Ruth’s household plastics inventory

I’m going to survey my home environment and catalog all of the plastics in it. I’ve been working for quite a while to reduce and eliminate plastics; and I want to see where I am and if I can go further.

I just read Count Down: How Our Modern World Is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development, and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race. And though I’m no longer of reproductive age, I want to be an example for my children and grandchildren. I admit there are some uses that will stay. I’m willing to discuss those choices.

If anyone feels like doing something similar, please start another thread. But conversation on my journey is welcome.

The entry and living room

My house was built in 1957, so most of the original building materials are pre-plastics era.
But the paints are likely latex/acrylic now. The floor is wood and I chose a wool rug, which was harder to find than I thought it would be.
The replacement windows are vinyl.

In the closet, the hangers are plastic, as is the LED fixture on the ceiling.
Most of the furniture is “antique” so real wood and natural fabrics. I’m not sure what the fabric content of curtains is, nor decorative cushions. I’m guessing synthetics, probably polyester.

The exception in furniture is the brand new couch. There was no way I could justify the cost of buying cotton or wool upholstery; besides they were all blends anyway. But I do cover the polyester couch with a cotton cover. I regret having the thing treated for stain repellence.

The only plywood in this room is custom built-in bookcases. Particleboard only in the ceiling fan blades. Nope, still have a small IKEA bookcase in this room.

All of my wall art and tchotchkes are of natural materials, metal, glass, ceramic, wood.
The exception might be the “silk” greenery I use at the tops of the windows. Yep; polyester.

I have a lot of books. I’m assuming that the glossy covers have some component of plastic in their composition.

Grandchild’s toys are a mix of vintage and modern. The kitchenware is old metal and the dishes are china. The dolls are old, but plastic of some sort. The animal sheds/barns are wood, but most of the animals are a heavy plastic. A few bins are plastic and there is a modern plastic xylophone contraption ( that could be disposed) and a small plastic dollhouse and furnishings. There is also a large bin of Bakelite buttons that get sorted frequently. The matchbox toys are all older. The dominos are probably a Bakelite variant. The puzzles are cardboard, but again, like the book covers, probably have a plastic component in the pictures.

Hmm.

And of course the lamps and electronics have wire coverings. Oh, and the CD covers are acrylic.

Two larger toy vehicles, bought recently to transport the animals to the “beach” off the deck, are plastic.

Ah. Two of my table pretties have been called out as “resin” which I’m sure is a plastic.

Oh, and the case of the canister vacuum cleaner; which also lives in the closet. (First time in my life I’ve had a coat closet!)

>2 2wonderY: tchotchkes

That was a new word for me. I had to look it up. One lives and learns.

>3 John5918: I like the challenge of spelling it correctly 🤔

The majority of the animals are made by Schleich. From their website:

Schleich products are made of various plastics and dyes, which are carefully selected to meet the respective requirements. Some of the most important plastics we use are polyvinyl chloride (PVC), thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), in addition to other plastics typical for toys.

From another commentator:
Unfortunately, Schleich figurines are made of PVC, and they only mention being free of the phthalates that are banned in children's toys. Dec 1, 2020
https://gimmethegoodstuff.org/safe-toy-guide/

Will be reviewing that page with interest.

Speaking of children’s plastic toys, grandbaby was recently gifted with an Identity Games toy. It is a plastic cylinder that contains grain-sized multicolor plastic pellets and small plastic toys intermixed. The point is to shake or roll it around to find all the tiny toys. It is sealed very well. This one had ocean and beach related contents.

I wrote to the manufacturer:
“ COMMENTS
Someone gave one of your products to my grandchild. I am appalled that it contains tiny plastic bits that will eventually be released to the environment when the case breaks. I’d like to return it to you for responsible recycling. It’s very sad that you are marketing a toy that celebrates the ocean while contributing to its contamination and destruction.”

They responded:
“ Thank you for your clear position on protecting the environment. It sounds like it may be a good choice for you or your grandchild’s parents to speak with the gift giver to make them aware of the types of gifts you prefer them to receive. We have a limited warranty against manufacturer defects of which this won’t apply. I recommend that if you are not interested in keeping our product, you donate it to someone who would enjoy it.”

5: "The majority of the animals are made by Schleich."

My #2 was heavily into Schleich horses, from ponies to draught horses, mares, foals and stallions. Unless 'senior management' has passed them on to a school jumble sale, there's a bag of them somewhere in the house. They were surprisingly heavy.

All the best with the project.

>7 Cynfelyn: And the detail is excellent. My collection of animals has been haphazard, but long term. Besides toys for general play, we used to go to dollhouse shows and shops. And I’ve always been on the lookout to add to our Christmas crèche. So household and barnyard animals predominate. We were acting out The Three Little Pigs story so often, I finally hid the wolf for a bit. My throat went sore. Her favorite animals are the dog pack and sometimes the bears. They get into all kinds of troubles.

There is no dining room; table is in the kitchen. Let’s not go in there just now. That’s going to be the most aggravating room, I think.

the bedrooms

I guess the biggest unknown, but probable plastic content is the mattresses. Mine is just a discount Serta, so latex foam and polyester fabric. I bought a Tuft & Needle for my dad during his last illness, liked it, so I bought another for the guest bedroom. You’d think they’d be forthcoming about materials content. Nope. So again foam interior and whe knows what the exterior is made of. I buy up old cotton sheets at thrift shops. The older, the softer, the better. Cotton quilts and old wool blankets. Foam rubber pillows; my one expensive sleep aid.
Again, vintage furniture, wood floors. The only synthetic clothing I own is winter tights. They truly have made all the difference in me staying warm. In order to minimize the microfiber shedding, I wash them by hand. Partly for environmental reasons, but mostly it extends their life. (Probably because they shed less?)

I have plastic Rubbermaid bins under the bed for storage.
I see I have collected four Nuk pacifiers in a bowl by my bed. That’s for grandbaby’s nap time. They are latex. If I were the mom, they would be gone.
More books, more toys; mostly old. A pretty good collection of dinosaurs and dragons in one basket that get heavy play time. All plastic, of course.
Might add more here if I see anything else.

Good for you. I might be scared to do such a survey (even though I try not to get plastic things, for the most part). That being said, I bet there are a ton of things I simply don't know are made from plastic. :'(

One of my plastic pet peeves - on all the alternate milks, there is a plastic cap. Boooo! What's the point!? Just fold it (like we all used to do with the 2L "regular" milk containers) and it pours much nicer than out of the plastic cap, anyway. I even wrote to one company all proud of their container because it's made from plant products - except that stupid little cap! (Of course, I heard nothing back.)

>10 LibraryCin: Yeah! That is such a stupid “improvement.”

bathroom area

Tile floor and tub surround. Not much obvious plastic. Bath knobs and shower hose, basic cleaning tools and bottles of cleaners.

But here is where alternatives to plastic might be coming, but still not easy to find. All toiletries are packaged in plastic. Medicines, vitamins, cough medicines, mouthwash, toothpaste and toothbrushes, pills in blister packs. My practice has been to not allow consumable liquids to remain in a plastic bottle. I transfer mouthwash to glass bottles. That’s more an aesthetic choice than meaningful.
I recycle everything possible; but I’m no longer confident of the municipal handling of these items.
Not much else in that area besides grandbaby’s plastic potty chair. (She gets a piece of chocolate every successful sit. It’s coming along. She has become a connoisseur of chocolates.)

I have never subscribed to liquid soap. A basic bar is sufficient. I haven’t yet moved to shampoo bar, but will as soon as I need more.
I don’t use makeup, but daughters do; and one of them gave me a foot scrub with ACK! plastic micro beads.

Older daughter made her own cloth diapers and even sold them on line for a while. I was very proud of her. She offered to set up younger daughter with the whole collection; but she declined. So we do disposables.

Oh, and that hollow thing mounted on the wall to hold the tp roll; and the tub I use for hand washables. And the small trash bin.

Diapers

disposable diapers are mostly made with nonrecyclable polyethylene plastic, which breaks down over hundreds of years and contains toxic chemicals and microplastics

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/baby-diapers-ocean-plastic_n_5cb77ea7e4b096f7d2db...

the attic

Unlike most of the houses on my street, this house has a full, finished, stand-up attic. It’s perhaps not original, but nearly so. It’s long and narrow and has old clunky knotty pine closets and drawers built in to most of one side. Not into the under eave space though. The floor is pine.
Naturally, because it has a regular staircase, it has always functioned as a bedroom too, though it only barely shares in the heat system, and not the cooling system. I’ve furnished it for more grandchildren visits, with a couple of beds; same deal as those below.

It also serves for some storage and craft space. My television is tucked away into one of the closets on a wheeled cart. But that may be discarded; I don’t think I’ve watched a whole film in the 10 months I’ve lived here.

To make this room a more pleasant temperature, I broke through the knee walls and insulated under the roof, which is black metal and was an active radiator bringing outside temperatures to the inside. We shall see this summer if I was justified in selling off the window ACs in each end window. (Hey! He paid me $10 a piece; but more importantly, he carried them out and I didn’t.)

Doing so, I also gained storage space! I’ve been using scrap plywoods and particleboard from old bookcases as flooring inside those crawl spaces and then laying cheap carpet scraps over top of that. So polyester carpet inside these spaces. I’m organizing seasonal decorations in these spaces in cardboard and Rubbermaid-type bins.
Storage containers are, for me, a valid use of plastics. They are long term protection from water and infestations. I’ll speak more about that when we get to the basement.
So also, various plastic bags, ziplocks, small bins, etc. to gather, organize and protect.

Owning plastic is the end of the world, all the carbon in it is locked up. The issue is in the demand for new plastic which involves CO2 waste, and scrap/waste plastic ending up in waterways and oceans. SO Reusing is by far the best option if it at all possible.

>15 reading_fox: You are correct both points. I am working on reducing my personal demand for single use plastics. But the whole plastics industry is a world-scale disaster. We are not controlling where it goes or trying meaningfully to reuse it.
Choosing materials other than plastics for most applications is my goal.

local recycling and trash handling

At my previous home, the municipality runs both trash pick-up and recycling program. You can put recyclables in a special box at the curb; but too many times, I saw them dumped into the truck going to the landfill. So I began taking them to the town site where they have huge bins designated for each type of material. But the town has fallen down on education and misses the opportunity here as well. They fail to list or display what is okay and what is not. Window glass, lightbulbs and pottery are often left in the glass bin. Card stock is mixed in with the cardboard, when it should go into the adjacent paper bin. The plastic bin get everything imaginable.
I’d like to take a tour of the next step in the process to see whether the system actually works in a meaningful way. I’d like to know where the materials are marketed.
Because I return to this house regularly, I still carry my recyclables there.

In my new community, the county collects and processes recyclables. But they’ve stopped accepting glass and paper. It’s a shame about the glass especially. They used to grind it down themselves and offered glass mulch to the community. I’ve collected multiple loads myself for projects at another property.

Garbage is collected here by a commercial firm. I haven’t subscribed because I have such a small amount of this kind of waste; mostly non-recyclable packaging. I can add my small amount to daughter’s bin every few weeks. The city picks up loose yard waste once a month at curbside; branches and leaf piles, nothing bagged.

Large items can be taken to the landfill for a dumping fee; but there are other ways to deal with certain items no longer wanted. The washing machine died soon after I moved in. SIL never made time to come and remove it from my basement; so I disassembled it, carried it up and out myself, and got the phone number of a guy who recycles metals for fun and profit.
Other items that are still operable just get placed at the curb and someone always comes by to salvage for further use. I removed the dishwasher from my kitchen early on and carted it down to the street. A couple of days later, I was up before dawn and saw it being carried away balanced on the seat of a bicycle.

Daughter has used local Facebook pages to advertise sale of furniture, with almost instant responses.

Leaf debris is a hot commodity in this community. It’s a race sometimes to claim and collect it for gardens and even small farms.

Back to plastics. Neither community does a good job teaching and reminding us which plastics are accepted and which aren’t. There are certain types that contaminate the stream and make them less recyclable. I wish there was more transparency and dialog on this.

house exterior and grounds

Siding is a heavy aluminum original to the house. The roof is galvanized metal. Gutters and downspouts are aluminum. Channeling into plastic piping; PVC underground, the black corrugated kind above ground. The carport ceiling and some faschia are vinyl. As mentioned, most of the windows are vinyl frames. Porch framing posts out front are aluminum. Back deck is treated wood. There is a large hot tub on the deck, composed mostly of plastic parts. It’s just a nuisance and a maintenance cost to me. I will be advertising it’s sale on Facebook very soon.

I have a collection of hardworking 5 gallon buckets that are pvc recyclable once they begin breaking down.
Before I got my garden hoses here (rubber, not propylene) we were carrying water to the newly planted garden in gallon milk jugs. (Grandbaby’s self appointed task). I keep a collection of the gallon jugs to carry water up to my ridgetop property for non-potable uses. I carry drinking and cooking water up there in glass wine jugs, because I never have liked the taste of water from a plastic container; even before I knew that the plastic leaches.

I also have a collection of heavy black plastic yard bags that I fill and empty repeatedly - see the note up-thread about leaves and gardens. I brought bags of leaves down from the ridgetop this spring that had been sitting up there and mellowing the contents for a year. When I opened and dumped them, two six-foot black snakes fell out as well. I have pictures.
I don’t buy the bags and buckets; they are acquired second hand. My children used to cringe in embarrassment when I’d stop to rescue the buckets from the side of the road.

I admit to buying some plastic flower pots this year, as my random collection of ceramic pots wasn’t enough to meet my gardening urge.
I bought a large amount of potting soil this year too; first time ever. Those bags are rinsed and recycled at Lowe’s for Trex products production.
The large pieces of plastic wrapping from the mattress purchases were laid out and weighed down in the front yard to begin killing the grass for garden establishment. I can recommend this does not work well. Replacing it with sheets of cardboard and old carpet. Polyester carpet works best. Wool just disintegrates and makes a mess to scrape up. The polyester carpet lasts a very long time and can be dragged to successive spots for garden expansions. I’ve used sheets of gray carpet for a decade to keep my parking pad clear of weeds, and it blends with the gravel drive.

>18 2wonderY: two six-foot black snakes

What are the snakes? I had a six foot Egyptian cobra on my kitchen doorstep a few months ago.

Black rat snake

https://srelherp.uga.edu/snakes/pics/elaobs1.jpg

I was concerned my neighbors might freak at their addition to the immediate environment; but they’re all good country folks.

Basement or kitchen?

basement

The basement is semi-finished; even given credit on the appraisal. There are no wall dividers; it’s all one open space with heating system and venting chimney in the center. Oddly, instead of a concrete floor, it has been ceramic tiled. And if you notice such things, there is some unevenness as you walk across it. The exterior walls have been studded and paneled with very cheap old plastic coated paneling. I pulled a piece away, and they failed to insulate when this was done. The floor joists and all the plumbing and electric guts overhead are exposed. My opinion, that’s a good thing.

Perhaps the most important feature of the basement is the sump pump in the corner.
Mr. Seller told me there hadn’t been water in the basement since he replaced the old sewer line. You can see where he had to dig across the floor, because those tiles are a different shade of beige. Mrs. Seller told me they replaced the sump pump about once a year. That seemed odd.

In february, we had a three alarm rainfall one Sunday. I got three flash flood notifications that day on my phone. The sump pump was working hard. And then it wasn’t. I went down to check. Water was pouring in from the drains built to catch and direct water into the sump well. A call to SIL asking for a plumber. SIL rushed over to survey and dashed off to Lowe’s to buy a replacement pump. He made it there just before they closed. Meanwhile, I opened the sewer clean out cap and let water go down that drain, which sits a couple of inches above the floor level. It helped. I also busied with rescuing some stuff to the main floor. Fortunately, my practice in basements has always been to rest furnishings on timber, blocks or bricks. So the storage drawers were somewhat up out of the stream. I’d been putting together IKEA particleboard shelving for one wall. The unopened boxes of boards started floating. The assembled units stood in the water and I thought they would absorb and disintegrate. They were not in their final position, so they were not elevated as planned yet.
SIL replaced the pump (bless him!) with one a much better quality that the one that died.
I also had a stack of Rubbermaid bins in one corner, holding fabrics and out of season clothing. The ones with lighter contents started bobbing and tipping too. Stacking and adding random weights to them stabilized that. It was a couple of days before all the water was vacuumed and mopped up. I found that my insurance policy does not cover this kind of disaster. Hmmm. None of the appliances/furnace/electric system were harmed. So there was little damage cost anyway. I put the IKEA shelving up on timbers as soon as possible and they dried and kept their integrity.

That’s a long story to report that IKEA has an exceptional wood substitute product, Rubbermaid bins are great, and I’m using extruded styrofoam insulation behind the paneling rather than fiberglass batts, in case the water pours in like that ever again.

Managing gutters and downspout drains is my #1 priority nowadays. There were a couple of prior homeowner mistakes I’m rectifying and a couple of chronic issues being pondered for creative solutions.

Yes, I did wander from the stated topic. Hope you enjoyed the detour.

the kitchen

Cabinets are the original plain painted plywood. Floor and backsplash are ceramic tile; worktops are granite tile wrapped in aluminum. Sink is steel. The gas stove looks like metal and glass; but the ‘metal’ is plastic in unexpected ways. This is a 30+ year old Sears model. When we moved it here, someone used the oven door handle as a grip and snapped the mounts. They had appeared to be chromed metal, but proved to be plastic, and no longer made. I had a carpenter carve replacements in wood and now it looks a little bit steampunk.
The refrigerator appears to be stainless steel; and certainly is on the sides. But the door fronts are not magnetic; so they could be plastic. SIL says there is nonmagnetic steel. Interiors are, of course, plastic and glass.
Microwave is mostly plastic.

Cookware is cast iron or old Wearever aluminum. Implements are metal and wood. Cutting boards are maple and bamboo. I have never liked the hard plastic cutting boards. They get much more ragged looking than the wood, and seems to me a health hazard in several ways.

Dishes are mostly china and some melamine. Perhaps since I’ve lived with this plastic since childhood, I have an unwarranted trust in its safety. I do insist on washing by hand and they never go into the microwave. I’ve passed on sets to my daughters for their use, but I replace them when I see inappropriate wear.
Plastic cutlery is not allowed. Straws are the old colored aluminum. Kids love them.
Leftovers are packed in glass containers sometimes; but I admit to a having a single stack of plastic tubs as well. The kind Chinese restaurants use for takeout soups. I use them for freezer storage.

It’s the store food packagings that distress me most in the kitchen inventory. I choose metal and glass whenever possible. And in some cases, I transfer liquids to glass containers.

Bins and trash receptacles are plastic, but lined with paper bags, as my mother taught us. I doubt I’ve ever bought a package of plastic trash bags. Though I generally use cloth bags at the store, I somehow still have a regular collection of the stupid single-use grocery bags. I do use zip-lock bags too, especially for freezing. Cling wrap has never been my friend. If I don’t have a storage bowl with a fitted lid, a plate serves just as well.

Grandbaby came equipped with high tech plastic sippy cups last year; which I despise. I quickly switched her to tiny metal and glass cups so any spills are small and she learns to take care. We’ve only had one breakage in this past year. She pours drinks herself from a tiny glass coffee carafe. She’s got the pouring down well. It’s the stopping part she hasn’t yet fully mastered.

Oh, and this isn’t a plastics issue, but I use cloth rags; no paper towels.

Kroger sells a brand of milk packaged in returnable glass bottles. Gosh it tastes good! Daughter used to be able to buy fresh unpasteurized milk from a local farmer. I should try to track that down...
Hoping other food products switch back to glass.

That all said, I still buy and eat an appreciable amount of junk food in wrappings that just go into the landfill.