In a world where plastic is everywhere we look, in particularly in our kitchen and toy rooms, it can be overwhelming to go from plastic to non-plastic. And is it really worth it to get rid of the plastic? Are they truly actually dangerous? Let’s look at the facts.
1. Plastic are forever. Plastic does not decompose, it’s not biodegradable and it never goes away. Throw plastic into your garbage and it ends up in our landfills and will remain there forever. Many plastics also end up in our environment, killing animals and sea life each day. More than a million birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die every year from eating or getting entangled in plastic, according to the Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation. And while there’s the option to recycle, very few in the entire world recycle. For example in the USA only 2% of Americans and only 1% worldwide recycle plastic bags.
2. Plastic is dangerous for your health – both you and your children. Studies after studies have proven that plastics, both BPA (which acts like a hormone similar to estrogen) and even BPA-free plastics can leach toxins that are known to cause cancer, asthma, and other illnesses. A recent study found plastics that are commercially found, including baby bottles, toys and BPA-free plastics leached toxins that even low doses were enough to cause a negative effect on our health.
3. The production of plastic is a contributing cause to the rise in premature babies. The Environmental Working Group reported this summer that mothers ingest and pass to their unborn babies 217 chemicals known to harm fetal brains. The chemicals come from clothing, food packaging, flame retardants, pesticides, food additives and emissions from power plants and plastic production, among other prevalent sources.
Plastics are everywhere and yet there aren’t any safe plastics. There are bad and not so bad plastic, but there is no such thing as perfectly safe plastic.
- written by Giselle Baturay, the Granola Mama
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My brother is a forensic chemist working on his doctorate, so I have a lot of info about the dangers of plastics. We have NO plastic in our kitchen or toy room. The only plastic toys we have are a few outside toys … like balls, little baseball bats, cones for playing soccer. Our kitchen-ware is all stainless steel (pots and pans and eating utensils), glass (pyrex storage, mason jars for things like beans and grains), and wood (bamboo serving/mixing utensils). Yes, it cost us a fair amount of money to toss out the plastic and move to safe materials … but it’s worth it. For the same reason that I only buy organic food for my kids, I want to have a plastic-free home as much as possible. The kids’ toys are all natural materials (I have a 14 month old, almost-3 year old, and I’m pregnant, so a wide variety of toys). Wooden blocks and trucks and cars, silks (a huge fave for dress-up), wooden and stainless steel kitchen role-play toys, homemade wooden toy shelf with cloth bins (my dad’s a carpentry expert), marble dominoes, etc. I have spent a lot of time and effort explaining to my parents how important it is to keep plastic out of our toy-room, and while I may have offended at times I realize that it’s necessary to keep my kids safe. Feel free to friend me on facebook if you have questions! (I’m Emily Voras on there)
I am a new mom and am very interested in this. While I already prefer wooden toys and play things- I admit it has been primarily a style choice. On our budget we have been able to afford these toys on sale and at second hand stores. But to replace all plastic? I don’t know how we would do it on a limited budget. Any advice? We have plastic food storage and plastic spoons/cooking utensils. We also have some plastic eating dishes but we also have stone ware dishes so buying new of those isn’t a problem.
Hi Amy, here are some ideas of how to reduce your plastics at home. Hope this helps! http://www.granolababies.com/blog/2011/04/reducing-plastics-at-home/
Yes, plastics can leach chemicals into food, but to be fair even the referenced article said that this happened when the plastic was exposed to “common-use stresses (microwaving, UV radiation, and/or autoclaving)”. I don’t know many people who microwave food in plastic anymore, let alone throw it into an autoclave. At room temperature I don’t believe there is much evidence to support a completely anti-plastic stance.
Oh Ellen, you’d be surprised at how common it still is to microwave using plastic – think of all the left over containers that are plastic. Studies have shown that it’s also leaching into foods when it’s used to serve meals that have been heated, as well as cold foods as well (i.e. ice cold drinks in plastic cups is not that uncommon). In addition to this, there is the damage that plastic is causing to our environment and our planet, which those along are reasons enough to take an anti-plastic stance.
do you have any recommendations for baby bottles? i am hoping to breastfeed exclusively but for the instance that i need to use the bottle what glass bottles are recommended. how about for freezing breast milk. what options are available?
Karen, there are glass bottles like Life Factory, and also stainless steel like Safe Sippy (also makes a stainless steel bottle now). For freezing milk, you can also freeze in small glass containers but also stainless steel ice cubes. =)
And what about sippy cups? -when the child is bigger and wants to drink her/himself but drops the cup a lot… I’m afraid to use glass, but what else?
Viktoria, we use stainless steel sports cap bottles for this purpose. My last two little ones were able to drink from a cup before age of 1 and so when we were at home they did so, and when we were out, we used the stainless steel bottles. Perhaps this can work for your family?
Kleen Kanteen makes stainless steel bottles now and as well as sippy cups and water bottles for the mommies!
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