Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Replace Plastic With Glass




In the past, I've often reused my plastic tub containers, such as ones for cream cheese, to store left-overs. But with the bisphenal-A scare, plastic is not such a user-friendly material any more. Even if you don't have any more polycarbonate bottles or bowls, many experts caution against microwaving food in any type of plastic bowl, since the plastic breaks down in the heat and leaches chemcials onto the food.

So that 's why this tip I read in National Geographic's Green Guide magazine is such a no-brainer: instead of saving plastic containers for food storage, save glass ones instead. Glass is safe to microwave, so you don't have to take the extra step of putting leftover food in a microwave-safe container.



So my Thrifty Green Thursday Tip of the Week is save your glass jars and bowls and recycle the plastic ones. For more tips, click here.

7 comments:

Joy said...

Thanks for the reminder! I'm going to work on this! We're so glad you could join us for Thrifty Green Thursday this week!

CanCan said...

I have been thinking this same thing!

Wayfaring Wanderer said...

Cody always gets on to me for heating things up in plastic.....I've been doing it for so long, I forget! Glass is the better alternative, thanks for sharing.

Rebecca said...

I was so happy the day Portland started recycling those plastic tubs. I did the same thing you did: at first I reused the tubs for food storage. Then I just saved the tubs and dropped them in a recycling bin at a grocery store that claimed to recycle them. Then I stopped buying anything that came in a tub.

Now I do use glass jars for food storage, and I still TRY not to buy things in tubs, even though they're recyclable. My cupboards have been a lot neater since I stopped hoarding them!

Thanks for joining us for another Thrifty Green Thursday!

MaryAnn Ashley said...

Great tip. I'm trying to figure out a better filtration system for water so we can ditch the plastic there too.

Angela said...

I used to keep all my bulk goods in platic storage tubs, but switched to large mason jars last year. they look so much prettier in my pantry, and i feel better not storing food longterm in plastics. thanks for sharing!

www.larksongknits.com

EatPlayLove said...

I use canning jars to drink out of, I love them.

BTW, I highly recommend Multi-Pure water filtration systems, they are fabulous, I've had mine for 6 years.