One thing you can do to help the environment: shop sans plastic.

NY Times; By Eduardo Garcia In a bid to reduce the amount of plastic I waste, I challenged myself not to buy anything in plastic packaging for a week. This is how it went.Compulsive shopping is plastic packaging’s best friend, so, before I went to the store, I made a list: bread, fish, cereals, rice, cookies, avocados, arugula, coffee, milk and cheese.I found most of those items in the bulk and produce aisles and packed them in cloth and reused plastic bags that I brought with me. I’m lucky because the food co-op I shop at in Brooklyn has a great selection in those aisles. The same goes for some retailers like Whole Foods, but going plastic-free at a big-box store would have been more challenging.Regardless, most grocery stores are awash with plastics, and the co-op is no exception, so I had to use my imagination. To snack, I got bananas and cashews in bulk instead of potato chips and nachos. Most cheeses were wrapped in plastic, but I found a piece of waxed Cheddar — not my first choice, but it was pretty good.I usually buy everything I need at the co-op, but this time I had to broaden my horizons. The owner of a deli placed a fresh loaf of rye bread in a paper bag for me. And when I asked a fishmonger to put some smoked cod in my Tupperware to help me reduce my plastic waste, he said, “Yes, we’re totally up for that here.”To satisfy my sweet tooth, I got a piece of chocolate cake and an oatmeal cookie at the farmers’ market, in a paper bag.I didn’t need to get any toiletries last week, but buying bars of soap and shampoo, bamboo toothbrushes and single rolls of toilet paper would have helped. I’ve been told that finding things like sunscreen, painkillers, contact lenses and prescription drugs in plastic-free packaging can be challenging, if not impossible.I succeeded in slashing plastic waste for a week, but will I keep doing it? Sure. I’ve eaten a healthier diet as a result, it was fun to visit stores with personality, and it was not overly burdensome. But it would be more challenging for families shopping on a tighter budget and those who don’t have access to specialty stores or farmers’ markets.Will I be one of those people who reduce their plastic waste to zero? That’s a laudable goal, but I don’t have the willpower to abandon things like goat cheese, baked tofu and nachos forever.Celia Ristow, who says she has been trying to lead a “zero waste” lifestyle for about five years with “varying degrees of success,” told me that not being too strict can help in the long term.“What I’m after now is not to do it perfectly for a month or a year and burn out and move on,” she said, “but to do it imperfectly in a way that is flexible and fluid enough that I can do it for my whole life.