I did the responsible thing and got reusable plastic containers for our kids.
Then I found out that they leach all sorts of endocrine-disrupting enzymes. So we switched to glass containers.
My kids broke those. So we switched back to the plastic containers with the understanding that we shouldn’t heat them in the microwave or wash them in high temps.
But my kids keep losing the lids.
So now I am stuck with the following compromise: if each reusable container keeps X-thousand plastic bags out of landfills, and my kids can’t seem to make a reusable container last more than six months, aren’t I better off just using the baggies that are more efficiently manufactured?
I feel the same way when people give me a reusable bag that I’ll never use. “Oh, this bag is equivalent to ten thousand grocery bags,” they’ll say. But if I went around giving people ten housand grocery bags for promotional purposes I’d be lableled as an environmental terrorist.
How many paper cups does it take to offset one stainless steel reusable mug? Is it actually worth it given how often they break/get lost?
This is the main reason I am hugely in favor of pressuring companies to make disposable stuff truly disposable; my nagging suspicion is that it’s actually the more environmentally friendly approach.
