04
May

Plastic, plastic everywhere

Plastic, plastic everywhere, especially in our kitchens, landfills, and oceans. Take a look in your kitchen and pantry, and see how many plastic things you find.

When I was growing up, we used glass containers dishes with glass lids to keep food in the refrigerator and/or for serving some food.

Probably everyone who has used these dishes remembers hearing the sound of that glass cover hitting the kitchen floor and breaking into what seemed like a thousand tiny pieces.

Then, plastic was invented and made into a myriad of products, including covers for the glass containers. These products, including many designed to hold food, came with some drawbacks, as scientists began warning us after we had been using them for many years.

In spite of these warnings people are using all kinds of plastics seemingly with little concern about the negative effects they can have on our bodies. Here are just a few warnings from Money Crashers (moneycrashers.com)

#3 or #7 plastics, or any hard plastic that’s “shatterproof,” contain Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical that, once ingested, mimics estrogen in our bodies

2 ….these chemicals can promote human breast cancer cell growth and lower sperm counts. Pregnant women, infants and children are especially at risk.

3. All plastics leach chemicals into our food, and the FDA has admitted this.

The authors suggest the following steps to take to have a plastic-free kitchen:

“If you use plastic, never heat it”.
“Use glass or stainless steel containers.”
“Buy fresh or frozen vegetables.” If possible choose vegetables that are not packaged in plastic bags (my added suggestion).
“Use a stainless steel (or glass) water bottle.” If you are buying single-use plastic bottles because you are worried about the quality of water from your tap, invest in a good water filter and refill you stainless steel bottle. (my suggestion)
“Ditch the plastic wrap.” Take parchment paper bags to the deli and reusable produce bags to the store or farmers markets.

I’ll add another suggestion. Invest in some silicon bags (safer than plastic and reusable) and replace plastic bowl covers with stretchable silicon covers. Here is picture with some of the plastic alternatives I am using.