A Plague of Plastic be upon your home...

I...feel...a little bit guilty. Sick to my stomach guilty, like this:

As you know, we've resolved to not purchase anything made of plastic unless it's our only alternative. Well, this is a very, very difficult thing to do when you're used to buying whatever you want regardless of what it's made of. I could list a million examples of how we're breaking our resolution every day, but this one example is really bothering me. Last night, we were out and about running errands and we stopped to grab supper at Leeann Chin. The food was ok but between me and Jason, we used about 8 pieces of plastic that ended up in the garbage after only 15 minutes of use. Our plates, lids, silverware, cup - everything was plastic! So this doesn't make any sense to me. All the resources (water, electricity, etc.) used to make those plastic items which are used for about 15 minutes if they're lucky (the guy next to us ate in about 3 minutes!) and then they're tossed. Is it worth it? And we're contributing to the problem. Well folks, we're a work in progress - we are not even close to perfection. This change is hard! There are restaurants that offer quick food which do not require you to use disposable plastic - Chipotle is the first that comes to mind. The burritos are wrapped in paper backed foil, the burrito bowls are a paper product and their cups are paper, also. As long as we don't use utensils, it's an entirely plastic-free option. I'll need to try and come up with a longer list of options for us so that in a pinch, we can make a good choice.

Now, so of you may be thinking to yourselves as I often do, "Aren't there more pressing issues to feel guilty about? Like genocide in Darfur, the AIDS crisis, the healthcare crisis in America, etc., etc.?" The answer is yes and I feel just as strongly, if not stronger, about those issues. But that doesn't negate the seriousness of the problem of plastic. Keep in mind that the plastic currently existing in our world will NEVER go away. NEVER. It doesn't degrade. It only becomes smaller and smaller molecules of plastic which are filling our landfills, our lakes, our rivers, our oceans, our forests, our children's bodies and on and on. Hence, our resolution.

Beth Terry from Oakland, CA has taken this about 1000 times farther than we have and is doing an amazing job eliminating plastic from her life. Take a look at this list she compiled on her website (http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/) of ways to stop using plastic. We will continue to try and slowly make these changes and hopefully be more successful than we were yesterday. What's your take on this issue? Are you doing anything to eliminate unnecessary plastic in your life?