Is anyone else getting annoyed about all these toxic plastic warnings? I’m talking about the plastics that occupy almost every room of my home; their toxins supposedly burrowing into our bodies like rude cancerous house guests. I don’t know if these articles are alarmist or not because for every article I read that says PLASTICS ARE BAD, there is another one that says PLASTICS ARE JUST FINE AND BY THE WAY, HERE’S HOW TO THROW A TUPPERWARE PARTY. Fan-fucking-tastic. All it does is make me feel guilty for potentially exposing my kids to anything bad. For the love of God — I just want to buy whatever I want to buy and not worry that it will give me The Plague or leach Bird Flu bacteria if I put it in the freakin’ microwave.
So. Anyway. I’m on a kick to slowly rid our house of this alleged-crap.
But GODDAMMIT it is not easy. I’m not kidding when I say we essentially bathe in PVC. And I hate feeling like some kind of hipster parent; hate buying into hype and jumping on any kind of bandwagon. If you see this little family of four walking down the street in The Emperor’s New Clothes, carrying our Sigg bottles and eco-friendly shopping bags and nothing else, I give you permission to point and laugh. (By the way, IKEA bags are less than $2 and if any of you have that stupid “I am not a Plastic Bag” bag and paid more than $15 for it please come here so I can mock you. To your face.)
I’m also doing a half-ass job of buying organic and hormone-free food. Half-ass because first of all, it’s impossible, and secondly, it’s stupidly pricey living that way. And since I like to do things half-ass, this is my stance. I have never been an extremist; my motto is ‘everything in moderation.’ (Unless you put me in a bar with a whole night (i.e. three hours) ahead of me. Shee-it, they don’t call me bottle rocket for nothing, people.)
Anyway… if my half-ass efforts keep my kids a little bit healthier in the future, and keeps them from hitting pub8rty at the age of, I don’t know, five, I guess I’ll feel a little better. However, they are probably growing extra n1pples and limbs as. I. blog. since we used to heat their Avent bottles in the microwave before we knew better. Back in the olden days when we thought doing so was safe. You know, three years ago. Oh, Lawd.
In an effort to get other people to join this bandwagon with me, I’ll pass along these links:
I like angry chicken’s post on how she is slowly ridding her house of plastics. This pace — I can follow. Even though we haven’t used some of our plastic kid utensils and cups in awhile, I just can’t bear to trash them for some reason.
Like I said, organic eating is straight up expensive. I like this article in Smart Money about Buying Organic Without Breaking the Bank.
One last link: what to avoid. Which might mean your kitchen will be entirely empty by the time you are done removing the offending items. (Canned foods are bad?? Are you f’ing kidding me?) I can’t rid us of all of this… I just can’t. We have a huge cabinet dedicated to canned items: soups, vegetables, diced tomatoes… And when I make some Fra Diavolo sauce, I’ll feel bad about it, but shit I will still enjoy it. Doesn’t it count for anything that I get the Organic Brand of Cancerous Metal Canned Diced Tomatoes?
How do you all deal with this? Am I the only one buying the hype?
And can anyone else tell me how they clean their Sigg bottles? I am tortured by these products that are not dishwasher-safe but have bottle necks that are as large as my pinkie. I bought a brush, discovered it was too large, and gave it an embarrassing haircut. Seriously. We have a brush with a mohawk sitting on our sink. Please tell me your Sigg-cleaning tips.
14 Comments
i almost bought that stupid “i’m not a plastic bag” bag because i’m a trendwhore. keira knightley was strutting down the street with it in a picture in us weekly, so i thought i should have it. i also find it fascinating that the company who makes those bags cancelled their launches in beijing, shanghai, and jakarta due to concern for the safety of their customers. who knew that us asian trendwhores could turn so violent?!!
i’m totally going to order a Sigg bottle for myself and my sis. they’re so cool looking. thanks for the tip!
I haven’t clicked on the links so I’m gonna say, HUH? No canned? No plastics of any kind? Am I supposed to use GLASS glasses? This will never happen. Do they make wooden cups? Because I can’t have breakable glasses. Because I BREAK THEM.
no can rid plastics in this house . . . but i do avoid microwaving in plastic containers by using glass and ceramic. i love plastic because it doesn’t BREAK!
no, i’m not hiding or trying to stay undercover . . . as a matter of fact, i’m confused as to why a link to my blog doesn’t show up . . . hmmmm. come by as often as you like - i look forward to seeing you there!
If I got rid of all the cans, plastic, and didn’t use the microwave i might as well just not live. Seriously, I try, like you and many others, to buy organic/hormone free/cage free/unconcentrated/etc. I try to get wooden toys (but who knows if there is formaldehyde in it), use canvas bags…but unless someone gives me a personal 24 hour chef, a personal shopper…damn, a personal organic farm and farmer to boot, there just ain’t no way I can cut all the *bad* stuff out of my house and my lifestyle. Middle ground, stay the middle ground I say. Do what I can and let the rest go. At least I try here and there, that’s how I make myself feel better and able to look at myself in the mirror.
lalala I didn’t hear you about how microwaving bottles is bad lalalala or about not eating canned food lalalalala
According to Snopes.com, microwaving plastic is fine, as is reusing plastic water bottles. Who to believe?
Like you, I am a mix of concerned and practical. I try to eat a lot of organic food and bring my own bags to the grocery store. But I can only do so much! I have plenty of things to feel guilty about in life.
I’m going to go read angry chicken’s post now.
No help on the Siggs, I’m afraid. We still use wide-mouth plastic Nalgene.
We *heart* Em’s Sigg and so does she! We got the little pink toddler one with the kitty cat and flowers from our local Whole Foods. Cleaning is a pain but we use an old bottle brush to help; overall, since we only use it for water and refresh it all the time, I’m not too worried. But seriously, have you seen the instructions on how to disassemble that complicated cap?! LOL
I try not to get worked up about that stuff. Yes, it’s probably unsafe, but in general our life expectancy now is much higher than it was a hundred years ago, so I figure it all evens out.
I do try to use reusable bags at the supermarket and Target. But half the time I forget them at home.
Anything and everything on this earth can kill you. Like you said, everything in moderation. Americans are notorious for excess and in reality, that’s what’s killing us. Instead of cutting back on food and general waste, we like to blame big scary words like OBESITY, DIABETES, and CANCER on relatively benign things like plastic and your local supermarket fruit.
I really don’t buy it. Seriously, plastics have been around for a lot longer than people think and the rate of cancer has not spiked as far as I know. Also, millions upon millions of Americans, poor Americans eat regular grocery store bought food and use plastics because that is what is cheapest. I’m sure someone somewhere will point to the fact that poor people die younger than rich people but you know what? I think that has very little to do with the fact that they didn’t eat organic apples or used plastic wrap for their sandwiches.
PS Sorry for the long comment, I just get irked on the whole organic thing. It’s gotten to the point where I feel like I’m being judged if I happen to give one of my kids a piece of fruit that doesn’t have an organic sticker on it and cost me three times as much as another perfectly good piece of fruit.
Anyhoo, my city banned styrafoam containers as well as those plastic grocery bags due to their environmental impact. Guess what kind of containers my local take out restaurant gives us now? Yup, clear plastic.
I hear you. As for cleaning the Sigg - a tip from my homebrewing husband. He uses a product called One-Step which cleans with oxygen. It’s used in homebrewing to kill all the bacteria before you bottle your grog. I have been using it for 16 months on our son’s bottles, toys etc. The product works in the same theory as Oxy-Clean laundry soap but One-Step is safe for your dishes. Put some powder in, shake with hot water and woo hoo - hopefully you won’t die!
sigg knows about the problem, and has addressed it - check out page 3 of the accessories on their site - a special brush AND extra special tablets to fizz away the funky gunk. i’m mildly in on the no plastics/growth hormones/organic kick - but only for the kids. michael and i be damned, those kids will never taste the milk of a cow on the juice.
have you heard the tupperware made of kevlar bit?
It ain’t easy being green, that’s for sure. I actually don’t believe that buying 100% organic is good for the environment. Especially if you don’t live next door to an organic farm and the only way you can get organic produce is for it to be flown to you on a jet plane from thousands of miles away. Like how is that environmentally friendly? And now that the factory farms are getting on the whole organic bandwagon, i am even more wary. I wouldn’t put it past them to bribe enough people to get that Certified Organic seal on their products. I think it’s best to buy directly from whoever grows the food/animal (e.g. farmers markets, Community supported agriculture, etc.), but I know that’s difficult for most people.
HM, if you want a truly environmentally friendly alternative to buying organic at the grocery store, consider Fresh Picks. They are a family run business that delivers produce grown locally to the Chicago area. Kinda like organic Peapod. It’s probably pricey, but may be something to consider occasionally in addition to your regular grocery shopping.
As for the PVC thing, I don’t know what to think. I bought Siggs for Cadence, but those things are so f’ing hard to clean, I’m afraid I might poison her. I’ll have to see if Ted has any of that stuff ELK mentioned since he brews like 100 gallons of beer every year.
Yeah, I am half-assed when it comes to plastic. It’s so tough to avoid it. Like another of your commenters, I am notorious for breaking all things glass.
As for organic, I buy it whenever possible, but for purely unselfrighteous reasons. I think it tastes a thousand times better than non-organic.