Cutting down on Plastics

I bought a set of pyrex glass bowls with no-leak lids. They work great and I even put them in the freezer. The whole set costs around $30 at Costco and has an assortment of sizes and shapes. I also use Corningware serving bowls, the kind with the glass lids. The hold alot when I have enough leftovers for another meal.

For dishes, I bought inexpensive sets of seconds at Ross. They were cheap so I got about 20 place settings, figuring my kids would probably break them when they washed dishes. Many years later, not one has broken! They go in the microwave and look nice, too.

You can get stainless steel mugs and water bottles in place of plastic cups. Around here, we each have a different color/style water bottle aso don't have to wash after every use. Some have the (plastic) pullout squirt top which might be a good transition from a sippy cup.

Try out wood, bamboo, stainless steel, and types of heavy ceramics!

Also check out "green sprouts" dishes for sippy cups, kid's silverware, and kid's dishes... they are constructed from plant based materials like cornstarch.you can find them on amazon. The big things to check for in products are that they are BPA and pthalate free...

Good Luck!
-M.

We rarely use the microwave at all, and when we do, we use porcelain plates/bowls, never plastic.

We really like our CORNINGWARE. The lids are plastic, so we don't usually reheat those. But we like the corningware b/c you can put it in the oven. We use our oven and toaster oven all the time to reheat our meals.

PYREX also has wonderful thick glass for food storage.
ANCHOR is another good thick glass comparable to Pyrex, but I think Pyrex rubbery lids last longer. My Anchor lids are breaking/tearing.

Like Carrie said, thick glass may be the way to go. My 3 yr old drinks out of some thick glass. I think some of these 'drinking glasses' I use for him are actually old dried beef jars. You can find some nice thick glasses at Goodwill I would think. I found my son his at my local thrift store.

I read in my magazine the other day to avoid food and drink storage out of plastics with recycling numbers number 3, 6, and 7 (the article was about Endocrine-distrupting chemicals showing up in our bloodstreams, specifially causing infertility in males)

I love pyrex storage containers - they do have plastic/rubber lids though. I reuse bread bags - i just shake out the crumbs and stick in an empty platic bag box. I rarely have to buy plastic bags. I also use reusable sandwich containers instead of plastic bags - yes the containers are plastic, but at least they are reusable!

For the most part, my kids have always used our regular dishes and thick, heavy glasses. Actually, I guess you might call them mugs, as they have a handle, but they're made of thick glass.
They've all been dropped on the laminate wood floor multiple times without incident. Just standard Target stuff.
They might not hold up quite as well on ceramic or slate, but I wouldn't worry on wood/laminate/vinyl unless your kids are prone to hurling the stuff across the room. ;-)

Good for you! We use good ole glass containers for food storage and Correll (sp?) dinnerware, which has never broken when dropped on our tile floor. We've switched out our daughter's plastic cups w/ very small glass ones (she's now 6) -- or she uses her stainless steal water bottles.

If you are a Costco shopper, they sell a great set of Glass storage containers. They too have plastic lids, but they are nice and a good price :)