Location:Santa Cruz, California, United States

Name: Melody

Week: 5

Personal Info:

2 adults, 2 kids

Melody’s personal blog:

List of plastic items REFUSED this week. (Yay!)
plastic eggs, easter grass, plastic easter toys, shopping bags

Total items collected: 42

Total weight:

Items: Recyclable
bottle (#1)
brita filter (gimme 5 program)
4 milk caps (#4)

Items: Nonrecyclable
spaghetti wrapper
cereal bag
broken checkbook cover
shrink wrap from loose tea
12 teabag wrappers
2 sausage packages
3 seals from jar tops
2 ziplocks of mysterious goo (brought home from classes by child)
5 milk rings
bandaid and wrapper
pill blister pack
old debit card
sticky tape
crinkly bag from ?
package from new cellphone battery

not shown: cheese wrappers, bacon package, food packaging brought by relatives

What items can I easily replace with plastic free or less plastic alternatives?
buy noodles in bulk and meat from the counter with a container.

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?
milk, cheese, safety seals on glass, flouride rinse

What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I need to look at the tea. We drink a lot of tea with a mix of packaging: loose bulk tea, loose tea bought in tins, teabags in box with plastic around box, and individually wrapped bags.

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

What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
I managed to have a bit less plastic than last week even though it was Easter. So even though our kitchen plastic is stuck at this level right now, we’re doing better at dodging one of the big child related plastic sources: holidays. The kids received 1 kit that will provide some plastic trash later, one plant in a plastic pot (we’ll reuse the pot) and plastic packaged crochet hooks. Also chico bags which are made of plastic, but save other plastic. Everything else for the easter gifts was plastic free. Yay! (One more relative we haven’t seen. Let’s hope it stays low plastic)