What do I do with all this plastic?

December 5, 2005 11:44 PM

What do I do with all this plastic?

Or, rather, what do you do with it? I'm talking about the seemingly endless stream of plastic that ends up in our modern lives. I know what to do with bottles and cans (just clap your hands), but what about shrink wrap, saran wrap, packing materials? Just looking around, I see chapstick, deodorant, box of q-tips, all of these are disposable and made of plastic. AOL CDs that arrive in the mail. I could go on for hours...

For that matter, what do you do with styrofoam? Aluminum foil? I feel somewhat ok with throwing out a bag of trash per week when it's mostly food or paperish stuff that will decompose. But the garbage bag itself is plastic, too. Is this crap going to exist in a landfill forever? Is there anything I should be doing that I'm not presently doing?

Something about this time of year always seems to bring it to the forefront for me. The thought of all the wrapping paper (what's that stuff made of anyway?), shrink wrap, plastic packaging, that will all be thrown away, just disturbs me.

posted by knave to science & nature (8 comments total)

Do you have any local recycling facilities?

As for the paper that you don't feel too bad about, you could recycle that too. Anything that ends up in the bin will probably end up in landfill, and that means serious problems. You can reduce this by recycling as much as possible. If there aren't facilities, then write to someone and insist. The local supermarket, the council, your political representative, the local press, whoever.

As for the stuff that can't be recycled, your best option is to "pre-cycle". In other words, don't buy it in the first place. This may seem difficult at first, but it's entirely possible. You may also want to try simply buying less of everything. It sounds odd, but only because we never think of it. Next time you're out shopping, just ask yourself "Do I really need this? Can I use something I already have? Can I get the job done another way?" for each item as you look at it.

There are also biodegradable alternatives to a lot of plastic products, such as garbage bags. Shop around and try to find them.
posted by ajp at 2:34 AM on December 6, 2005

Oh and you could compost a lot of the food waste. It's really not that difficult. The bonus is that you'll end up with great soil for growing your own food. Try some herbs or tomatoes. It's easy. Even if you don't have an outdoors garden, you can have a potted herb garden indoors.
posted by ajp at 2:35 AM on December 6, 2005

Yes, this is a disturbing insight once you sit down to examine things. We live in a very disposable society. There is little emphasis on reuse any more.

What to do? Similar to what ajp said, First thing you could do is to stop using things that unnecessarily use plastic. For example, (I eat tons of yogurt) those little individual yogurt (or other snack) containers have that cheap lowgrade plastic that is non-reusable, but the larger ones use the kind that is more readily recyclable and can be used for storage. So if you buy the larger ones and reuse small tupperware for your lunches. You could also make your own products. Instead of buying prepackaged things, make muffins, cookies, etc. I know that is very crafty, but it is satisfying once you get into the groove of it.
posted by _zed_ at 7:01 AM on December 6, 2005

Well, this whole thing is based on the idea that Landfills are somehow unsafe and evil. Myself? I'd be just as worried about the pollution and increased cost that recycling causes, too.

Lots of landfill/dumps have recycling center in them, also. The simplest thing to do would be to check your local yellow pages/best book/whatever and give them a call.
posted by zerolives at 7:47 AM on December 6, 2005

Thanks for the insights so far. Yes ajp, I do my best to recycle paper and cardboard already. The point of this question is the more elusive stuff.

I recycle the little yogurt containers, they're just like bottles to me. I think, personally, that the bottles are a small fraction of the plastic in my life, though, and I'd really like to use less of it, or recycle more. I agree with the suggestions to avoid buying it in the first place, but obviously that's not entirely possible.

Any consumer electronic or computer part you buy is going to come with tons of garbage plastic and styrofoam. I'd really like to know how to avoid that or what to do with it all.
posted by knave at 8:46 AM on December 6, 2005

I agree with what _zed_ and ajp said above. Try not to buy stuff that's overpackaged. Use your own bag, instead of the plastic bags from the grocery store.

In addition, I'd like to add that if you're getting AOL CDs in the mail, I'm guessing you get a lot of other junk mail. Call up your credit card company and your bank and tell them you want to opt out of their marketing and promotional offers. Also, call this list from the FTC.

Also, you can recycle aluminum foil. Googling around for recyling in your zip code, I found this terrific page on where to recycling specific items.
posted by hooray at 9:09 AM on December 6, 2005

Buy less stuff. It's not just the packaging at your house; it's the plastic and packaging at the store, and the manufacturing waste. Multiply by the number of consumers in your town. You'll get more bang for your buck in real change by lobbying for meaningful recycling in your town.

I try to buy yogurt and margarine in standard sizes, and I reuse containers for food storage, so my use of plastic wrap and plastic bags is greatly reduced. I use cotton cloth (polyester is non-absorbent, so it makes crappy napkins) napkins and dish towels; they take only a few extra minutes to fold, and they add little extra bulk to my laundry. Cloth napkins are much more pleasant to use than paper. I use aluminum foil only rarely, sometimes it's the only thing that will work.

My community won't recycle used aluminum foil. Recycled material gets stored, and food waste attracts rats, and is generally gross.

The plastic I discard, being made of oil, probably generates some electricity when it goes to my town trash-> energy incinerator. Also some pollution.
posted by theora55 at 10:52 AM on December 6, 2005

Keep the packaging to a minimum. Rather than buy a styrofoam tray of shrink wrapped beans, get a thin polyethylene bag full. Don't buy things in non reusable or recyclable containers. Buy bulk where you can - less packaging overall than buying several small units.

I compost all my kitchen waste, and put out the rubbish bin once every three or four weeks (household of three people).
posted by tomble at 3:45 PM on December 6, 2005