Lauren of all Trades: That Time That Plastic Free July Was Over...

So I missed a lot of posts this week. So much for Blogging Every Day in July. To make up for it I'm going to start August strong by mostly wrapping up Plastic Free July...

Here's how I did:

To Make Plastic Free:
Sour Cream: Which I can use for ranch dip and dressing.
Almond Milk: Not worth the money and I think it went bad also because I didn't use it right away. I was able to re-purpose it into almond yogurt which I ate with out getting food poisoning but still expensive.
Yogurt: I've been using it for ranch dip cause it's lower calorie than sour cream I think and because I made it before taking on sour cream. Now that I know how easy sour cream is, I want to try making fro-yo!
Hamburger Rolls:
Tortillas: I haven't been completely successful with these yet but I'm going to try a couple more times before I give up.
Dish Detergent:
Hummus: This was something I assigned to my roommate when he tried to buy it in plastic in front of me, but he's going to stick with homemade plastic free!
A Whole BBQ!: There were a couple of cheats but we tried really hard and, I think, did really well! The hamburgers were the hardest and the hot dogs would have been impossible if not for my roommate being able to get them from work.
Ice: For a whole party's worth of people! Requires an ice bin of some sort.

Repeated thrice a day for a whole week.

Still to do (just give me a couple weeks):
Powdered Sugar
Brown Sugar
Ketchup
Graham Crackers
Marshmallows
Pita Bread

To Buy Plastic Free:
~~A Meal at a Restaurant~~ Event though I realized what I did with the first half and half too late.
Ground Beef: Ask for it in paper or bring my own container. I don't buy it that often so I don't have a photo yet.
Coffee: There is a store in my town that roasts their own and I was able to get it plastic free by bringing my own bag.

Tea: Can repeat the same as for coffee but I'm going to use up all the tea I already have first.
Cheese: Haven't done yet but should be pretty easy to accomplish at a deli counter. Meant to do it for the BBQ but forgot and had to cheat and use stupid individually wrapped singles.
Milk: I already knew where to buy this, just a matter of detouring there once a week.

I know, the plastic lid. There's only so much I can do :(

Things I was already doing that were plastic free that I want credit for:
Toothpaste: Check!
Laundry Detergent: Check!
Reusable coffee mug: Check! And when I didn't have one, I insisted on not having a lid (easier said than done.)

Reusable bags: Check! I may have used this as an excuse to buy new ones, but the produce bags were important! I wish they weren't actually plastic (and these came packaged in plastic) but they aren't single use!

10 large bags currently $8 on Amazon!

No bottled water/drinks. I now am insistent on no bottled beverages for gatherings. Cans only!

What I've learned:

It's hard to not use straws at restaurants.

I just keep forgetting to say no.

It's hard to not get some sort of other plastic used in restaurants (a la dressing cups, etc.).

Stupid half & half.
Food court/cafeteria style eating. Holy not-something-I-would-have-thought-of. I just don't eat this way very often cause of cost and it's unhealthiness. I'm not sure what I would do about a plate, generally. Maybe I have to carry a large to go container and just try to use that. I now carry a fork and knife in a little pouch after having to use a plastic fork for my salad. All in all, take out is a wasteful style of eating. But I'd love to at least see all of this kind of waste replaced with compostable items made from corn, sugar cane, or bamboo!