example, you might switch the cottage cheese for fresh mozzarella from an Italian pork store and ask for it in wax paper rather than plastic, then store it in a glass container at home.
Stores like Italian pork stores and local butchers are much more expensive, but much easier to avoid plastic.
For takeout, I am slowly converting my local restaurants. Most now offer the paper cartons like you used to always get in Chinese food places as an alternative to the plastic. Enough have changed over that I now only use them. Now I ask before I order and if they say they don't have the cartons, I say, "That's a shame. I'll come back when you do."
For milk, I now buy the half gallons in cartons rather than the gallons in plastic. Again it's more expensive, but it's worth it to me.
For meat, bring a separate reusable bag and don't have them pack each meat product in a separate plastic bag. I find I really have to watch the checkout people because they have habits of using tons of plastic bags.
It's hard. Just about everything has some plastic, but you can reduce it. And, while I still recycle whatever I can, I think it's mostly a sham.
Also, consider going to only natural clothing fibers going forward. Plastics in clothing are a big problem too.
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