PlasticLess.com

I was reluctant to say that wooden cutting boards are safer than plastic. Luckily, somebody else did a great job of assembling the conflicting research and concluding that it is inconclusive.

The bottom line is that careful food safety is vitally important regardless of your choice of materials. Wood is a better choice for the environment. My choice is this great board made from olive wood. I am lucky to be living in an area where olives are grown commercially and the wood is a byproduct of sustainable agriculture.

I have been having a hard time avoiding plastic since I have moved. Most of the shopkeepers and street vendors are very eager to provide me with plastic bags. I am not a fluent speaker of either local language. Telling them that I just want them to put my stuff in the fabric bag that I brought with me in what must be very bad French/Charades isn’t working very well.

That is why getting a 1/2 pound of butter wrapped in a plain piece of paper felt like a victory.

I saw a bright and colorful display of plastic cheese graters in the grocery store today. I was legitimately surprised by this as I thought the metal kind was the penultimate human achievement.

OK, that’s an exaggeration. Plastic cheese graters do seem unnecessary when stainless steel is superior and reasonably economical.

Buying bulk cheese at a deli that shreds it for you is another plasticless choice.

The BBC blogger who documented a month without plastic received a LOT of comments. I remember all the cranky old people phoning in to berate the folks at the CBC when I was a listener back in Canada. There is something about publicly financed media that brings out a special kind if ire in the bored and incontinent.

One guy took great exception to the idea of a wooden toothbrush. He argued that the impact on the environment from producing a wooden toothbrush was worse than that for a plastic one. I can’t be sure if this is true, but it did get me thinking about the impact of some of my plastic alternatives.

I may add to this post later, but for now I just want to mention that items made out of recycled wood, or wood that is a horticultural byproduct do not carry the same environmental costs.

Catherine recently bought a cutting board that was made from local olive wood. It is awesome. Other sources of wood include apple orchards and the wine industry (barrels are ‘discarded’ after being used for a few years).

Buying imported wood products can have a big carbon footprint. Some wood products come from countries with very poor records with regard to the environment.

I think the next big life change that I am going to make with regard to reducing plastic consumption is to start baking. The catalyst for this decision was opening a guilty pleasure called Pavesini. I was guilty because it came in a plastic wrapper. I was eight times as guilty when I opened it

These biscuits are what many people would call ‘lady fingers’. Tiramisu purists often claim that this particular brand is an essential ingredient. I can give up on tiramisu if it will save on plastic consumption. If there is anyone out there who can’t, try substituting with some home baked lady fingers.

Individually wrapped wieners are pretty easily avoided when you are cooking for a family. Buying unpackaged sausages from a butcher is a great plasticless option. Baking regularly for kids lunches can reduce plastic use and it might be a comfort to the kids as well. I still remember my mom’s peanut butter cookies and banana bread fondly. The Wagon Wheels, not so much.

The key aim of this blog is to promote reduced use of plastic. I know as well as anybody that using plastic stuff is almost unavoidable. With this in mind, I am adding a link to some information about which plastics are more hazardous and which ones are less hazardous.

Thegreenguide.com/products/Kitchen/Plastic_Containers

This blog is about reducing our personal consumption of plastic. So far, it has been a hodgepodge of old ideas and new ideas. Old ideas can make a lot of sense, most of the time. Plastic has only become a ubiquitous part of our lives in the last few generations. Before that, other materials were doing just fine at meeting our needs… or were they?

You need to be very cautious about antique items that contain dangerous materials like lead and mercury. I would suggest a ‘better safe than sorry” approach with regards to old cookware, utensils and serving dishes. Even decorative antiques can pose health risks. Looking into the issue of lead poisoning was very depressing for me. I did not know that a proposed ban on lead paint went before the US House of Representatives in 1910 and that it took 68 years before the Consumer Product Safety Commission eventually banned it. Over 4000 tonnes of lead paint had been slapped on walls and toys and various other things in the interim.

I wonder if the push and pull related to chemicals leaching from plastic drinking containers will drag on that long? Actually, I am certain that it will not. Things move faster in the information age. Several companies removed products containing Bisphenol A as soon as the issue started making headlines. Interestingly, I think the scandal about lead in products made in China may has sensitized the media and consumers in such a way as to catalyze the reaction to Bisphenol A.

Another depressing issue involves the modern low watt light bulb. Al Gore et al. want to ban incandescent light bulbs in homes. The present alternative is a CFL that contains mercury. They also contain more plastic than a typical incandescent bulb.

Proponents of these efficient bulbs say that the fact that they contain more hazardous materials and the fact that they take more energy to produce are more than offset by the energy savings. I am worried about the environmental impact of their production because they are presently made in China. I am also worried about the mercury. There have been advances, with some bulbs having 1/5 the amount of mercury of typical CFLs.

I have personal experience with cheap CFLs that did not have the long life that is touted by their promoters. The answer might be higher standards. Right now, they are trying to compete with standard light bulbs. When legislation kicks in this will be less of an issue.

Teflon is a plastic. Using non-stick cookware also precludes the use of metal utensils. Many people choose to use plastic spatulas. I recommend wooden spatulas.

I have a non-stick pan that was supplied with my rented house. I do not use plastic utensils with it. I prefer wooden spatulas. How many plastic spatulas have you destroyed from excessive heat? When the edge of a wooden spatula gets worn and ragged, you can fix it with a utility knife.

Teflon is the only surface to which a gecko cannot stick. I don’t know of anybody that has gecko and eggs for breakfast, and I think that responsible consumers should avoid consuming Teflon cookware.

Polytetrafluoroethylene was discovered by accident during the first half of the 20th century. My generation is the first for which ‘non-stick’ cookware is not a novelty.

A carcinogen is used in the production of Teflon and Dupont paid residents near its plants $400 million out of court after perfluorooctanoic acid was found in ground water.

Cast iron pans are superior to Teflon coated pans in many ways. The proper care of cast iron pans is slightly more complex than with other cookware, but it is worth the effort.