Judy Ulrich

I will visit a co-op or zero waste store to check out my local options for bulk products and plastic-free items.

This will count for both at home and in the go - purchased a set of reusable metal straws that included a carry bag and a cleaning brush

So there are always metal caps on glass bottles or plastic caps on glass bottles or on paper cartons that cannot be put back on original container before the container is placed in recycling bin. And the caps are too small to go into recycling bin separately. I have now received the TerraCycle box I purchased for bottle caps & am putting those little separate bottle caps into the box. I purchased the smallest box but it is plenty big and I will be able to fill it with lots and lots of caps before I mail it back to TerraCycle for recycling. 😊

I will complete a plastic consumption calculator to learn about my plastic footprint.

So glass bottle come with plastic or metal top & cartons come with plastic caps that are not supposed to go into the recycling bin with the glass jars and paper cartons. I ordered a TerraCycle box that I will be able to put those bottle caps in instead of throwing them out. Once the box is full I mail it back to TerraCycle with the pre-paid mailing label and both plastic and metal caps will be recycled instead of trashed.

I have Ridwell subscription recycling pick up. In addition to the 4 main categories (threads, plastic film, batteries, & light bulbs) that are picked up every two weeks for every pick up there is a featured category. By reading for up coming featured categories I found out that there will be a multi-layer plastic featured pick up scheduled for March 10th. It includes resealable food bags,frozen & fresh food bags, plastic bags for fry pet food & treats, thin wrappers w/shiny lining, plastic granola bar and energy bar wrappers, chip bags, plastic candy & candy bar wrappers, crunchy plastic food bags, potting soil, fertilizer and bark bags, woven plastic bags, and produce netting. These are all things that usually have to go in trash.

I collect plastic grocery bags from friends and family and use them for dog walk poop pick up instead of buying new doggy poop bags. And when I walk the dog I will also pick up trash and add it to the bags so the bags do double duty for dog poop and trash pick up. If the plastic grocery bags I collect are too damaged to use I add them to my Ridwell “plastic film” category.

When I have things I am no longer using or will not use I post them on my FaceBook Buy Nothing group site to see if someone else can use it & I check postings to see if somebody else in the group is giving away things that I can use. This way we reduce things going in the trash that can be used by somebody else.

I will swap 1 prepackaged snacks for unpackaged fruits or veggies or homemade or bulk items each time we need more.

I will watch a documentary film about plastic waste with family and friends and talk about what we learned.