Last week a Fayston family launched a yearlong effort to reduce the amount of plastic they use. They have pledged to bring no new plastic into their lives and if existing plastic items such as seed trays and the compost bucket break, they will replace them with non-plastic items.
Take a look around your kitchen or bathroom or basement or desk and quickly catalog how much plastic you see. It's a lot. Plastic is pervasive in our society and not just in the form of the plastic bags from the grocery store. We know it's not great for the planet and we know there are chemicals in plastic that mimic hormones to our detriment.
Consider some of the challenges for the Whybrow/Forbes family as they take their plastic challenge.
What will happen when their pens run dry? Can they buy shampoo in bulk in their own Mason jars? What about toothpaste? Will they revert to our grandparents' methods of washing hair in baking soda and conditioning in vinegar? Vinegar comes in plastic bottles, doesn't it? Shoelaces come in plastic packages, don't they?
How will they shop for food in stores where things are already over-packaged and almost everything has some plastic on it? Is there any type of dishwashing liquid that doesn't come in plastic? Almost all cheese is encased in plastic. Most milk cartons have a little plastic pour spout.
Many people are conscientious about how much plastic they use. People quickly adapt to using re-usable shopping bags, washing out Ziploc bags and replacing disposable plastic containers with glass ones, but to attempt to eliminate plastic entirely uncovers just how enmeshed the material is in our lives. The beauty of the Whybrow/Forbes challenge is that it is so thorough.
Follow their blog here: www.knollfarm.org/a-year-without-plastic-a-blog.
LAL
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