10 Ways I Will Use Less Plastic

Ahimsa Awareness Living Yoga

Photo credit: Natesh Ramasamy, https://www.flickr.com/photos/ramnaganat/

A woman I know committed to living a year without acquiring any new plastics in 2010. Her name is Taina Uitto, and reading about her plastic-free adventures on her blog Plastic Manners had a huge impact on me; it made me realize how much plastic I used on a day-to-day basis. I have used considerably less plastic over the past 4 years because of her influence, but I have by no means been living plastic-free.

I recently went to see the premiere of a documentary film From the Waste Up: Life Without Plastic that she and her brother made about her transition to a plastic-free life. I have been re-inspired, and I am ready to commit to a further reduction of my use of plastics.

When Taina’s project began, I was primarily motivated to reduce my plastics use because of the devastating impact this non-destructible substance has on the environment and on the animals that mistake it for food. Since then, I’ve learned a lot more about how plastics affect our health. Plastics contain harmful chemicals that leach into the bloodstreams and tissues of almost every one of us, including newborns. I am now motivated to protect myself and my family from plastics.

I’m also inspired by the lifestyle of the people in Taina’s film. She challenged a number of other people to live plastic-free for a year and told their story in her documentary as well. Everyone found the lifestyle change challenging in the first couple of months, but as time went on, all the challenge participants told similar stories about life slowing down and feeling simpler. The message was clear: all these convenient, disposable products that are supposed to give us more time somehow do the opposite.

Here are some health-friendly and planet-friendly choices I am going to make:

1. No plastic shopping bags or disposable coffee cups

These days I use re-usable shopping bags and travel mugs 85% of the time, but every so often I will take a bag or a disposable cup out of convenience. Moving forward, if I can’t get something without creating this waste, I will go without.

2. No Take-out Trash

I don’t buy a lot of “To Go” food, but when I do, it is usually sushi and it creates a mountain of garbage – the foam/plastic containers, the soy sauce containers, and the plastic bag it comes in. I am going to save myself the cringe moment I have in response to the amount of waste, and either eat-in or use my own containers to take out.

3. Buy bulk with my own containers

At Whole Foods, you can bring your own containers, get them weighed, and use them to buy bulk (and then they deduct the weight of the container at the checkout). I have a lot of weighed containers, and when I do a bulk shop for bulk items, I take them all in and save the plastic bags. It’s awesome when I do – it is a great conversation starter, and most of the containers already have the bulk codes on them, so I don’t have to worry about noting down numbers. But when I want a small amount of one or two things, I have been taking the plastic bags and creating the unnecessary waste. I am going to stop.

4. Slowly transition plastics out of our kitchen

We were blessed with an infestation of pantry moths a few months ago. Why blessed? Because it prompted us to buy a ridiculous number of mason jars, and transfer most of our food storage to glass containers. We still have reusable Ziploc containers and various plastic tools in our kitchen. I would like to actively seek alternatives.

5. Buy plastic-free spray bottles and dish soap dispensers

Over the last couple of years, I have largely transitioned to homemade cleaning products – both for my home and for my body. But I put these homemade products into plastic containers. It’s better for the environment because they are not single-use containers, but I’m still touching plastic every time I use them. I would like to find alternatives that are friendlier for me.

6. Collect my plastic waste for a month

I believe awareness is empowering. If I collect my plastic waste for a month, I will learn more about the kinds of plastic pollution I am producing, which will help me figure out how to use less.

7. Give packaging more consideration in my purchasing decisions

I tend to avoid the blatantly horrible packaging – like toilet paper from Costco, where each roll is individually wrapped in plastic. But, I also have organic olive oil from Costco, which is in a plastic bottle, and olive oil is readily available in glass bottles. I am not going to factor out things like price or whether something is organic or local, but I am going give plastic packaging a bigger voice.

8. Try a plastic-free toothbrush

I vividly remember reading about Taina’s first experiences with a bone and boar bristle toothbrush. It did not make me want to use one. I feel a little queasy even thinking about it now. But, my ideas about what is gross and what is not have been challenged and proven wrong many times before (see point #11 for an example). So perhaps a year from now the idea of sticking a plastic stick in my month and rubbing it against my teeth and gums will disgust me instead.

9. Learn more about the different types of plastic

Most of us are familiar with the recycling symbol – the three arrows forming a triangle. But, what do the different numbers inside the recycling symbol mean? From my initial research, #2, #4 and #5 are considered okay for limited use, but #1, #3, #6 and #7 should be avoided. I look forward to learning more so I can make better informed decisions.

10. Shop for new plastic-free habits at The Soap Dispensary

I’ve heard so many wonderful things about The Soap Dispensary, but I haven’t shopped there yet. The Vancouver store featured quite prominently in Taina’s documentary because it helps people live plastic-free with a lot more ease. I am looking forward to making a trip to the store and learning new ways that I can use less plastic.

11. Have a plastic-free period

This extra point is to promote a plastic-free lifestyle choice I made a couple years ago. I went plastic-free on all products related to menstruation, and it is one of the best lifestyle decisions I’ve ever made. I started with Natracare Products, which are organic and plastic-free disposable products. They are fantastic, but the cost pushed me to consider non-disposable options like LunaPads and the Diva Cup. I now use a combination of the three – depending where I am and what I am doing. Somehow taking plastics and toxins out of menstruation transformed the experience from something kind of gross to something natural and almost beautiful. I know it may sound super corny, but it happened.

I have a feeling that these other lifestyle choices are going to end up feeling just as good!

Namaste,
Sarah


How does Taina get TP?

Yoga

I bought toilet paper today, and the main thought running through my head during this shopping experience was, “How does Taina get toilet paper?”

To give you a bit of a back story on this seemingly random question, my friend Taina is endeavouring to live 2010 without acquiring any new items containing plastic or contained in plastic.  And, she tells the story of her plastic-free adventures on her blog, Plastic Manners.  Her posts are well written, entertaining and thought provoking, and I have been an avid follower of her blog since the beginning of the year.  

Before Taina’s blog, I thought of myself as a bit of a rock star in the realm of plastic-use reducing.  I carry – and use more than 95% of the time – a travel mug and reusable shopping bags, I clean the plastic bags you put fruits, veggies and bulk goods in and take them back to the store for re-use, and I always recycle.  But, Taina’s adventure with plastic-free living has put me in my plastics place.  In the music festival of plastics consumption, I might get a chance to perform, but Taina is the artist everyone is there to see.

She has a bone and boar bristle toothbrush.  She is a shareholder in a herd of cows, so she is able to get milk without creating plastic waste.  And, she carries around a stainless steel straw.  I could go on and on. 

One of the definitions for inspire is “to draw forth or bring out.”  And, in a way, this definition captures the way Taina inspires me.  Her complete commitment to living a year without plastics draws forth, or brings out, an awareness of the plastics surrounding me in my own life.  And, I often find myself thinking thoughts like, “Taina can’t even have this,” or “What would Taina do for this?” – just as I did today with my toilet paper.

Through her blog, Taina has further educated me about the truly horrific impact of plastics, helped me recognize the prominance of plastics in my life, and inpsired me to further reduce my use of plastics (especially single-use plastics).  She is a powerful teacher, not because she knows a lot about plastics and the harmful effect they are having, but because she is living her message. 

And, to tie this post more deeply to yoga, the same must be true of a yoga teacher.  I know that I will not be an inspirational yoga teacher because I know how to balance on my forearms, cue perfect alignment or put my body into a Gumby-esque position.  I become a teacher of yoga when my day-to-day way of being embodies the practice – when my life is my message.