Life without plastic

I’m from the generation of plastic. I remember plastic items all over the house since I was very young, so I can’t really say I know what a plastic-free life is.

However, I’ve been told by my mom that she grew up without plastic, and I wish she would add more detail when she tells me about the different materials they used instead of plastic.

For example, I recently learnt that in the past the grocery stores delivered lard and other products in cabbage leaves. What a great compostable and even edible package that now is being replaced by plastic bags.

What I remember is that when I was a child (living in Quito) plastic bags were still a sort of an expensive thing. The stores were not so liberal at distributing them and would give you the smallest size needed or even charged for them. Now things have changed and everyone seems to be careless about the plastic bags monetary costs.

I’m not all into completely eliminating plastic from our life, but I find that we’re getting too much of it unnecessarily, and even worse, we’re throwing away plastic items all the time thinking those are recyclable and not expensive. I’ve heard in other corners of the world this is improving, but in Quito and other Ecuadorian cities the plastic bag is still the queen of the shopping.

Anyone here with plastic free life experience? I’d love to hear from those of you who live in cities where plastic bags have been banned.

In my search for alternatives to plastic I’ve found an interesting website about plastic free living, featuring safety and environmental information about plastic and other materials. They also have a blog with related insights and an online store carrying nice alternatives. That to say that I fell in love with the wooden bento box they carry. It seems like the perfect item for our frequent outings, especially having a born-in-Japan son who loves all that has to do with his birthland

Meanwhile, I’ll continue asking my mom about her past plastic free life…

photo credit: me and the sysop

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