We are besieged! It’s been raining non-stop for days and days, and what that means are hordes of ants running for cover. Our kitchen is over-run. I mixed up an anti-ant spray using vinegar, dish soap, water, and cinnamon. The vinegar and soap kill them. The cinnamon’s supposed to keep new ones from entering, but it doesn’t seem to work. Why am I mentioning this? Because of the first item in this week’s plastic tally:

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

• 1 bag of C&H raw cane sugar. The bag wasn’t closed properly. The ants took over, so I ended up having to pour out half a bag of sugar. What a waste. This is the last plastic bag of sugar, and from now on, I’ll be buying it from the bulk bin and storing it in Mason jars to prevent another ant invasion. For right now, I’m trying a new strategy which may work or may be disasterous. I poured some sugar into a little bowl and put it in the cupboard under the sink. I’m wondering if this will satisfy the ants so that they aren’t crawling all over my countertop and I don’t have to kill so many.

  I know that the best thing to do is figure out how they’re getting in and plug up the entrances. But honestly, these are magic warlock ants. They just appear out of no where. I have tried with a flashlight and magnifying glass to follow their trails and figure out their entrance. They don’t have one. Their trails just magically appear and disappear. Really. They are agents of Satan or maybe spies for George Bush. Besides appeasing them with their own bowl of sugar and killing the ones that appear on the counters with vinegar and soap, what else can I do??? (And no, I’m not going to buy poisoned ant traps or sprays.)

• 1 piece of plastic tab that broke off a Tupperware-like container. Not much to say about this one except that the container is now harder to open and close.

Now for the new plastic waste:

• 5 Refresh Endura single-use eye drop containers (#4 plastic).
• 2 plastic lids from some containers of soy sauce and wasabi. For my birthday dinner a few weeks ago, Michael ordered sushi and paid a deposit to be able to bring it home in a reusable tray so there’d be no plastic waste. Unfortunately, the restaurant didn’t get the idea entirely and sent along a couple of cardboard containers of soy sauce and wasabi with plastic lids. So, here are those lids.
• 1 plastic window from a 4-pack of CFL lightbulbs as well as a tiny piece of bubble wrap from inside the box. I’m hoping these will be the last CFLs we will buy before eventually switching over to LEDs. My Ace Hardware that sold a completely plastic-free box of CFLs no longer carries them, in favor of this 4-pack subsidized by PG&E which only costs $2.99.

So what’s the weather like where you live? Rain? Cold? Snow? Wind? Or balmy, tropical days? What are your winter challenges and do any of them involve plastic?