The amount of plastic is back down again, weighing less than ever. This is the 26th week, the end of the first 6 months, and you’ll notice that the graph looks somewhat different.

From now on, I’ll still photograph and tally my waste each week, but the graph is going to show one bar for every 4 weeks so that I can fit a year’s worth in the same amount of space. Tomorrow, I’ll photograph and tally everything that I’ve collected since the project began. Here’s the list for this week:

Non-recyclable items used this week but purchased before the plastic project began:

• 1 Trader Joe’s Nori Maki rice crackers bag. Found in the back of the cupboard, totally stale. Didn’t even realize I still had them.
• 1 cap from a prescription bottle.
• 1 Emergen-C packet. Another find, this time in my suitcase. Didn’t realize I had any left.
• 1 wrapper from a bar of rose-scented soap. A gift from a friend. As far as I can tell, this is our very last bar of plastic-wrapped soap, and man does it smell strong since I took the wrapper off!
• Plastic from a box of Kleenex. We may still have a few Kleenex boxes left. Will be searching for plastic-free after these are used up.

Recyclable plastic waste purchased before the plastics project began:

• 1 prescription bottle (#2 plastic.) Will either recycle or check to see if a vet will take it. Regular pharmacies are not allowed to reuse precription bottles in California.

So that’s all the old stuff. Now for the new plastic waste.

• 3 Refresh Endura single-use eye drop containers (#4 plastic).
• 1 plastic ziplock bag from the bracelet I bought as a gift at Itsy Bitsy this week. I wrote about this little baggie on Wednesday ^[1].

So that’s the plastic for the week.

We had dinner with our friends John and Laura tonight and visited with the kittens that will be coming to live with us next weekend. Can’t wait! This week we’ll be making all kinds of preparations, kitten-proofing and getting the things we need, hopefully as plastic-free as possible.

Also, we are both seriously considering becoming vegetarians. (Are you happy, Marika?) Watched the movie, Fast Food Nation last night. While I had already read the book, as well as Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma, actually seeing images of the slaughter house/meat packing plant and the way the workers, not to mention the animals, are treated left me sobbing in my chair for twenty minutes. Then, John and Laura’s delicious dinner of North African chickpea/tomato stew tonight helped us realize how easy and delicious it could be to make the switch.

I don’t eat much meat to begin with. I doubt I’d miss it. What are some of your favorite easy, plastic-free, vegetarian recipes?