Plastics

 Claire Murashima, NPR -  I ditched single-use plastics for a week as part of the global Plastic Free July challenge. Well, mostly.   Some of the biggest challenges were time, cost and availability of plastic-free alternatives. 

♻️ When I ran out of single-use plastic shampoo and conditioner bottles, I went to five stores and spent more than double what I normally would to replace them with plastic-free bars. 
♻️ Making peach ring candies from scratch — including sourcing the ingredients — took hours but were delicious.
♻️ Pharmacy pill bottles aren’t accepted in most curbside recycling programs, so I asked my pharmacist if they could use a container I brought. They said no. 

But, I did have a few wins:

♻️ When I threw a party, I made popcorn on the stove instead of buying single-use plastic bags of chips. 
♻️ Baking bread myself was cheaper than buying it from the store. I still need to work on the texture since it’s gluten-free.
♻️ Since I couldn’t use plastic trash bags, I learned a ton about composting in my city: They don’t accept dryer lint or human hair, but they do accept paper towels with designs as well as ultra-processed foods, which take longer to break down.