Q: Plastics are freaking me out. Any tips for going plastic-free?
A: You’ve got to hand it to the plastic people. They’ve cleverly managed to finagle their way into literally every move we make. If this were a Police song, they’d be top-notch stalkers.
Just look around. They’ve infiltrated our water supply (PVC pipes, water mains, bottles), our clothing (nylon, polyester, spandex), our electronics (casings, wiring) – the list goes on.
Truth is, unless you’ve built your own off-grid cabin free of modern amenities, it’s virtually impossible to get away from petroleum’s offspring entirely (not to mention children of Monsanto’s corn), but we can certainly try to give ourselves a little distance from them. Especially in light of recent findings published in Environmental Health Perspectives concluding that an astounding 71 per cent of over 500 plastics sampled released estrogenic chemicals.
The researchers tested all types of plastics that came in contact with food (including “safer” plastics like PET and HDPE), and that estrogenic percentage jumped to 90 when those plastics were stressed under hot water (simulating dishwashing), UV light or in a microwave.
Most unsettling is the fact that all of the BPA replacement products they tested (yes, including “BPA-free” baby bottles) also released various estrogenic chemicals, sometimes at higher levels than the old polycarbonate bottles yanked off shelves.
Health Canada says the trace levels of estrogen-mimicking bisphenol A detected in their own studies on non-polycarbonate (aka BPA-free) baby bottles are “much lower than those that could cause health effects.” Parents needn’t worry.
But many parents – and non-parents – are fed up with plastics.
How do we put the brakes on this 20th-century addiction? First and foremost, try to get plastics out of your food. That means following Michael Pollen’s advice and largely avoiding the whole middle section of the grocery store, where packaged foods reign. Stick to the edges, where fresh foods from fruits and veggies to fish and meat are on offer.
Avoid meat and fish that come cling-wrapped on polystyrene, and go to the butcher counter or fishmonger instead. Yes, butcher paper is often lined with plastic (or other mystery compounds), so if you’re serious, bring your own paraffin-free waxed paper (like If You Care’s, which you can score at health stores).
Cart that soy wax wrap to cheese counters, too, since nearly every square of Brie, blue or Beemster on shelves comes wrapped in petrol, the most toxic offender being phthalate-leaching PVC wrap. While big-name-brand plastic wrap has long been PVC-free, deli food packers seem to love the extra clinginess of PVC.
Speaking of plastic wrap, skip the whole sticky mess and look for super-cool beeswax food wraps. Abeego makes some handy washable and water-resistant ones that can be folded around snacks, bowls – you name it (abeego.ca). Or, hey, take a rainy afternoon to experiment with making your own DIY beeswax wrap. No kidding. (Go to instructables.com, then search for “wax wrap.”)
I’m going to assume you’ve already forgone plastic produce bags (one of my biggest pet peeves!), but if you’re not into letting your produce walk through the checkout aisle naked (I’m a produce nudist myself), get yourself a bunch of mesh produce bags. (Montreal’s Credo makes ’em credobags.com.) Credo also sells all sizes of reusable unbleached cotton bulk bags so you can do the rest of your shopping in the bulk aisle without reaching for not so fantastic plastic. They’re especially useful if you’re not the type to bring your own containers to the bulk store to get pre-weighed.
Besides that, storing your leftovers in glass, carting your lunch to work in stackable stainless steel containers and staying away from individually packaged everything is key foodwise. There’ll always be a plastic lid on glass mustard jars and the like, so the next level up in the plastic-free purge is a little time-intensive but rewarding: it’s called making it from scratch.
Beyond edibles, finding shampoo in glass bottles is tough in this town (also scary for klutzes like me), but you can refill the plastic you’ve got or bring glass jars to health stores with bulk aisles and to green shops like Grassroots, which offers most of the tools you need to wean yourself off petroleum one drop, one barrel at a time.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
