Tackling the Question of Plastic

An assessment of the many things we buy that are packaged in plastic is eye-opening. Food, personal care items, cleaning stuff - a lot of it comes to us from the store wrapped, encased and stored in plastic. A look around the bathroom reveals liquid soaps, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, bathroom cleaners, toothpaste - and that does not include things like toothbrushes and razors, which are disposable in whole or in part. In the kitchen, food containers, dish detergent bottles, various storage containers, laundry soap container - all plastic. The medicine cabinet is full of plastic bottles and tubes. And of course many of the things we use are made of plastic too. So the first thing to do is to make some decisions about what it is sensible for us to try and change, and what we will live with - at least for now, unless and until we learn of other solutions.

Reuse and recycle - two of the words that are supposed to help us reduce garbage, and a good place to start from here. The reuse of plastic containers is limited by the space available to store those reused containers in, and that is particularly true on the boat where space and efficient storage are always the prime consideration. And by their usefulness for the purpose contemplated. There is a good side to this: on board plastic can keep goods normally stored in paper or cardboard dry and free of creatures or mould. Bulk goods packed in smaller containers may stay fresh longer, since I can bring out small portions at a time and the whole won’t be exposed every time a container is opened. And repackaging reduces the chance of finding that unexpected hitchhikers have arrived with the cardboard you brought aboard - like cockroaches, a pet hate of ours.

Recycling is easier is some places than others, and there are places where it is not available at all. Even where it is available it is often limited to only some types of plastics; and sometimes those plastics travel a long way to get to the facilities where they are broken down to be reused, which means that they use even more resources. So recycling is an option only some of the time and with only some plastic containers. At this point recycling is only a partial solution.

Any plastic that is not reused or recycled is going to end up in the garbage, wherever we go. And from wherever we leave it it may make its way to a garbage dump or into the water and to the sea, where it will continue to drift around until it ends up in the belly of some sea-creature or part of the plastic island in the Pacific. (See information on the plastic garbage island) We really hate to contribute to that.

At this point the best option seems to be to cut down as much as possible on buying goods and groceries packaged in plastic. In some cases, this means changing what we buy - bar soaps instead of liquid soap and shampoo, powdered detergent (phosphate free, of course) instead of liquid, and bar soap for hand washing clothes. Which means doing some research on different kinds of soaps and what they are best used for. In other cases, buying concentrated forms of products like cleaning liquids would help reduce the number of containers which are incidentally purchased along with them. In some cases making our own things is a help - making our own yogurt, for instance. And finding the things we need packaged in different ways may be an option too. The thought of doing some of our own canning is one we can explore, but the use of fuel and our need to purchase some of the equipment would make it an expensive endeavour.

Time to make a start - might as well start with learning more about soaps.