Been noodling about this and I’ve got some solutions I think. Pretty sure the little family farm place has milk in glass bottles and I’ve wanted to try it anyway. I already pay $$ for organic whole milk so unless it I somehow astronomical it should be fine.
I sometimes get fancy coffee at Wegman’s but I’ve never seen them use a non plastic cup. Even their reusable cup that you can buy is plastic. I have a klean kanteen vacuum insulated dual wall steel cup, could I just hand it to them and ask them to make my latte in that? Years ago when I’d ask for that in a shop they would make it in a paper cup and then pour it into the reusable one and throw the cup away so it defeated the purpose. I have never made a latte myself but it appears that everything happens in that metal pitcher thing they use, so would this be a problem?
Most of the time when I’ve asked coffee shops to make drinks directly in my mug they do, but the ones that start to make it in a cup seem to mostly be making sure they’re making the right size. So now I always say a “16 oz latte” or however big your Klean Kanteen is and ask them to make it directly in the cup. The actual drink should be the same regardless of what they make it in, as far as the technical making-it part.
I’m not giving up my soy/ almond milk, which comes in non-recyclable packaging and medicines/ health (e.g. toothpaste) are not going to change, but I think that should be it for me? I’ll know once I start for sure! This challenge for me isn’t about doing it perfectly all July but it IS about identifying areas of improvement, especially ones that have easy fixes. I’m hoping to take kiddo to the local bulk store that I’ve been told is pretty good.
Ahh seriously. So many pinterest ideas of what “pretty minimalism” means. Like, no, don’t buy a shitload of glass jars just to dump your box of cereal into because you remodeled your kitchen and have all open shelves now. That’s not the point.
Oh also, I bought bulk TVP! Will look for vital wheat gluten at a couple other stores tonight. Does TVP serve basically the same purpose though? Do I need both?
Yeah… this right here seems crazy. I mean, if you really wanted to, I suppose you could use non-plastic stuff you already had an/or purchase non-plastic stuff to use during the challenge, but then once the challenge is over, go back and finish using up the older stuff before committing to less-plastic stuff. But to throw out perfectly good, already manufactured and purchased good. Like, what?
Haha, great minds, I have two bottles, one is half-and-half and one is heavy cream, and I use them for mixing plant food for seedlings, and orchid food, respectively.
TVP is something different than vital wheat gluten, you can’t use it to make seitan, though you can use it to some kind of mock meat… (I have never used it.) Seitan is wheat protein and TVP is soy protein.
(I am sure there are lots of recipes on the internet though.)
I struggled forever with the waste inherent in having indoor cats in need of frequent litter scoops, so I would ask for plastic once a month or so at the grocery store. These have been a game changer: Link to bags
They’re super strong, and biodegradable!
Hm, biodegradable is good, but has there been any investigation on whether they actually degrade in landfills? I’ve read (in the past) that many biodegradable products are in theory biodegradable, but they need oxygen for this process to happen. Landfills are anaerobic, and there has been evidence collected that such biodegradable products actually don’t break down at all. (I don’t have a current source, and I read this some time ago. Perhaps things have changed…)
Our waste has gone up since getting our kitty and we’ve looked into getting a cat litter composter for her litter. For now we’ve been burying it in our garden under the native trees (we’re using recycled paper litter) but that’s been a project we’ve been meaning to get started soon. Our neighbors downstairs have a dog poo worm farm for their dog.
I’ve heard that myself, and wonder how compostable/biodegradable they are in a landfill. My concern is when plastic ends up elsewhere, not in a landfill, and I wanted to make sure we were doing what we could to not adversely harm wildlife. It might be a minimal effort or change, given how we dispose of our trash, but still worth the effort to me.