Packaging, Plastic, and Picky Eaters

I’m guilty. This week, my trash can is filled with single use pouches from baby foods, wrappers, packaging, and other random plastics.

What is it about convenience that seems to win out over even the staunch environmentalist’s thinking?

I’ll say this: having a two year old who refuses to come inside to eat will make you opt for convenience. I would rather him eat a squeezable pouch of food while playing outside than having the battle that comes with getting him inside. Otherwise, I get him inside and he is so mad that he will refuse to eat. Not to mention he is the pickiest eater I have ever seen.

I am also tired of feeding the ants and whatever else eats the mountains of food he drops outside when I try to do the more sustainable thing and bring a bowl of something out to him. So, excessive packaging it is, right?

One contributing factor in this whole situation is the lack of bulk food buying options in my town. Even at the organic grocery store, there are bins of nuts, candy, granola, pasta, rice, and dried fruits but that’s it. Everything else comes in a plastic wrapping of some kind and/ or plastic bag with a box. This is especially true for things you buy to make lunches.

If you are like us, you try to make and bring lunch to work most days. That makes for a lot of this plastic wrapping and bags. Much of it is not recyclable, so what else do you do?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have the time to make my own chips or bread and have no idea how to make fruit snacks. Even buying fresh lunch meat from the deli produces plastic wrapping and wax paper.

I guess there really isn’t a solution to every issue for everyone in all parts of the country. I suppose we can all buy what we can in bulk, recyclable packaging, and try to get the largest packages possible to reduce this waste.

In the meantime, I will be working on how to get a two year old to eat things that aren’t individually packaged. Maybe tricking him into it would work?