June 2, 2009

Susan, Week 2 in Plastic

Here is my list of plastic from Sunday, May 17, 8 p.m., where my last tally left off, and Monday, May 25, 8 p.m. EST, when I should have taken out the trash for weekly pickup but didn’t feel like doing a plastic tally. I am not tabulating or picturing cans and waxed/coated paper products because there’s too much regular plastic to keep track of, or trash that I pickup on my way to work or trash that blows into my lawn from my neighbors (unfortunately quite a bit).

Plastic from Farmer’s Market Food Products — 8 pieces 2 pcs*: 2 rubber bands from a bunches of farmer’s market asparagus [RU] 2 pcs.*: 2 rubber bands from bundles of small greens [RU] 2 pcs (1*): 2 wrappers from farmer’s market mozzarella, each heavy clear plastic with an inner woven layer sealed to the outer 1 pc: plastic wrapper from farmer’s market hot italian sausage 1 pc*: plastic produce bag from farmer’s market snap peas (I ran out of bags) … Read the rest

June 2, 2009

Susan, Week 1 in Plastic

I (female) live with my (male) partner in a smallish single family house in an old suburban neighborhood in a heavily developed area of the east coast. The two of us share almost all of our meals except for weekday lunches. We try to consolidate shopping trips and reduce food packaging by buying larger rather than smaller sizes of items. I purchase loss leaders in multiples for future use. Bulk bin is not easily accessible to us on a weekly basis — what is often has a low turnover on some of our staples. My partner works primarily from home; I sometimes work from home. We both have a profession that can require intense multi-day deadlined work. I do not drive. I usually take my lunch to work and it’s usually soup or leftovers. My office eats lunch out together once or twice a week.

My partner is not participating in this experiment. But most of the plastic waste related to food is mutual plastic. One interesting aspect of this has been my reaction … Read the rest