Plastics Challenge #2: Grocery shopping wins and fails. And the Hospital.

Ok.  I've been working on trying to reduce the plastics purchased during grocery runs, and so far I've been winning at the following:
- Toilet Paper packaged in paper, Walgreens
- Dish Detergent in a box, Walgreens
*Orange Juice in a frozen can, Kroger--a potentially permanent solution!  Only one ribbon of plastic on the lid! 
- Fresh fruit and vegetables: broccoli, lettuce, kale, bananas, Kroger.  You know, it's all Kroger unless I say otherwise.
- Fancy blue corn chips!  Expensive, but in paper sack.  Also, delicious.
- Canned organic corn and green beans.  I prefer frozen, but we'll give these a shot.
- Pastas, all kinds, boxed in a box.  Some have a little plastic window, but I think it shouldn't count.  Or count less. 
- Pasta sauces: Red, marinara and pesto in glass jars!
- Canned sliced olives!
- Flavored oatmeal!
- Loose granola! Edwards Food Giant!
- Loose granola bar bites! Edwards Food Giant!
- paper sacks!

Grocery Fails:
- carrots only come in plastic bags at Kroger.  Might have to go to some FANCY store to find "free" carrots.  Dratted winter.  Bet the farmer's market would have them...
- aaaand the Brussel sprouts only come in plastic nets.  Ugh.
- crackers and cereal that come in plastic sleeves.  How else could one possibly get crackers??  Maybe we'll start getting Goldfish again.
- egads.  Cheese.  Will have to make it to the FANCY deli counter, and even then it comes sliced onto waxed paper.
- Yogurt.  Worse yet, yogurt with extra plastic labeling.  Why?  Why not print ON the plastic?  Or use a sticker?  Who knows.
- Milk in plastic jugs.  Not sure if I can build myself up to get the powdered stuff.  I used to think that it smelled like elephants, if you know what I mean.  Forgot to look for cartons.  Yes.  Forgot.
- Giant box of diapers, but wrapped in plastic inside.  Why?  I mean, it's already in a box and it's not like they're going to escape the box or go stale.  This one is curious--might be worth sending a letter?  That'd be amusing.  "Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to inquire as to why your Kroger brand infant diapers, size 0-5 are all packaged in plastic inside of a cardboard box. Do diapers go stale?  Is there a best-fresh-by date?  You are aware that these are non-perishable, yes?"  Yeah, that letter sounds totally sane.
- plastic shell of lettuce.  I broke down.  It's at least better than the salad in bags; the shell is recyclable.  I know.  If only I'd had the fortitude to be willing to shred my own lettuce.  I just couldn't, ok?  It's hard, staring at groceries, judging their covers instead of their contents.  And I can't even be ironic about how very first-world-problems this is.  "Oh dear.  Should I get the organic heritage kale with a rubber band, or the kale tied with waxed-paper zipties?  I'm so torn!"


I will say this.   I went to visit a friend in the hospital today, and I was very grateful for plastic.  He's hooked up to an IV (or was and may be again) and needed a catheter, and had those puffy leg decompression units on.  His liquids were in plastic bags, his meds pushed by plastic plungers, and his monitors beep out giant plastic digital faces.  He might be dead of sepsis without it.  So there.  Plastic win: modern medical care.

--Goodnight, and remember to say "I love you" to your family and friends.  You never know when they last heard you say it.