I don’t like plastic. Besides the fact that it’s made from oil and will never decompose, I really hate the idea of being poisoned by my own plastic stuff. And if you’ve been following the recent news about BPA and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are leached from some plastics, then getting rid of plastic sounds like a pretty good idea.
Eliminating all plastic is impossible, unless you live in a cabin in the woods with no electricity, don’t travel, and never need medical care. But picking one room seemed like an achievable goal. So a few years ago I started phasing out plastic from the kitchen, and I’m surprised at how easy it has been to eliminate 90% of the plastic stuff that used to lurk in my cupboards. Here’s what I did:
- Replaced plastic food storage containers with glass ones. Pyrex containers are sturdy and inexpensive, though they have plastic lids. Recently I’ve been buying Weck canning jars for food storage, and I love them. The lids are a little fussy, but they are so pretty!
- Slowly replaced plastic food prep items like mixing bowls, measuring cups, etc. with glass or stainless steel equivalents.
- Replaced plastic utensils with wood or silicone. I’m not 100% sure that silicone is safe, but it’s chemically inert, it’s not a plastic (it’s made from silica), and it is great for anything that needs to be flexible, like bowl scrapers.
- Got rid of all our plastic cups, bowls, etc., and now we just use glass or porcelain. I bought a bunch of Duralex glasses which are very strong. None of our stuff is precious; I don’t mind when we break a plate now and then. And there are lots of unbreakable wood or stainless steel options for kids, which I will be trying out before long.
So that took care of 90% of the plastic. Here’s the stubborn 10% that’s sticking around:
- Plastic lids for my Pyrex containers. I’m still working on switching to containers that have glass lids.
- Plastic resin handles on knives. I could buy some all-metal Global knives, but I like the knives I have.
- Plastic ice cube trays. I tried silicone ice cube trays, but just try getting one of those into the freezer without spilling water everywhere! Instead, I’m going to try a fifties-style stainless steel ice cube tray.
- Plastic water bottle lids. I switched to Klean Kanteen and Life Factory water bottles, but they still have plastic lids. The lids are all certified BPA, phthalate, and PVC free, though.
- Plastic food packaging. A scan through my pantry shows a lot of food that came from the store in plastic. I’m chipping away at this stuff, but it’s hard to avoid.
- Plastic potato ricer. My last plastic food-prep item is slated to be replaced by a stainless-steel version soon, mainly because the thing always feels like it’s going to break when I’m using it. Update: Done!
- Plastic electric appliances. Most of my electrical appliances have plastic parts or housing. I guess the best way to avoid plastic is to prep food the old-fashioned way.
Until I made this list, I hadn’t noticed that my electric kettle is all plastic, which means I’ve been boiling our coffee and tea water in some unknown plastic. Oops. I picked up a $20 stainless steel replacement.
Here’s a great site if you need ideas about products that aren’t made with plastic. They have all sorts of hard-to-find household items.
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