Eliminate Plastic Bags in the Kitchen

Our baggy bunnies are still overpopulating our house, but their hold on the kitchen is loosening.

The latest issue of The Free Weekly is out today, and my column Making Ripples talks about reducing plastic use in the kitchen from bulk aisle food purchases.  (I’ve noticed the formatting and punctuation is off on the online version of the column, so I’m sorry if that makes it harder to read – I don’t post them myself so I can’t fix it.) Some of you may remember this is a challenge area for us, because we don’t own a car and those mason jars add up in weight!  But carpooling makes things much easier, and less wasteful. We also tend to re-use the same baggy, let’s say for example almonds, and then pour the almonds into the glass jar so the baggy can go back & forth to the store.  This isn’t the greatest method because if you have 100 food items then you may end up with 100+ plastic baggies, especially if you occasionally forget the baggy labeled “curry powder” and need to get a new one.

How to Get Free Mason Jars

If you want free mason jars, or at least really cheap ones, we got ours for free from a giveaway / swap / freecycle table in our former apartment complex.  Some garage sales or estate sales will be trying to get rid of old mason jars.  Sometimes thrift stores have them cheap.  Freecycle.com, or Swap.com, may have mason jars from time to time.

Enterprising Ideas

If you have kids and want craft ideas to use all those baggy bunnies, try making craft bunnies with your baggies!  Some families even sell their crafts and turn baggies into bucks.  Just Google plastic bag bunnies for more ideas, and check out Sophie’s World for step-by-step instructions. Or, weave a doormat from your used plastic shopping bags and let people wipe their feet on that instead of your carpeting.  Personally, I never cared for these mats because they weren’t pretty to look at and they wouldn’t stay on the floor, but this could really work for some crafty people.

What do you do with your excess baggies?

We’ve already signed the great Quinn Montana’s petition to support her efforts to reduce Fayetteville’s plastic consumption, and if you live in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and want to make a difference on this issue, email Quinn [onegreengrrl@gmail.com] so you can sign her petition also.  Her idea is fantastic and will hopefully be successful at eliminating plastic bags!



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