She has become my new favorite greenie. Check out her
blog here! She has great tips and ideas for healthy living/eating. She also has an amazing cook book called The Balanced Plate.
View some of her plastic tips below that you may not have thought about!
1. DON’T MIX HOT FOODS AND PLASTIC.
Putting hot stuff in plastic containers is never a good idea. The chemicals and additives in plastic, which are not especially stable, are released when plastic is heated and can leach into food and drink. Fatty foods and plastic are the worst combination of all because the chemicals in plastic are more soluble in fat, so they leach greater amounts of those chemicals into fatty foods.
2. USE LESS PLASTIC CLING WRAP.
Plastic wrap is a mainstay in kitchen everywhere, though its clingy convenience comes at quite a cost. Most plastic wraps are made with the worst kind of plastics (PVC and its cousins), which are laden with softening chemicals like phthalates and plasticizers that are believed to readily migrate into foods. Please, for your sake, never put plastic wrap in the microwave – try covering food with a glass or ceramic lid or plate, unbleached wax, parchment paper or a paper towel instead.
Reusable glass containers with lids and unbleached parchment paper are great, greener alternatives for storing food.
3. TOSS OUT OLD, SCRATCHED PLASTIC CONTAINERS.
Plastic containers that are scratched and cracked leach more unwanted chemicals into food and drinks than new containers do, Any plastic that is worse for the wear should not be used for foods. As plastic containers wear out, replace them with glass containers with lids for long-lasting, safer food storage. Unfortunately, many plastic containers can’t be recycled, but they can be repurposed for organizing stuff in drawers, closets, and offices or used as gardening tools.
4. GO FOR GLASS CONTAINERS.
For food storage, glass containers are the safest, greenest, most long-lasting way to go. They come in all shapes and sizes, and with tight-fitting lids for all of the convenience and non of the concern. A n eco-bonus is that glass containers can last for decades, and even if they suffer an untimely demise, they can be recycled with the glass bottles.
5. RETHINK PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES
Plastic water bottles are the bane of eco-green living, and they’re pretty impossible to avoid. The reality is that we require fluids to live and we need something to carry it them in. Plastic bottles have been the standard up until recently, but glass and stainless steel water bottles are great, green options that will let you avoid ingesting the chemicals that migrate from plastic and contributing to the 30 million plastic water bottles disposed of every day in the U.S.
To learn more about Safer Plastics and so much more, check out Easy Green Living: the ultimate guide to simple, eco-friendly choices for you and your home by Renée Loux
