Show Your Plastic Challenge: Week 11

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.

• 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?