How do you purge plastic when it's so pervasive?

Cutting back on plastic can mean
back on conveniences.

As I type this post, I see a plethora of plastic. It's a component of my phone case, the computer I'm typing on, the mouse at my right, the ink pen I used to write the check for my utility payment, a pencil sharpener, printer, Scotch tape holder, eyeglasses, a toy my daughter left on my desk, the insurance card I haven't filed away yet, even the chair I'm sitting on. And that's just what's in my field of view.

The first time I went grocery shopping after writing the post last month on forgoing plastic soda bottles, I found myself hyper aware of how many products I buy that rely on plastic in some form, including, but far from limited to, bread, cereal, milk, vegetables, frozen pizza, shredded and sliced cheese. I felt guilty buying them, like maybe the best thing for me to do was to quit plastic cold turkey, but then what would we have in our cupboards?

In the end, the convenience of not having to rethink the way I've been cooking my whole life won, and I went home with my usual fare. I was also feeling a little discouraged. How could I stick to any changes I make when buying plastic covered products is just so convenient?

Not long after that shopping trip, I came across a Facebook post that that I view as a good first step. It contained a link to a blogpost titled "8 bits of plastic you can quit right now" that didn't merely offer "8 bits of plastic" to quit using. It also served up 8 substitutions for readers not quite ready to give up drinking straws and toilet paper (which comes wrapped in plastic).

Stumbling across this gem of a blogpost — the photo showing blog author Sarah Wilson holding all of the plastic straws she found in the ocean during a short snorkel dive really drives her point home — did more than inform me. It also helped me realize that not all changes have to be jarring.

What do you do to minimize your use of plastic? Let me know in the comments section.

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