My two eldest children have been getting on my case about the amount of plastics we use and the amount of disposable items that our family “supports” that end up either in the recycling or the trash. As green and aware as I want to be, I also fully admit that the realities of herding a single parent family sometimes reinforce my choosing convenience over environmentally sound. Besides, it sometimes feels like opening a huge can of worms or a battle that no matter what I try to do I never will fully be able to win…
I thought I was supposed to buy groceries and items in disposable, recyclable containers—this often means plastic. It has recently been brought to my attention, however, that plastic is BAD—a prime cancer-causing product and, according to my eldest, buying items in plastic—even the recyclable kind promotes the use of petroleum products and environmentally unsound practices. Okay, what does that actually mean for a busy single parent? Am I supposed to take my own glass mason jars or linen pillow cases to the grocery store to put bulk items in?
I thought that if I re-used plastic water bottles instead of buying new, we were making progress—but it seems that it would be better to use glass and maybe tap water is safer than the plastic-bottled kind? Is getting the newspaper a waste of paper even if gets recycled? Probably—plus there are all those days that the paper goes directly from the bench on the front stoop directly into the recycling.
As modern and green as I try to be as a parent and as considerate as we try to be as a family, I realize that my children are far more savvy about this than I am and their expectations are higher. Not to mention, I’m starting to feel a bit guilty every time I either throw something away or put it in the recycling (I thought recycling was supposed to make me feel better!) While I am proud of my kids and their awareness, I cannot help but feel the burden of the disposable dilemma as I try to juggle hectic, modern family life!
See Also: the FRUGAL Blog and the HOME Blog