Slaying the Plastic Dragon - Day 3 - Coffee and Tea

I have been buying Fair Trade coffee from Trader Joe's for a few years now.  My supply was running low and I needed to restock, however, those canisters all have plastic lids.  Was there a way to avoid this?  I noticed in the movie Bag It one of the people being interviewed bought coffee in a paper bag.  We have a fairly new grocery store called The Fresh Market near us.  It is like a swanky Trader Joe's.  It is pretty expensive so I only go there rarely.  But I wanted to check them out again for another reason (because they only sell their meat from the butcher counter.  In other words, there is no pre-packed meat wrapped in Styrofoam and plastic.  You have to request the meat from the guy behind the counter.  Sometimes I go there just to get their MSG free, house made sausage which is truly delicious.)  Anyway, I remembered that they sold coffee in bulk.  So I went and sure enough they have lots of types of coffee in various barrels.  I chose their breakfast blend.  I ground it up there (I don't have a coffee grinder) and used the nice simple brown paper coffee bags the store provided.  The coffee was 11.99 a lb which is pretty darn expensive.  However, the coffee is delicious and no plastic was involved.  So I could just drink less coffee to spend less.  I think though I will try to hunt around and see if I can find bulk free trade* coffee (maybe even organic!) at a lower price.

At my local store, it was 11.99 and I did not see any fair trade bulk coffee either.

The worst development lately that I've noticed is Keurig coffee makers.  Now they've got single serve coffee in these plastic pods.  What the heck?  Why is this considered a good thing?  Come on, First World people, we are getting absurd in our idolization of convenience here!

Please avoid these foolish, costly wastes of resources and pollution!

And now tea is being sold like this too, or instead of using the traditional tea bag, they are using nylon ones?  What gives????  And if you want to find loose tea to make tea the old fashioned way?  Forget it.  It is really hard to find a tin of loose tea these days in your regular grocery store!  I mean to try at the nearby ethnic foods market, to see if they have some.

This is actually one of my favorite teas, but each tea bag is separately wrapped in plastic!  Buh bye!

And even wonderful teas like Celestial Seasons puts a plastic wrapper around the recycled cardboard box.  I have not discovered a solution for this problem yet.  All the boxes seem to have plastic wrappers.  But this is a small enough amount of plastic that perhaps can be recycled.  The Republic of Tea company sells its tea in cute little tin canisters.  However, the canister's lid has an inner ring that seems to be made of plastic.  They are a bit pricier too than other teas.  But you could reuse the tin for other things.

I just did a little research on tea, because it really seems that the solution to having tea without the plastic is to use loose tea leaves in an old fashion tea pot or metal tea infuser.

What I am finding a little bit discouraging is all the sleuthing and driving around one has to do to avoid plastic.  I mean, it eats up a lot of gas which is not good either!  I am hoping once I develop systems, I can get more efficient and therefore more environmentally friendly in my daily habits.  If I have to go to different stores maybe they can be right on my way to a place I am going anyway.  Or maybe I can park at a central location and just walk to various places to buy specific items.  Sigh.  It's day three and I am already feeling a bit weary.  Maybe I need a cup of tea.

*My husband thinks the Free Trade label is mostly bunk; just a marketing tool and a way to raise prices.  I've read articles that are pro and con.