2) Twice the Plastic for Twice the Freshness... and Garbage

Remember when buying lunch meat meant going to the butcher counter, pointing to your slab o' meat of choice, and receiving a package neatly wrapped in butcher paper? And you made sure to eat it before it had a chance to go bad, because otherwise that was a waste of money. And even when it might have started to go a little south, no worries, just fry it up! Not so now. We don't have time for those kinds of shenanigans. Nope... we need our lunch meats in pre-packaged plastic containers and if we don't eat it in time, just throw it away.

What price do we pay for convenience? In my weekly coupon search, I noticed Hillshire Farms is touting that their lunch meat is "Sealed Twice for Fresh Taste." Well, that sounds great, right? I have to wonder how many people buy that product and actually re-use the container. Those actually ARE containers that can be re-used many times. That would at least be something positive. I'm not sure that happens much, though. But on top of that, the product is sealed in an inner pouch. There's nothing to do with that except throw it away. There's not a lot of meat in these packages. How much are we buying in new containers and sealed pouches? Again, we wouldn't want it going bad before we had a chance to eat it all. And sealing it so much is actually a way to trick people into thinking it doesn't have all the crap in it that it really has. "Hmm, look at all that sealing, must mean it is so fresh and wonderful that it has to be extra-protected. It MUST be good for us!"

Uh-uh. Now, I'm not advocating to not eat meat. I still eat it. I'm just saying watch the packaging. If you can avoid products like this (and you can), then you should. We don't need to put all this extra plastic into the world. Send a message to these companies that we neither expect nor want this kind of excess garbage in the environment. It's staggering to think of how many of these are sold in just one day... let's make it a little bit less.

Oh, and go visit your butchers' counter. There's pretty good stuff there, and they might be lonely. Who knows? You might actually have a real conversation. I know. It's scary. Try it anyway.

1) Individually-wrapped Produce

Most fruit already comes in its own container. If you see a banana IN another container then shrink-wrapped, RUN. Wait, no, don't run... first find anyone in charge at that store and make your concerns well-known. And point out you will not feel the need to shop there until they change their suppliers. USE YOUR DOLLARS. Make change by spending money wisely. Then run. To a different store.

My biggest pet peeve by far on this is individually-wrapped prunes. Oh... sometimes they call them dried plums. Because that has more sex appeal. Or something. Anyway. No one but NO one needs these things wrapped in their own cellophane. If you can't have your prunes touching other prunes in the package, do the planet a favor and just skip eating prunes. If your prunes just aren't staying fresh enough for you in between prune snacking, see previous suggestion. If you think your kids will eat them more readily because they seem like candy when they are individually wrapped... see previous comment. Prunes are wonderful, I love prunes, I think they are delicious and healthy. But DO NOT EVER buy those ones that are sealed in their own little plastic coffins. If we stop buying them, Sun Sweet will stop packaging them like that, and we'll all be better off!

Un-necessities

So, it's Sunday, and to me that means football. Wait... no... I meant coupons. Yes, part of my Sunday ritual is getting the paper and going through coupons. I used to clip a lot more. Now, I find, a lot of those products are things I've discovered I don't really need/use anymore.

I have started to look through the Sunday coupons with a much more discerning eye. Sure, that's $2 off, but do I really NEED it? A lot of times if a product has lots of extra packaging, I'll decide I don't really need to try that product. Paper towels? Don't use 'em enough to bother. Paper napkins? Nope. Shampoo??? No. Deodorant? Nope. I have greener alternatives to those products.

That got me to thinking... this week is a good week to talk about unnecessary "things" we have accepted without much thought into our lives. I'm going to look over some of these things that we use every day, and see if I can't point out some other better products, or even plant some doubt if we need the items in question at all. It's time to be wiser as consumers. If we demand better, we can get better. If we start rejecting stupid packaging, then manufacturers will stop the waste. It's the power oof our dollars. We can do this. It's up to us, and we HAVE the power to make the change. BE the change.

Stay tuned! And as always, chime in with your ideas, experiences, thoughts, etc!