Phasing out Plastic Containers
By Karina | April 7, 2010
Have you seen the two posts Beth of Fake Plastic Fish put up yesterday? They are awesome: one over at Kitchen Stewardship talking about her journey from plastic user to plastic avoider, and one at Fake Plastic Fish detailing how she has stopped using plastic containers in her house. These posts really resonated with me!
I most definately have got a bunch of plastic containers – I have a really hard time throwing them away, so even though I rarely get take-out any more I have lots left. I blame genetics – growing up we had lots, and my grandmother would always pack away leftovers in old margarine containers! But it’s kind of out of hand – Because I love you all, here is a snapshot from our plastic drawer:
One of my partner’s kids’ chores is to empty the dishwasher and put the plastic containers away is a hotly contested chore – no one wants to do that part of the job! So after considering that 1. no one likes this drawer and 2. I don’t use the containers as regularly as I could, I think I need to phase these out.
So how can I let go of the plastics in my junky drawer?
Of course firstly: stop bringing them home. OK, that’s no problem. We’ve been much better at buying things in cans or glass bottles instead of plastic – with the exception of milk (working on it!) and yogurt, and that’s just poor planning on my part because I HAVE a yogurt maker! I can make my own!
And secondly: start pulling the plastic containers that I *don’t use* out of the drawer to repurpose. It’s hard to do – I have a depression era mentality that I might need a zillion plastic containers so I’d better keep them JUST IN CASE. However, this is just not true. I haven’t used up all of my containers yet with leftovers in the fridge! and if I did there are always lots of canning jars lying around that I could repurpose temporarily. Plus, Beth mentions that she has some Anchor Glass refrigerator containers – and you know what? I have a bunch of Pyrex refrigerator that I purchased from ebay a while ago. Plus I have several real quality non-BPA plastic containers, and more modern Pyrex containers with the plastic lids, and in all honesty I would prefer carrying my lunch in these than in that 3 year old hummus container that doesn’t seal just quite right.
I think I’m going to start an experiment – I’ll pull everything out of that drawer and put them into a convenient box, and once I use it, I’ll be allowed to put it back in the drawer. After a month I’ll know what I really need and what is just cluttered, and which containers I should start to repurpose. It’s not quite getting all the plastic out of the house, but it’s a good compromise between being slightly-neurotically reuseful and more-thoughtfully less cluttered.
Do you have lots of reused plastic containers? Can you reduce and slim your junky drawer?
Topics: General | 13 Comments »
When we visited Brazil some years back we learned that you buy milk in bags. Of course the bag slides in to a plastic pitcher, and you pour from there, however, you use the same pouring container each time, thus repurposing. I think I’ll go clean out my plastics!!!
I wish I could buy milk in a bag! I am still casually working on finding a local milk source … there’s no true convenient one, so every once in a while I check my options again.
Your 3-year-old hummus container–I thought you weren’t really supposed to wash and reuse those sorts of “disposable” plastic items, particularly for that long, because the material breaks down?
I’ve gone on the lazy-person’s rule of thumb that it’s OK to reuse these as long as they’re not scratched and you don’t reheat in them. I also don’t put any acidic food in them, as a rule. it’s probably not best, but again – lazy person!
and these aren’t Number 5s, but in general 1s and 2s that I get my hummus in. the 5s are recycled right away.
I share your conundrum of the tupperware drawer crowding…and like you, I’ve been wanting to wean myself away as well. But I hate throwing the plastic out, even if it’s going into the recycling bin. And I haven’t moved to glass yet…being a train/bike commuter who brings 3-4 containers to work per day, it’s a decent amount of extra weight that I have a hard time committing to.
A while back I found some vintage 30s aluminum containers – Wear-Ever Jack Frost – with tight pop in lids – they are super lightweight and they keep food really well!!! I found about 8 of them at $10 each – but the guy made me a deal since I was buying the lot of them and I only paid $50 total. Seems expensive – but they are SO useful, so light, so easy and so reliable! If you’re a bike/train commuter – you might see if a local thrift or antique shop has some of these in good shape. I was originally worried about them giving my leftovers/lunch a “tinny” taste – but they really don’t.
I use canning jars in different sizes for leftovers and food storage, and it really works great, plus, it’s never a mystery – “Hmmm… what *is* this?” LOL.
I realized awhile ago that the more containers I have, the more likely I am to leave food in them in the fridge to get moldy. I bought three Pyrex bowls in graduated sizes (the lids are plastic, but the rest aren’t) and I use those and only those – I do have some plastic containers stored for “just in case,” but they are not in my rotation. It works so well! I have so much less food waste than I used to!
that’s a really good point… right now we have not one, but TWO containers of aging mashed potatoes in the fridge!
Oh my gosh, my plastics drawers would beat the crap out of yours, it’s way worse. To me, yours looks nice and organized! (yikes, Jenn!)
Ok, today is the day I approach that drawer and knock it into submission. I also really like your solution, Allie– keeping fewer containers around sounds like a brilliant idea!
we have to keep it a little organized or the boys would mutiny when it’s time to unload the dishwasher!
My tough spot is sending leftovers to work with my boyfriend. He brings back his food containers. Sometimes. I don’t want to lose my glass containers to the cleaning crew at his work, and it’s really hard to stick a sandwich in an empty salsa jar! So he uses the old hummus and take out containers and I reuse the better stuff, though I need to look into small, non plastic, microwavable containers with secure, leak-proof lids. Or, maybe I can get a metal tiffin and bring some dishes to work.
I’ve been phasing out plastic for a while now, and have gone to using mostly glass for my leftovers. My biggest problem is, I make all my own bread, and I don’t know what to store it in to keep it from getting stale! I also make it and store the dough in the fridge, but nothing is large enough to keep that much dough, except plastic! What the heck did they do with thier bread a hundred years ago?! :D
I like your method for determining what to keep and what to toss. I had an overload of plastic containers too. I went through them and got rid of any lids that didn’t match a container. Then I went through and sorted the worn out and stained from the better looking containers. After the culling I had a manageable number. Now I’m ruthless about putting worn, cracked, or stained plastic containers and their lids in the recycling bin.