Life Without Plastic Is Possible. It’s Just Very Hard.

Life Without Plastic(ˈplastik) Is Possible. It’s Just Very Hard.

Going plastic free starts with cloth(klôTH) bags and straws(strô). Suddenly, you’re … making your own toothpaste(ˈto͞oTHˌpāst)?

By Steven Kurutz

For Beth(beTh) Terry, the epiphany(iˈpifənē) came when she read an article about how albatross(-ˌträs,ˈalbəˌtrôs) chicks(CHik) are being killed by discarded(diˈskärd) plastics. It was time to banish(ˈbaniSH) plastic from her life.

First, she focused(ˈfōkəs) on her kitchen(ˈkiCHən) and got rid(rid) of the shopping bags, microwaveable(ˈmīkrəˌwāv) Stouffer’s macaroni(ˌmakəˈrōnē) and cheese(CHēz), Clif energy(ˈenərjē) bars and the prewashed(prēˈwäSH) salads(ˈsaləd) in plastic tubs.

Then she turned to her bathroom, where she switched to shampoo(SHamˈpo͞o) bars instead of bottles and made her own hair(he(ə)r) conditioner(kənˈdiSH(ə)nər) from apple cider(ˈsīdər) vinegar(ˈvinəgər). Toothpaste without plastic packaging was exceptionally(ikˈsepSHənəlē) hard to find, so she started making her own with baking(bāk) soda(ˈsōdə).

Sometimes her personal war on plastic created awkward(ˈôkwərd) moments. During a vacation(vāˈkāSHən,və-) to Disneyland(ˈdiznē) in California to run a half-marathon(ˈmarəˌTHän), Ms.(miz) Terry and her husband left their reusable cloth bags in the hotel, soon discovering that the local supermarket only had plastic bags. How to carry a bunch of apples, oranges(ˈär-,ˈôrənj
), avocados(ˌavəˈkädō,ˌävə-) and melons(ˈmelən)?

“We just rolled it up in our T-shirts and carried it that way,” said Ms. Terry, 54, recalling how she crab(krab)-walked back to the hotel to stay true to her principles. “If I let myself off the hook this time, it would be easier for me to take plastic next time.”

Treating(trēt) plastic like a drug habit that needs to be kicked is a lifestyle pledge(plej) being shared by more and more consumers, horrified(ˈhôrəˌfī) by the tens of millions of metric(ˈmetrik) tons(tôN,tən
) of plastic created worldwide each year, much of it in the form of single-use items like straws, that end up in landfills(ˈlan(d)ˌfil) or, worse, the oceans.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/style/plastic-free-living.html