Six Ways to Avoid Plastic Wrap
So you’re trying hard to reduce single-use plastic, but some things are really hard to avoid. I admit, Saran Wrap is SO convenient. Let’s be perfectly clear though (no pun intended!), plastic wraps are not accepted in your recycling bin. Nor are they accepted at grocery stores that take back your plastic bags and other stretchy plastic film. Saran Wrap IS stretchy, but sorry…I called Trex, the company that collects this plastic film from the grocery stores to make deck flooring and furniture out of the recycled plastic. They don’t take Saran Wrap. Period.
The good news…there are great alternatives that don’t involve any single-use plastic. Here are my 6 go-to alternatives:
1. A plate
I’m not sure why I was several months into my low-waste journey before I realized this obvious choice. A plate is always available and, if you’re like me, you have 3-4 sizes of plates in your cupboard. I use this alternative most often when I am needing to cover something for a just a few hours or overnight, like veggies I’ve prepped for a meal I’m making but I’m not yet ready to use. As my friend, Brigid, advises, this is probably not the best option for very pungent (think garlicky) dishes that need a tighter lid to prevent aromas from penetrating other foods in the fridge.
2. A bowl cover
A friend recently gifted these to me in three sizes. I use these ALL the time. They look a bit like shower caps with elastic around the edge. I love that these work with different shaped bowls, even little rectangular appetizer dishes. And they are so adorable. My friend got these from Etsy.
3. Beeswax covers
These take a bit of adjustment, but not much. Rather than the wrap clinging to your container, the material sticks to itself. These are particularly useful as a way to wrap a half a lemon, onion or a piece of cheese. The food stays fresh for a long time and you avoid the contact with plastic. I get my beeswax covers from Etee’s and I also really like their beeswax snack bags which are great for storing, well, snacks. The only drawback I’ve found with beeswax is that it isn’t advisable to put these wraps in the freezer.
4. Glass jars
Glass jars. Ah, the mascot of the zero waste movement is the glass jar. This dates to when Bea Johnson posed with her year’s worth of trash in a mason jar. If you’ve started down the zero waste path, you’ve almost inevitably been cleaning, de-labelling and reusing your glass jars for any number of things. They are great for leftovers or just about anything and they go in the fridge and freezer. Just be sure to label your freezer jars so you remember what you put there weeks and months later. And be sure to leave some space between the food and the cover so the glass doesn’t crack as liquids expand when they freeze.
5. Glass food storage containers
Many die-hard zero wasters will tell you it’s not necessary to buy new things to embark on this journey. That’s technically true, but I really believe it helps to have a decent supply of glass food storage containers on hand. For us, that’s about 10. These are especially crucial for take-out orders. Stainless steel containers are also great for this purpose, but they are more expensive. The other advantage of glass/Pyrex containers (same with glass jars) is you can easily see what’s inside so there’s no guess work to what’s in your fridge.
6. Cloth
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Bringing salad to a friend’s dinner shortly after deciding to avoid plastic brought a flash of creativity. No plate or beeswax cover I owned was large enough to fit over my salad bowl. So I grabbed a clean kitchen towel and a large rubber band and voila!...I successfully covered and transported the salad to my friend’s place.
Any other ideas you’ve come up with to avoid plastic wrap? Please do share!
