Learning to live without plastic

When I first clicked on a headline in the Toronto Star reading “Trying to live 7 days without any plastic,” I thought it would be about someone trying to live their life using nothing but cash — and maybe cheques. Since I love using my debit and credit cards, but kind of wish sometimes that everything was cash all the time (including payday) I thought I would enjoy reading about a week of cash-only life.

Whoops! I was wrong.

Francine Kopun and her family are trying to give up ALL plastic.

Think about that: it’s not just bottles and bags. She makes her four-year-old son give up toys.They have trouble buying groceries — especially meat — because it’s all wrapped in plastic.

Think you could solve those problems? What about your toothbrush? What about the plastic in your car?

Says Kopun:

Running family errands at Yonge and Eglinton, we stop at What a Bagel for a snack. I pop some cinnamon rolls into a paper bag. My son, who hoovers up any candy positioned at his eye level, spots a gingerbread man and begins batting his fabulous eyelashes at me.

It’s hectic, there’s a crowd, we’re in line, I say yes. At our table I realize the gingerbread man is wrapped in plastic. My son is already halfway through it, pink icing smeared around his mouth.

I didn’t want to buy water in a plastic bottle and now he’s thirsty. I ask the cashier for water in a foam cup, and when she obliges, I gratefully add 50 cents to her tip jar. But have I actually achieved anything here?

Franz Hartmann, executive director of Toronto Environmental Alliance, says yes. “Better not to have Styrofoam at all, but given the comparison you definitely did the right thing. The water wasn’t transported from who-knows-where.”

She even tries to switch to a metal water bottle, but can’t find one without a plastic cap. (Aside: I’m making the switch to glass jars, the ones you make preserves in, with metal tops. They hold a lot of water, they’re awesome to drink from, and they should last forever!)

Oddly, the article never mentions whether she decides to pay for everything with paper, not plastic.

The Star has a great series on packaging going on, actually. Check their sidebar for links to all the stories, but I particularly enjoyed the one on unnecessary extra-large packaging and the one lamenting the demise of great album art.