Toxic Plastic

We are well into ridding our kitchen from plastic. The more I read about plastic the more horrified I get. I could kick myself continually for all the early plastic stuff that Little B has been exposed too. I have also been surprised by how much food comes in plastic containers that are considered bad – why put sugar in #3 plastic?? Really why??.

I’m lucky Mr B is a coffee addict and I have a HUGE stash of ex-coffee jars to store my baking stuff in. I’ve also become more creative with stuff I currently have. An old round salad bowl has become my mixing bowl for cooking (till we can find what we want at the op shop). My salad bowls etc have become super handy right about now. So have all my old canisters that were for tea or empty.

I’ve repurposed most of my kitchen plastic to Mr B’s garage. There he is storing his screws, nails etc in funky new containers.

Also Little B starts kindy in a few weeks and must have a lunchbox he can open. We’ve invested in a stainless steel lunchbox (Lunchbot Duo) and he already has a stainless steel water bottle.

Next on my chuck out list (as $$ permit) are any of our saucepans with non stick coatings (we currently have half stainless steel, half non-stick), all plastic utensils (most have gone but the rest need replacing) and working on the last big stuff in our pantry like bread flour still in plastic. I’m on the look out for an old fashioned ceramic bread flour container.

I threw out all of our microwave plastic yesterday after learning even #5’s will leach into food when heated. I’m lucky I grew up in a household that used glass, ceramic and stainless steel mostly but I shudder for Little B. Hopefully its early enough to stop the damage we have been doing to his health (and our health for that matter).

Today I managed to pick up some gorgeous Japanese stoneware bowls and pots from the op shop that can be used to store and reheat food. I’ve decided to check in once a week with a couple of op shops that have great kitchen ware sections and hope to keep picking up what I need.