In my latest blog post, I have asked for really good suggestions for cold and pain remedies to bring with me when traveling:

Location:Oakland, California, United States

Name: Beth Terry

Week: 5

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/

Beth Terry’s personal blog:

List of plastic items REFUSED this week. (Yay!)
I was out of town this week and also sick, so it was challenging…

1) Plastic grocery/shopping bags — bring my own reusable bags wherever I go, even while traveling

2) Produce stickers — chose lemons that didn’t have stickers from local grocery store while out of town

3) Airplane food packaging — brought my LunchBot container full of food for the plane and stuck with it

4) Airplane bottled water — brought my travel mug through security empty and filled it from water fountain inside the gate.

5) Coffee cups — brought my travel mug for coffee from local cafes

6) Plastic utensils — brought my own To-Go Ware

7) Many, many straws — all week I requested no plastic straw in my beverages, and only got caught once.

Total items collected: 9

Total weight: .2 ounces

Items: Recyclable
None

Items: Nonrecyclable
1-4) window envelopes, mostly from tax documents

5) plastic cocktail straw stuck in my Irish coffee. Really? A plastic straw in a hot drink? This happened on the first night of my trip and I was much more vigilant after that.

6) plastic drink stirrer doodad thingie. This one was just ridiculous. I asked for no straw. And I got no straw. But I did get this other big hunk of plastic in my drink, so after that, I would say, “No plastic straw or toys or any other plastic doodads in my drink. Nothing.”

7) plastic wrapper from around the neck of a glass jar of honey I bought to soothe my sore throat and cough.

8) plastic blister pack of N’Ice cough drops, which I wrote about in my latest post.

9) plastic tag hanger from t-shirt I bought.

Not in tally: plastic bottle of Ibuprofen and plastic blister pack of Mucinex. Those will end up in the tally after they are used up. My latest post explains all of this crap:  /2012/02/how-the-non-toxic-avenger-ruined-my-relationship-with-ibuprofen-and-other-drugs/

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
I can use herbal remedies for cold symptoms and bring them with me when traveling.

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

Being more specific when asking for no plastic in my drinks. Also, bringing cold and pain remedies with me when traveling.