Location:, North Carolina, United States

Name: Danielle

Week: 42

Personal Info:

See my week 1 post 🙂

Danielle’s personal blog: http://itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com

Total items: 48

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
1 ricotta container
1 contact solution
1 prescription bottle (from dog)

Items: Nonrecyclable
3 caps/rings
2 pizza thingies (??)
1 produce tag
2 contact lens packages
1 plastic seal (from contact solution)
1 pasta window

NOT PICTURED:

15: 5 plates, 5 cups, 5 forks (from the dinner after my grandfather’s funeral)

approx. 20: plastic bags from legos (doh!)

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
Let’s start with easy.

Pizza thingies… those are new. We order pizza on occasion and have never seen those things. The next time we order, I’ll just specify that we do not want the weird useless plastic things stuck on the top of our pizzas.

Legos: Yes, they themselves are plastic… but we dig legos. We often by them used (on ebay), so we don’t have all of the little bags. We went to the Lego kidsfest and all got some legos… the bags are absolutely unnecessary and a complete waste. I’m going to write lego.

Difficult: My grandfather passed away. After the funeral, we went back to the church for lunch. Seeing all of the plastic (gasp, styrofoam), my family wondered what I would do… I was hungry and didn’t want to think about plastic. As much as I dislike using disposable plastic… there are some times when you just can’t (or don’t know to) plan for it. Normally, my family of 5 would have shared one cup… but I had a fever blister (from getting sunburned… and I don’t want to share that with anyone!!). If I go to a funeral again, I’m sure that I can reduce the amount we use by carrying our own utensils and bringing in our reusable water bottles. Side note: we did reuse our plates for seconds and for dessert 🙂

What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic free alternative doesn’t exist?

What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
Contacts and solution.

We recently adopted an 11 year old golden retriever. She has medication for her thyroid. I would normally have the vet refill the bottle, but we had to leave town so quickly and her medicine was out… so we had to get a new bottle.

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

What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
Life is good. Plastic is not.

(ok… legos are plastic and they’re super fun.)