It’s Your Choice

It used to be that the worst kind of plastic was the kind Granny wrapped around her sofa. 

These days, though, it’s hard to know for sure what the health impacts of our household plastics are, but we keep hearing enough ‘things that make you go hmm’ to reconsider some of what we thought were domestic life-savers.

Consider everything in your kitchen that is plastic: the baby’s bottle, the heat-sensitive spoon, the cutting boards, food storage containers, plastic wrap, yogurt and applesauce packages (and that’s just a start). Now consider this: when you heat your child’s mac & cheese in a plastic storage container in the microwave, the combination of hot fatty cheese and plastic is lethal. According to our sources, most chemicals that leach from plastic love fat, and the high temperatures speed up the leaching process into the fat that’s in the food.

So, just in case you want to play it safe, we got some tips from Roz Heintzman, Contributing Editor at Green Living Magazine, on how to make some easy switches from that plastic landfill you have at home.

1. A “dishwasher” or “microwave-safe” label on plastic containers only means that they shouldn’t melt, crack or fall apart when exposed to high temperatures. We know you don’t want to hear this, but Roz tells us you really should hand wash your plastic food storage containers to reduce leaching.
2. Worried about plastic wrap touching your food, especially your warm or hot food? Use waxed paper (a Savvy fave for many other things too) or parchment paper instead.
3. Corningware and Pyrex are great glass and ceramic food storage solutions that are widely available. (Just don’t use the plastic lid when heating.) Check out Corningware’s new “Colours” collection. (Canadian Tire has some glass sets from Anchor Hocking that we like too. It’s a switch we made at Savvy HQ that we’re feeling good about.)
4. If you have plastic cutting boards, replace them with the more attractive (and less toxic perhaps) bamboo or wood choices.
5. For baby bottles, try the old-school glass bottles. A new plastic baby bottle is available from BornFree that is free of the (hormone-disrupting, they say—it is an artificial estrogen) chemical Bisphenol A.
6. When packing lunches for the kids, plastic storage is unavoidable. (Recycled paper bags are oh-so-retro, but there is nothing cute about a squashed cheese sandwich.) Use a stainless steel insulated storage container for the heated foods. For drinks, if you’re up for investing in this new reduced-plastic approach (and you think they’ll make it home from school), it’s worth getting everyone a Sigg water bottle. It’s the aluminum Swiss classic that is the latest ‘must-have’.
7. Watch those numbers (as in the resin code inside the little triangle symbol you’ve seen on your household plastics). We always wondered what they were too! When possible choose plastics #1 PETE, #2 HDPE, #4 LDPE and #5 PP and avoid #3 PVC, #6 PS and #7 polycarbonate. (For more on the plastics in our kitchens and alternatives to them, check out this guide from the CHEC Healthehouse.)

Maybe Grandma knew what she was doing with the plastic on the sofa. She clearly couldn’t find a use for it in the kitchen.

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