The rapid demise of the single use plastic bag has just left one hole in my life. I haven’t (so far) been able to replace the one and only second life use that I ever found for them. They were great at keeping the broccoli and carrots from going limp in the fridge.
Where can I buy a washable transparent thin plastic bag to wrap some of the vegetables in the dry air of an ice free fridge? Or is there a viable alternative?
Neither vegetable compartment of the modern fridges that we currently own, a Fisher and Paykel or Samsung, are up to the spec. The broccoli goes limp within days. The carrots start going black and limp within the week. I’ve tested this on both fridges in the last 6 years.
It used to be that single use plastic bags were perfect at prolonging vege life in the vegetable compartment of the fridge! We got a clean bag every week to wrap the sensitive veges. It separated the veges that needed using from those that were fresher. And it meant that I could cook nice crisp broccoli until their heads started to yellow off.
So far this appears to be the only downside to losing single use plastic. My partner waged a concentrated campaign over the last decade to wean me off single use plastic.
It started with separating the soft plastics and bagging them in the cupboard to send back to the supermarket. With the sequestration of some hard plastics, paper, cardboard, and bottles this had immediate benefits. The load of leaky wet garbage I had to carry down 5 flights dropped to less than a third (more about that disgusting mess later).
We now use large cotton bags for the shopping. Of course you just have to remember to take them to the supermarket which I seldom do. This is something that I’m not good at.
My solution to this issue was simple. Since my main use for our 1993 Toyota Corona is as a shopping basket (I e-bike to work), every time I couldn’t find a cotton bag in the car, I brought new ones and left them in the shopping basket car . Turns out that about 12 were required to ensure that there are always at least three there. There are often 9 hanging on the door upstairs or going through the wash.
Unfortunately, cotton bags are disgusting for solving the limp vege problem. They just seem to breed mould. And I have to go through the arduous process of buying more. Incidentally why don’t the supermarkets sell them any more. My Countdown now only seems to sell teeny single use paper bags or teeny branded plastic weave bags. Why in the hell would I buy those?
Since we shifted over to using the starch based biodegradable bags for the garbage. I tried those. The less said about what it did to their structural integrity and what is deposited on the vegetables, the better life looks.
I have to say that the technology for those kinds of starch based bags has improved markedly over the last couple of years. When I was bludgeoned into using them as a complete and accurate skeptic, they were bloody terrible. Only made in sizes designed for daily emptying of the garbage and liable to tear or leak at the slightest provocation, they left a weekly trail of grunge down my leg and down the stairs each week.
Now they have decent sizes and are way tougher. We double bag them for the garbage and the garbage lives on a rubber mat from Bunnings to catch of the relatively any in situ leaks. They mostly don’t leak unless you drop a lot of fluids in them and give it a week to fester. I add a bag for the carry downstairs.
Basically not as good as the old plastic bags. But good enough and cheap enough. I’m damn sure that they are going to provide immediate food for bacteria and fungi. They rot really fast after they have had garbage in them (I tested it). They surely aren’t going to wash into the oceans and live there for years as bags or micro plastic fragments.
But the fact remains. Since the demise of single use plastics, my broccoli has been getting limp. I’ve taken to buying carrots in plastic so they don’t start looking like prunes when I want to eat one. Where can I buy something that keeps my veges moist inside a dry cold fridge?
It is a problem. While I’m at it – where in Central Auckland can I buy big cotton bags? We’re running low as they get used for other things.
BTW: For any idiotic purists out there. Having a garden or compost heap would be a waste of my valuable time.
My partner regularly kills plants and I don’t have time to maintain a garden or compost heap. Besides it is also not advisable in a 3rd story 55m2 apartment in the Auckland city inner fringe with a shared garage space.
Similarly if you’re a paid to be an idiot like Muriel Newman or a mouth paid to dribble nonsense like Mike Hoskings and don’t understand the obvious damage caused by plastic bags.
Then I’d suggest that you keep your useless advice to yourself or for Open Mike. I’m trying to solve a problem here. I’m not putting this up as a soapbox for demonstrating that you can’t solve problems. I’m also perfectly capable of researching real science or tech myself. What I’m not that experienced at is the whole retail thing.
But if you haven’t read the whole of my post and wish to dicuss those things then feel free. You’d have also just volunteered to be part of my sadistic study in how to humiliate dumbass internet trolls.
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