With so many attractive plastic storage boxes, containers, bottles etc available in the market today, it is very easy to get lured by them, due to which we end up buying a lot of plastic objects.
But plastics are quite harmful for the Environment. Increasingly, it is being found that plastics also have several negative effects on human health. Here is an in depth article on 7 dangers from plastic use.
Here are four easy ways through which, we can reduce plastic usage in our kitchens:
- One of the easy and healthy things to do is to replace all plastic water bottles with steel or glass bottles, whichever is more convenient.Plastic bottles have come into fashion only in the last couple of decades. Not very long ago, as children, we used to carry steel bottles to school. At home, we had glass bottles for storing water in the refrigerator (which were typically empty Roohafza and/or Ketchup bottles). Many homes also had clay gharas/surahis for keeping water cool, but that is another story !Today, plastic bottles have displaced almost all other types of water bottles. If you wonder why you must stop using plastic bottles, please read What’s the problem with plastic bottles?
If we look around we can easily find several alternatives to plastic bottles.
Many bottles are available in different materials, including glass, steel, copper etc, in various designs, shapes & sizes.These include Glass Water Bottle, Copper Water Bottle, Steel Bottle, and Designer Glass Water, Milk and Juice Bottle etc.
Kids school water bottles are also available in non-plastic materials, including this one which is made of stainless steel.There are a number of Glass bottles and dispensers, which are very good for storing oils too, eg. No Drip Oil Bottle and Mosaic Oil Dispenser.
Although uncommon these days, a few companies do make glass feeding bottles for infants like Glass Nurser
and Glass Feeding Bottle
.
and 
.
Say NO to plastic bags and opt for reusable jute/cloth/paper bags. Whenever stepping out of the house for shopping, remember to carry your own bag. Keeping a couple of reusable bags in the car is also a good idea, in case you forget.Just by doing this simple step if we can avoid bringing home one plastic bag per day, that would account to 365 less plastic bags being dumped in a year per person!
- When you need disposable serve ware for parties, avoid using Styrofoam as its neither good for environment (being non biodegradable) nor is it good for our health. There are a number of eco-friendly options forserveware, including those from Ecoleafplates, which are made using palm leaves.Another option is Ecoware, which makes serveware from natural plant fibre. They have a wide range which can be easily ordered online too like Disposable Drinking Cups, Plates and Bowls.
- With the increasing use of microwave ovens in the kitchen, people started buying more and more plastic bowls which are microwaveable. Although use of microwave is in itself a Big NO, but that is a separate topic of discussion. For now we should understand that by using plastic containers in microwave for heating, chemicals leach out into our food from the heated plastic which poses dangers to health. All these can be avoided easily by using glass dish, bowls etc. in the microwave.
These are some of the easy ways that can reduce our consumption of plastics. We would love to hear from you, your ideas to decrease dependence on plastics in our lives. So please do share them with us!
Very informative article with practical alternatives to avoid using plastics. Just wanted to point out that there is another healthy alternative for water bottles – copper. When water is stored in copper bottles for more than eight hours, small quantities of copper get dissolved in the water and this is beneficial for us. There are various companies selling copper bottles http://www.amazon.in/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=copper+bottles.
Great content, good read and informative. Learned a lot today.