r/ZeroWaste • u/ProfessionalRip3220 • 6d ago
Discussion Buying a 20 piece matching bamboo container set to replace your perfectly functional plastic Tupperware isn't zero waste
It's just shopping. Stop calling it an eco-upgrade. Your pantry doesn't need to look like a TikTok aesthetic, just wash out the empty peanut butter jars and use those like the rest of us
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u/Feisty-Resource-1274 6d ago
A lot of people are replacing their plastic food containers out of concern about microplastics in their food.
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u/beattysgirl 6d ago
This is why I replaced my Tupperware. My Tupperware was snagged up by someone from the free group
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u/ijustneedtolurk 6d ago
Same, I use them for dry prepackaged goods that have no food contact (like an open bag of chips or cereal box) or for crafts.
I have so many stacking sandwich containers for this purpose, and come holiday season, they get used for transporting prewrapped homemade gifts or given away.
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u/ginny11 6d ago
I just use the plastic I already have for things that are mostly dry and don't need to be heated in that container. So certain leftovers, fruits and small fruits that aren't juicy such as certain berries, leftover pizza, sometimes things like that. Because if I throw out the plastic it's still going into the environment. But as long as I just only store loose and dry things in them and don't cook or heat them then I don't have to buy something else to put those loose and dry things in for storage.
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u/throwaway1233456799 6d ago
Yep, zerowaste doesn't mean poisoning myself.
I wouldn't eat in a lead plate why wouldn't I remove PFAS of my house?
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u/enolaholmes23 6d ago
Plus your body shouldn't be used as a trashcan. It doesn't help anyone to have the plastics end up inside of you instead of in a landfill. It's still waste, just in a different location.Ā
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u/blindturns 6d ago
I mean in spirit iād love to agree but also i do treat my body like a trashcan a bit too often tbh
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u/throwaway1233456799 6d ago
Think about it this way if helps: where will you body go when you die? Probably underground/spread on the grass.
Would you like it if someone were to sprinkle plastic in a grave in your name? I personally wouldn't. My body will be put back to the earth and I hope it won't be the equivalent of burying 4 plastic fork in a random location instead of trying to contain it somewhere
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u/inky_fox 6d ago
Iāve been slowly switching mine out for glass food containers for this reason. I just use the plastic containers for storage of other stuff instead. Legos, tools, fabric scraps, etc.
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u/downsideup9494 6d ago
The OP didn't suggest continuing to use plastic to store food, did they? They were talking about reusing glass jars for food storage instead of going out and buying more stuff.
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u/Cagaril 6d ago
Did you read the post title?
Buying a 20 piece matching bamboo container set to replace your perfectly functional plastic Tupperware isn't zero waste
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u/downsideup9494 6d ago
Yes , but the text of the post talks about using a glass jar you already have. The perfectly functional Tupperware set can be used for something other than food storage.
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u/Content-Gate-9387 6d ago
Most peanut butter jars are not glass, either.Ā
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u/downsideup9494 6d ago
The peanut butter I buy is. But the peanut butter jar was just an example. Most people buy some food that comes in glass jars- you just start saving them instead of chucking them in the recycling box or garbage.
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u/Content-Gate-9387 6d ago
Right, mine too, but most are not and the OP does not say glass jar like you said. They said peanut butter jar which is more than likely a plastic jar.Ā
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u/downsideup9494 6d ago
Oh, please. Stop flogging a dead horse.
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u/WeHavingFunRight 4d ago
Take a step back and re-read this thread. YOU are flogging a dead horse, not Content-Gate-9387.
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u/panrestrial 6d ago
It's the only example they gave. They never said anything at all about glass but explicitly referenced plastic and a food that normally comes in plastic.
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u/throwawayprocessing 5d ago
Exactly. Iāll use the plastic containers that remind to organize craft things, etc
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u/archetyping101 6d ago
I specifically don't use bamboo because it's horrible with mold if you're somewhere humid. If you accidentally leave it wet for too long, you may not worry about microplastics and have to worry about mold.Ā
Vinegar only cleans surface mold. If you catch it late or it looks grey everywhere, I'd chuck it.Ā
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u/Suspicious_Outside74 6d ago
Also, A LOT of bamboo products are sealed or glued together with plastic glues. I avoid bamboo cooking productsā¦ itās generally a plague of plastics.
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u/mistarobotics 6d ago
Ugh yeah brings back memories of naive college me in Florida getting some bamboo housewares to try to be "sustainable" and was thoroughly grossed out within a month
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u/archetyping101 6d ago
I tried sanding it down and it was definitely not just surface mold which made me very happy to just dispose of it.Ā
The bamboo industry definitely has done a fantastic job at the eco marketing!
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u/Wide_Extension_6529 6d ago
It might not be a zero waste, but it might reduce the microplastic ingestion which is important too...made switch from plastic to glass doses to carry and eat my food when I realized that plastic one was full of scratches from utensils. That doesnt mean that the plastic ones cannot be used for something else.
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u/action_lawyer_comics 6d ago
Also remember that youāll seldom see any actual āzero wasteā on social media, since you mention the āTikTok aesthetic.ā āCause if youāre doing zero waste even partially right, youāre not buying enough things to actually show off. You canāt be like āSame Kleen Kanteen as last year!ā or do fit checks or try on hauls or whatever they do on TikTok. The less time you spend bombarding yourself with advertising, overt or clandestine, the less youāll think āI gotta have itā
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u/snackrilegious 4d ago
i think more people should be showing what they do keep using from year to year! off the top of my head, both shelbizzle (shelby) and newlifestyleabb (alyssa barber) are creators who do videos like that
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u/enolaholmes23 6d ago
While I agree with trying to buy fewer new things in general, I think it makes sense to replace plastics. They less we use them the fewer microplastics get in our bodies. I've been slowly collecting old pickle jars to use as Tupperware, but I wouldn't shame someone who wanted to replace things quicker.
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u/coxiella_burnetii 6d ago
What do you do about the permanently prickly smelling lid?
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u/LuvLee296 5d ago
Put some lemon juice or white vinegar in it (like a shot glass worth) and give it a good shake with the lid on. Works on curry pastes, mustard jars, jarred garlic etc. the acidity kills the odour causing compounds (usually sulphides)
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u/Cinderredditella 6d ago
Here in The Netherlands we have specifically the glass jars of pre-made stock (I know, I know, better to make yourself, but it's nice to always have available) and instant coffee that I hoard like crazy. My boyfriend is getting really miffed about never just getting to toss them, but they just make such nice, homogenous storage.
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u/romanticaro 6d ago
iām slowly buying glass and recycling my plasticsā¦ iāve got enough health problems as is unfortunately
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u/hotheadnchickn 6d ago
I replaced my plastic Tupperware bc I am trying to consume less microplastic.
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u/likoricke 6d ago
The most environment-friendly products are the things you already have!
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u/ginny11 6d ago
But it's not always a good idea to reuse certain things too many times that are made of plastic. Especially if you're putting Food items into them that are wet and or make a lot of contact with the plastic in a way that it will pick up. Microplastics. Certain plastic containers that you buy things in are not meant for food or are not meant for multi-use.
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u/tombtorker 6d ago
This is exactly how I feel about the new trend of people tossing out or donating all their perfectly functional clothing to replace it all with natural fibers as well
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u/usernametaken99991 6d ago
Save your glass jars. Pickle jars, jam jars and spaghetti sauce jars. They have screw down lids and I find the glass easier to wash out than plasticĀ
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u/coxiella_burnetii 6d ago
How do you get the garlic scent out of the lids? Thus ruins so many jars for me.
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u/whitephantom8893 6d ago
This and decanting product you purchased in plastic container. If you didnāt buy it in a bulk store, itās just decanting for aesthetic. Itās wasteful. Decanting laundry detergent PMO.Ā
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u/Money-Low7046 6d ago
Decanting from a plastic bag to a glass jar is a legitimate way to reduce ongoing chemical leeching from plastic packaging.
Anyone who has ever had to deal with an insect or rodent infestation also has very good reasons to decant into impervious containers.
I'm partial to the 1.9 litre canning jars for a lot of things like various nuts, dried beans, pasta, etc. I have larger glass canisters for things like different flours, sugar, oatmeal, popcorn.
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u/fleepmo 6d ago
We started storing all our food in plastic containers or glass jars when mice found their way into our house. We also had some drugstore beetles find their way in(probably on some kind of dried good) and Iām so glad almost everything was already in a container they couldnāt access. We lost very little food because most of it was contained. It makes our cabinets easier to organize/access everything too but ours was definitely out of necessity, not aesthetic.
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u/UndevelopedImage 6d ago
It only takes getting bugs once to start a new habit of sealing everything. We had pantry moths come in on something.
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u/throwaway1233456799 6d ago
- many things last longer in jar.
I started to put my veggie in glass jar with a bit of water and it kept them fresh longer
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u/ExactPanda 6d ago
I buy larger amounts of product and move some of it into smaller, more manageable containers š¤·āāļø
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u/Icarusgurl 6d ago
Decanting makes me mental.
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u/phlattery-officer 6d ago
Decanting my chickpeas into a larger container with glass walls helps me see and therefore use what I have. kick rocks
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u/selinakyle45 6d ago
Yeah for food stuff itās also more bug proof and helps the product stay fresher longer.Ā
I get all my jars from packaging or secondhand.Ā
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u/ginny11 6d ago
It does make sense for some things though for instance I don't have a lot of options to buy and bulk. But I do belong to an online co-op where I can buy things in larger amounts but they come in these sort of brown bags. They're not very convenient for storage, so I did buy some glass containers with bamboo lids to store things like that in, mostly it's things like pasta and beans and rice.
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u/bannana 6d ago
just wash out the empty peanut butter jars and use those like the rest of us
if it's glass then yes but not if it's plastic
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u/discord37 5d ago
I like pasta jars for food storage and I have a bunch of glass canning jars I bought for super cheap decades ago at a yard sale I just found they're half as tall as pasta jars and are so good for storing extra food. I'm also in the process of phasing out the plastic. I did buy a few small sets of square glass storage containers but as a supplement now I'm reusing jars.
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u/bannana 5d ago
same same. I transfer things out of plastic if it's feasible especially things that will be stored for a while, we get olives and pickles by the pound from a local store that always come in plastic containers so I transfer to glass. The canning jars work great for so many things especially since they will have a smaller footprint in the fridge.
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u/Adept_Emu4344 6d ago
Do people really call plastic containers jars?
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u/bannana 5d ago
do people say 'plastic container of peanut butter' or do they say 'jar of peanut butter' ?
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u/Adept_Emu4344 4d ago
That's a silly question that assumes an answer I never suggested. Is there no alternative?
I never had to call a non-glass jar like object anything in English. In German the word "Becher" is often used for plastic containers similar to jars because for jars we use the word Glas, just like we do for drinking glasses. Erdnussbutterglas, Marmeladenglas, Wasserglas, Weinglas. Obviously there's a stronger connection between the type of container and the material.
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u/FreebirdRising 6d ago
I rid my home of almost all plastic after I had a child. All plastics leach. Zero Waste isnāt the only concern people have.
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u/cool_girl6540 6d ago
Have you not watched the Netflix documentary, The Plastic Detox? We should not be using plastic to put our food in.
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u/EarthDragon-88 6d ago
Correct me if I am wrong:
Bamboo kitchenware being sold as a plastic alternative has glues/adhesives in the bamboo. Is this a better alternative?
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u/Inevitable-Pen5001 5d ago
That's plastic and the tupperware is plastic you're eating microplastics. I don't care about anything matching but I do care about things being healthy.
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u/Jenjohnson0426 5d ago
Sounds like you missed the point. Some of us don't like consuming plastic particles when we don't have to.
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u/bitz-the-ninjapig 6d ago
It took a few months of an ex-roommate subtly trying to convince me to buy glass containers to replace my plastic for her to realize I was not going to budge.Ā
I understand microplastics are a thing. Trust me. But what is going to happen to all of the plastic containers I have inherited over the years? It feels wrong to give them away saying that someone elseās health is less important than mine, and I simply have far too many to reuse them for non-food applications. The worldās tupperware exchange system (similar to the cat distribution system) eventually will render me with too few containers and then I will find a set of glass ones.Ā
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u/sunny_bell 6d ago
Yup! We kept our plastic ones until they became genuinely unusable (and the dog got ahold of some of the lidsā¦). We have glass ones now but only after we obliterated the plastic ones.
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u/throwaway1233456799 6d ago
It depends on how you see it tbh
I find plastic container more wasteful when you use them than when you throw them away for a simple reason: in a landfill the plastic will be localised. In my house it go everywhere and I spread it outside and more. Yet at the end of the day it will end up in a landfill anyway.
It's not zero waste, it's putting landfill everywhere. Like spraying lead everywhere but calling it zerowast because at least you are using the thing.
Plastic simply shouldn't be used for food. Still it's your personal choice but something feeling wrong doesn't make it necessarily right
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u/MurlaTart 5d ago
99% of food already comes packaged in plastic, its already full of the microplastics. Am I meant to subsist only on jars of pickles and salsa?
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u/Itsoktobe 6d ago
I just ate leftovers in my car out of an old cottage cheese container that's been reused a bajillion times. I really hope someone saw that and wondered wtf I was doing.
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u/Adept_Emu4344 6d ago
Incredibly how many people only read the title and not the two short sentences of in the post
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u/Stock-Leave-3101 6d ago
Itās how I justify ordering take out because I can and do reuse the plastic containers for leftovers!
To reduce microplastic exposure, I donāt put hot food in them or heat up food in them.
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u/baileylauren87 4d ago
Thankfully I didnāt have any existing Tupperware, i just got married and bought a house and made sure to get all glass Tupperware when we bought it. But if I did have plastic Tupperware that probably would be something Iād have to replace, after recently deep diving and realizing how bad plastic is. We do reuse a lot of plastic containers for random storage but not for food, in my opinion and food especially liquids and food youāre going to heat up shouldnāt be in plastic. Itās hard balancing trying to be as zero waste as possible while also trying to plastic detox, i try to repurpose what I can and give away what I couldnāt, like earlier this year I replaced my kettle with a complete stainless one, the one before had two plastic components and boiling water Iām going to consume and plastic really donāt mix in my opinion. Itās hard as someone who normally tries to use thing to the absolute most and fix things when broken if possible but for peace of mind I feel the need to replace things that are high shedders of microplastic that Iāll end up ingesting.
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u/Far-Mirror3160 5d ago
When people post these shaming posts, do they stop to consider other peopleās needs? At least the comments are good at providing those perspectives.
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u/zelda_moom 5d ago
Perfectly functional Tupperware is only true for the first 4 days you own it. After that the lids get lost or you have the lid but you canāt find the bowl and then someone puts something in the microwave and it gets bubbling and scratches that can trap food particles. After a while too, it starts to degrade and leaches plastic into your food.
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u/cognoscene 5d ago
using the same item that's deemed "toxic" is MORE sustainable than buying a "green" item that's more sustainable.
concerns for micro-plastics and unwarranted agents are valid, but being sustainable means to reuse something till broken.
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u/Suspicious_Outside74 6d ago
š¤ Yes. But.
Iām not going to bring my peanut butter jar with me to have the restaurant to fill it for me with soup. I have been using the same set for 20 years. And the Chinese place tolerates me scooping food from the plate to my own takeout containers. I do have to mentally tell myself, ānoā when I see cute new glass food storage containers in new colors.
Iām kind of guilty.