Are sustainable products cost effective? Part 4: plastic wrap and wax paper

How many times have you been running late, headed to a pot luck, and you needed to wrap that fruit salad? You reach for the Saran wrap and tear and tear. The wrap sticks together and winds up in a ball. The third try you finally get a piece big enough to cover the bowl, with a scraped up thumb from that razor sharp edge. If you weren't late before, you definitely are now.

That experience was beyond time consuming and tedious, but also wasteful and harmful on the environment. The wrap that wasn't even used will live as long as your family dog. So let's look at an alternative option and what the cost difference is.

First, an alternative option to Saran wrap is a silicone stretch lid. I know I have talked about silicone as an alternative to plastic before, but this silicone product will literally cover anything that plastic wrap will. Watermelon? Slap that stretch lid on and it's fresh as can be. Bowl of vegetables? Grab a stretchy lid and throw it in the fridge.

Now let's look at the cost and convenience. This is possibly the most convenient sustainable product I have written about. You can find these silicone stretchy lids at your local supermarket, Walmart, Target, or Amazon. The lids come in a variety of sizes, colors, and quantities. Two examples I found were a pack of six lids for $6.99 at Walmart and a pack of fourteen lids at Amazon for $15.99. Now quality wise, I have no input on either brand. As people give these a go, I would love for you to comment below with your reviews!

Comparing this to Saran wrap, you could buy a 100ft roll of Saran wrap for $6.99. With this being the same price as a set of six silicone lids, the decision seems pretty self explanatory. With the convenience of finding products at your local supermarket, the price being identical to name brand alternatives, and the sustainability, the choice is so simple.

The next alternative I wanted to mention in this post, is bees wax paper. This has also been used as an alternative to Saran wrap. You can use the bees wax paper to cover bowls, wrap sandwiches, fruit, baked goods, and more. The beeswax wrap can then be washed with dish soap and dried for reusability. When the wrap loses its ability to stick, it's all natural ingredients are easily compostable. Similar to the silicon lids and Saran wrap the beeswax wrap is $7.99 for a large and $6.99 for a small. This product can be found in many places but I found these prices at https://zerowastestore.com/.

As a future behavior analyst, my goal is to create small behavior changes that create a large impact in the world. The intervention I hope to provide is a visual prompt for individuals to make sustainable choices. I firmly believe that most of the population does not make sustainable choices in products, not for lack of trying to save the world. But for lack of knowledge about these products.