What it's like to go plastic-free in Alaska

The person I live with couldn't stand it and said, "I need a paper towel sometimes!

So you can have one roll of these, and it lasts like thousands of uses.

I grew up in the suburbs in Connecticut and, you know, I never even stepped foot in a tent until I was 20.

So, like, I've come a long way from a lifestyle where we didn't even think about where our garbage went.

I'm a sailor.

We sail, we grew up sailing.

My husband and I and when our kids became about nine and 11 years old, we decided to take our sailboat on a big journey.

We left Alaska.

We sailed about 8000 nautical miles, starting up here and in Seldovia.

And we made our way down almost to the end of Mexico and back up into the Sea of Cortez.

And during that time, we'd walk on the beach and I started to notice little bits of plastic.

It started to really get to me.

And as we continued south, there was more and more.

Living aboard a sailboat, you start to be very aware of the garbage that you make and what you can do with it.

Yeah, this was salad dressing.

I clean them, I get the labels off and then I reuse them.

If I make a salad dressing, I'll put it back in here.

So I try everything I can to reuse what I've got already.

A friend of mine challenged me.

She said, "Jen, if you really don't want so many plastics in the ocean, if you really think that we need to do something about it, then why don't you challenge yourself to not buy any new plastics?"

And, it was really hard.

I want to make it clear, I use plastic.

I have to use plastic.

We all use it, right.

What I'm trying to not use is single-use plastics.

It's being mindful and conscious about each thing you pull off the shelf, take a look at it, and think about what's going to happen to this when I'm done with it.

These are--this is conditioner, and this one is shampoo.

Another friend was like, "Hey, let's do a refillery store."

I'm like, "What's a refillery store?"

So, Blue Market AK is an old world grocery store with a minimal waste model.

It feels a lot like a co-op or a natural food store from like the '70s.

The whole point is that you can bring any size container of your own, or you can use some that we've repurposed and sanitized and fill it up with whatever you want.

So, today is our Kitchen Stuff Swap is what we're calling it.

And, it's our way of building community around a low waste lifestyle.

So, it's really exciting at the end of the year to pull our numbers together.

We saved about 24,000 bottles, plastic bottles, from being bought new.

I feel like that makes a difference.

So, rethink how you do things, how you purchase things, how you consume things.

Refuse it.

Just don't buy it anymore.

Then, you get to reuse and repurpose.

Then, the very last thing is recycle.

All the other things need to happen before you get to the point of recycling.

My kids are theyr'e pretty fiercely minimal waste, and I hope that the generations keep to to come just keep spreading this idea that we can make a difference.

It just takes a little creative thinking.

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