I’m going to come out and say it... one of my decades-long secrets, that I know most of my friends and family wouldn't approve of, is that I've been washing and reusing my plastic storage bags. There you go, it's out there y'all!
I started doing this when I lived in Mexico, and I had to bring so many of my household items from the US. The cost of months worth of plastic storage bags (especially with two kids) added up, and it was yet one more item I had to pack in the car and take to Mexico. I started realizing it was wasteful to use them once and then throw them away; there was nothing wrong with the bag after some cheerios or crackers had been in it! Now, let's be clear, if I stored raw chicken or I forgot about some cheese in the refrigerator and found it a month later and moldy, then of course those bags were tossed. But I used the majority of our bags multiple times, and my children knew to put them back in their lunchbox and bring them home so I could wash them.
The average American family uses (and throws away) approximately 500 resealable plastic bags each year, and they're in no way biodegradable.
Once again, that's a lot of plastic going to our landfills or ending up in our lakes and oceans! Thank goodness there are specific locations that will take these bags to be recycled along with other shopping, dry-cleaning, and produce bags (more information to come regarding plastic bag recycling in a future post). However, much more often than not, these plastic storage bags are just thrown away and sent to the landfill.
Marianna was on a mission to find a reusable, non-plastic, food storage bag for my Mother’s Day present. That’s when she learned about Stasher bags. They're made with silicone, which means they're made mostly of sand, and they're 100% plastic and BPA free. You can cook in them, freeze food, boil water and they're resealable and washable. Just put them in the dishwasher and they're ready for another round of use!
Although the cost for these Stasher bags is a bit higher upfront, plastic Ziplock bags are by no means cheap, so it doesn't take long for these reusable, silicone Stashers to pay for themselves.
So there you have it, yet another example of a sustainable product that's better for your wallet, the environment, AND you! Win-win-win as we say! So give up that false sense of security you have with Ziplock bags (we know change is hard but you can do it) and swap them for a reusable, eco-friendly option like Stasher.
The owner of Stasher is committed and passionate about the environment and believes “we can turn small daily shifts into big impact.” What is there not to love about that work philosophy? Maybe even sounds like Mother Daughter Earth...