(This post was originally published at Within The Corners of My Kitchen

For the Full version of ths post please visit HERE)

When I was pregnant with Enzo I took this amazing Environmental racism class in which I read the book Having Faith: An Ecologists Journey to Motherhood, which I highly recommend. I also watched a documentary called Blue Vinyl
which will make you HATE and resent plastic. As a consequence I told my
wonderful friend who was throwing me a baby shower that I did not want
any plastic gifts. I had imagined my new baby's life plastic free. I
went as far as inviting the Relief Society to come to my house and
watch the documentary and then had a teach in about the disturbing life
cycle of plastic. I suggested that they all make new shower curtains
for their home that was plastic free. (always air out new plastic shower curtains for at least 24 hours. It is SOOOO toxic)
How they asked? I didn't have the answer and I still don't have the
answer now. The problem was that I felt entitled to educate people
about plastic and as a mother-to-be I had unrealistic notions of having
a completely plastic free environment for my kid. I finally had some
sense pounded on me when I met Winona LaDuke. She was giving a seminar
for my class and I proudly told her that I had requested a baby shower
without any plastic gifts. "You did what?" she asked, and proceeded to
teach me a very important lesson DON'T BECOME A POLITICALLY CORRECT
ISLAND UNTO YOURSELF! She was right. I apologized to my friend who was
organizing the baby shower. She seemed relieved. She obviously didn't
want to write in the invitations "no plastic gifts." I had a wonderful
shower where environmental and non-environmental friends from church
and school came. I did get a set of plastic blocks which Enzo still
loves, in fact it's the only gift I still have today.

I know
that there is a lot of talk going on about safe plastic and unsafe
plastic. I think it's great and I'm glad it's finally being done.
However, don't stress out or become so preachy that you do end up
becoming a politically correct island unto yourself. It's just not
affective.

I've been trying different ways to eliminate plastic
from Enzo's life. I've been thinking of ways to eliminate the plastic
sippy cup. I use a glass jar for myself and thought it would also work
for him. It does, kind of. I make him sit down to get a drink because I
obviously don't want him to be running around the park with a glass
jar. As a toddler he doesn't want to stop, sit, and drink he wants to
be on the move. So I went back to the plastic sippy cup for when we are
outside and only use glass cups when we are at home. I thought about
buying one of those metal sippy cups but am totally put off by the
price and put off from buying anything new. The constant manufacturing
of new goods is also bad for the environment be it plastic or not. I
did find a Sigg water bottle at the flea market for a $1.00. However,
it's kind of too bulky for him. Right now the plastic sippy cup is
really what works best and when we are outside playing I want him to be
properly hydrated and if he's not holding his sippy he's not drinking.
I've learned this through a bad experience. So for now the plastic
sippy cup it is.

As for myself I have almost completely
eliminated plastic containers. I just store my food in glass jars, or
tin foil. When I say eliminated I don't mean throwing out all the
plastic containers I once had. You can recycle unsafe plastic #3,6,7.
However, if you have safe plastic in your house think twice before
disposing it. The last thing we need is to have a mass purging of
plastic. Out of sight means out of your sight and into landfills.
Recycling is better, much better, but still takes up a lot of energy. I
figured I'd keep the plastic containers and use it to store crayons,
little dinosaur toys that keep appearing out of nowhere, stickers that
have the same magical powers as the dinosaurs, coins, and random things
that flood my house.

If we could live in a completely plastic
free world it would be great, or maybe it wouldn't. Either way I think
it's important to be informed and to make good decisions, but don't go
alienating yourself because of it. Here's a pretty simple and straight
forward article that
should shed some light on managing daily use of plastic. And if you
must buy more plastic National Geographic made a free Smart Shoppers'
Plastic Picks Cards which you can download here.

good luck.

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