Plastics.

I have previously posted on some of the issues with plastics and recycling, but there are other, more immediate and personal concerns that I have about plastics which motivate me to try to limit them or even eliminate them from my life and the lives of those I care about. 

Something that I doubt many people think about very often, judging by the widespread and unchallenged use of plastics, is what the effects are of the use of such plastics on our health.  Chemicals from the plastics can migrate into the food you are eating, potentially posing a health hazard.  Different types of plastics (which are often easily distinguished based on the recycling code stamped on them) each have their own unique considerations, so I won't be able to set out all of the concerns here.  If you want to know more of the specifics, follow this link and scroll down to the table that sets everything out nicely.  I am personally concerned more about the things that we don't know about plastics and their effects on our health.  Ten years ago, BPA (PC7) was considered safe (although even then, there were concerns) and most children's bottles and sippy cups were made from it.  Today it is acknowledged that high levels of BPA in the body are associated with heart disease, diabetes, high levels of liver enzymes, and disruption to the endocrine and reproductive systems.  In Canada, BPA has been banned completely and is classified as a toxic substance.  But ten years ago we thought it was safe.

Packaging.

Purchasing food in bulk is an action that can be taken that lies nicely at the intersection of eco-friendly living and trying to do so economically.  By "purchasing food in bulk" I DO NOT mean going to Costco and purchasing everything there in "Costco-size" quantities, although this may, indeed, reduce some of the packaging that you bring home with your purchases overall.  I am referring to purchasing foods and ingredients from the bulk bins of grocery stores.

Something that I saw on the trailer for The Clean Bin Project was purchasing foods from delis using your own Gladware or Ziplock storage containers.  I know that these sorts of containers are made from plastic, but I haven't always been aware of the detrimental effects of using plastic products, so I have many of these containers.  I use them when I go to grocery stores and I buy as many of the ingredients for my baking as I can using these containers.  I have not run into any problems from the employees at the stores, and in fact, some have told me that they are going to encourage other people to use these types of containers, as this means that customers don't have to use the plastic bags provided by the store.  Once I get home, I transfer the ingredients into their respective glass jars that I keep for just that purpose.  So far I have started doing this with flour and sugar (I go through massive amounts of each), as well as pasta, coconut, some candies, and any other products I need for the baking that I do.  In the future I will start using bulk bins for many more products, because the reduction of packaging and the corresponding reduction of cost makes sense to take advantage of, particularly when it is such an easy change to make.

Plastic and recycling.

There are multiple layers to any debate on recycling.  The considerations are so complex that simply learning about recycling, which I used to look at as a panacea of sorts, has contributed more to my "environmental guilt" than probably any other cause.  There is no way that I could come close to explaining or even summarizing all of the considerations and concerns about recycling, so I will focus on some factors that have given rise to my worries.

Recycling, by which I mean placing an item in a blue bin or taking it to a recycling depot, depending on where you live/what services you use, is the last of the "Three Rs".  It seems to be the one with the most widespread acceptance, and given our consumer-driven economy, it is understandable why.  Advertising, marketing and product development are all geared towards a disposable mindset where products are designed to fail within a short period of time, at which point they will be disposed of (or, at best, recycled) and new products will be purchased to replace them.  There is no space in this method of production for products that are designed to last indefinitely.