That ship has already sailed

Let me tell you about my 'that ship has already sailed' philosophy as it relates to the plastic diet. So, I go to great lengths in general to avoid plastic, i.e. making a cake from scratch to avoid the plastic-bag-encased-much-less-time-consuming store bought cake mix. (Of course, I have my weaknesses, i.e. local cheese that only comes in plastic, that I never seem to avoid even if I should.) For the most part though I try very hard to avoid plastic food packaging. This is because this is an area of plastic reduction that can make a big difference. In general we get a lot of plastic when we buy/consume food (take-out, eat-in, grocery store, farmer's market-you name it). There is a big exception to this avoidance though and that is when the food item is bought by someone else and offered to me—post purchase. In this case I live by the philosophy of 'that ship has already sailed'. By this I mean, I can't undo that plastic purchase, it is done, nothing I do can change it—so, I think ‘I might as well not be a martyr’ and I partake! I usually get really excited about the partaking too because the food item is generally something I no longer allow myself to buy and often something I miss, like crunchy carbs…yum crackers. I talked to Kerry about this plastic food loophole when I was in NYC with her a few weeks ago. We discussed the merit (or lack there of) of my justification working across the board. For example sometimes it might be the case that if I didn't partake, less would be consumed, then less would be bought in the future, and then less plastic would enter the system. I agree this is the case sometimes, but today while I partook of two wonderfully crunchy Mint Chocolate Pirouette cookies in the common room at work, I was happy for my 'ship has sailed' philosophy—even if it is a loophole :)