Friday, September 2, 2011

Day Three - Sorry Bob!!!

Avoiding single use or "stupid use" plastic is really hard! Today I bought trail mix in a single serving PLASTIC bag! der. I wasn't thinking! I also bought two bags of smartfood (these bags cannot be good) and a lipton Iced Tea!!!! arghh. I bought all of this mindlessly because I was hungry and thirsty and not thinking. But I redeemed myself later in the day when Bob and I took Chloe to Stop and Shop to buy dinner. We gathered up our food and headed to the checkout. The checker rang us up and the bagger bagged. The bagger bagged! ARHHHHHGGGGHHHHH!!!!! I realized this as Bob and I were pushing a cart full of groceries and carrying a fifty pound four year old who was crying because she "wanted that" (one of seventeen things she asked for) I said "Bob, wait"! so urgently that he stopped on a dime and said, with a look of grave concern, "What is it honey? what happened?" I pointed to the cart and said "plastic." At this point his look of concern turned to a look of frustration. He sighed and said "c'mon hon, we will remember next time." Well, we were still in the store, and I didn't see any reason why these bags couldn't be used by someone else, so I begged him to give me "just a sec" while I dumped all of the food into the cart, returned the plastic bags to the metal holders at a closed register (for fear that they might toss them in the trash if I just handed them back to the bagger) and scooted out the store. Great success- sort of...I looked strange, but at least I avoided the stupid bags!

It's Everywhere!!!!! Day Two of Plastic Awareness

If we are friends on Facebook, you know that I am trying to avoid "stupid use" plastic. When I say "stupid use" I mean things that are used once and then tossed out or "recycled"-which is something I will talk about later. Day one went well. Day two went fine also except I got a flat tire and had to pay a disposal fee for the old tire and I wondered why it wasn't repairable and where it would end up. I envisioned taking it home and making a tire swing, and then I thought about how dirty it must be and ended up letting the tire place toss it for me.

Another challenge on day two was that my reusable coffee mug from dunks leaked! It leaked a lot. Granted, it is old, but seriously? I was bummed! Another bummer was the amount of packaging Burts Bees uses for their products. I was going to buy some at sears (on sale while my tire was being fixed) but the package had cardboard and plastic on the outside and more plastic on the inside.
Day Two- Bought nothing but a new tire (ohhh that is a lot of product isn't it?) Used my Sigg water bottle with tap water
bought a coffee from dunks and had them put it in my own (leaky) mug