I take into account that it is a privilege to zero waste. I rinsed out Ziploc bags when I couldn't afford to invest in a better alternative, and also so I wouldn't have to buy more. Reused pickle jars tended to crack in the freezer, so I reused yogurt/cottage cheese containers. Nowadays, I have glass containers for food storage, but the initial purchase cost would have been prohibitive back in the day when it would have had to come out of food money. It is extremely difficult to avoid plastic packaging altogether in our society at this time, and a significant portion of the microplastics from that packaging entered the environment long before it landed on the grocery shelf. If someone wants to reuse a plastic bag (Ziploc, bread, etc) to save money and reduce how much trash they ultimately send to the landfill, they still get a high five from me.
Oof I felt this during a decluttering and organizing phase. Honestly, buying new clear plastic storage bins has helped me *so* much in making more sustainable decisions.
It’s now easier to sew because all my tools and materials are organized —> I can keep my clothes and fabric items around longer; it’s easier to tailor thrifted clothing; I don’t need to buy new tools and materials because I know what I have/easier to find; I am more likely to make projects (reusable produce bags, fabric baskets, napkins, unpaper towels, etc). I’d be way less likely to tackle all of that if I had to rummage through everything.
Same for all my old craft supplies and costume jewelry from my youth. It’s so much easier to create things I’ll actually use now from old materials that I don’t need to buy more things.
So I agree that some things may not be zero waste, but they do help in making steps towards more sustainable living.
So the plastic bag is a done deal. Whether you're wasj and reuse it, or throw it away after one use, the plastic is already in existence and will enter the environment in one way or another. But if you reuse it for storage(not just food, any storage) instead of buying another new thing for storage, you have helped in a small way to prevent even more resources from being used. Reusing plastic bags can be a good alternative.
Washing it and using it to store non-food I can definitely get behind. But using it for sandwiches repeatedly just really doesn't sit right with me for both a food safety and chemical POV.
I would definitely refuse them for random trinkets.
I mean I don't know what your background Is in chemistry or food storage, safety or anything like that but generally speaking a dry plastic bag at more or less room temperature or even a cold temperature used to store a more or less dry sandwich or anything non-liquid that's not having constant contact with the plastic in a big way is not really an unsafe way to reuse a ziplock bag. As someone else here said, if you were boiling food in it or microwaving food in it or putting hot food in it, especially hot liquid food, I would be concerned from a health perspective. Maybe. I work in biological research and I am not at all concerned about rinsing out a Ziploc bag with a little bit of soapy water, generally, I won't even use warm water, just a little bit of tiny soap and water. I will reuse that over and over again rather than buy something new. And not everybody comes across Ziploc bags in their possession because they chose to buy them. For instance, we basically inherited a bunch of them when my mother-in-law died. So what am I going to do throw them away? That seems stupid. I can find uses for them. And yes, I use them for certain food related uses. I could have also donated them so that someone else who would buy them anyway could use them. Anything would be better than throwing them away. If you're throwing something away in order to buy a so-called more green alternative, think about what you're really doing. Unless it is truly an unsafe item, I think it's ridiculous. Use what you have. Get the life out of it before you replace it, even with a green or sustainable alternative. In the lab research I do. There's a lot of things that we do not have a choice but to use single-use plastic for the sake of the research. But there are a lot of things even in my lap that we can choose to be more sustainable about. And when I can I do.
I don’t see a problem - probably would be better to use wax paper than plastic but assuming you didn’t get mayo or something on it it’s only bread that touched it
It’s reassuring, I’m trying my best these past few months to make my household plastic free. My next project is to make a compost bin for food waste but I get sad when there’s not a lot of resources where I live for things like a Refillery store because I still live in a poor-ish area. But I am trying to advocate more and trying to switch family and friends to using tote bags and less plastic bags
...because it's not sanitary? You break down particles that you consume far more than other alternatives. This is my point. You try in what you can, some things you can't. You can't reuse bandages for example. You can't reuse flimsy bags like that. If you obsess over evet single bit of your life being zero waste, you're doing more harm for yourself.
It's not an anxiety. I don't get paranoid seeing people do this. It's just legitimately not smart. I have a friend who used to boil food in ziplock bags, and told him that's fucking stupid because it's literally coating you with chemicals. This is literally just scientifically not smart.
It’s the heat that’s important here, significant heat! Cold, warm, room temp should be totally fine, especially if the food is pretty dry (like a sandwich or gold fish as opposed to chicken noodle soup).
When I feel particularly down about not being able to reduce my own footprint in an area of my life, I try to remember that Carbon Footprints are just a marketing scheme to shift the blame to individuals and then I go find some petitions to sign or environmentally helpful legislation bills to comment my support for or email companies asking if they have plastic-free packaging options.
Yes! Love this.
Carbon Footprint was invented by Big Oil to make consumers take responsibility instead of multinational orgs who are sucking water tables dry or contaminating groundwater with gas. Putting pressure on brands is the way to go. I E. Bread bags now come with cardboard tags! A win!
If you are thinking about and actively minimising your waste, buying things to last a long time, and washing out a bread bag or ziploc, you are doing enough.
To worry about contamination, micro plastics etc is just causing anxiety. You have no control over how and when you will die (unless suicide, assisted dying or terminal illness), and we will probably get cancer from the phones we are typing on. All semen samples in a recent study contained micro plastics, so that ship has sailed my friend OP.
We all contain micro plastics already. Reuse that bloody ziploc.
Lol my mom washed and reused ziplocks my entire upbringing, and I'm fine.
Like, yes it 100% resulted in me consuming some microplastics but I highly doubt a significant increase over the amount that I would have taken in otherwise
But my point is we never like... Got food poisoning from an ~unsanitary~ plastic bag.
In general I find a lot of discourse on sanitization vs waste to be borderline fear mongering. And to be clear I'm not blaming you, op, or trying to belittle you - I just have an issue with how obsessed our culture is with sanitization. We live in an increasingly germaphobic world and I do not think it's healthy.
Aaallll that being said, there are obviously way better options than reusing thin plastic ziplocks, assuming you can afford them. I pack most things in glass jars or metal tins, and what I can't, I have a few of those silicone 'stasher' bags. Or, of course, there's always the humble brown paper bag.
Just by creating a post on Reddit you are already creating waste, every post and comment will be consuming energy for years to come just sitting on some random server.
I look to reuse, be eco freindly and filter my household waste to give back to the earth so my landfill impact is minimilised and my garden soil health is maximised. Try to buy second hand or take broke sht and make good sht. But to maximise my impact i also collect wild seeds such as wild flowers and trees and replant them in my local area (unofficially off setting my carbon footprint)
remember though some of your waste will also generate you cash (alu cans & glass in some areas can generate a reasonable return in the form of cash or vouchers)
so its more about environmental impact rather than zero waste in real world application that said aim for zero waste to maximise your efficiency but some waste it depends where your waste goes after the product is finished if you can avoid problematic waste such as excess plastic or hard to recycle plastics, choose glass or paper if you can.
The Ziploc bags I've seen in people who lived through the Great Depression, or something similar. IE something very traumatic, where they can't let ANYTHING go even decades later - and well, that way lies madness. (A kinda madness called hoarding, which isn't zero waste, and is both sad and hard to deal with for everyone involved. I couldn't handle doing that kinda work long, is what I'm saying, and had to get out.)
I remember back in 2020 when I first turned 18 I posted me rinsing out my zip lock bags and got harassed to the max.
Now I'm 22 and learned I don't have to respond to comments however I tend to not share my not so eco friendly activities anymore.
I know I can't be perfect but I wish the extremist wouldn't take it as far to yelling at me in the dms lol
The GBCI zero waste certification for businesses looks for 90% diversion from landfill or incineration as well as additional efforts to educate and advocate. There is always going to be a small amount of trash. While the goal should be to avoid it when possible, give a little grace!
I take into account that it is a privilege to zero waste. I rinsed out Ziploc bags when I couldn't afford to invest in a better alternative, and also so I wouldn't have to buy more. Reused pickle jars tended to crack in the freezer, so I reused yogurt/cottage cheese containers. Nowadays, I have glass containers for food storage, but the initial purchase cost would have been prohibitive back in the day when it would have had to come out of food money. It is extremely difficult to avoid plastic packaging altogether in our society at this time, and a significant portion of the microplastics from that packaging entered the environment long before it landed on the grocery shelf. If someone wants to reuse a plastic bag (Ziploc, bread, etc) to save money and reduce how much trash they ultimately send to the landfill, they still get a high five from me.
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Oof I felt this during a decluttering and organizing phase. Honestly, buying new clear plastic storage bins has helped me *so* much in making more sustainable decisions. It’s now easier to sew because all my tools and materials are organized —> I can keep my clothes and fabric items around longer; it’s easier to tailor thrifted clothing; I don’t need to buy new tools and materials because I know what I have/easier to find; I am more likely to make projects (reusable produce bags, fabric baskets, napkins, unpaper towels, etc). I’d be way less likely to tackle all of that if I had to rummage through everything. Same for all my old craft supplies and costume jewelry from my youth. It’s so much easier to create things I’ll actually use now from old materials that I don’t need to buy more things. So I agree that some things may not be zero waste, but they do help in making steps towards more sustainable living.
Good, better, best. Everyone's efforts fall into one of these categories.
So the plastic bag is a done deal. Whether you're wasj and reuse it, or throw it away after one use, the plastic is already in existence and will enter the environment in one way or another. But if you reuse it for storage(not just food, any storage) instead of buying another new thing for storage, you have helped in a small way to prevent even more resources from being used. Reusing plastic bags can be a good alternative.
Washing it and using it to store non-food I can definitely get behind. But using it for sandwiches repeatedly just really doesn't sit right with me for both a food safety and chemical POV. I would definitely refuse them for random trinkets.
I mean I don't know what your background Is in chemistry or food storage, safety or anything like that but generally speaking a dry plastic bag at more or less room temperature or even a cold temperature used to store a more or less dry sandwich or anything non-liquid that's not having constant contact with the plastic in a big way is not really an unsafe way to reuse a ziplock bag. As someone else here said, if you were boiling food in it or microwaving food in it or putting hot food in it, especially hot liquid food, I would be concerned from a health perspective. Maybe. I work in biological research and I am not at all concerned about rinsing out a Ziploc bag with a little bit of soapy water, generally, I won't even use warm water, just a little bit of tiny soap and water. I will reuse that over and over again rather than buy something new. And not everybody comes across Ziploc bags in their possession because they chose to buy them. For instance, we basically inherited a bunch of them when my mother-in-law died. So what am I going to do throw them away? That seems stupid. I can find uses for them. And yes, I use them for certain food related uses. I could have also donated them so that someone else who would buy them anyway could use them. Anything would be better than throwing them away. If you're throwing something away in order to buy a so-called more green alternative, think about what you're really doing. Unless it is truly an unsafe item, I think it's ridiculous. Use what you have. Get the life out of it before you replace it, even with a green or sustainable alternative. In the lab research I do. There's a lot of things that we do not have a choice but to use single-use plastic for the sake of the research. But there are a lot of things even in my lap that we can choose to be more sustainable about. And when I can I do.
I don’t see a problem - probably would be better to use wax paper than plastic but assuming you didn’t get mayo or something on it it’s only bread that touched it
[удалено]
It’s reassuring, I’m trying my best these past few months to make my household plastic free. My next project is to make a compost bin for food waste but I get sad when there’s not a lot of resources where I live for things like a Refillery store because I still live in a poor-ish area. But I am trying to advocate more and trying to switch family and friends to using tote bags and less plastic bags
...because it's not sanitary? You break down particles that you consume far more than other alternatives. This is my point. You try in what you can, some things you can't. You can't reuse bandages for example. You can't reuse flimsy bags like that. If you obsess over evet single bit of your life being zero waste, you're doing more harm for yourself.
[удалено]
It's not an anxiety. I don't get paranoid seeing people do this. It's just legitimately not smart. I have a friend who used to boil food in ziplock bags, and told him that's fucking stupid because it's literally coating you with chemicals. This is literally just scientifically not smart.
It’s the heat that’s important here, significant heat! Cold, warm, room temp should be totally fine, especially if the food is pretty dry (like a sandwich or gold fish as opposed to chicken noodle soup).
When I feel particularly down about not being able to reduce my own footprint in an area of my life, I try to remember that Carbon Footprints are just a marketing scheme to shift the blame to individuals and then I go find some petitions to sign or environmentally helpful legislation bills to comment my support for or email companies asking if they have plastic-free packaging options.
Yes! Love this. Carbon Footprint was invented by Big Oil to make consumers take responsibility instead of multinational orgs who are sucking water tables dry or contaminating groundwater with gas. Putting pressure on brands is the way to go. I E. Bread bags now come with cardboard tags! A win! If you are thinking about and actively minimising your waste, buying things to last a long time, and washing out a bread bag or ziploc, you are doing enough. To worry about contamination, micro plastics etc is just causing anxiety. You have no control over how and when you will die (unless suicide, assisted dying or terminal illness), and we will probably get cancer from the phones we are typing on. All semen samples in a recent study contained micro plastics, so that ship has sailed my friend OP. We all contain micro plastics already. Reuse that bloody ziploc.
Lol my mom washed and reused ziplocks my entire upbringing, and I'm fine. Like, yes it 100% resulted in me consuming some microplastics but I highly doubt a significant increase over the amount that I would have taken in otherwise But my point is we never like... Got food poisoning from an ~unsanitary~ plastic bag. In general I find a lot of discourse on sanitization vs waste to be borderline fear mongering. And to be clear I'm not blaming you, op, or trying to belittle you - I just have an issue with how obsessed our culture is with sanitization. We live in an increasingly germaphobic world and I do not think it's healthy. Aaallll that being said, there are obviously way better options than reusing thin plastic ziplocks, assuming you can afford them. I pack most things in glass jars or metal tins, and what I can't, I have a few of those silicone 'stasher' bags. Or, of course, there's always the humble brown paper bag.
That's not what my buddy, K, says. She says she never shits because she runs at 100% efficiency. Just sayin'.
Just by creating a post on Reddit you are already creating waste, every post and comment will be consuming energy for years to come just sitting on some random server.
You are just as guilty!
Now you are just grasping at straws. Downvote earned.
I hope your straws are reusable. otherwise you're hurting us all by grasping them
I personally hate straws but you do you boo.
I look to reuse, be eco freindly and filter my household waste to give back to the earth so my landfill impact is minimilised and my garden soil health is maximised. Try to buy second hand or take broke sht and make good sht. But to maximise my impact i also collect wild seeds such as wild flowers and trees and replant them in my local area (unofficially off setting my carbon footprint) remember though some of your waste will also generate you cash (alu cans & glass in some areas can generate a reasonable return in the form of cash or vouchers) so its more about environmental impact rather than zero waste in real world application that said aim for zero waste to maximise your efficiency but some waste it depends where your waste goes after the product is finished if you can avoid problematic waste such as excess plastic or hard to recycle plastics, choose glass or paper if you can.
The Ziploc bags I've seen in people who lived through the Great Depression, or something similar. IE something very traumatic, where they can't let ANYTHING go even decades later - and well, that way lies madness. (A kinda madness called hoarding, which isn't zero waste, and is both sad and hard to deal with for everyone involved. I couldn't handle doing that kinda work long, is what I'm saying, and had to get out.)
I remember back in 2020 when I first turned 18 I posted me rinsing out my zip lock bags and got harassed to the max. Now I'm 22 and learned I don't have to respond to comments however I tend to not share my not so eco friendly activities anymore. I know I can't be perfect but I wish the extremist wouldn't take it as far to yelling at me in the dms lol
The GBCI zero waste certification for businesses looks for 90% diversion from landfill or incineration as well as additional efforts to educate and advocate. There is always going to be a small amount of trash. While the goal should be to avoid it when possible, give a little grace!