de-plasticating

[spughy]

I've been thinking a lot about packaging and I HATE it, I hate the amount of plastic we use even though we don't buy a lot of stuff and no processed food - but there's the plastic that the cheese comes in, the plastic + styrofoam for meat, the plastic bulk bags... it seems I'm not saving the world any plastic even by buying whole foods.

Does anyone have any ways to avoid this? I already do or plan to:

- make cloth produce bags (if I dampen them, they'll actually keep the produce better in the fridge anyway)
- buy meat in bulk, wrapped in freezer paper
- make very fine cloth bulk bags for things like rice, beans & flour (any hints on a good fabric for this?)

But I'm at a loss as far as what to do with cheese. I think I can find decently priced cheese from butcher/cheesemonger places, so it won't *come* in plastic, but how do you store it in the fridge so it doesn't go all crusty? Would waxed cloth work? Can you buy that? Can you make it?

Any other ideas on how to deplasticate?

ETA: We do recycle every scrap of plastic possible. But I know plastic recycling is expensive, energy-wise.

[potatofairy]

we use big jars and thrift store canisters for bulk grains. cloth isn't even an option for us because of the mice.

cheese can go in a casserole dish with a lid. glass ones are nice cuz you can see through them. hehe we have this funky vintage cheese tray too, with a glass cover. it has groovy flowers on it!

[binkin]

Waxed cloth would be good for cheese storage. Butcher paper works well, too. I don't like to store cheese in plastic because it picks up a plastic taste.

I am interested in the produce bags idea for use in the fridge. I never bag produce when I buy it at the store and hopefully this summer will be getting most of it from my garden, but if it helps to keep it fresh longer that would be really helpful. Do you have links or should I just google?

I am trying to think of replacements for most of the plastic stuff we use, although replacing all of it is going to be... impossible, I think.

[spughy]

Well you can dampen cloth produce bags, and I store most of my produce wrapped in damp cloth *anyway* because it lasts longer, but with a produce bag I can actually take that to the store to put things in and not bother with the plastic... that was my rationale for that.

I have too much cheese to store it in glass containers - I have glass containers but I need them for other things. I am a cheese hoarding freak.

[dogmom327]

I use mason jars to store my cheese and my food saver attachment to suck the air out of the jars. My cheese keeps really well this way. I'm still in the process of getting rid of plastic and was going to get rid of my food saver (which I've had for at least 6 years) but then I realized it had come with a mason jar attachment so I could have the benefits of removing the air without using those horrible plastic bags.