Saturday Special: Junk Food and Up(down)cycled Plastic
What do feta cheese, KFC side dishes, and sliced lunch meats have in common? Sounds to me like a creative use of leftovers known in my house as Cauhape Soopreeze!
photo by Sue Cauhape
Seriously, while searching for environmentally safe packaging for food purchases, I've collected an array of plastic containers. These include sturdy bowls with lids from sliced lunch meats, side dishes from KFC chicken dinners, and grated cheeses, etc.
Besides the fact Jeff and I devour possibly the worst diet ever, I'm stacking up quite a pile of things I can't bring myself to throw in the trash. A recent article about recycling plastics, revealed that any plastic marked #3 through #7 can't be recycled by transfer dump stations. Nobody knows how to remake that material into something useful. So it ends up in the ocean or other parts of the environment.
So far, I've managed to cleanse my shopping list of most of this. When Jeff had to return to the office to work, he needed a lunch everyday. I found a cloth bag with its own sandwich box that fits snuggly in a "basement" portion of the bag. Huzzah! I don't have to buy sandwich wrap. What about all the rest of the garbage snacks and fruit? Many of those already come packaged, but grapes, trail mix, pretzels, or whatever needs a baggy.
Lightning struck my aging brain as I sorted through the containers in my cupboard. I could still use these for anything but soup. To my dismay, I couldn't find 'ramen' products in anything but Styrofoam. Sigh Small cans of soup might do, though, and the cans are recyclable.
Also, after sprinkling the last of the feta cheese into a rice dish last night, I washed it out to hold a fistful of junk food for Jeff's munching jags. He's a bit wrangler data administrator and requires crunchy foods to gnaw on. (And NO, this man does not eat veggies … ever … not even when they're cooked.)
While proud of saving money at the snack machines, I realized I'd cut out possibly his only exercise opportunity at work. Oh well. Let him eat his cake while walking around the block!
This morning, I assembled an average lunch of turkey and Swiss on seed bread, grapes, pretzels, trail mix, a couple of cheese sticks, and fruit bars. YAK! I know. Run for the hills. Nevertheless, I feel much better about the prospects of less waste if not better nutrition. Possibilities for better nutrition have just opened wider.
And yes, dear readers, I know this is a silly blurb about something more of you have already been doing for years. Thank you for indulging my excitement.
Update regarding the linked article above: Those clamshell containers are #1s, so they can be thrown in with the #1 and #2 plastics.
"While proud of saving money at the snack machines, I realized I'd cut out possibly his only exercise opportunity at work...." Oh, the irony! Good luck to you on your new crusade, Sue. It is more difficult when you are deciding for two people -- one possibly a little more reluctant than the other?
Awesome post, Sue! I reuse containers as much as possible - I use (inherited) ice-cream tubs for all kinds of things, and my source for those tubs has told me that the manufacturers are now packaging their product in cardboard instead - now, that's not a bad thing in terms of recycling, but in terms of reuse, well, they're missing a trick.
Every time I cook a meal I make loads and freeze half a dozen portions in tubs, and tip the frozen blocks out to store in the freezer in small polythene bags, which I also reuse (unless they've been used for raw meat). I always keep used bags-in-waiting IN the freezer, so any moisture or tiny bits of food residue on them don't cause them to spoil.
And jars! Jars get reused a gazillion times. We use and reuse tiny little plastic tubs for snacks on the go, and always take our own coffee with us when we're out.