Ideal for EatingEating ethically while eating great!

This is the end.

We collected our food packaging for 46 days, surpassing our goal of 40 days. We started on Sunday, April 18 and stopped on Wednesday, June 2.

We are a 40-year-old mom, a 42-year-old dad, a 15-year-old girl, a 14-year-old girl, and a 3-year-old boy.

I (Kelly) work from home and eat most of my meals at home. My husband works from home when he is in town, but he has been out of town for most of this experiment. My daughters and son go to school. My older daughter usually takes a lunch to school. But she likes to take processed, single-serve meals. My younger daughter and son get lunch from school. Both of their schools use washable plates and utensils.

We tried to bring home food packaging that we got away from home. In other words, when we got a snack a Starbucks, we'd bring home the food bags and cups. We already had reusable travel mugs for hot drinks. As soon as Starbucks started selling the reusable cold drink cups, we bought those, too. But there were some things we didn't bring home, either because the item was too dirty or we just didn't think about bringing it home. I can only imagine how much food packaging my husband used on his travels. None of that came home, of course.

So our collection does not perfectly reflect our actual consumption. Considering how much stuff is in the tub, the fact that it's not complete bothers me.

What have we learned?

We learned that we use a lot of processed foods. We learned that there is an incredible amount of unnecessary  packaging with most processed foods. We have a better idea of how much food packaging is used and wasted in this country, and that idea makes us really sad.

We learned that it takes planning and effort to reduce the amount of food packaging we use. Processed foods are quicker and easier to prepare than meals from scratch. But meals prepared from scratch tend to be associated with less food packaging. The challenge is in planning meals ahead of time and finding the time to cook from scratch.

My current favorite packaged cookies are Back to Nature's Granola Cookies with Chocolate Chunks. Ten cookies come in a two-welled plastic container inside plastic wrap inside a recycled cardboard box. Let's figure out how much packaging is associated with homemade cookies.

I'll compare Back to Nature's cookies with this recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup smooth nut butter
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup soymilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup non-dairy chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts or walnuts

This recipe makes 24 cookies and depletes no food packaging. You could make this recipe 20 times with just one 5-pound bag of flour. You could make this recipe 10 times with just one 5-pound bag of sugar. You could make this recipe 24 times with just one carton of soymilk. You could make this recipe 4 times with one 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips.

Am I ready and willing to give up packaged cookies and bake all of our cookies from scratch?

I think I am. Alright, I am. I can't expect my husband or my kids or anyone else to reduce their consumption of food packaging until I reduce mine. I will start with my cookies.

Before I get commitments from my husband and kids, I will make my own commitments:

• I will bake my own cookies, muffins and other sweets.
• I will switch to whole-bean coffee in my drip machine (instead of using my Senseo on a daily basis).
• I will use a reusable mug or cup at coffee shops.
• I will take a reusable (stainless steel) bottle of water out with me so that I won't need to buy bottled water.
• I will buy more from the bulk bins at Right by Nature or Market District.

I will add more as I think of them. But this will be a good start.

My daughters will be leaving for the summer in a week. So I'll have to do the first approaching-zero-packaging experiment while they're away. 

Thank you for following our experiment. I hope it has inspired as much as repulsed you!