Okay, now that the major baby bottle manufacturers have agreed to remove Bisphenol-A from their products, we can all rest easy, right? Well, if we live in the US where they’re doing that or in Canada where the gov’mint is making them do that, yes. However, if you live in a developing country, you might want to breastfeed.
Of course, you might want to breastfeed anyway, since it’s usually a better option than bottle feeding, but not everyone can or wants to and they should have that choice. And what if you breastfeed but want to expel milk and put it into a bottle? I’d recommend glass if you don’t live in the US or Canada, so that your babies aren’t exposed to this estrogen mimic.
But lest you think that BPA is only an issue for babies, let’s talk about beverage containers and food cans. Sure, you’ve ditched that water bottle, but do you still drink seltzer or soda also? Do you drink beer? Juice in plastic bottles? How about that chili you made last night with canned beans? Baked beans?
I can hear you saying that you’ll bite the bullet and spend the extra money to buy organic canned goods from now on. Well, that’s good, except that, as far as I can find out, only 2 brands of organic canned goods are lined with BPA. Yup. Unless you buy Eden beans, rice and non-tomato products or Henry and Lisa’s Natural Seafood products, you’re getting BPA in your canned goods.
What really bothers me is that some of our former favorite brands contain BPA. Daughter practically lived on Annie’s canned pasta for awhile and we’ve eaten an ocean of Muir Glen soups. Zevia, a diet soda made with stevia, was the only soft drink I let my kids drink and I mixed it with half a shot of whiskey for my nightly “cocktail” throughout the winter months. I even recommended it to my readers, friends and family as a safe alternative to diet soda.
Eden uses a slightly more expensive can liner made from tree resin. Why can’t the other manufacturers do the same? As more companies create a demand for this product, the price will fall due to competition. Until that happens, my container of choice is glass. Santa Barbara Olives come in jars. So do Lucini tomato products. I’m sure there are plenty of alternatives to canned products.
One I just found is Virgil’s Diet Cola and other flavors. My kids love the root beer. It’s made with stevia and while it’s not as tasty as Zevia, it improves considerably – as does almost any beverage – when I add half a shot of Jim Beam to it.
Recent revelations that very low doses of BPA still cause neurological and endocrine system damage and a very recent Yale study that shows that it stays in the body much longer than previously thought, just add urgency to the need to get it out of the food supply. Then we can work on getting it out of the CD’s, refrigerator shelves, auto parts and millions of other items that it’s in, so that it will stop leeching into our water supply and our soil.
But that’s another post.
I don’t think there’s any question that plastic is losing its appeal with consumers. Like a lot of other things, plastic’s true cost on the environment and our bodies is making it look a lot more expensive when compared to natural materials. Bisphenol-A leaching from baby bottles and soft drink cans has recently been identified as a health threat and so have phthalates, which are used to soften plastic. Baby bibs made of polyvinylchloride were recalled because they contained lead.
Many of us are trying to eliminate or at least reduce the plastic items in our lives, but it’s not easy. When you look around your kitchen and bathroom, it may seem as though almost everything comes in plastic containers these days. Detergent, lotions, potions and food. For instance, where in the world can you find a bottle of ketchup that isn’t made from plastic? Or a bottle of shampoo?
If you’re under 45, you may not remember a world without plastic, but those of us who grew up in the 50′s and 60′s remember when plastic was the alternative rather than the first choice for many things that are made from plastic now. The most common materials in those days were glass and stainless steel. Maybe it’s time to reconsider those two materials, along with other natural substances, as you try to remove plastic and its chemicals from your environment.
Impossible, you say, to find substitutes for plastic? Difficult, maybe, but it can be done. Let’s start with kitchen plastics. Many people started to use plastic when the microwave oven became the most common way to cook. Not a good idea. Heating plastic releases bisphenol-A and other toxins. Much better to use glass or corning ware. If you’re addicted to frozen dinners, at least remove them from their plastic trays and cook them on a dinner plate. I use an old glass crockpot cover over the plate also, instead of a plastic microwave cover.
For storing food, why not use glass jars? I use large pickle jars to store flour, grains and coffee. They make good cookie jars also. You can often find them or something similar at yard sales, where I find a lot of natural material containers. For drinking bottles, we use stainless steel bottles from Kleen Kanteen. Ditto for travel mugs for coffee. And for making the coffee, we use a stainless steel percolator that makes much better coffee – and keeps it hotter – than those drip coffeemakers with the plastic baskets and water reservoirs.
For dish soap, I use liquid glycerine soap. I bring it home from the local natural products store, where I fill my own glass container from a bulk barrel. At home, I use a funnel to pour it into stainless steel bottles with small tops. It’s easy to pour out a little at a time that way. One goes to each bathroom sink and tub to be used like any liquid soap, while one stays at the kitchen sink for dishwashing. I do the same for natural laundry soap, which I also buy in bulk.
Toiletries are a real problem when you’re trying to cut down on plastic, because almost everything comes in a plastic bottle, and glass isn’t practical in bathrooms, where it could be a safety hazard. One approach is to buy plastic bottles, but then pour everything into stainless steel bottles. Another approach is to cut down on unnecessary products by using dual purpose things.
Do you know that you can use one bar as a shampoo and a bath soap? Burt’s Bees Rosemary Mint Shampoo Bar With Oat Protein and Pro Vitamin B5 smells divine, lathers amazingly and cleans hair and skin without drying or irritation. There are other brands out there also. Shampoo bars don’t need preservatives because they don’t have water in them and they don’t need plastic packaging. They’re great for traveling and last just as long as a bottle of shampoo, if not longer.
But what about all those lotions and potions that we slather on our skin everyday? They’re all in plastic bottles and we need them, don’t we? Well, maybe not, but we sure do like them. So instead of giving up skin softeners, why not go natural and soften your skin at the same time? Olive oil, coconut oil (which is solid at room temperature and smells really nice), jojoba oil, almond oil, cocoa butter and shea butter are all wonderful for softening and conditioning skin and many of them come in non-plastic containers.
Buy them in large containers and put them into smaller containers that you can stash where you need them. I keep a container of jojoba oil in my shower, so that I can pour a couple of drops into my wet hands and apply it to my face. I have Rosacea and jojoba oil is very soothing. It moisturizes without making my skin oily. I have coconut oil in a little tin next to the sink, so that we can apply it after we wash dishes. My daughter, who gets chapped skin in the winter, has a small glass bottle of olive oil next to her bed, so that she can put it on her lips and cheeks at night.
These are just some of the ways you can reduce the plastic stuff in your life. As you add more naturally derived materials to your world, you’ll find that it’s easier to think of ways to do without plastic. The human race has only had plastic for about a hundred years, and it’s only in the last forty or so years that it’s become so much a part of our lives. Almost everything that’s made of plastic has a better, more natural counterpart. We just have to use our ingenuity and find it.
