Tree Huggin' Tuesday

Yup, I'm late. I'm not surprised, you shouldn't be either. :-)

Andy jokes with me that I think plastic is the devil. Think The Waterboy with Adam Sandler, his mama calling everything the devil. That's the tone he uses and everything. Sometimes he even calls me Bobby Bousher. "Plastic is the devil, Bobby Bousher!"

Anyway, one of the things I try to do is avoid plastic. (beyond produce bags) When given the choice of the mayonaise in the plastic tub, or the mayonaise in the glass jar, I choose the glass jar. I try not to look at the price when doing this (doesn't mean glass is more expensive - just that I don't let the monetary cost weigh in to my decision ~ usually).

This applies across the store. I buy the frozen concentrate juices that are in the cardboard packages instead of plastic. The brick of cream cheese in a block, instead of a tub. Sticks of butter wrapped in paper and packaged in cardboard, instead of a tub of margarine. Maxi-pads that are not individually wrapped. Big glass jar of apple sauce instead of 6 little plastic containers (we have specimen cups that seal tightly that we use for apple sauce in lunches - still plastic, but kid-friendly and reusable!). 24 cans of Coca Cola instead of 2 liter bottles. I've even taken my own container to the butcher (at the local meat market, haven't done it at Wal-Mart yet), and he's happily put my steaks in for me (after weigh-in).

Just being a bit more mindful about how everything is packaged has been really eye-opening for me. Buying used toys saves TONS of plastic (tried getting Barbie out of her package recently?) ~ this takes serious garage-saling skill, which I severely lack. But my friend Kim, back in Wisconsin, she's a freakin' garage saling pro. Crazy how many treasures she finds. This is an area of my 'greenitude' that I am trying to work on.

So, just notice how the things you buy are packaged, I bet you could make a handful of changes that you really wouldn't notice. And a handful of changes that would take some adjusting, if you're so inclined. ;-)

Happy huggin'!