I’ll admit I’ve never looked at the codes on the bottom of my plastics until I started trying to rid my household of plastics containing BPA.  While this began so I could eliminate a health concern for my children, I’ve since learned what these codes mean in the world of recycling.  Hopefully after reading this, some confusion will be eliminated so that people can start recycling the right types of plastic and realize how harmful plastic is to our environment.  

Resin codes are found on most plastic with the ‘chasing arrows’ surrounding them in a triangle shape.  These codes were created to classify plastic products.  The arrows are misleading because they duplicate the symbol for recycling, however, it’s not true that plastics marked with any resin code can be recycled.  

Most cities have their own recycling programs and govern which plastic resin codes they’ll accept at curb-side.  My community accepts a high number of resin numbers (1,2,4,5,6) and have different and appropriate departments where each plastic is recycled appropriately.   If a code 3 or 7 gets mixed into what a resident leaves out, that too gets sorted and put in the garbage, as there isn’t a recycling program for these two numbers.  Find out which resin codes your city takes and what it does with plastic that doesn’t have a recycling program.  Because all plastics have different melting points, it’s important to keep the different types separate because if recycled together, you wind up with goo.  

Worldwide recycling rates for plastics with resin codes  3-7 is around 1 percent.   Yikes!   NONE of type 7 plastics can be recycled.  

Key points from this information?    Remember that the little triangle made of arrows doesn’t always indicate recyclability for all codes.   Also, with such low percentages of all plastics being recycled, we should try to limit what we purchase in the first place.  

Charts and graphs normally confuse me, but the American Plastics Council gives a nice breakdown of the codes, their description, and examples of products produced from them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Just heard about a great initiative from Zellers and London Drugs taking back plastic baby/kids merchandise containing BPA.  Thanks to Kirsten for the email!

In a move showing superior customer service, both Zellers and London Drugs are excepting returns of BPA riddled baby products in return for in-store gift cards.  Even if you didn’t purchase these products there, you can try taking them back.  This includes bottles, sippy cups, soothers, breast pumps, food containers, microwave sterilizers, and Nalgene bottles.  These products need to have the recycling code 7 or no recycling code to be returned.  What a great move by these two companies!  I would run, not walk, as I’m sure this move of generosity will be short-term, but it sure helps off-set the high cost of replacing all of these products.  Especially when London Drugs sells the brand Thermos which has stainless steel water bottles and stainless steel food jars.  See my previous article on Thermos stainless steel bottles for the low-down on this product.  The food jars are small and pricey, but would be perfect to store fruit or soup for school box lunches.

So go through your old plastics and make a list of BPA free products you need!  Read through some cheat sheets and educate yourself on what products should go back and which need to be purchased.  Here is a great cheat sheet if you need to brush up on your BPA knowledge.

With the announcement of BPA being labeled ‘dangerous’ in Canada, many questions are being raised to the big names that produce baby/children’s products and their acknowledgment of BPA.  For parents that hadn’t heard anything about BPA until this announcement…now the big panic comes for replacing plastic products that store food, liquid or toys/products that can be mouthed.  A site that can help you wrap your brain around this issue is called Z Recommends.  This site and their product appraisal report is generated by the ZRecs who are obsessive product appraisers and tireless blog enthusiasts.  They have made it easy to choose who should receive your business when purchasing these items for your family.  If it scares you to know that Avent and Playskool were given a ‘poor’ rating meaning they’ve been unwilling to acknowledge consumer’s concerns regarding BPA in their products…check out this site.

One of my kids is still in love with a soother so I appreciated being able to look up safe ‘BPA free’ brands to replace the old soothers in our household. I LOVE how they’ve ranked companies, based on how they’ve handled the BPA controversy. They have a complete listing of BPA-free brands and note all the companies that are BPA-free in all products (bottle, sippy, utensil, soother, breastfeeding accessory, etc.).  Here is a listing of those companies  and I would gladly give these guys my business before the ‘big names’ for being front runners with tackling this ‘toxic’ issue:

Adiri ~ Baby Bjorn ~ Baby Cie ~ Babylife (Wee-go) ~ BFree ~ Born Free ~ Brita ~ Combi ~ DCI ~ Ezee Reach ~ Emily Green ~ Green to Grow ~ iPlay ~ Kidbasix ~ KidCo ~ Klean Kanteen ~ Medela ~ Mother’s Milkmate ~ Mud Pie Baby ~ Not Neutral ~ Nurture Pure ~ Obentec ~ ORE Originals ~ Prince Lionheart ~ Rivadossi Sandro (Trebimbi) ~ SIGG ~ Silikids ~ Skip*Hop ~ Steadyco ~ Thermos ~ thinkbaby

Also, if you can text message on your phone for low cost (depends on your plan), the Zrecs have a service that cross-checks their database of BPA analysis and sends the results to your cell phone.  So say you’re out shopping and want to know if a specific product is BPA free.  You text “zrecs”, then the company name, and the product description to the number 69866.  For example: “zrecs gerber bottles”.  You will receive a text back letting you know the BPA status of Gerber bottles.  The four categories you can check are bottles, sippies, soothers, and tableware. For more details visit their site, but W-O-W how helpful is that for parents?  Especially new parents that need to load up on safe supplies for their baby!

Thanks to the ZRecs for their tireless work in trying to clear up confusion for the consumer with purchasing BPA free products!

I’ve lost more than a little sleep knowing that I’ve commited the ultimate BPA leaching sin….the fact I’ve heated milk in plastic, in a microwave, everyday for the last 5 years.   Nothing like the never-ending cycle of  ‘parent’s guilt’.  All my kids love heated milk in the morning and before bed,  so eliminating plastics from their milk sippies was going to be harder than the water bottles.  The boys were nursed, then weaned to a cup just after turning 1 and I’ve heated their milk in plastic Gerber cups ever since. Yikes! Reheating liquid or food in plastic is the worst cause of BPA leaching so I know I’ve got some more changes to make!  We’ve always used Gerber ‘Fun Grips Color Change Spill Proof Cups’ so I called Gerber and they confirmed that style are BPA free,  but they’ve never recommended heating liquid in the container.  Thanks for letting me know this 5 years later guys!   I’m interested to know if that is stamped on their cardboard when you purchase the product…because until the BPA stuff became news, I had no idea you shouldn’t heat liquid or food in plastics.   That phone call made me feel better at some level, so  I decided to keep their Gerber sippies for milk for the short-term.  I have to say I don’t believe what the big names are saying about BPA in their products….it has taken some companies so long to react that unless the cups are made from a substance other than plastic (stainless steel, etc.) or the packaging is marked ‘BPA Free’ I don’t have faith. **Anyone have an alternative to plastic for kids that like milk heated?**   Although my Klean Kanteen bottles have just arrived, I don’t think the kids would enjoy a heated beverage in stainless steel every morning.

Can I mention that I LOVE my Klean Kanteen bottles?   They are gorgeous to the eye and their weight is very light.   My 6 year old would be able to use my 27 oz without any problems.  Any of the cons I listed in a previous article with my Thermos bottles are non existent with Klean Kanteen.   Their customer service is awesome,  you can purchase 100% stainless steel loop caps if you want to completely eliminate plastic, and they are very light for kids and toddlers to handle.   Oh yes, and something I didn’t know that was so important in my life…they can go in the dishwasher!   The tops and the bottles are dishwasher safe except the stainless poly loop caps.   I’m very happy with this brand and their products ranging from the sippy cups with avent tops for toddlers….to 18 oz, 27 oz, and 40 oz bottles for bigger kids/adults.

The dangers of  BPA leaching from plastics came to my attention a few months ago.  I immediately emailed my greenest friend Suzanne and got the scoop on stainless steel water bottles for the kids.   She educated me in the world of stainless steel and I found the Thermos ‘FUNtainers” and Klean Kanteens were the front runners for my family.  I found my Thermos stainless steel FUNtainers at London Drugs and immediately threw out all plastic water sippies.  The kids love their Thermos bottles (the commercial prints on the bottles make your kids want to use them) so I have no regrets with the purchase, but this company makes it tough for Canadians to totally embrace them.   The replacement straws that you need are tough (if not impossible) to find in Canada making this $18 purchase an item that has a shelf life.  You can order these cups online via the Thermos web site, but my two friends that did this got dinged with so many duty and ’service’ charges once they arrived, it was ridiculous.   **If you can have them shipped somewhere in the States and order replacement straws at the same time this would be a great idea.**   Three other cons I can think of with these bottles are they are heavy, they utilize 2 plastic pieces (aren’t we trying to get away from all plastic here?), and a  biggie for me…if you have any problems with your order, their customer service is terrible.  You honestly feel like your banging your head against cement trying to get assistance via their email customer service or the phone number that’s listed on the web site.   But if you can overlook these negatives, you can’t beat the kid friendly designs these bottles have…it’s hard to beat having Batman or a Princess on your water bottle if you’re a kid.