Gave It Up For Lent

Image courtesy of Brainy Quote

This year for Lent, I vowed to give up plastic.  I'm not a big chocolate fan, so that was never going to be a sacrifice for me.  Someone suggested giving up coffee, and I laughed until my ribs hurt.

So giving up--or at least drastically reducing--my use of plastic during Lent seemed like a doable kind of thing. 

Until I tried to put it into practice.  That stuff is EVERYWHERE!!  Seriously. 

Try and go to the grocery store and not come home with plastic.  I'm not talking just the stupid bags that don't hold anything and fall apart right way.  I'm talking all the packaging, too.  I went to grab a six-pack of 16-oz bottles of Diet Pepsi.  Nope, plastic in the bottle and the carrier thing.  For that I opted for a 12-pack of aluminum cans--both recyclable. 

Milk comes in a plastic jug, although in the Health Market at Hy-Vee I did see some actual glass bottles.  All the juice comes in plastic bottles. 

I may have to redefine what I meant by "give up plastic" which, in a nutshell, was to stop using those awful plastic bags.  Those things out to be outlawed.  That being said, I'm not all that fond of paper bags either since the flimsy little handles tear so easily. 

I do have several of the cloth reusable tote bags, but more than half the time I forget them or they are loaded up with something else--like yarn. 

I know that there are direct-sales companies that sell reusable totes, but they are insanely expensive!  I bought one of those for Molly when she was in college to haul her laundry back and forth, and it worked very well for that.  I'm just afraid if I loaded it up with groceries, it would take two people to haul it into the house!

Boxes.  That's what we need.  They are reusable, recyclable, and biodegradable.  Like the ones they used to have at the Food Bonanza warehouse back when I was a kid.  It was out there on Highway 14 just west of Rochester.  Right about where First Supply is now, or thereabouts. 

Does anyone else remember the Food Bonanza?  That was the first concept of warehouse grocery stores like Sam's Club and Costco.  You'd go in the front door and you got a flatbed cart, some boxes, and a grease pen.  The kids all jumped on the cart and my poor mom who stood 4 feet, 10 inches and weighed maybe 100 pounds soaking wet had to push three kids with a combined weight greater than her own around the store.  At least until the cart got too full and we had to get off. 

There was no packaging.  The shelves were stacked with the cases and cartons just like they came off the truck.  You would take however many you needed, mark the price on each item with the grease pen, and put it in the boxes you had grabbed at the front.  This was very much an on-your-honor system.  The prices were clearly marked above the product. 

The thing I remember most was that the canned pop was in the very back corner, and if we behaved well up to that point, we could all pick one can of pop.  We would drink it before we even got to the checkouts, but we put the empty cans, which Mom had clearly marked with her grease pen, up onto the counter for the cashier to ring up. 

Wow, that was a trip back in time and totally not where I was going with this when I started. 

So, back to plastic.  Oh gosh, I just had another memory about plastic pop into my head.  Did anyone else ever use plastic bread sacks in their boots if they had a hole in the boot?  Or was that just our family? 

As I was in the middle of writing this, I found a post on my Facebook news feed with a calendar of how to avoid plastic during Lent with an idea or a bible verse for each day of Lent.  If you do a Google search for "lent plastic calendar" you'll find it.  

I love some of those ideas!  Particularly, I think I am going to start bringing my own reusable tumbler with straw.  I already use my travel coffee mug all the time to refill here, there, and everywhere.  Some places, like Starbucks, will even give you a little bit of a price break for bringing your own cup.  Saves their bottom line, I suppose, not to have to replace cups so often that way.  

I'm not sure how I feel about the "bring your own silverware" concept.  That might be a little bit out of my comfort zone; we'll see.  

I know that I am not going to be able to eliminate all plastic from my daily routine; it just isn't possible.  I can, however, avoid as much of it as I can starting with opting for reusable bag or paper bags, reusable cups, and not using plastic straws. 

I'll keep you posted on how that goes.  If nothing else, it is going to make me more aware of the environment and our impact on same. 

If you have any tips or tricks on how to reduce the amount of plastic we use, please share!!