WEEK 11: SHOW YOUR PLASTIC CHALLENGE
TOTAL – 12.1 oz, 50 Items

This week we did a little shopping at Whole Foods. My children picked up a packaged toy off the shelf and ‘Ooohed and Ahhhed’ at it. “What’s that toy made of?” I asked them. My three year old daughter quickly replied, “Plastic.” “What is it packaged in?” I continued. “Plastic,” she repeated and then put it back on the shelf. It’s amazing that what seems to be an impossible behavioral change can indeed become habit. I don’t need to have the conversation with them anymore. In fact they remind me, “Mama, that’s a plastic straw. Do you need it?”
In fact my children caught me twice on Sunday with different things that I’ve repeatedly emphasized to them. To all those readers who thought this challenge was impossible, let’s learn from these little ones. Behaviors are learned. It takes time to un-learn them.
Monkey see, monkey do.
It is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. If the old dog has a reward waiting. I’m thrilled to say this week that, finally, we are under a pound of plastic consumed! I’m a bit worried that the next couple of months will be more challenging. My husband & I have committed to give a minimum of 30 hours for this month and the next as volunteers. Our children will be accompanying us every hour. That means many lunches to go. I really need to finish my TO GO lunch kit. This is an easy area to lose my focus. To rationalize the use of disposables & convenience foods. After all, we’re using our time for something much more important.
“He who fails to plan, plans to fail“, stated by Winston Churchill. I do not want to fail in either commitment.
Here’s a list of what we consumed this week: Week 11 Table
PLASTIC FREE PROGRESS
- Refused all disposables & convenience items this week!! Ya Buddy!
- Delivered (2) repurposed glass jars to local bulk food grocer to fill with freshly made nut butters. We love our nut butters.
- We did it! 26 days = 1 garbage bag of household garbage. We used a 16 lb cat food bag for our garbage bag from February 14th – March 12th.
- Week 7 of obtaining milk in glass jars locally. Only store-bought dairy is butter & sour cream.
- Recycled batteries at Radio Shack.
SUMMARY
Month 1 Summary – 273 items, 5 lbs 8.3 oz
Month 2 Summary – 221 items, 4 lbs 13 oz.
Week 9 – 55 items, 1 lb 3 oz
Week 10 – 55 Items, 1 lb 1.8 oz
GOALS
- Take kids on a Garbage walk to collect items to be recycled in the area around our home. Share the results of our findings.
- Continue the next 10 items in the Personal Care Substitution worksheet from Beth Terry’s book Plastic Free – How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too.
- Make homemade toothpaste.
Have you given thought to one plastic thing you could do without this week?
Wow! You have made awesome progress. That’s fabulous that the kids are jumping on board too. We love our reusable ziplock bags. We have about 5 in different sizes and they are great for taking our lunches out. I was just talking about something like this to John the other night. Now I have to share this with him. Keep up the GREAT work.
Yes the kids are helping me by cooperating. Its been a family team effort. They’ve been willing to give up some things they had been enjoying to find plastic free substitutes. The journey still continues…
Wow! That’s really all I have to say about that and good luck!
I hope to inspire others to make small changes in their own habits. Thanks!
Seriously. I’m in total awe of what you’re doing. You should be very proud of yourself! 🙂
Thank you for your words of encouragement, Jenny.