Did you feel jipped last week when I asked why we should use glass jars, but then didn’t answer you?
I’m very sorry. Forgive me?
You see, my inner researching blogging soul wanted to provide this super-in-depth post about all the various reasons why we shouldn’t use plastic. I read, and read, and read until my eyes fell out. (Well, not literally, but they did hurt.)
What insight did I learn? That All of the articles pretty much say the same thing:
- Don’t use plastic.
- Plastic is made up of toxins that deteriorate over time, in the microwave, in the dishwasher, being left in cars, being left in diaper bags, etc. and these toxins leak into your food.
- Not all plastics can be recycled so they’re not very green.
- Don’t use plastic.
And surely you don’t want to hear them – again – in incredible detail, right?
If you’re new to the plastic vs. glass debacle, both numbers 2 and 3 really are good reasons in and of themselves to consider a different material for storage (*cough*glass*cough*). Have you heard of Beth Terry? She saw a picture of a dead sea bird filled with plastic bottle caps, a toothbrush and a lighter and vowed to stop buying new plastic. She’s followed through with that vow and she’s seriously amazing.
And if you can do what she did, then you are my hero too, because I don’t think I can do that.
It’s not that I don’t want to. Of course I want to help the environment and reduce waste and reduce dependency on oil companies (it takes oil to make plastic, by the way). I’m not anti-environment by any means – I live on this planet too! But eliminating plastic completely from our house would take an enormous amount of effort that I don’t have available to dedicate to the project right now.
There are a lot of things that I worry about for my family – pesticides, artificial hormones, “fake” food posing as real food… and that’s just in my kitchen. Taking on one more battle, such as eliminating plastic from our lives, may just put me over the edge.
And momma falling over the edge is NOT a good thing.
While I can’t go plastic-commando and ditch it completely, baby steps are doable and I can slowly head in the right direction. Here’s what we can do now to help reduce our dependency on plastic, and why we should do it.
Glass Jars.
Use them as much as possible. It’s really and truly that simple. I just made a huge batch of pasta sauce (trying to use up those random ingredients, remember?) and could have easily put it into one large plastic piece. Instead, I divided the batch into 6 (or 8 maybe?) glass jars. They’re currently in the freezer, ready for our next meal – which will be toxin free. Salsa, salad dressings, bbq sauce, sunflower seeds purchased in bulk… all of these items can be stored in the glass jars in my cabinet.
Leftover Containers.
My current tupperware is about four years old and they’re nothing special – made by Ziploc and bought at Safeway for nearly free back in my ulta-couponing days. However, pieces are randomly scattered amongst my friends houses and the collection is slowly getting smaller. When it is time to officially replace them I can choose a glass set instead. Like this set from Amazon for only $30.
Plastic Baggies.
Rinse and reuse baby. If the baggie held a non-icky item (yep, that’s a scientific term around here), it can be turned inside out, rinsed well (or even washed with soap and water) and dried. See those nifty little clippy magnet thingies on my fridge? I got them at Target, in the dollar section. They come four to a package and are PERFECT for drying baggies. Clip one on (bag opening down) and hang it on the side of the fridge to dry. The gentle heat that comes off the fridge coupled with evaporation dries the baggies in no time.
Grocery Bags.
Argh! I’m so guilty of not using reusable grocery bags and it’s starting to cost me money! One of the items on my must-do list for this week was to collect every reusable bag in the house and put them in the car so that the next time I went shopping, they were ready and waiting for me. Did you notice the picture at the very top of the page? This was taken care of yesterday - woo-hoo!
Produce Bags.
Do we really need to put our produce in a bag just to put that bag into our basket or cart? If you have enough reusable bags, place your produce in those instead. Have the cashier pull the produce out to weigh and then put it right back in. If the thought of having someone else touch your fruit oogs you out, here’s a question for thought: how do you think the fruit got off the tree, into a crate, onto a transport truck, onto a forklift and neatly stacked in the store’s display? 
Besides, we’re all washing our fruits and veggies, right!!
Water Bottles.
Investing in a steel water bottle is a super-easy solution and frugal too. These are less than $2 if you get the “brushed metal” color. (Ooops – see comments below). A small investment for health, wouldn’t you say? By the way, in the bazillion pages of research for ridding plastic, one of the top concerns was how toxins from plastic bottled water leaked into the water itself… all while stealthily sitting comfortably in the back of the car.
Be More Aware.
Just knowing that plastic can harm us should open our eyes. If whatever you’re buying is available in glass, buy the glass. It’s actually a two-fer since not only are you not buying plastic (woo-hoo!), but you’ll have another glass jar to add to your collection when it’s empty!
What other “easy” remedies can we do to help reduce our dependence on plastic?
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In fact, we have a little bit of that going on now don’t we? Sure we do, we have the sin taxes on tobacco products, as the government doesn’t want you smoking, because you might get cancer, emphysema, or some other disease and the government doesn’t want to pay for that. Nor do the taxpayers wish to pay more money for people who don’t take care of their bodies. This leads to an insisting that the government regulate more aspects of our lives, including our daily intake of products and food.
I thought they used BPA to line the top of glass jars??
Good question Julie! I found a super helpful article here, but what it boils down to is that there is a layer of BPA under other layers in the lids. You can use wax or paper to protect the lid from touching your food, but considering that the lid has already touched your food prior to you consuming, emptying and reusing the jar, it’s very much an after-the-fact issue. Some companies are slowly replacing the material, but it looks to be a long-haul process. While I know this isn’t the absolute best option, reusing glass jars – even if there are small amounts of BPA in the lid – is still better than using traditional plastic tupperware containers. The level of plastic-replacement will have to be left to each family, and we’ll have to all cross our fingers that our government and leading companies in the jarring industry start making bigger changes, and faster.
I just received a couple of dozen atlas canning jars that were leftover from pasta sauce used at church. They’re 15 oz and have smaller openings than standard canning jars. Any idea where I can buy canning lids for them?
Try http://www.kitchenkrafts.com/ – they seem to have a few options available. I’ll keep an eye out and post back if I find another site, or maybe a more experience canner can chime in!
Since the end of March (when Don and I moved in with Wayne), he has ‘weaned’ me from using plastic for leftovers. He has sets of Pyrex purchased from amazon.com (they come in a variety of sizes) and that is what we use to cook foods in the microwave and to store leftovers.
When it comes to drying baggies, my daughter-in-law uses a rack formerly used to dry baby bottles.
No crossing of the fingers anymore. You know that doesn’t work, right?
Leona
Good for you guys! I’ve heard of the baby bottle rack too, but since my babies aren’t really babies anymore *sniff*, I had to make do. And there’s a first time for everything!
A few months ago I would have read this article and then moved on. That was until my mom got sick and is now being treated for plastic poisning. Yep, you heard that right. Yikes. She started to get sick a few years ago and they have tried to figure it out but she finally went and saw an all natural doctor who took one look at her and knew that she had plastic poisning. No it is not common and she had other underlying issues but he has been helping her convert to all galss containers. Kinda moitvates me to think twice about some of the things I buy. She is doing so muh better now and is almost back to herself. We try to be very careful about what we feed our kids but somethings just slip by until it impacts your family. Thanks for the great article.
Good info-thanks. I have been saving jars for awhile now much to my husband’s dismay,but maybe showing him your post will help my case. Oh and where did you get your stainless steel water bottles? I tried the link,but it says it’s not found.$2 for a bottle would be a price I could swallow and my husband and son could use one-thanks!
Sorry about that link Gina. I promise there was one available yesterday, but it looks like the price of those went up to $6 or so. There are some available here
for $5.50, or the original item was this
.
You can also check local ads for Target and Walmart to see if they’re lower than this.
We buy stainless steel water bottles at our local Goodwill store. They always have lots of them. Most of them new, promotional items. Might I add pretty
cheap. Check out your local thrift store. Great way to recycle.
Good call! I actually saw some at Dollar Tree this week, but I wasn’t sure about the BPA factor. At least it’s a small step in the right direction!
Hi there,
Great post! I’m reading Beth’s new book and it’s full of ideas about reducing plastic.
Unfortunately, I have one cautionary note about re-using jars. The lids of the vast, vast majority of jars used for our food have BPA in them, which is a disruptive chemical that imitates hormones. Some also have vinyl in the lids, a known carcinogen.
Anchor Hocking makes glass containers with glass lids, and so do Weck jars, which also work for canning and pickling. If you have the money to invest in these, it could be wort it! I’m doing a post soon on kitchen storage, and will definitely link here!
All best,
Laura
Thanks for the great information Laura!