Thoughts About This Month’s Challenge

Time to reflect on this month’s challenge of reducing the plastic from deli meats and cheeses. What did I enjoy about this challenge? What was difficult? Was the challenge easier or harder than I originally thought it would be? And so on…

This has been a good challenge for me and I’m glad I did it. I’ve discovered new recipes for my lunch repertoire, checked out local bulk food markets, and gained new insights about plastic packaging options. Admittedly though, I did miss the deli meat more than I thought I would.

The biggest challenge actually came from an unexpected corner. This month I took a food allergy test and found out I have delayed allergies to eggs, soy, and nuts. This was very distressing to hear because these are my go-to proteins for meals. Without the option of eggs and soy while at the same time reducing deli meats for this month, I had to really shift gears for meal planning. Thankfully, I had the chickpeas/hummus and freeze-dried meats to help get me through when I needed quick meals. But it was still difficult.

So was it worth it to try other options? Absolutely! At first, I was a bit disappointed because it felt like I wasn’t reducing my plastic waste by much. But it turns out I went from almost 4 oz of plastic waste from deli meats and cheeses to about 1.5 oz (see chart at the end of this article for a full breakdown). And overall, I would say these better plastic habits are ones I can maintain without too much effort. I went into a bit more detail about the habits themselves in my Challenge Update post last week if you want to read more about them.

Tips and Insights Gained From This Month’s Challenge

I can’t take my own containers to the grocery store but I can request meats to be wrapped in butcher paper. However, butcher paper has a plastic coating on it.
There are cheese graters for mason jars.
I can get fresh ground nut butter at the bulk food store.

Recipes Gained

About tracking the impact – A bit of a learning curve

Originally for the tracking, I was planning to just compare the number of packages used from before and after this month’s challenge. However, I didn’t factor in how to evaluate the reduced plastic options. After some contemplation and testing, it turned out that the best way to compare is to weigh all the packaging used, before and after. That may have been obvious to some of you but it’s all part of the learning curve. So after a bit of backtracking, I got the weights of most, but not all, of the packaging. Now I know to do this ahead of time for next month.

In the chart below, you’ll see I’m using the number of packages and their weight when empty. There’s a lot of variation with deli meat packaging. I’m using the flat, vacuum-sealed packaging (like in the picture) for my comparisons. Sorry, I don’t have the weights for the plastic deli meat tubs.

Looking at the chart, you can see the breakdown in more detail. As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t get all the packaging weighed in time for this conclusion. So unfortunately, 2 of the packages have estimated weights. But overall, with conventional plastic packaging, I was throwing away 10 plastic packages (total plastic weight of about 3.96 oz) per month. With my alternatives, I’m throwing away 7 plastic packages (total plastic weight of about 1.41 oz) per month. I was able to recycle the lid for the can of freeze-dried food so I didn’t include it in the totals. That comes to an estimated 64% reduction in plastic waste using my alternatives!

Special mention for additional plastic reduction impact

I wanted to mention an additional impact I didn’t officially include in the tallies. Now that I use the block cheeses, I haven’t needed to buy any string cheeses or any other individually packaged cheese for snacks. I just cut large pieces from the block and put them in a container when I need them. (It helps to have a little cutting board for these quick snack foods.) I didn’t count these in the overall impact because I only eat single-serve cheeses on occasion. However, if you or your family go through a lot of cheese sticks, consider using the block cheese to cut down on your plastic load.

How would I rate the overall impact for this month’s challenge

I find these numbers to be very encouraging. With an estimated 64% plastic reduction and all the alternatives being fairly easy to sustain, I feel pretty good about this personal impact. The hummus does take more time to make but one batch makes a lot. The deli butcher paper still uses plastic but it’s a standard size, so I can scale up the amount of deli meat I buy while using the same amount of butcher paper.

These are habits I will definitely try to maintain moving forward. I’m sure over time I will gain more insights and discoveries regarding this challenge and I will be sure to share them with you all 🙂 Also, I found this post on the Plastic Free July site which covers a bit more about the plastics used for meats and cheeses.

What did you think about this month’s challenge? Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments.