Protect Your Family With Plastic-Free Picnics

Picnics using plastic are best left a thing of the past. So are plastic water bottles, plastic food wrap, and plastic children’s toys. Research is mounting by the day that everyday plastic consumer products are responsible for a wide array of serious health problems at very low levels. The problems range from alterations of the brain, to prostate and breast cancer, and reproductive disorders.

Food, especially hot food, can easily migrate into plastic. Here are 10 tips for avoiding ingesting and breathing plastic when on a picnic:

1. Plastic water bottles.

The Alternative: Stainless steel water bottles.
For information, click here. Another alternative is to buy corn-based “plastic” water bottles.

2. Plastic drinking straws.
The Alternative: Danny Seo offers an interesting idea for alternatives to throw-away drinking straws in his book Simply Green Parties. He suggests you use Twizzler candy–long strands of licorice that are hollow inside–as straws by snipping the ends. You can serve them in glasses, and kids can drink their beverages and then eat the straw!

3. Plastic plates.
The Alternative: Stainless steel plates, wooden plates, paper plates (which are better for health than plastic but wasteful of trees unless they are made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled content).

4. Plastic cups.
The Alternative: Stainless steel cups, paper cups (see about paper plates, above).

5. Plastic utensils.
The Alternative: Metal utensils.

6. Plastic table cloth.
The Alternative: Cloth tablecloth.

7. Plastic wrap on food.
The Alternative: Aluminum foil, wax paper, cellophane.

8. Plastic beach ball.
The Alternative: Leather ball.

9. Plastic kite.
The Alternative: Paper kite.

10. Plastic containers.
The Alternative: Japanese bento boxes; Chinese take out boxes (many Chinese restaurants will sell these cheaply); stainless steel bowls covered with aluminum foil (and set upright in a picnic basket).

Read more: Home, Health & Safety, picnics, plastic

By Annie B. Bond

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Elisabeth T.

5:36AM PST on Jan 31, 2012

good info..

send a green star

Jennifer C.

8:29PM PDT on May 24, 2011

Thanks for sharing the great info.

KS G.

4:53AM PST on Feb 16, 2011

Thanks for the article.

John D.

1:56PM PDT on Sep 12, 2010

I also noted the leather ball alternative. I don't see promoting using animals as a toy any better than plastic, there are still better altenatives. I use bamboo plates and regular silverware on picinics. I understand the purpose of using plastic sliverware and straws is to throw them away. But why be wasteful? I have even cut back on paper products at home because I have still have to do dishes. The bowls, pots, and silverware and glasses still have to be washed so what is a few plates added to it? If you are just eating a snack, like a sandwich or something not messy just use a cloth napkin to hold it. A small dessert dish takes 2 seconds to wash after a snack.

plastic spring

Jane W.

8:42AM PDT on Jul 14, 2010

Reading this makes me think it's time to drag out the picnic basket we got as wedding present some years ago. But first I'm off to buy some Twizzlers to see if they would really work as straws.

Beverley P.

1:36AM PDT on Jul 9, 2010

Love the straw idea!

Ellinor S.

8:39AM PST on Feb 24, 2010

thank you

Past Member .

7:09AM PST on Feb 3, 2010

Some of the items that you replace for plastic are fine and dandy, but don't the other replacments cause another problem, like littering and landfil overkill and polution?

Beth H.

7:11PM PST on Jan 19, 2010

thanks for the ideas

5:18AM PST on Jan 19, 2010

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

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