less oil and plastic packaging - going on a carbon diet

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One of my friends on fb wrote a little story about older Australians being around in a time when things were more "green" without trying - liquids were in glass, not plastic, that got returned to shops and re-used. People used newspaper as padding in parcels, not bubble wrap, they washed nappies instead of using disposables, walked up stairs more as there were less lifts. Last night I watched a documentary about a Finnish family going on a "carbon diet" for a year - reducing their oil usage and not buying anything in plastic packaging. They stopped using the car and caught buses, rode bikes or walked, the father rowed their motor boat and they made a huge effort in reducing their oil consumption. They tried (and mostly succeeded in) buying no plastic packaging. They even made their own products like tooth paste to avoid the packaging. There only seemed to be a few lapses in the year - one was when the mother only got told the night before by her little boy that he had to takes some food to a party the next day - so she ran out in the morning and bought some packets of chips in plastic. Whilst the mother and sons seemed a little upset at times by the father's hairbrained passion, they put up with it and gave it a go. It was quite interesting. Tonight I went to the supermarket and was looking at the things I like to get with views of the packaging. Some things you can get in paper - like mushrooms and some fruit and veggies that you can pack yourself in the mushroom bags, but many veggies like sprouts are already packaged in plastic. Pastas, Cheeses and tofu and vegetarian products like vegetarian sausages are all packaged in plastic so it has set me thinking how I could reduce my plastic packages. It is quite amusing when you think of the new fads in the western world of most people taking cloth bags to the supermarket for our groceries, but most things going into these bags are still packaged in plastic. There are some other things we can do - like getting bread from a bakers in a paper bag, and possibly take containers to a deli to collect cheese, but I don't know what the solution is for the vegetarian and a lot of organic products. You can buy products with less of a carbon footprint, such as vegetarian or organic, but most of them are packaged in plastic. What options do you have where you live?