Location:Oakland, California, United States

Name: Beth Terry

Week: 18

Personal Info:

I am the founder of MyPlasticfreeLife.com and have been collecting my plastic and attempting to live as plastic-free as possible since June of 2007.

See my previous years’ tallies at:
/category/beths-weeklymonthly-plastic-tallies/

List of plastic items REFUSED this week. (Yay!)

Plastic bags, bottles and all kinds of other plastic stuff!

Total items collected: 7

Total weight: .9 ounces

Items: Recyclable
1) 1 bottle cap from glass bottle of Everclear. Caps-n-Cups (http://www.capsncups.com) will accept all plastic caps, no matter what kind of plastic, to downcycle into secondary products. CapsCanDo (http://capscando.org) will accept most plastic caps.

Items: Nonrecyclable
2) Packing tape from new delivery of Balance IT cat food supplement. Read about our homemade cat food:  /2008/10/less-impact-cats-eat-homemade-food/

3-4) Packing tape and packing shipping label pouch from delivery of Cate & Levi recycled sweater puppets. Read my review of the toys and packaging here:  /2012/05/cate-and-levi-toys-and-puppets-from-recycled-sweaters/

5-6) Two tear strips from cardboard mailers

7) One fruit sticker from a pear I ate at Santa Sabina during my meditation retreat. There were no pears without stickers in the dining room and I needed to eat a pear that day. I just did.  (Read about fruit stickers here:  /2010/06/should-we-worry-about-little-plastic-produce-stickers/)

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
Usually it’s easy for me to avoid produce stickers because I shop at the farmers market.

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?

I need to be even more clear with vendors about not sending me packages covered in plastic tape.