I don’t use the milk much for baking – it’s mostly for my son to drink, for coffee, and for cereal. I’ll look into delivery though.

We do have a Panera here, so I can check that out.

That is an excellent idea about giving the egg cartons to the farmers market! Thanks!

Do you have a farmer’s market near you with anyone selling eggs? A better idea than just throwing away the Styrofoam cartons would be to give them to a vendor selling eggs. The lady at our market is always asking for people to return them week after week.

Jessica

1) Could you use powdered milk for baking and cooking? I’m not actually sure of the relative environmental impact of powdered vs. fresh milk, but I think you can get powdered in bulk, and I don’t notice the difference in my recipes, plus it’s much cheaper!

2) Have you looked into getting it delivered from a local dairy? Price might be an issue, but it’s worth checking because sometimes it’s cheaper than in the grocery store. Some dairies use glass bottles, but even if the dairy uses plastic, they would at least get re-used.

I don’t think the batteries were rechargable – they were for the electric doorbell, so they’re not the standard kind, they were small disk shapes. Do those come in rechargable form?

This challenge has been a lot of fun so far. I’ve been using it to make some changes that have been in the back of my mind for a while, so the motivation is really great.

I have a very simple suggestion for the chicken stock if you don’t have the time to make your own: Better Than Bouillon in a glass jar. There is even an organic line: http://www.superiortouch.com/retail/products/better-than-bouillon/organic-bases

Baking your own bread is best, but if you don’t have time, can you find bread wrapped in paper instead of plastic?

You didn’t specify if the batteries were rechargeable or not. One way I save both batteries and packaging is to use only rechargeables. Of course, the charger is a big hunk of plastic that came in a plastic package, but I’m hoping it will last a good long time.

Sorry about the doorbell. It makes me sad when durable plastics break and can’t be fixed.

And you’re so right about cosmetics. Using less is probably the first step. There are some things with less plastic, and I plan to write more on the subject in future posts.

Looking forward to seeing your progress!