Thrift Week 2019, Day 6: Takeout containers

When I tried to take the Plastic Free July challenge last year, it ended up not going that well. I discovered that a whole lot of the things I buy are packaged in plastic—things I'm not willing to give up, like cherries, Brussels sprouts, tofu, popcorn, and Certified Humane eggs. In some cases, it would have been possible to buy a non-plastic-wrapped alternative, but for significantly more money, and spending extra to avoid such a tiny bit of plastic waste—most of which was going in the recycling bin anyway—just seemed silly.

However, I probably would have done much better if I'd taken the simpler version of the challenge: avoiding plastic "takeaway items," such as plastic bottles, bags, straws, and coffee cups. Because for the most part, I already do this.

I wrote on Day 1 about my reusable water bottles, and back in April I explained about my plan to carry a drinking straw in my purse so I wouldn't need to acquire any new ones. Since I already have a stock of rinsed and reused plastic straws, I plan to work my way through those, getting as much use out of them as I can before discarding them, and only invest in a set of reusable silicone straws when the plastic ones are used up. I even made a little cloth sleeve to carry my straw in so that it wouldn't get dirty. (My post about the straw sleeve turned out to be the most popular one I've had in the past six months, so I guess this is an idea a lot of other people are interested in, too.)

Until recently, one of my weaknesses in the "takeaway" department was those Styrofoam clamshells they give you to package your restaurant leftovers. They're big, wasteful, and non-recyclable, and they don't even store your food all that securely; you have to take care to keep them upright at all times to make sure nothing spills. But the alternatives always seemed to be either letting food go to waste or eating too much so that nothing would be left over, and taking the foam clamshell seemed like the least of those three evils.

It had sometimes occurred to me that we could avoid this problem by just taking some reusable containers with me whenever we went out to eat, so if we had any leftovers, we could pack them up ourselves. The problem was that going out to eat was often an impromptu decision for us, so planning ahead this way wasn't feasible. However, when I signed up for the Plastic Free Challenge, it occurred to me that there was a simple way around this problem: we could just keep some reusable containers in the trunk of the car, so if we ever decided on a whim to go out to eat, we could simply grab these containers for our leftovers as needed.

We put this plan into action right away. We already had an assortment of plastic containers from various sources (takeout food we've ordered, goodies we've received from friends) that we'd rinsed and stored, rather than tossing them in the bin, thinking they might come in useful some day—so we simply selected a few of different sizes and shapes, tucked them in a bag, and tossed it in the trunk. They never actually got used during our Plastic Free July, but we've used them several times since then and found they work just fine. In fact, we used them just this weekend after my parents took me out to dinner for my birthday, and as you can see, they stored our vegetable curry, mango tofu, and mixed seafood quite comfortably.

That leaves me with only one problem in the takeout food department: coffee. Yes, I know that the baristas at Starbucks will serve up your cafe mocha in your own reusable mug if you ask them to, and they'll even take a dime off the price for it—but the problem is that like restaurant meals, coffee tends to be an impulse purchase for me. And unlike a restaurant meal, it's one I'm at least as likely to make while I'm out and about on foot, so keeping a mug in the trunk of the car wouldn't help me most of the time. And stowing one in my purse isn't really an option; although it's on the large side as purses go, it's not really big enough to accommodate a 12-ounce mug as part of my everyday carry.

However, I think I've found a possible solution: a collapsible, silicone cup like this one. If it really folds up small enough to fit into a pocket, then I'm sure I could manage to fit it into my purse. I'm just waiting until this week is out to make sure no one already got me one for my birthday, and then I'm going for it.

With this addition, my reusable takeaway container collection will be complete. I'll never again need to take home a disposable clamshell, coffee cup, or straw. Admittedly, these things are all free, so my collection isn't actually saving me anything—but then, on the other hand, with the possible exception of the coffee cup, it won't have cost me anything either. So it's worth it just for the warm and fuzzy benefit of knowing I'll be cutting down the amount of plastic waste in the world, even if it's only by a teeny smidgen.