Over the last century, plastic has creeped it’s way into almost every product we purchase. Whether something is made of plastic or not, it most likely is somehow packaged in it. There are so many different forms of plastic on the market and most of it isn’t recycled how it should be. Today, the world’s ocean contains 6 times more plastic than plankton. Every year 6.4 billion tons of plastic find their way into our oceans, a total of 18,000 pieces of plastic per km. Plastic bags are one of the most common daily uses of plastic. They are on average used for about 25 minutes, and take up to 100 years to decompose. It makes us ask, is that really worth it?

*Items include salsa, can of beans, potted succulent, yogurt, boxed coconut milk (not sure what its actually made of, it didn’t seem plastic, it is at least recyclable) and paper to go box of food. Most items in the store that were plastic free were canned and jarred goods. I definitely could not purchase a shopping list of food without buying plastic!

This challenge was extremely difficult, as you could imagine. It is nearly impossible to find anything in the supermarket that isn’t somehow contained in plastic. Even produce is normally carried in plastic bags. The first two items that I recognized as plastic free were canned goods and goods contained in class. There are a variety of goods that are made like this however the majority of goods in the store were packages in plastic somehow. I utilized the tips on the Eco challenge app gave to give me a few ideas on what to find as an alternative to plastic. One alternative to plastic is a material known as bioplastics. Bioplastics are created from renewable materials and are similar to plastic, however they are not made from crude oil. Most bioplastics are made from starch. Thermoplastic starches are created by using the starch from corn, wheat, and potatoes. This is mixed with water to produce different qualities that are useful for the product being sold, such as water resistance. Two items that I bought that were packaged in bioplastic material included yogurt and the potted succulent plant. The can I purchased was another example of a plastic alternative, as it is made from polylactic acid. Polylactic acid is a thermoplastic polyester derived from renewable resources, such as corn starch, tapioca products, or sugarcane. It is often used as a replacement to plastic due to its transparency. Polylactic acid is used to produce plastic wrap, cans, fruit containers, bottles, construction materials, lenses, and medical products.

The purpose of this challenge was not to bring cloth bags to the grocery store and bring home as much produce as possible, the purpose was to recognize how much plastic plays a role in our day to day lives. It is amazing to imagine how much plastic waste is produced just from purchasing food products alone. However, some companies are aware of this issue and chose to take action to become more sustainable in their packaging. I chose to shop at Whole Foods specifically since whole foods is known as being a company which takes initiative to become more sustainable. I found when I was at the store that although there were reserved parking spots for energy efficient cars, and different trash cans for different types of waste (landfill, plastic utensils, etc.), there were still tons of products contained in plastic, something that Whole Foods has little control over. I did some further research and found that Whole Foods actually created an initiative in 2010 by asserting new responsible packaging guidelines for all of its body care and supplement suppliers companywide. These guidelines were accepted by many vendors, with efforts being made to reduce the amount of plastic in packaging, switching to glass when possible, utilizing recyclable packing materials as often as possible, and using as much post-consumer recycled product as possible. Whole foods had also switched to post-consumer recycled (PCR) content bottles for many of their own store-brand body care and supplement products (http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-implements-new-sustainable-packaging-guidelines-for-all-).

Unfortunately there is little we as consumers can do to combat this plastic issue. It is very difficult to completely stay away from plastic packaging. However, bringing reusable bags to the grocery store is one way to save many plastic bags from being thrown away into the environment. Hopefully more companies will take sustainable initiative like Whole Foods has in order to become more sustainable with our packaging of products.