When I was in college, I spent a semester in Costa
Rica. For part of my time there, I lived with a host family that had a small farm with six cows. Every morning neighbors used
to come to buy milk, bringing whatever containers they happened to have –old
plastic soda bottles were common. Items
were reused over and over again.
Over the years, my family and I have eliminated many single-use,
disposable items from our routine. When I was a girl, I used to pack my
sandwiches for school in disposable plastic baggies. My own kids now bring their sandwiches in
washable containers. Back then, every purchase came in a paper or plastic bag. Now at my local supermarket, I see more and
more people (myself included) bringing their own bags.
Interestingly, in some instances, the trend has been in the
reverse direction. If
someone had a fever, we used a reusable glass mercury thermometer to measure
temperature. My family now uses a
digital thermometer that comes with single-use disposable plastic sleeves. Even better would be a washable reusable
thermometer that has the safety and ease of use of our digital
thermometer.
When I conducted research in a biology lab, there was an enormous
amount of single-use disposable equipment, ranging from disposable gloves to
micropipette tips. Similarly, there’s an
enormous quantity of single-use disposable items used in health care. Think about all of the disposable gloves,
syringes and plastic sleeves for
thermometers that are used in many health care facilities. It would be
interesting to compare the safety and carbon footprint of single-use equipment
(including manufacture, transport and disposal) vs. the safety and carbon
footprint of autoclaving or otherwise sterilizing and reusing equipment.
Every week Reduce Footprints blog puts out a #CTWW(change the world Wednesday) challenge.
This week’s challenge is to stop using a disposable, single-use product
for a week. When thinking about the
disposable single-use items that I use on a regular basis, I was struck by how
many of them are related to bodily fluids: tissues, toilet paper, tampons and
sanitary napkins, to name a few. I think
many folks have an automatic “Yuck!” reaction when it comes to bodily
fluids. Year ago, I had a friend who was
adamant that all new parents should use cloth diapers for their babies, but she
herself was using disposable items rather than handkerchiefs and cloth sanitary
napkins for her own bodily excretions!
I have taken on this week’s challenge, and instead of using single-use
tissues I will revert to the humble handkerchief. My husband always uses
handkerchiefs, so we have a supply in the house that I can borrow.
What about you? I’d
love to hear about any changes you’ve noticed in terms of using single-use vs.
reusable items in your life.
