The Month of the Plastic: Day 7

Already a week in and I don't feel I have all that much to show for it.

I've washed a ton of ziplock baggies, and I've saved every produce bag that my boyfriend has brought home with the groceries.  But the chicken, the ground turkey, the sausages, the cheese, and the lunch meat are all packaged in plastic.  I can somewhat get away with the cheese and the lunch meat.  Technically, they don't fall into my single-use criteria.  For the rest, there is no excuse and no alternative that I know of.  Kind of stuck there.

There is one place that I'll admit I need improvement on.  The veggies.  We have two grocery stores near our apartment:  Trader Joe's and Whole Foods.  Trader Joe's is a little farther but so much cheaper that we do all of our shopping there.  Unfortunately, Trader Joe's has a bad habit of packaging all their produce in shrink wrap plastic.  I can cut that out by taking two different grocery trips, but I don't have a car, so that ends up being a much bigger pain in the posterior than I'd like.  I knew this wasn't going to be easy.

WARNING:  TMI FOLLOWS

A friend of mine brought up an interesting question when he read my first few blogs.  Since this experiment is going to run a whole month, I will undoubtedly run into the crimson wave at some point.  Most ladies use up a substantial amount of single-use plastic products during this week, every month.  For me, with a light to average flow and only affected 5 days a month, I would estimate that I was going through a measly 15 tampons, 5 pads, and 5 panty liners a month.  Multiply that by the number of months I can expect to menstruate in my lifetime and I could easily go through 7200 tampons, 2400 pads, and 2400 panty liners (less, if I plan to spend 9-18 months of my life pregnant, more if I ever develop a heavier flow).  That's a lot of waste going to a landfill.

To answer my friend's question:  No, I do not plan to create that single-use plastic waste this month.  A menstrual cup such as the Diva Cup or Mooncup is an excellent alternative.  I had switched to one months ago, partly due to the waste issue and partly due to the convenience it affords while traveling and working in the bush.  I heard about it through friends that sung its praises and I cannot recommend it enough, myself.  Any ladies want to try it this month in honor of my/our no single-use commitment?