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Wednesday, November 08, 2006 - (see all news for this day)
avoiding plastic - 09:40 AM
(filed under 'healthy living')
i was talking to jade recently about storage for food, especially leftovers & the like, & how since i'm having to buy pretty much everything from scratch again, i wanted to avoid getting plastic.
there are a few reasons for this. firstly, i'm not sure that plastic is all that healthy for us. there's information out there about how certain gases are released from plastics. i can't give you any links or anything, but just as one example, have you ever opened a big box of plastic kitchen items that have been in storage for a while? the smell is something to behold. it's not any food smells which have soaked into the plastic, either, it's a pure plastic smell & it's awful. i'd hate to think of those chemicals going into my food.
secondly, i don't want to use plastics all the time & become a consumer to add to all the non-bidegradable wastage of stuff that everyone's using all the time. most plastic storage containers don't last very long & aren't even designed to last all that long (tupperware is an exception, but since i'm trying to avoid plastics for other reasons as well, then it's not an option) so i don't want to encourage the companies to keep making the stuff. as long as one more person keeps buying plastic, they'll keep making more of it.
one other reason is that plastic always ends up getting smelly or stained from the food that's stored in it. since it's so porous, it's almost impossible to get the smell out. once you've used them for something like spaghetti in a tomato based sauce, then you'll never get the red colour out.
there's always the option of using crockery & simply putting cling wrap over the top of it, but since i don't want to consume plastic every day or have the food touching the plastic, then that isn't ideal.
so glass is a good option for me. one of the things i've been spending money on for the house is glass storage containers. they're not cheap, but at least i know that they'll last a long time. i also really like the look of glass. since it's clear, then you don't have any trouble seeing what's inside & you don't need labels. it doesn't degrade & it's easy to clean. if you get the right type of glass, you can even boil it to sterilise it if you're inclined that way.
so i've been buying some lovely little spice bottles, various sizes of jars with good rubber seals & metal closures on them for the pantry & some pyrex storage containers for the fridge & freezer.
i'm really loving my pyrex storage containers. i'd not seen them the last time i was in the market for kitchen stuff. i've always known that they make great casserole dishes & the like, but i'd never seen these with the air tight lids. i know they're plastic, but in most cases the plastic isn't touching the food since the food is down inside the bowl. they're also built to last so they won't break easily & hopefully i won't have to be buying more lids any time soon.
they come in a great range of sizes, & even better still, they stack two high perfectly in my relatively small fridge, so i can use the space well. i've bought two of almost each size as i've seen them available at the supermarket or kmart or big w. about the only sizes i don't have are the large & the small rectangular dishes. the meduim one is about right for me at the moment, but i may end up getting one of the large ones at some stage. i've got three sizes of the round dishes, i think it's the largest round one i don't have.
they're not cheap, but i don't mind spending money on quality products which will last me a lifetime. pyrex have been around for so long. my mum's had pyrex measuring jugs for as long as i can remember & they're still in perfect condition. i do so love a good quality, convenient & well thought out product. 
Have you looked at Ikea? They have some glass containers.
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i like pyrex too. i have one of those round oven ones with the blue lids and i use it for several different kinds of things. i also got a similar set of three that are the same (glass with the thick plastic lids) but they're faux-pyrex. still good though
even though it's meant to be tempered and whatever, i have managed to break a couple of the large pyrex roasting trays. so be careful of that