The plastic-free challenge, as set forth by Roots & Shoots, is one of those campaigns that I see on WeChat and immediately sign up for it. It’s a great idea! I want to reduce my plastic use, and isn’t an accountability group the way to do it? Well, yes, but not until I truly delved into such a challenge (meaning I start getting a million alerts from their WeChat group) do I consider what it really means. I quickly realized that in order to succeed at this challenge, I need to aim for “plastic light” and not “plastic-free,” at first.
One thing that I did right away based on the suggestion of the WeChat group is to finally create an account with Farm Fresh Plus. Every week I choose from a vegetarian or vegan box full of — you guessed it — fresh farm veggies.
Farmer Dan of Farm Fresh Plus even gave me a great suggestion for how to start my plastic-free journey: “Parents can reduce plastic use by doing a quick analysis about which area of their family life is most heavy in usage, then try to reuse or use non-plastic alternatives.” Since Farm Fresh Plus is so kind as to tell customers their cloth bags can either be sent back or reused by the customer, I kept the first two weeks’ worth.
This helped me over the next hurdle: grocery shopping. Buying fruit is one area where plastic used to seem unavoidable. Now I reuse those smaller cloth bags in smaller local markets for fresh fruits. While Ziploc bags are a cornerstone of this parent’s life: snack sizes, sandwich bags, and gallon size for bigger hauls all frequently accompany us on outings. One way I reduce their use is to get smaller Tupperware (plastic, but reusable) and those are our snack containers. I have fewer dirty dishes if I put all our snacks in there, even at home, and then it’s ready to go when we are.
For school, we decided to pack lunches this year for a number of reasons, and I saw one area where we already do pretty well in the plastic-free department: water bottles. We still have plenty of plastic ones, but at some point last winter, I shifted to metal thermoses for the whole family. Water tastes better out of those and they can easily shift to hold a hot drink if needed.
Okay, let’s talk about straws. For months I carried four metal straws and a straw brush in a cute little canvas bag inside my purse. How often do I use them? It wasn’t until day two of this challenge after I went through one entire day forgetting they existed yet noticing how often drinks come in plastic containers.
Yeah, looks about the right amount of coffee to kick start a morning
60% of my waste, if not my budget, goes to coffee drinks. I used to think it was funny when my kids yelled their Starbucks orders from the backseat at a drive-through, but now that we walk everywhere, they know my kryptonite. Nothing gets them a croissant or muffin faster than suggesting Mommy might want a coffee. Hot drinks come in paper cups but plastic lids, and iced drink containers are nothing but plastic. If I know I’m sitting in the cafe with them for a while (it’s actually quite a good spot for us to read books together since they’re a captive, croissant-eating audience), I won’t get a lid. And for iced drinks, I need to learn how to say “I brought my own mug,” 我自己带杯子了 (wǒ zìjǐ dài bēizile) or always have one of those lovely thermoses at the ready. If you had a barista your own mug, even if you don’t speak a word of Chinese, chances are they know what you want them to do with it.
Now, an excellent argument can be made that all the efforts and blame put onto individuals to change their habits let the larger polluters off the hook. They must be held accountable too. This is still a great way to introduce children to the very idea that plastic never goes “away,” much like how trash stays with us forever, in our oceans, or under our feet. Maybe reducing the number of Ziploc bags I use won’t save our planet, but it will instill the very idea in both me and my family that the planet needs to be saved.
Coming up next week: Like every parent knows, you can plan all you want, but whether or not your kids will let you stick to them is a whole different story. Check back to see my update on our plastic light challenge and how I got my family on board the No-Plastic Express!
KEEP READING: A Week Without Plastic? Roots & Shoots Thinks You Can Do It
Photos: Unsplash
