Plastic Not Fantastic, Part 1: Kitchen and Foodstuffs

While it would be nice if we could afford to replace every single plastic thing we own with safe alternatives (and force at gunpoint the federal government to mandate safe chemicals over toxic ones), the best we can do, at least at my house, is minimize risk.  For easy reference, see below. There will be some blank spaces and things I've forgotten, and I plan to add to this list and link it off the front page -- so please offer suggestions in the comments! I'll fill them in later.

(Also: This is a process. I know I'm only a little ways along, and am constantly improving; we do what we can, you know? Try not to let it overwhelm you, and take it one garage sale at a time.)

Part 1 of this series will be Kitchen and Foodstuffs; Part 2, Baby and Child; Part 3, Bathroom and Personal Care; Part 4, Miscellaneous, Other Household Chemicals, and Links. Some things will appear on more than one list.

So here we go: Kitchen and Foodstuffs

Environmental Science & Technology (big site, general, very interesting, with good news too)Great Basic Article with Tips (thanks, arb!)
Alternatives to Plastic
Co-Op America article on Greener Plastics

Food Storage:

• Plastic bags: <a href="http://www.greenfeet.com/unbleached-natural-wax-paper-bags.html">wax paper bags</a>, glass food containers
• Tupperware-style containers: glass containers (may be found at Ikea), Ball jars with metal lids, stainless steel tiffin
• Vinyl lunch bag (children's): brown paper bag, cloth bag. Aside from being a particularly bad off-gasser, vinyl is usually coated with a lead-containing powder. Yum.
• Cling wrap: cloth (for microwave especially), wax paper.

Eating and Drinking

• Unbreakable dishes: stainless steel dishes, wooden dishes, bamboo dishes
• Plastic children's utensils: stainless steel, or stainless steel dipped in silicone (Gerber)
• Sippy cups: SIGG bottles
• Plastic water bottles: stainless steel bottle (Klean Kanteen)
• Water filtration: First, check here to find out what's in your municipal water supply (don't forget about in-house contamination from lead and PVC pipes); from there, go here to check out the articles on filtration. I imagine the leaching from a tap-mounted filter would be minimal; however, the polycarbonate Brita/Pur pitchers might leach bisphenol-A. Even the expensive distillers have some plastic parts, but I think as long as you're storing the finished product in glass or ceramic it should be fine.
• Bottled water: 5-gallon jugs are generally polycarbonate, which leaches bisphenol-A. Small bottles leach a variety of things and additionally create tons and tons of landfill waste and create pollution in their manufacture. Cheap and safe answer: filter your tap water with a tap-mounted filter and pour it into a reusable non-plastic water bottle.
• Microwave popcorn: either pop on stove or in brown paper lunch bag in microwave

Making Baby Food

• Ice cube trays: aluminum (may have its own issues, though) or silicone*
• Food mill: stainless steel food mill (though some plastic parts are probably not a concern, as contact with food is minimal and brief)
• Blender: Glass blender (see food mill notes re: plastic parts)
• Defrosting container: ceramic ramekin (microwaveable)
• More baby info, including bottles, to appear in Part 2.

Cooking and Heating

• Article on cookware and bakeware

• Nonstick pots and pans: Stainless steel, cast iron, enameled cast iron (check garage sales!)
• Plastic utensils: Stainless steel, wood
• Microwave: Use ceramic dishes only, no plastic

So...what else?

*Technically silicone is a plastic, yes, but it seems to be chemically inert and stable

Comments

[jess]

My mom has just gone on a similar kick, especially with her pots & pans, getting rid of aluminum & non-stick items. I've been curious about silicone bakeware - so wonderful to use! Surely it must be horrible for us. But you haven't seen any stats on it?

[Lee]

FYi, those Bamboo (Bambu) dishes were recently panned big-time by Consumers Reports (leaky and what-not).

[Jo]

We actually have one of those silver teethers! (Gift from uncle EJ) Sophia digs it.

I can't find anything bad on silicone...hmm.

Leaky bamboo, huh? Well, it figures. Feh.

And Cat, if you're following the tips in the first link, I think you're minimizing risk -- i.e. not heating the bottle with milk in it, replacing when worn, etc. You can store it in glass jars in the fridge, yeah? (The milk, I mean)

[jess]

PS - Raw milk in plastic jugs? Beyond wrong. Mine comes in 1/2 gallon mason jars.

[Lioness]

*sigh*

You know, this is what I'be been intuiting, and then you proved me right. The timing was so perfect I fled to IKEA and bought a few glass containers to replace tupperwares and stainless steel bowls in several shapes to replace plastic bowls, including the ones the cats and dog DRANK from, and stainless steel utensils as well - and I spent close to 70 Euros I don't have but everything will have to be replaced slowly and it will never be a good time and if I can find the money for fags what would be my excuse for further poisoning myself?

Thank you. You are a true public service, and I am a grateful listener.

[Jen (yup, another one)]

So about the not heating of bottles - what about cleaning/sterilizing them? Is the issue heating in general or heating when they have milk in them?

[Melissa]

Are Nalgene or Melamine safe?

[Melissa]

Are Nalgene or Melamine safe?

[Lisa]

This is lightly off topic, but maybe you can use it as a question for Part 2: I recently spent a lot of money on an organic crib mattress. But now it seems that all of the available matress pads that might help me protect this precious mattress have vinyl or other plastics in them. Any thoughts on an alternative?

[Emerald Market Girl (a.k.a. the artist formerly known as Chookooloonks)]

Hi --

Normally, I wouldn't hawk my site here, but since it's on topic:

I've just started a new shopping blog which features the best organic/fair trade/sustainable/green stuff I can find on the web. It's called Emerald Market:

http://emeraldmarket.typepad.com

Not all of the products that were talked about on this post are on the site yet (the site's only a week old), but it's amazing how many things are green or sustainably made that you wouldn't even think of.

I invite all of you to check it out, and e-mail me your feedback. It's great that this conversation is happening about how we can make the world a greener place.

K.

[Lioness]

I'm sure you all know this already but the future vet in me is forcing me to write this: boiling bottles - or anything really - doesn't sterilise them, it disinfects them. Sterilising means all microganisms AND their spores have been destroyed, disinfection means the majority of microrganisms have been destroyed but not the spores. You can use a pressure cooker as an autoclave and boil materials that can stand 120ºC (I think) for abt 30 min.

Also, I recently came across a paper by a researhcer that found out that a mix of vinegar/peroxide is far more effective in killing bacteria than anything we might buy, a the advantage that it doesn't create any resistances:

http://my.execpc.com/~mjstouff/articles/vinegar.html
(this is safe for salad disinfecting as well)

And this is abt sponges etc in the kitchen, pretty scary:
http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arch/9_14_96/bob2.htm

[Bethany]

I've been researching water filters for a while. I literally gag on the chlorine in ours in the morning, and we frequently get periods of even higher chlorine in the summer time when the E. Coli in the bay is high.

(And then I followed your link and found that, despite our city's yearly water report that our water is in fact some of the cleanest in the state, it had more violations than any other city in our state I could think of to enter. Yikes.)

So today I received a filter from Aquasana:

http://www.aquasana.com/?&discountcode=wfcg

They have a pretty good sale right now and I joined their Water for Life program which means they'll send me new filters every 6 months at a discounted rate and free shipping.

Here's a comparison chart:

http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/WaterFilter_Comparison.cfm

(Though I have a sneaking suspicion that chart is put out by Aquasana..FYI.)

In any case, I hooked it up and had a whole new glass of water. No chlorine taste at all (and no VOCs to go with it).

You do so much research and pass it on in your blog, so I thought I'd pass mine on to you!