Although we are the owners of a business called Life Without Plastic, believe it or not, we still receive plastic gifts during the Holiday Season, even from our own family! There are personal preferences that seem to receive a bit more deference from friends and family than avoiding plastics, such as being vegetarian or food…
How we got our first stainless steel dishes is an interesting story. When we started Life Without Plastic in 2006, our son was only 3 years old. I had heard about the dangers of plastics from a magazine called Mothering created by the wonderful Peggy O’Mara who was my hero at the time and still…
Have you ever wondered what your ice pack contains? Especially the ice packs that are made of soft gels and encapsulated in a plastic bag… even though the label may say that the contents are non-toxic, they are still probably not consumable. Not only that, but pretty much all of them are made of plastics…
My paternal grandmother was from Scotland, and although I have some Native American roots on my mom’s side, my skin pretty much looks like 100% of its genes come straight from the land of the kilt! My skin is fair, speckled with freckles and burns in the sun. That’s right, there is pretty much no…
17 March 2013 — Last weekend, our son Jyoti and I made play dough. Jyoti is 9 years old so play dough is not as exciting as it was when he was little, but he had the idea of creating a time lapse video with it. So, he invented a story and took pictures of a little monster escaping the stainless steel airtight container in which we had stored the play dough. I put together the movie, and here is the result. Feel free to pass it around.
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, and the Canadian Federal Conservative Party are leading a horrific and devastating charge against nature and democracy. Although 60% of Canadians voted against them at the last election, they still managed to obtain a majority of seats and have now started a war on nature with bill C-38 (the name of the bill is a joke:Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act). This is a budget bill that contains numerous measures that attack long standing legislative protection of the environment. From killing theKyoto protocol to repealing the National Round Table on Environment and Economy to reversing the protection of the Fisheries Act and closing the Polar and Atmospheric Research Laboratory. It also greatly reduces the length and scope of the environmental assesment process of any project with a potential impact on nature. The list goes on and on.
About two years ago, one of our employees who always brought her dog to work had a great idea. She decided to start bringing her dog’s food in one of our 2-tier 14 cm (5.5″) tiffins. In one of the compartments, she would put some ‘yummy’ dog food and would keep the other empty so she could fill it up with water when she came to work. It worked great! Animals are just as likely as humans to be contaminated by toxins leaching from plastic. So stainless steel is a great alternative to plastic, especially because animals won’t be able to chew on it, and because it can be completely sterilized in the dishwasher, which is not the case with plastic.
We offer one, two and three layers tiffins. With the 3-tier tiffin (as shown on the photo) you could have a layer with food, another one with biscuits and the last one would be reserved for water. These tiffins are made in Thailand of high quality 18-8 stainless steel. You can see them all here.
I have always admired the majesty of bald eagles. So when I discovered the Hancock Wildlife Foundation and its live webcams installed near bald eagle nests, I was thrilled. I opened a small window on my computer screen and I could admire the eaglets progressively transforming into magnificent birds. I must admit that the life of a baby bald eagle is pretty boring at times, but the parts when a parent comes back to the nest with some food for the eaglets is quite fascinating.
Two weeks ago, however, disaster struck and it was all because of discarded plastic… One of the three eaglets of the Victoria/Sydney nest got caught in some fishing line that must have been used to build the nest. The poor thing was not able to move and therefore could not meet its parents to get fed when they would bring food to the nest. Many of the thousands of people watching got really upset and started raising money to fund a rescue operation. Fortunately, within days of the incident, a crane was commissioned and Mr. Hancock, the operator of the webcams, was able to free the poor eaglet from the fishing line. As of today, it is still alive and seems to be doing quite well. Go take a look.
August 2011 — We have some great products available to those looking for a safe and plastic-free way to store the bounty from the garden.
There is our 4 litre / 1 gallon rectangular stainless steel airtight container which can accommodate a large batch of frozen tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, and so on. We love this container. We use it a lot to bring large batches of food to a potluck or family dinner. We also use it to conserve our bread as it sits nicely on our countertop and it has the perfect shape. Available for $62.95.
Now, we also have a set of 4 large stainless steel airtight food containers. Four convenient sizes are included: 18 cm / 7 1/16″ diameter 1.75 L / 59 oz. capacity; 20 cm / 7 7/8″ diameter, 2 L / 68 oz. capacity; 23 cm / 9″ diameter 4 L / 135 oz. capacity; 26 cm / 10 1/4″ diameter, 6 L / 203 oz. capacity. The four containers nest into one another completely (with the lids on) thus optimizing storage space. Available for $99.95 (for all four).
For those of you who didn’t know that many “unknown” chemicals are added to plastic used in food packaging, you had better read this news from Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI):http://www.bevnet.com/news/2010/11-2-2010-PET-Dairy. PTI is announcing the use of a new technology (oPTITM) to manufacture plastic bottles for storing light sensitive dairy products such as milk and drinkable yogurts. This technology allows the company to use fewer additives in the manufacturing process “which can limit package recycling”. The company’s Vice-President states in the press release that “[d]airy applications (…) are sensitive to UV rays which decrease shelf life. To solve the problem, additives such as titanium dioxide [TiO2] are frequently added to high density polyethylene or traditional PET containers to achieve shelf-life objectives. In addition to impacting the recycling stream, these additives are expensive (…).” The company also indicates that it can use many different colors to its bottles using this technology, but that “these cannot be recycled as part of the clear PET stream.”
