Plastics are everywhere and we interact with them all the time, often in the kitchen. Most kitchen plastics, it seems to me, are reusable but there are some which are not.
Reusable plastics includes things like hard plastic cups, bowls, plates, Tupperware, utensils, plastic silverware, and more. The disposable ones include things like garbage bags, plastic storage bags (Ziploc bags), and straws. Let’s look at the disposables…
Plastic garbage bags
Personally, I feel that plastic garbage bags–especially the ubiquitous 33 gallon bags–are worth their weight in gold in a true SHTF scenario as they have so many uses.
The 13-gallon bags aren’t quite as useful but still worth stocking up on. And, since we have quite a few of them we’re going to continue to use them. In fact, a single 90-count box could last us an entire year if we’re mindful of their use.
This, sadly, was one of those aspects of living where I was more than happy to take out a half full bag of garbage just so I could have the garbage out that day or if it were too “smelly.” Yup, it was a bit much and certainly wasteful. These days we ensure the bags are plenty full and use at most two a week.
Believe it or not, we have been considering not using garbage bags at all since they’re not actually necessary, but since we have quite a few we haven’t gone that far yet. Of course, the garbage bin isn’t quite the same as our recycles bin which is easier to wash out after emptying but not using garbage bags is still on the table. Gladly, since we’ve moved we’ve found that we’re not really using the 33-gallon bags at all… so that’s a plus.
Ziploc storage bags
We’ve made a concerted effort to use our hard-sided Tupperware as much as possible and to avoid using the oh-so-useful Ziploc bags. And, though we have quite a few remaining, there’s really no reason to use them unless we have a very specific need such as storing a homemade loaf of bread which wouldn’t fit in any of our hard-sided Tupperware.
In fact, we’ve gone so far as to wipe out Ziploc bags that aren’t too terribly dirty. For example, it wasn’t that long ago when I would have just tossed out the old Ziploc bag that we used to store our homemade bread when I made a new batch.
No longer.
Honestly, I’m kicking myself for not having done that already! Similarly, we make a conscious choice when using the remaining supply of Ziploc storage bags. Eventually, we may be able to do away with them altogether.
Disposable water bottles, straws
A while back–before our personal SHTF–we had been trying to make a concerted effort to not use disposable water bottles since they’re costly, bad for the environment, and apparently not that good for our health as it is.
We actually have quite a few reusable water bottles that we use instead and expect to do so from now on. Filled with water straight from our Berkey Water Filter… it’s what we should have been doing all along. If you haven’t switched then consider doing so. It’s the healthy and smart thing to do.
As for straws, they get used rarely as it is. Now they get stuck on a peg in the dishwasher and washed if used, then tossed back in the drawer. Is this very sanitary? I don’t really know. What I do know is that I don’t use straws anymore. 🙂
Final thoughts
IMO, most disposable plastics are unnecessary and are just wasting you and I money. Start considering alternatives where you can and try not to use disposables if you don’t absolutely need to. And if you have any good suggestions that I can utilize I would appreciate hearing of them. Thank you.
Leave a Reply