Welcome to LIME's Organic Living blog, where organic lifestyle expert Eliza Sarasohn - author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living - tackles your questions on the ins and outs of living la vida organica. This week, Sarasohn identifies the toxic culprit lurking in kitchens everywhere: plastic. 

Most kitchens have a jumble of mismatched plastic containers gathered in some far-flung cupboard. While it might be difficult (if not impossible) to do away with all of them, keeping an organic kitchen definitely calls for reducing your use of these items — and for ditching the worst of them.

Plastics start out as petroleum, which makes them a less than eco-friendly choice in general, as their production releases toxic chemicals — styrene, benzene, and tricholorothane among them — into the air. Certain types of plastic can also leach and emit other nasty chemicals that you definitely don’t want in your kitchen or, even worse, in your food.

Of the various types of plastic used for food storage, these are the ones you want to avoid as much as possible:

           •      Bispherol A (BPA). Created in the 1930s as a synthetic estrogen, BPA can appear in baby bottles and stain-resistant food storage containers.

           •      Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Used for wrapping meat and in some cooking oil bottles.

           •      Polystyrene. Also known as Styrofoam, used in disposable coffee cups and take-out containers.

Most plastic products are number-coded from 1 to 7 for recycling purposes, usually on the bottom; the numbers relate to the type of resin that was used to create the product. Products containing bispherol A are coded with the number 7, PVC is coded #3, and polystyrene is coded #6. Again, these are the ones you want to avoid.

Bottles and containers made from #1 or PET plastic are safe to eat or drink from but most containers made of this material are designed as single-use only. Don’t keep them around; they’re hard to clean and they can absorb nasty odors and bacteria.

Safer choices include:

           •      #2, HDPE; #4, LDPE; and #5, PP. None of these types of plastic transmit harmful chemicals to food. #2 is accepted in most recycling programs; #4 and #5 are more limited so you’ll want to check with your local recycling program to see if they’re accepted.

           •      Polylactide (PLA) plastics. These are made from renewable resources like corn, potatoes, and other plants that contain a lot of starch. You can’t recycle them but they will break down in a commercial compost.

           •      Non-plastic products, like glass or metal containers.

In general, you should never microwave food in plastic containers, even if they’re labeled as microwave safe. All this designation means is that the containers won’t break or melt in a microwave; it doesn’t mean they won’t leach chemicals into food. If you use plastic wrap when microwaving (which I would discourage), position it loosely over the container and don’t let it touch the food.

Avoid storing fatty or oily foods (meats and cheeses) in plastic. Consider buying meats direct from the butcher and wrapped in butcher paper instead of prepackaged items wrapped in plastic.

And finally, buy plastic containers and products that are made from the safer #2, #4, and #5 resins. The Green Guide has a good list of products to look for.

For a list of BPA-free baby bottles and dishes, go to here. 

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living by Eliza Sarasohn with Sonia Weiss.