasn't too much waste.
Homemade products
I made deodorant (baking soda, corn starch, coconut oil, and essential oil) when we ran out, and it turned out phenomenally! Likewise, we made a laundry detergent to avoid the large plastic bottles from the store. There is also an easy toothpaste recipe that avoids the plastic tubes. For snacks, homemade granola and dehydrated bananas and pineapple were super easy and yummy, and we turned more towards eating fresh fruit instead of packaged products.
Buying used items
When buying items online, usually they come shipped with plastic packaging. We had success finding items that we wanted through Facebook Marketplace. Also, buying secondhand (Goodwill, Plato's Closet, Salvation Army, etc), were great alternatives to buying new, as new products usually come shipped in plastic.
PFJ Challenges
Party invites/ travel
Heading back from a hiking trip, we stopped at a party. We didn't want to pick up chips or dips because of the packaging, so we bought a watermelon and a carton of ice cream. The carton is in a strengthened cardboard container with a plastic polyethylene lining on the inside. These are often recyclable, but, in the future, I would prefer to have time to prepare cut veggies and homemade hummus, but traveling on the road made this limiting.
Being gifted plastic items
It's challenging when people bring plastic items to your house or gift them to you. In the first week of PFJ, I stopped at my parent's house and was gifted homemade Naan bread in Ziploc (the yogurt ingredients also came in plastic), hummus (plastic container), grapes (plastic bag), cubed watermelon (in Ziploc), and baby carrots (in a small plastic bag). I was very grateful for the food, and I tried to reuse or recycle the plastic bags. On another occasion, we hosted a bonfire, and our guests brought packaged snacks.
Ultimately, we can't help these circumstances, and we are genuinely grateful for the kindness. But, it is challenging to be gifted food in plastic; it feels like cheating when you're not the one making the purchase but you still benefit from the product.
Limiting
When shopping at the grocery store, it can be very limiting. Automatically, a lot of foods were off the table: cereal, yogurt, granola bars, crackers, anything frozen. We were generally restricted to the fresh produce section and canned food items. We had to make an extra pit stop at a bulk food store to get more snack-y foods, like nuts and dried fruits. Even still, it wasn't perfect: the produce had stickers, the oat milk had a plastic pull tab under the cap, and the cardboard container of eggs had a plastic label.
Plastic in the house before PFJ
As much as I didn't want to use plastic for a month, it kept reappearing, even when I didn't buy any. It had been so engrained in our house that it was hard to avoid. We didn't avoid these items (they were already bought and in the system), but it's hard to go "plastic-free" when you have already purchased plastic-wrapped food (i.e. granola bars, popcorn, bagged legumes, etc) in the house.
Not having enough time to prep
Things happen: you get busy, plans change, you're on the road, or you only have enough energy to do so manny things in a day. There were times when we just simply couldn't prep enough food in advance or make snacks for the road or schedule times to go to the bulk food stores. The answer wasn't to not eat, so on a few occasions, we found ourselves with some packaged food products, especially during our long bike rides or hikes.
Some things you can't avoid
Pet products (bags of food and litter) and medicine were impossible to avoid. Sports related equipment was also challenging: I needed new brake pads for my bike which came in a plastic container, and buying chain lube comes in a plastic bottle.
Overall
PFJ was a great challenge for us, and, at the very least, it made us conscious of the items that we were buying. We discovered some alternatives, such as homemade deodorant, that we will continue to incorporate in our day-to-day, and we still go to bulk food stores.
We aren't perfectly plastic-free, but being imperfect still helps fix the global plastic crisis.
I recommend that everyone try this challenge, even if it's not July, to become more aware of the copious amounts of plastic in our lives and to help reduce plastic waste and the need for plastic in our lives, finding more environmentally-friendly alternatives.
Comments