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Jennie Pollock kicks the plastic habit.
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Kick the plastic habit: Try not buying it for a week, and you might learn a thing or two

By Jennie Pollock

ROCKFORD WOMAN

Aug 25, 2008 @ 03:39 PM

Plastic is the poster child for everything that’s bad for the environment.

Plastic facts
Americans use 4 million plastic bottles every hour, yet only 1 of every 4 is recycled.
Some plastics last for 700 years when buried.
More than 46,000 pieces of plastic debris float on every square mile of ocean.
The Environmental Protection Administration estimates that Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year. Only a small percentage of these are recycled.
Plastic bags carry 80 percent of the nation’s groceries, up from 5 percent in 1982.
Source: Northern Illinois University, Sierra Club

Go Green blog
Go Green blog
Check it out at blogs. e-rockford.com/gogreen/.

People are starting to abandon plastic bags for paper or cloth as a way to cut down on using plastic.

But you don’t realize how plastic has become part of everything in everyday life unless you try to stop buying it, which is what I did for a week in May.

I chronicled my experiences here, and I’ve kept the blog going with local and national “green” tidbits.

Tips for cutting down on plastic
Use real silverware at the office instead of plastic. Or at least keep washing the plastic set instead of throwing it away each time.

Use wooden clothespins for chip clips.

Avoid bags for purchases when you can just as easily carry something.

Choose wooden toys/furniture whenever possible ... or just try to cut back on buying toys! (Good luck with that.)

Buy your meat at a meat market (or you can give up eating meat, which is eco-friendly. I tried that, too!).

Ask for baked goods in paper bags at the bakery.

Buy produce without plastic bags whenever you can. Apples can sit just fine in the cart.

In social or work settings where food is served, avoid plastic plates and cups if you can.

Sometimes you can just put that brownie on a napkin.

Buy laundry detergent and other cleaners in condensed or refill versions whenever possible.

Snag plastic bags that others just throw away and recycle them at your local grocery store (or reuse them — Subway bags, for example, make great garbage bags for the side door of your car).

Buy items in bulk instead of individually wrapped.

Fill that reusable water bottle for the gym and around the house.

Use cups with permanent straws in them instead of giving your kids disposable ones.

Of course, avoiding plastic is impossible unless you live in a shack like the Unabomber did.

My blog readers wouldn’t let me forget it. It’s all over your car. It’s under beer bottle caps and in label adhesive. It’s in the lining of paper cartons.

The point of the exercise is to think, learn and make a difference as much as you can.

Why plastic?
The good? Plastic, which dates back to the 1860s, is durable, inexpensive and lightweight, so it is a predominant form of food and drink packaging. It can be found just about anywhere: in our clothing, eyeglasses, computers, phones, tools, dishes, toys and vehicles.

The bad? Recycling is the exception more than the rule, and most plastics are made from petroleum, a nonrenewable resource that takes energy to extract and process.