Name: Molly de Vries

Week: 2

Personal Info:

Hey friends of beth,
So I’m trying to catch up with ya’ll. I started on time but because of computer problems I have fallen behind.

So I feel a little weird about only posting my plastic use, instead of posting my whole family. I find this to be the most difficult part. Mostly it’s a head space and an organizational problem and I feel like there is room for more of a team effort, but I wasn’t ready for that. Anyway at some point I will do the challenge with my whole family included so that you can see really what this household consumes.

As you saw on my first post , I hardly used any plastic and I realize that I’m using more and more each week for one reason or another. There were also a couple of categories that I wasnt totally honest about and feel like I should be now. It’s funny at the time I felt like I didn’t have any control over it, but looking back on it, I learned something about myself. I’m pretty good about being conscious about what I buy, but it’s amazing how you can get tricked in some way. My sister brought me back some chocolate from Ireland and I didn’t even think twice that it was in plastic (does chocolate count?) Another time I picked up my kids from school starving and I said to a friend “Do you have any food?” She gave me one of those drinkable yogurts from her kids lunch. I opened it, drank it and then realized what I had done.

The other citation is MY HUSBAND THAT DOESN’T LISTEN. I asked him Darling please don’t buy boxed cereal (big old honken plastic bag). Now this is something that I enjoy eating every night at 12. So when he didn’t listen and just continued to buy it, I caved a few times and ate it any way, so there. By the way, I am so not into be uptight about any of this, except occasionally with my man, but I do think it’s interesting.

See full description in Molly’s Week 1 post.

Blog: http://ambataliafabrics.blogspot.com/

Total items: 11

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
Yogurt bottle (not in picture)

Items: Nonrecyclable
Milk bottle caps and the two little things that you pull of the glass bottles and then there is the tops.
Chocolate wrapper (not in picture)
Chicken picker upper from butcher
Chicken plastic wrap
Chicken plastic coated paper wrap
Cereal bag
Corn based pasta container

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
Cereal bag, have to replace with something else . Home made granola, oat meal.
Chocolate wrapper. I can easily find chocolate without plastic.
Yogurt, I can make my own or buy in class.
Chicken is not easy to find without plastic, I would love to find a sourse for local, organic chicken without the plastic. There must be butchers that use more plastic and that use less. I wonder how even the best chicken gets to the market. I’m pretty sure it’s all wrapped in plastic one way or another and even at the farmers market all the meat is in plastic.

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?
Cereal
Chicken
Plastic wrapped chocolate

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
Straus milk in a glass jar

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
Becoming a vegetarian.

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
I will try another midnight snack.

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?