PlasticLess NYC

Top 10 Reasons Why Bulk Bin Shopping Is Awesome

2011-03-28T20:52:00.004-04:00

You avoid single use plastic bags. Duh. Especially if you bring your own cloth bags.
You pay only for food. Not packaging, not marketing. Just food
There's no way to hide food inflation with smaller bags and boxes.
Using bulk ingredients means you are eating unprocessed and minimally processed foods, which is tons better for you than stuff that comes in boxes and cans.
Scrutinizing labels with unrecognizable ingredients and frequently bogus nutrition claims becomes a thing of the past.
It saves money! Bulk food is less expensive than processed, packaged food. A lot less expensive.
Want to eat local? Bulk bin sections often tell you where stuff was grown, and feature local products.
Bulk food is easier to carry and store. What used to take up bags and bags, and fill up cabinets now takes up a lot less space, without all the bulky boxes, trays, packaging and air filled plastic bags.
Your pantry will look like a page from a Crate and Barrel catalog, with all that food in pretty glass jars.
Did I mention the lack of plastic?

Here we go again

2011-03-09T12:40:00.003-05:00

It appears that some celebrities haven't gotten the message that endorsing products that are horrible for the planet is not OK.

"Shh! No one tell me how stupid I look!"

A couple of days ago, Smartwater (made by Glaceau, owned by Coca-Cola) released a video featuring Jennifer Aniston and designed to 'go viral'. I won't give them the satisfaction of putting a link to it here, but a Google search will turn it up pretty quickly.

Glaceau (once again, owned by Coca-Cola) must be reacting to dragging bottled water sales. People are figuring out that bottled water is a stupid waste of money in addition to being horrible for the environment. So they are using the oldest trick in the book, sex- better yet a sexy celebrity- to push their product.

Sigh. I've already put a fair amount of effort into telling Ellen Degeneres that this kind of thing isn't smart. The era of pasting a celebrity's face on a horrible product and thereby making it 'cool' has passed. Who wants to send Jen a reality check?

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Conference TEDx livestream, Saturday, Nov. 6 11:30am - 9pm ET. Watch it here!

2010-11-05T20:18:00.009-04:00

The Plastic Pollution Coalition and TEDx is hosting the TEDx GreatPacificGarbagePatch conference tomorrow. It will be broadcast LIVE online. Speakers include environmental and plastic pollution experts Van Jones, Sylvia Earle, David de Rothschild, Chris Jordan, Beth Terry, Captain Charles Moore, and more!

Join me in watching here.

Watch live streaming video from tedxgp2 at livestream.com

Another refill option for NYC: Beer Growlers

2010-08-30T10:30:00.005-04:00

I visited a couple of Whole Foods stores over the weekend, to purchase a new Klean Kanteen * and a couple of Lunchbot containers. There will be more on the Lunchbots in a future post.

At the Union Square Whole Foods, I saw something new. Beer in refillable growler jugs! They just started offering it a month ago. You pay a bit more for the jug on your first visit, but then you return that jug and get a new one filled with local beer, and don't pay the extra fee.

Beer growlers aren't a new thing in NYC, but they aren't common either. I'm glad to see it spreading to more locations. And Whole Foods isn't the only place you can find them. Here is an article with a list of locations for refillable beer in NYC:

Growlers, the New Old Beer Conveyance - NY Times

*The bummer about Klean Kanteens, Siggs, and other re-usable bottles, the reason many people cite for not getting them, is the cost of replacing them when they get lost. I had my old Kanteen for almost two years. Compared to the cost of bottled water, the replacement price is negligable. I could buy a new Klean Kanteen every month and still save money in comparison to purchasing a bottle of water every day.

10 Reasons Why Kool-Aid is better than Vitaminwater - or Vitaminwater Zero.

2010-08-29T14:00:00.007-04:00

[Photo: Failblog]

10. You can say "Yeah, I'm drinking the Kool-Aid" without a hint of irony.

9. Less packaging = Less plastic pollution

8. Kool-Aid is a lot less expensive than Vitaminwater products.

7. Unlike Vitaminwater, Kool-Aid doesn't brag about how nutritious it is, then have its lawyers say 'no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking our product was a healthy beverage'. And Kool-Aid even has 10% daily value of Vitamin C.

6. With Kool-Aid, you can know exactly where the water is coming from, and what is in it. Not true with Vitaminwater.*

5. The money you spend for Kool-Aid isn't going to multimillion dollar celebrity ad campaigns (yuck).

4. You generally don't see Kool-Aid packets littering city streets. Vitaminwater bottles? They're all over the place.

3. Instead of drinking stuff that looks like Kool-Aid, you could just drink Kool-Aid.

2. Vitaminwater is over-hyped and over-exposed. Kool-Aid is retro.

1. "Hey, Ellen DeGeneres!" just doesn't have the same ring as "Hey, Kool-Aid!"

* Municipal tap water is more regulated than bottled water, and cities must publish drinking water supply and quality reports. Thanks to a California law, bottled water companies must publish water supply and quality reports as well. There are currently no Bottled Water Reports for vitaminwater products.

Sugarcane plastic? [UPDATE]

2010-08-14T12:03:00.004-04:00

From the Associated Press:

P&G to use sugarcane-based plastic in packaging

(AP) – 1 day ago

CINCINNATI — Consumer products makers Procter & Gamble Co. said Thursday that it will use a plastic derived from sugarcane in the packaging of some of its products.

P&G said the material will be used for Pantene Pro-V, Covergirl, and Max Factor products.

The plastic is made from a process that converts sugarcane into high-density polyethylene. The company says it is 100 percent recyclable.

P&G plans to buy the plastic from the Brazilian company Braskem SA. The first products using the plastic will be sold next year.

Interesting. Sugarcane will take the place of petroleum, so a renewable resource will replace a nonrenewable one. But I have questions:

- Will it take more energy to convert sugarcane to plastic than it currently takes with petroleum?

- Won't this new HDPE plastic still contain phtalates, with all the same health risks as petroleum HDPE?

- Will sugarcane HDPE be recycled along with petroleum HDPE with existing curbside programs, or will it have to be collected and recycled separately?

I hate it when manufacturers say "please recycle" without telling consumers HOW.
___________________

August 18 UPDATE: Jenny from P&G Responds! See the original in comments to this post.

This is Jenny from P&G - I work on this project, and I saw your blog, so I thought I would answer your questions! If you have any more questions, feel free to email me and I'd be happy to chat.

- We've done a Life Cycle Assessment which shows it takes considerably less energy to make the sugarcane plastic than the current petroleum plastic. Also, the facilities which make the sugarcane ethanol run on energy produced from the sugarcane by-products (bagasse) i.e. renewable energy. In fact, they produce more energy than the use, so they return it to the grid in Brazil.

- The HDPE sugarcane plastic won't contain phtalates.

- Yes, the new sugarcane HDPE will be able to be recycled in existing curbside programs, as it can be recycled together with petroleum HDPE in current municipal recycling facilities - no sorting required. This is one of the things which makes the sugarcane plastic a good choice as a sustainable renewable plastic.

thanks for your interest,
Jenny

Vitaminwater is neither vitamins nor...water? Discuss.

2010-08-13T12:13:00.006-04:00

[Photo: Vincent Ducrey, Flickr]

My normal beat is plastic. But since I'm trying to convince Ellen DeGeneres to dump her bottled water advertising contracts, that means addressing the many other problems with the product-- like what is inside that single use plastic bottle.

I just posted this on vitaminwater zero's Facebook page:

Please help me out with this. Where does vitaminwater zero get its water? From glacéau's website:

"all water used in glacéau products comes from approved drinking water sources, and it already meets stringent epa regulations. we take it to an even higher level of purity via vapor distillation for smartwater and reverse osmosis for vitaminwater10. we then add back in electrolytes, natural flavors, colors found in fruits and vegetables, natural sweeteners and nutrients to vitaminwater and vitaminwater10"

I assume glacéau has not updated the page to include vitaminwater zero, but the source information is the same. Let's unpack this a little.

"all water used in glacéau products comes from approved drinking water sources, and it already meets stringent epa regulations."

What does glacéau mean by "approved drinking water sources"? Approved by whom? And they say it meets EPA regulations. EPA = Environmental Protection Agency. That is well and good, but they are selling a beverage. Shouldn't glacéau be meeting regulations from the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration? Aren't there laws saying that bottled water companies have to tell the public where they get their water and what exactly is in it? The answer is yes- for the state of California. Thank you, California. Glacéau has a Bottled Water Report on their website for smartwater, but there are no Bottled Water Reports for vitaminwater products.

What is in a name? The product is called vitaminwater. As we know from recent news , lawyers for Coca-Cola, owners of glacéau, have admitted "no consumer could reasonably be misled into thinking vitaminwater was a healthy beverage." That blows the first part of the name - "vitamin". By not publicly displaying the water sources for vitaminwater and vitaminwater zero, is Coca-Cola/glacéau saying their product isn't WATER? The bottle does specify it as a "nutrient enhanced water beverage". That is cutting things rather fine, don't you think?

Here is a link to glacéau smartwater Bottled Water Report, as required by the State of California: http://www.glaceau.com/media/smartwater_report.pdf

I write comments - Maxell [UPDATED]

2010-08-12T15:59:00.003-04:00

Facebook can be great sometimes. I was originally ticked off when so many companies, stores and manufacturers started to put up Facebook pages, but now I realize they made it a whole lot easier to reach out and give them feedback. Today I put this comment up on Maxell's page:

Product Packaging
I purchased a pair of Maxell headphones from Duane Reade drugstore in NYC today. I chose them because I know they are high quality, they were inexpensive, and they didn't come with much packaging.

I care about packaging, especially plastic packaging. Plastic pollution is a global problem that is killing humans, animals, clogging the world's oceans and damaging the planet's environment. I've been reducing my use of plastic (especially single use plastic) for a couple of years. But modern life is impossible without plastic--take headphones, for instance.

Although the Juicy Tunes headphones purchased today came in a small package, there is still a lot of plastic that I'll regrettably have to throw away. Is Maxell working towards green solutions such as using less plastic and less packaging overall? For example the outer plastic sleeve of Juicy Tunes headphones is completely unnecessary.

Will they respond?

Aug. 18 UPDATE: Maxell responds!

Hi Juli -
Maxell is always conscious of our impact on the environment. We are working everyday to reduce packaging and design new and innovative options that utilize earth friendly materials. Maxell has introduced eco-friendly packaging concepts - such as the NEW Maxell Eco box for recordable disc media. This package design will be available in the Canadian market this fall, and we are hoping that US retailers will embrace this new, recyclable design to replace the plastic spindle pack. Thank you for your input and support and we will continue to work towards improving our packaging design for all of our products in order to reduce waste

Aw...why does Canada always get the good stuff first?

Update on Ellen DeGeneres and Bottled Water- Online Petition

2010-08-10T09:16:00.008-04:00

In addition to a Facebook group, there is now an online petition at Go Petition asking Ellen DeGeneres to cancel her contracts for bottled water, an industry that is damaging to people, animals and the planet.

http://www.gopetition.com/petition/38311.html

Please sign the petition and share the link with others.

I do not criticize individuals for their personal plastic choices. But if you are a hugely influential celebrity encouraging your fans to buy single use plastics, that does deserve criticism.

It is especially distressing since Ellen's endorsement of vitaminwater zero goes against her public image as a charming, kind, generous and funny woman who is vegan and loves animals.

Ellen loves a good cause. Discouraging bottled water in single use plastic is an excellent cause.

As you know from my blog, single use plastic is the issue that gets me most. Plastic pollution is a blight that I see daily in my city environment. It is clogging our oceans, killing wildlife in large numbers, and making its way back up the food chain to us. But bottled water has a host of additional problems. Here are a few resources on bottled water, and why it is damaging to people, animals and the planet:

Books:
Bottlemania, by Elizabeth Royte
Bottled and Sold, by Peter Gleick

Documentaries:
Tapped
FLOW (For the Love of Water)
The Story of Bottled Water

Websites:
Plastic Pollution Coalition
5 Gyres
Natural Resources Defense Council

Online Articles:
Why You Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water
9 Reasons to Stop Drinking Bottled Water
A World of Reasons to Stop Drinking Bottled Water

Pic of the day

2010-08-06T16:12:00.003-04:00

[Picture: Library of Congress, via the Denver Post Click to enlarge]

I love this picture. It is one of many stunning color photographs taken by the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information between 1939-1943. Some seem like they were taken yesterday, and others are so striking as to seem iconic- yet they were new to me. See many more of them at The Denver Post.

I love this picture because there isn't a scrap of plastic anywhere. Plastic has invaded every aspect of our lives, and in trying to eliminate it I often wonder how life worked before plastic came along. This photo gives us a clue. You see several alternatives that plastic refuseniks are using today: wax paper, glass jars, and metal containers.

Caption for the photo: "Women workers employed as wipers in the roundhouse having lunch in their rest room, Chicago and Northwest Railway Company. Clinton, Iowa, April 1943. Reproduction from color slide. Photo by Jack Delano. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress"

Things I hate: Coffee K-cups

2010-08-04T11:14:00.005-04:00

[Picture: Herb Swanson for The New York Times]
I've been meaning to post about this for a while, but Gawker and The New York Times beat me to it. We have these things at my office- I bet you do too. And now they are very popular for home use as well. Pardon me for being a coffee snob, but they taste AWFUL. Plus, it is a newly created stream of sheer plastic waste. Therefore, they are things I hate. To review, Things I Hate generally:

- are made of plastic
- are meant to be used once and tossed away
- are not in any way recyclable
- appeal to people's vanity and desire for instant gratification
- strive to create a need where there was none before
- are recently created streams of pure waste

How long till we see these things stuck in the gullet of a baby albatross on Midway?

A couple choice quotes from the Times and Gawker- but go read them, too!

The Times:

More than 80 percent of Green Mountain’s $803 million in sales last year came from nonrecyclable, nonbiodegradable, single-use coffee pods and their brewing systems. This year, the company expects to sell nearly three billion K-Cups, the plastic and tinfoil pods that are made to be thrown away — filter, grounds and all — after one use.
.........

Michael Dupee, Green Mountain's vice president for corporate social responsibility, said some customers did not like to see the waste. "Consumers see the waste stream," Mr. Dupee said, "and they compare it to what they had done before, and they have a perception that there is a problem."

Gawker:

I'm no "LEED certified environmental consultant" or "person with a grasp of basic science," but it seems to me that brewing coffee one cup at a time via disposable plastic "K-cups" is a mite wasteful. Well, that's just "consumer perception."...Silly consumers, always perceiving things.

Rabble-Rousing

2010-08-02T17:13:00.004-04:00

I'm still really bugged about the Ellen Degeneres advertising bottled water thing. How can someone I like and admire do something that ethically...wrong? Why is it still OK to endorse bottled water in single use plastics, when it is clogging our oceans, making its way into the food chain, killing marine and desert animals, poisoning people at the bottle making stage, privatizing a public resource and then selling it back to us at hundreds of times the price...the list of why bottled water is wrong just goes on and on.

The point is, it is NOT OK. So I did what a lot of people do these days, and started a Facebook page. It'll never get 'Let Betty White Host SNL' numbers, but I hope lots of people join and that Ellen gets the message.

Here it is: Tell Ellen Degeneres To Dump Bottled Water Advertising!

Someone get this gal a Kleen Kanteen!

2010-08-02T12:14:00.003-04:00

[Image: Gawker]

Amanda Seefried on the set of Little Red Riding Hood. Tsk, tsk. Try a stainless steel bottle next time, Ms. Seefried. The better to re-use, my dear!

New York's new BPA law just scratches the surface

2010-08-01T10:34:00.005-04:00

On Friday, Governor Paterson signed legislation banning the sale, manufacture and distribution in New York of some products designed for infants and small children containing bisphenol-A (BPA), such as bottles, sippy-cups, straws and pacifiers. New York is the seventh American state to enact such a law; it takes effect on December 1.

BPA is a common industrial chemical that has been used since the 1960s. It is a hormone disruptor that is linked to such things as breast, testicular and prostate cancers, early-onset puberty, declines in sperm counts, diminished intellectual capacity and behavior problems.

While I'm glad the New York State legislature could finally find something to agree on (it passed both houses unanimously), this BPA law just scratches the surface. As I said, BPA is common. Here are other items we see and touch and eat and drink from every day that contain bisphenol-A:

- plastic linings in baby formula cans
- plastic linings in canned food
- plastic linings in canned sodas
- ATM and cash register receipts, in amounts 250-1000x greater than food cans

According to the National Institutes of Health, "BPA in food and beverages accounts for the majority of daily human exposure." But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the NIH has not considered the recent finding by the Environmental Working Group of BPA in ATM and register receipts, containing 250 to 1000 times the amount found in food can linings.

As I Google for news articles to support this blog post, the most common phrase I see is "BPA found", and it is pissing me off. "Oh, lookie here, we found BPA in cans! And receipts!" etc. Like we'd just found a new species of butterfly, or the all water route to Asia. All these things we're finding with BPA are man made. We made them, so 'we' shouldn't have to find out what is in them, much less find that what is in them is killing us.

Ellen Good. Bottled Water Bad.

2010-07-29T17:25:00.005-04:00

Do you like Ellen Degeneres? I do. She's a very funny lady. But it really made me sad to see her endorsing Glaceau's Vitamin Water Zero in ads that started this past spring. Take a look at the graphic below, then go here, to The Ellen Show's website, and leave a comment. Let her know what you think!

Via: Term Life Insurance

Hopeful Things

2010-07-20T16:25:00.009-04:00

Here are a few things that have me feeling hopeful lately. OK, so we aren't reversing global warming, or even making a dent in the mountains of plastic crap and packaging being shoved in our faces every day, but these small things tell me the message is getting through.

Crate & Barrel featured re-usable polyester produce bags in their most recent catalog. Whoa. A major American retailer offering produce bags, not just the hippy food co-op stores? That is kind of a big effing deal. I would provide you with a link, but they SOLD OUT and are no longer featured on the website. In an online chat with a Crate & Barrel representative, I was told a larger quantity was on order that will be available in November. Said the rep: "We had no idea they'd be so popular." Woot!

Want to get your own produce bags before November? Here are a few sources:
- in NYC, the 4th Street Food Coop and Brooklyn Coop have them. I'm not sure about other places.
- Try these sellers on Etsy
- EcoBags
- Reusablebags.com (they have the same bags that were offered by Crate & Barrel)
- Make your own. Butterick has a pattern that includes several shopping bags including a produce bag, and there are also free patterns online, like this one.

Target's Home Organic Sheet Sets are packaged with very little plastic. I purchased a set recently when one of my old sheets got too soft and started to shred. And I was happy to find these sheets packaged in a little case made of the same fabric as a sheets, with a glossy paper cuff around it. The paper does have a plastic coating, but in comparison to the thick plastic bags that all the other sheets came in, this is a huge improvement. Now, why aren't ALL the sheets packaged similarly?

While window shopping in Grand Central on my lunch hour, I spotted these ceramic mugs at Tea & Honey...and they weren't packaged in a thick plastic box, as at other places. Hooray! They are called "I am NOT a paper cup" TM. They're double walled ceramic with a silicone lid; replacement silicone lids are also available. My favorite travel mug is ceramic and it is very chipped (it used to have a handle, long ago) and well used. It came from Starbucks. I've tried and tried to scratch the logo off but it won't budge, so I just suffer the shaming at indie coffee shops. I love ceramic because it doesn't impart flavor to my coffee, it insulates well, and cleans easily. And it just feels right, like a proper mug. When it breaks, I'm happy to know where to get a new one. If you can't get to Tea & Honey at Grand Central, plenty of other retailers offer it, some with more plastic packaging with others: MoMa Design Store, Target, ThinkGeek...do an online search.

Last week I refilled a bottle of liquid dish soap for the first time, at 4th Street Food Co-op. It took this long because roommates kept buying new bottles. I was using bar soap to wash dishes for a while, but found that it made the dishes slippery and easy to drop. Perhaps a different bar soap would work better. Or, I can just keep refilling my bottle at the food co-op. I'm encouraged to find more stores offering bulk items and liquid bulk items, such as soaps, oils and vinegars in particular. Liquid bulk items are a new thing for NYC.

Have you seen hopeful signs that the message about single use plastics is getting through to individuals, retailers and manufacturers? Let me know!

I write comments

2010-07-12T16:02:00.007-04:00

[Picture: newraleigh.com]
I contributed this comment today to McDonald's "Values in Practice Blog". It hasn't been published yet.

Bob, you are addressing the very issue I came here to find. I want to know what McDonald's is doing, if anything, about sustainable consumption and extended producer responsibility. I have long been dismayed by the inability to purchase coffee in my refillable mug at McDonalds, and now with McCafe lattes and frappes adding (according to AdAge) $1 billion to annual sales, I cringe thinking about the hundreds upon thousands of un-recyclable polypropylene cups and lids going to landfills, never mind the straws.

Will McDonald's consider filling re-usable mugs and tumblers brought in by customers? Will they take responsibility and recycle their plastic packaging?

Thanks for any insight,

Juli
PlasticLessNYC

UPDATE as of July 20: My comment was published along with a few others. No response from the author as of yet.

This proposal sucks, but could reduce a stream of NYC plastic waste.

2010-07-10T11:24:00.005-04:00

[Photo: Gothamist]
Something tells me this proposal won't pass, because millions of New Yorkers will scream bloody murder, and I'll be one of them.

The MTA has proposed a $1 surcharge every time one of the city’s 1.6 million straphangers purchases a new MetroCard from one of the MTA’s vending machines.

Sources told the New York Post, "It would provide an incentive to hold onto the card. Helping rein in manufacturing, distribution and disposal costs as well as providing a new revenue stream for the cash-starved agency.”

...the proposal is part of a financial plan due at the end of this month to bridge a $400 million budget shortfall. I think the dollar surcharge idea sucks, because it punishes the people who can least afford it, and will discourage ridership.

The idea only has appeal in that, if it passes, it will mean fewer plastic MetroCards being manufactured, distributed, and thrown away-- so less waste, less carbon footprint. It will encourage riders to purchase unlimited monthly cards, so they will only pay the surcharge once a month, or once in a blue moon by using the EasyPayXpress program that automatically refills your card. I have been successfully using the same MetroCard for over a year with this program, and think it is great.

BUT. There are an awful lot of New Yorkers who can't afford $89 up front for a monthly unlimited card, or even $27 for a weekly. I can just imagine the boardroom full of Mr. Burns who thought up this idea, to bridge the budget gap on the backs of the working poor and unemployed. Nice. And for a tourist or bridge-and-tunneler visiting New York, an added dollar surcharge will likely be the deciding factor between taking the subway or taking a cab.

The idea is being pitched like a sin-tax, with the sin in this case being the act of purchasing and throwing away so many of those evil, wasteful plastic cards. Now, usually the beneficiaries of sin-taxes are not the folks who create the 'sin' in the first place. Gambling taxes often pay for education, cigarette taxes pay for smoking cessation programs, etc. But a MetroCard tax that goes right back to the MTA, makers of the MetroCard? Um....NO.

PlasticLess Celebrity Spotting

2010-07-01T17:09:00.004-04:00

[Picture: Jezebel.com]

Reese Witherspoon was photographed today (presumably on set to judge by the gown and the hair) sporting both a re-usable canvas bag AND a re-usable mug for her beverage. Two thumbs up, Ms. Witherspoon!

Have you spotted a celebrity going PlasticLess? Let me know!

Things I hate: Microwaveable 'convenience' foods

2010-06-19T13:31:00.004-04:00

(Photo: Gawker)

As a reminder, Things I Hate generally:

- are made of plastic
- are meant to be used once and tossed away
- are not in any way recyclable
- appeal to people's vanity and desire for instant gratification
- strive to create a need where there was none before
- are recently created streams of pure waste

Microwaveable convenience foods skeeve me out, and not just because they never, ever look like the picture on the box when prepared. First, there's the waste issue. By the time you are done there's practically more packaging waste than food, and most of it is plastic.

For another thing, there's the act of microwaving food in plastic. Knowing what we know now about plastic and heat, it boggles my mind that there are hugely profitable companies designing entire lines of food that are heated in their own 'disposable' plastic containers. (I haven't looked at any of these things in the store lately- what kind of plastic do they use for the dishes? Is it BPA free? Recyclable? Has any consumer group even asked about this??) Here, have some toxic chemicals with your mass produced, highly processed meal! Yech. How much longer before the thought of heating food in plastic becomes anathema? That day will come, I'm pretty sure of it.

I also object to the whole aesthetic. Who wants to eat or even serve food out of a dish that looks like it should contain dog food? (And that is what the food more or less looks like in reality anyway...)

Then there is the whole mass production issue. Mass production enables millions of people to be fed for relatively little money- a plus. But it comes with risks- like the mass distribution of yummy, yummy salmonella.

Microwaveable convenience foods: how convenient are they, really?

Tomorrow is No Plastic Day. Who Knew?

2010-06-07T13:00:00.002-04:00

I only just found out that tomorrow, June 8, is "No Plastic Day". No worries here- where every day is No Plastic Day! Or at least As-little-plastic-as-I-can-get-away-with Day...

If you would like to participate, here are details from No Plastic Day's web page-- and they're pretty simple, so why just make it a one day thing?

Participate in No Plastic Day

No Plastic Day is a world wide event intended to bring awareness of the over consumption of disposable plastic goods such as plastic bags and bottles. It is well known that there are floating islands of trash in most of the world's oceans. The huge amounts of plastic trash we all discard daily doesn't decompose, doesn't break down, and most of it is toxic to the animals that accidentally consume it. The current rate of plastic consumption is not sustainable and is starting to create a huge problem for marine life particularly. Fish eat toxic plastic bits. We catch the fish and eat the fish. Its only a matter of time before we've polluted our own food supplies with plastic trash.

What you can do on No Plastic Day - June 8, 2010

* No plastic bags - If you buy something from a store on No Plastic Day, bring your own bags. If you don't have any cloth or paper bags, just reuse the plastic bags you already have. They'll never biodegrade so you might as well reuse them if you already have them.

* No plastic bottles - Drink water from the tap or buy drinks in aluminum cans or glass bottles if you must.

* Limit your garbage - Almost everything you throw away is made of plastic. By limiting the garbage you create, you will reduce your plastic waste as well.

* Be creative - Everyone's situation is different and you will need to customize your own situation for No Plastic Day. Be creative. Reuse, recycle, and reduce your waste. Consider it a personal experiment to find ways you can create less garbage and try to use no disposable plastics.

Pic of the Day

2010-06-06T11:44:00.004-04:00

(Picture via Huffington Post)

Petroleum marine pollution on the beach, coated in its own layer of petroleum marine pollution.

More (or less) plastic free cooking, and musings on solo living

2010-05-31T13:39:00.005-04:00

(Photo: Smitten Kitchen)

This weekend I'm sticking close to home, doing a couple of things: finishing 'moving in' to my apartment and making pizzas.

I've been in my apartment since March, with a roommate. One of the two rooms does not have a closet, so the place can function as a 2 bedroom with one person using a hall closet for storage, or a lovely and roomy 1 bedroom with a living room/office. My roommate (we originally met two apartments ago) invited me to move in to take over his lease when he relocated. He moved this weekend and I've decided to keep the place to myself, at least for a while. It is the first time in my life that I've had my own place where everything is mine (including the messes! and the plastic!), and I have full control over my home environment.

Though I haven't finished unpacking the last of my boxes, I have to say it feels really nice. All my years in NYC have been spent in shared apartments, with most of my worldly possessions piled in my bedroom. You can understand an obsession with storage solutions and fascination with de-cluttering, even while feeling a complete failure at it. Now, with my things spread out over a 2 room apartment, I see that I really don't have so much stuff. There is room to breathe, and it feels lovely. The downside to having my own place is that I've met some amazingly wonderful people in my roommates, and having never lived alone wonder how I'll like it after a while. We shall see!

Now, the pizzas. I was inspired by two things seen on the internet- Oliver Strand's article in the NY Times last week advocating aging the dough overnight for a better crust, and Smitten Kitchen's Shaved Asparagus Pizza (pictured above). Making pizza doesn't seem like the best thing to do on the first warm weekend of summer, but I'm having fun with it. It is a great way to use up leftovers and try new cooking techniques. The leftovers are mostly from The Art of Eating (related post below), and things my roommate left behind.

New techniques include aging pizza dough overnight- actually, I'm re-acquainting myself with pizza dough, period; I haven't made pizza since high school! And Smitten Kitchen's idea of shaving asparagus is sheer genius. The first pizza (made using Smitten Kitchen's dough recipe and not aging it) came out really well and used up all of the leftover asparagus. I still consider myself a fairly unwilling veggie eater, so having a half pound of asparagus go down in a flash on top of a pizza is pretty amazing. For cheese, I just used fresh grated Parmesan- which came wrapped in plastic. Cheese is an ongoing plastic issue. I'd like to learn to make it but don't see giving up fine cheeses such as aged Parmesan, not completely. The best I can do is to be choosy with it. For now I bring a one pound hunk of parm home, remove the plastic and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator- which is made of re-usable #5 plastic- and it lasts me at least a couple months.

For today's pizza I'm trying the dough aging technique and using parm cheese as well as a hodgepodge of leftovers from the fridge: jarred pasta sauce, a bit of pesto, a tomato, oven roasted first to bring out flavor, and most of a shallot, caramelized. Roasting the tomato and caramelizing the shallot are also new techniques for me, and it is a good thing I do have the apartment to myself since I smoked up the place pretty good with the shallot. Roasting a shallot in a dry skillet for 20 minutes before adding oil? Really, Mark Bittman, really?? In the end the shallot came out OK, but that was a LOT of smoke.

The dough isn't right- I screwed up the flour measurement and had to add a lot more in the kneading process, which I know doesn't do good things- you aren't supposed to knead pizza dough much. And plastic avoidance played a part here. The recipes say to cover the dough with plastic wrap while it is rising. Instead, for the first pizza I coated the dough with a bit of olive oil (which the recipe calls for anyway), then flipped it over a couple times in the rising process to prevent a hard skin from forming on the exposed dough. For the second pizza dough, aged overnight, I covered the dough with a tea towel. That must be what cooks did before the invention of plastic wrap, right? It didn't work. Maybe I should have dampened the towel from the start (I dampened it half way through), or maybe there is a better plastic free technique out there-- anyone? The dough formed a skin, which sort of worked itself back in while forming the pizza, but not really.

But here's the thing- pizza is very forgiving. It might not be as gorgeous as the pictures from Smitten Kitchen and the NY Times, but it still tastes pretty darned good.

Do you like animals? Don't watch this.

2010-05-19T19:21:00.000-04:00

Fair warning.

Cooking with less plastic-- for the stage!

2010-05-18T14:40:00.003-04:00

This weekend, New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble (NYMVAE) will present "NYMVAE à la Carte", a food-themed double bill of J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata and The Art of Eating, a new opera by Jeffrey Lependorf. I have been involved with the company for a few years and am not singing in this production, but am helping out on the 'back stage' side- specifically with rounding up props.

Both one acts involve food and drink that are consumed on stage, which can be tricky to get right. Further, The Art of Eating is based on an essay by M.F.K. Fisher, a prolific and well-respected food writer who was active from the 1930s until her death in 1992. I had never heard of M.F.K. Fisher until now, but my foodie friends tell me I must read at least a few of her essays. She was the Ur-female food writer: before Julia Child and Ruth Reichl, there was M.F.K. Fisher, blazing a trail. Food essays and recipes from a time before single-use-plastics existed? Yes I do think I should read her essays!

The Art of Eating takes place in a tiny French restaurant in 1950, and involves four food dishes that are served- and partially consumed- on stage. I'm responsible for two of those dishes. Gulp! My dishes are braised endive and asparagus with shallots and lentils. I am modifying the linked recipes a bit- for example, I'm not going to attempt a poached egg which is hard enough to get right at home, let alone getting it to the theater!

Wish me luck. I'm an OK home cook but no gourmet, and I've never made prop food before. It is my first time preparing puy lentils and endive. This stuff has to look like it was made by a French chef and two sopranos (the show is double cast) have to eat a few bites of it on stage! And of course, I'm doing this while avoiding single use plastics. Here is how I did on that score:

- fresh produce (Belgian endive and asparagus) purchased using cloth bags. The asparagus had rubber bands and and a plastic tag.
- shallots and herbs purchased using cloth bags
- Puy lentils purchased from the bulk section using a cloth bag
- White wine vinegar came with a plastic cap and seal
- pepper corns came in a plastic tub (I've had the same huge tub for over a year)
- olive oil came in a metal gallon canister with a plastic spout and cap- I now know a couple places where I can get olive oil using my own glass bottle.
- salt, sugar and butter came in paper and cardboard

If you are in New York City, I hope you will attend a performance! We have amazing performers, a completely charming production, and you can see how my prop food came out. The shows are May 20-23 at Baruch College's Performing Arts Center Bernie West Theater. Tickets are available here

Brita filter and #5 recycling update, NYC edition

2010-05-12T18:38:00.009-04:00

Fourteen months ago, Brita USA joined a program called Gimme 5 to recycle its filters, thanks in part to a grassroots campaign led by Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish. This is a take-back program for spent Brita filters as well as #5 plastics -such as yogurt cups and take-out containers- sponsored by Brita (naturally), Stoneyfield Organic and Tom's of Maine, in partnership with Preserve, the company that recycles the plastic and turns it into new products. One other company is a big partner: Whole Foods. You can either mail your used filters to Preserve, or drop them off at participating Whole Foods stores.

I am so glad the program was started. To me it is a sign companies are starting to take responsibility for the products they manufacture, instead of leaving it all to the consumer and local governments. I'm rooting for Gimme 5's success, and wish more people knew about it. I haven't purchased a Brita filter for a while (since I drink mostly tap)- is Gimme 5 featured prominently on the package? Have you seen posters or advertising for Gimme 5? I haven't- and that worries me.

Additionally, a friend contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if the program was in trouble- she tried to drop off a filter at a New York City Whole Foods and was told by an employee that they 'don't take them anymore'. Alarming! Thankfully, this is not the case. I reached out to every Whole Foods store in NYC and heard back: Gimme 5 is still going. Going strong? That I don't know- I hope so! Here is what I got back from NYC Whole Foods store managers:

Columbus Circle: "We do participate in the Gimme 5 program, and also we recycle the Brita filters in the Gimme 5 bins. The bin is located by our Whole Body department. Any questions please ask."

Tribeca: "We are extremely happy to say we accept #5 plastics!!! We have TWO collection bins located in our wonderful Tribeca store, one by our Local registers on the far right and one in the café upstairs by the elevator. We love this program and we are very happy to promote it. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. Thank you and have a wonderful day."

Bowery: "I'm happy to share with you that our store does in fact participate in this wonderful program. All you need to do is bring in your #5 plastics to the Customer Service booth and our Team Members will put the items in the Gimme 5 bin, which we keep behind the booth. We do this to avoid co mingling and to ensure that only #5 plastics are getting into this bin, so it can properly be sent out. And to further answer your question, you can bring in Brita filters as well. ANY #5 plastic!"

Union Square: "Thanks for your inquiry, we absolutely do recycle your spent filter just wrap it up in a plastic a plastic bag ( that Preserve will recycle). Thanks for the compliment we definitely do take pride in being the only Company that has this program."

Chelsea: "Our Gimme 5 recycling receptacle can be found at customer service. We accept anything that is #5 and Brita Filters in the Gimme 5 program."

I'm stoked that so many Whole Foods stores are taking part! Especially since right now, this is one of the only ways for New Yorkers to recycle #5 plastics, including Brita filters. I'll have a filter of my own to recycle in a month or so. I drink mostly tap, but a few weeks ago there was a water main break in my neighborhood resulting in rusty water coming out of our faucets for the better part of a day. I started using my roommate's Brita pitcher. The water is back to normal now, but still-- I'm glad we have the filter.

Have YOU recycled with Gimme 5? How was your experience?

Snax

2010-05-06T23:30:00.003-04:00

One big change the comes with avoiding single use plastics is in the area of snacking. Think about it- pretty much anything that's crispy, crunchy, salty or sweet or both, and designed to be ripped open and placed directly into your pie-hole, is going to come with some plastic. See, it's that ripping open part.

I'm not ready to trade potato chips for apple slices and a handful of bulk bin trail mix. Not entirely, anyway. Here are some strategies and alternatives I use to get my fix while avoiding plastic:

- enjoying french fries and potato crisps at restaurants and pubs. (Yeah, this is a cheat as lots of places are likely dumping fries into the fryer out of a plastic bag, but not all of them...)

- nuts and dried fruits from the bulk section- I always have walnuts and raisins on hand; dried cranberries and almonds are another favorite combo.

- Kale Chips! Crispy, savory, and gone in a millisecond. If you haven't tried them yet, DO. Here is a recipe.

- Popcorn. I eat a lot of it. Buy from the bulk bins, prepare on the stove with olive oil in a heavy bottomed stock pot. If I want something salty/sweet, I go for kettle corn. (Beware- kettle corn is extremely addictive.)

- Whole fruit. Apples, oranges, pears, you get the idea.

- Hummus. My favorite recipe is Crunchy Chicken's, using chickpeas from the bulk section. I found the trick is to cook the bejesus out of the beans (skim off the little skins that float to the surface), and don't be stingy with the olive oil. Great with crudite- carrots, celery, broccoli etc.

- Other bulk bin bean dips- black bean, white bean. Eat with crudite veggies or bits of bread.

- Avocado. I'd say guacamole, but I love avocado so much that I don't have the patience to make it, so I just eat it.

- I tried Mark Bittman's flatbread recipe. It was OK. Perhaps better with practice and a hotter oven.

- Oatmeal cookies, using oatmeal, chopped walnuts, raisins and chocolate chips from the bulk section. And real butter, thank you very much. I can't make these often because I'll eat them until I get a stomach ache. Every. Time.

What are your favorite plastic free snacks? Let me know!

Things I hate: Plastic as an economic indicator

2010-05-04T14:43:00.006-04:00

Last week, American Public Media's show Marketplace stated

If you want to see signs the economy is bouncing back, look no farther than plastic.

My stomach took a nosedive when I heard that. The story goes that Dow Chemical's stated earnings surged a whopping 2,300 percent, and this is a good thing because it means that people are buying more stuff. And as we all know, stuff is either made of plastic, comes wrapped in plastic, or both. Further, Bill Wood of Mountain Top Economics and Research says that in a recovering economy, plastic packaging will always recover first as consumers go back to old habits:

BILL Wood: You could buy a head of lettuce, or you could buy prepackaged salad. You could buy a block of cheese, or you could buy pre-grated cheese. But as the economy recovers, consumers tend to purchase more of the preprocessed, packaged stuff.

So if Dow Chemical's profits are up, that means we are BACK, America! USA! USA!

Sigh.

Here is a nice visual to go along with the story. It is a time lapse video of 24 hours at a Walmart. I wonder, of all the stuff and packaging purchased that day, how much of it ended in a landfill in the following 24 hours?

Stephen Wilkes - Time-Lapse: A Day at A Walmart Store. from BERNSTEIN & ANDRIULLI on Vimeo.

PlasticLess Celebrity Spotting

2010-05-04T13:09:00.003-04:00

Have you noticed in the past couple of weeks that Stephen Colbert has traded out single use plastic water bottles on his show for a metal re-usable water bottle? Way to go, Mr. Colbert!

I often wonder when being spotted with a plastic water bottle or beverage in a single use plastic container will become a no-go for celebrities...and the rest of us. What will it take to pry the plastic iced coffee cups from the hands of the Olsen Twins? That day is coming, be sure. It is just a matter of when.

Have you spotted a celebrity going PlasticLess? Let me know!

How's your French? PlasticLess NYC was featured (briefly) on France 5 yesterday

2010-04-28T23:41:00.003-04:00

Thank you to the French commenters who alerted me to SOUS LE SOLEIL VERT, a 52 minute documentary about parts of the Green movement in the United States by Chantal Lasbats. You can view the documentary online here.

I was featured within the first 10 minutes of the film, in a section largely about Freegans. It may appear that I am a Freegan- while I greatly admire what they do, I am not. I took a tour they offer to the media and the general public last year. You can see my impressions of the tour in a blog post here. I encourage anyone to take that tour; it really opens your eyes to the needless waste around us every day. It will shake you up, challenge your assumptions, and really make you think. Looking online, I'm not sure if the NYC Freegan group is offering the same media tour that I took, but you can sign up or inquire with their MeetUp group here.

If you are visiting PlasticLess NYC for the first time, welcome! I hope you take some time to look around, and see what it is like to live with a lot less plastic in New York City. Be sure to see my Top 15 tips on reducing Single Use Plastics, here.

2010-04-23T16:23:00.001-04:00

Leonard Lopate discusses plastic recycling on today's Please Explain

2010-04-23T14:01:00.002-04:00

WNYC's The Leonard Lopate show has a regular segment on Friday called Please Explain, and today's segment was all about plastic recycling, with guest Eric Goldstein, senior attorney in the Natural Resource Defense Council's New York office and co-director of NRDC's urban program. You can listen to the segment here (it hasn't been posted online yet, but should be there later today): http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/explain.html

Found: the East Coast's very own Oceanic Garbage Patch

2010-04-19T10:16:00.006-04:00

For over ten years now we've known about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a toxic soup made mostly of plastic waste that extends over a huge area, anywhere from the size of Texas to the size of the continental United States. Scientists have said there are probably more oceanic garbage patches on the planet collecting in Earth's other oceanic gyres, but they hadn't been documented and studied. Until now.

A group called 5 Gyres has found and documented a second great garbage patch in the Atlantic Ocean.

Fellow New Yorkers, this one is ours:

Charles Moore, an ocean researcher credited with discovering the Pacific garbage patch in 1997, said the Atlantic undoubtedly has comparable amounts of plastic. The east coast of the United States has more people and more rivers to funnel garbage into the sea.

Up to 80% of marine debris comes from land. Plastic garbage in the ocean is worse than land-filled plastic waste because it spreads over a huge area, slowly photo-degrades, acts as a sponge for other potentially harmful chemicals in the ocean (never-mind the hormone disrupting chemicals it contains to begin with...), kills marine life, and eventually gets passed back up the food chain to US. According to Moore, "Humanity's plastic footprint is probably more dangerous than its carbon footprint".

Its overwhelming, isn't it? Kind of makes you want to stick your head in the sand and say 'life's too short for me to worry about this and we're screwed, anyway'. Well excuse me, but F*** that. Here's the thing- Rome wasn't built in a day, but in comparison to Rome? The garbage patches WERE. We humans have only had this throw-away plastic mentality and industry for what, 40, 50 years? The garbage patches can only be that old then. And while it is impossible for us to go out and clean them up, we sure as hell can stop adding to them. If it only took humanity 40-50 years to develop a throw-away economy, it shouldn't take nearly that long to re-design it, so that we discard way less and the things we do discard are biodegradable, and don't harm us or the planet.

The answer isn't finding a way to clean up the garbage patches. We are way too late for that. The answer is in taking a look at our own trash cans, at the things we buy, use, and throw away. How much of your trash is plastic? How much of it is recyclable? How much can you avoid altogether? If we all do even a little bit towards reducing our waste, things WILL change. It'll be fast, and it'll be easier than we think-- if enough of us act and speak up. Business and manufacturers will pay attention. God willing, our government will pay attention--but being the realist that I am, I'm pretty sure business and industry will react first. But for that to happen, we-- we good little American Consumers-- have to act.

Don't be discouraged. Don't be overwhelmed. Do something.

NYC to expand curbside plastic recycling?

2010-04-13T15:42:00.004-04:00

NYC City Council Speaker Christine Quinn is introducing legislation that would expand and overhaul NYC's recycling program, including expanding the plastics that are collected for recycling. Currently the city only accepts bottles and jugs of #1 and #2 plastic- the new legislation would add "all rigid plastic containers, like those used to hold laundry detergent, motor oil and yogurt." That sounds like all #1, #2, and #5 plastic containers, whether bottle/jug or take-out container-- but I wish I could find a copy of the proposed legislation to see exactly which types of plastic are included.

It seems like the legislation has a good chance of passing, and that is good news. But I wonder- is it funded? How will it be paid for? I did see an article saying "plastic expansion that is contingent upon a new recycling facility in Brooklyn, which will not open until 2012."

Encouraging recycling and offering more recycling options- that is all great. I applaud Speaker Quinn for introducing the legislation, and Mayor Bloomberg for encouraging it. BUT- we still need more voices saying, hey, don't create so much waste in the first place. Recycling isn't the answer- it isn't even close to the top of the list. A lot of our waste, recyclable or not, is SO easily avoided.

For instance, in the picture above, if the new law takes effect you'll be able to recycle the containers on the left at curbside- but I'm guessing not the lids. And definitely not much on the right- not the Styrofoam clam shell, maybe the small plastic containers (but not the lids). As opposed to now, when you can take those #5 take out containers on the left to Whole Foods for Gimme 5 collection, OR-- and hear me out-- go to a restaurant that uses re-usable sturdy ware, sit down, enjoy your meal, and skip the waste!

Must See - The Story of Bottled Water

2010-03-22T14:44:00.000-04:00

Plastic discussion today on WNYC

2010-03-18T23:35:00.003-04:00

A friend alerted me to a segment discussing plastic on WNYC's Leonard Lopate Show today. The segment featured Mindy Pennybacker, author of Do One Green Thing, who has a website: http://www.greenerpenny.com/

Though the segment was ostensibly about her book and about how we can affect positive change for the environment with the choices we make as consumers, there was indeed a LOT of discussion about plastic-- the different types, what is dangerous, what is less dangerous. One of the big points was don't put ANY plastic in the microwave, even if it says "microwavable" on it.

I wish she had made more of a point of pushing re-usable non plastic options, instead of describing less unsafe plastic options and non-plastic single use options (unbleached wax paper or recycled aluminum foil for lunch sandwiches, for example-- why not a re-usable wrap or box? It is just as convenient.).

It was a really interesting segment. You can hear the whole thing here: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/2010/03/18

This video pretty much sums up why I'm doing what I'm doing.

2010-03-14T20:05:00.000-04:00

Move update

2010-03-13T19:08:00.005-05:00

Tuesday is the big day- I am moving apartments, staying in Queens but going from Astoria To Woodside. I'm using Movers Not Shakers; they provided me with re-usable plastic moving boxes to reduce move-associated waste.

Part of any move is de-cluttering before packing in earnest. Or it should be! Often you can tell when someone has moved by the pile-o-crap left on the curb, lots of it usable stuff that has just been left there. Sometimes those things get claimed, but a lot of times it is landfill ahoy.

Last week I took 3 bags of stuff to Goodwill, gave away my TV with Craigslist, and sold my DVD player to a singer acquaintance. This weekend I sold a stack of books to The Strand Bookstore, gave away the ones they didn't want, took a bread bag stuffed full of plastic caps (some mine, some my roommate's, lots collected from sidewalks) to Aveda for recycling, and a smaller bag of spent toiletry packages to Origins for their recycling program. Still left to do: take my broken electronics- cell phone, power cords- to the neighborhood Office Depot and put in their recycling bin. I'm selling and giving some things to my roommate- futon couch, microwave, toaster, Brita water pitcher.

With all of that, the trash output from my move shouldn't be noticeable from the street view. But then there's the paper. My Achilles Heel. My Paperloo. I have way too much of it! After a year of de-cluttering by joining The Compact, a year spent Post Compact, and a year going PlasticLess, I still have a lot of paper clutter. Packing it up has been painful. Sigh. I'm still a long way away from having a Zero Waste Home.

Cooking from the bulk bin section

2010-03-08T20:29:00.008-05:00

The bulk bin section can be intimidating to the uninitiated. First you have to get over any squeamishness you may have about food that is not portioned and sealed. (OMG! Naked Food! Out there in the open!) Then, if you are avoiding plastic like me, you have to plan ahead and bring your own containers and fabric bags from home. And you have to decide how much to get, instead of letting a food manufacturer decide for you. And once you get it home, how will you store it?

And then, you have to figure out what the heck to do with it. There are no boxes or cans with pictures of the prepared product on the front. No helpful recipes on the back label. And most of these foods are raw, unprocessed, unfinished: dried beans, lentils, quinoa, rice, oats, buckwheat...even if you know what they are, they can take some processing before they look and taste like what we are used to getting from cans, boxes, plastic foil envelopes, and the salad bar at Whole Foods. Now, this isn't nearly as hard or as time consuming as you might think, but if you don't KNOW that- it is intimidating!

If only someone would provide recipes for all that stuff.

Well, someone has. She didn't do it to specifically take advantage of bulk bins, but I'm finding her recipes incredibly useful as I explore my bulk bin options. That someone is Martha Rose Shulman of The New York Times, with a section of the website called Recipes for Health.

Last night I made Baked Quinoa With Spinach and Cheese using quinoa from the bulk bin section, and baby spinach bought loose and put in my fabric bag (unfortunately the cheeses did not come without plastic- that is still a challenge for me). Tonight I'm making a white bean hummus (pictured above from the Times website) from the Bruschetta section, using dried cannellini beans. Both are simple to make, and delicious!

Avoiding E-Waste

2010-03-07T20:57:00.004-05:00

Electronic waste is admittedly a bigger, badder, more toxic-to-humans problem than plastic waste. I haven't taken it on though, because 1) people don't tend to use an electronic device just once and then toss it like they do with plastic and 2) electronics contain a LOT of plastic, so it is the same issue in some ways.

I am moving apartments in a couple of weeks, and trying to lighten my load before the packing starts. Yesterday I took 3 bags of clothes and shoes to Goodwill, and today I gave away my TV to someone I found through Craigslist with a 'free stuff' ad. Freecycle would have worked too. I'm trying to sell my DVD player, but will donate it to Goodwill or Salvation Army for a tax deduction if I don't find a buyer. I could have done that with the TV, but without a car, having someone come to pick it up works better! And he seemed thrilled to get it. I'm glad it will be used.

(All my movie and show watching is on the computer these days, using Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. The TV hadn't been turned on in almost a year.)

Here are ways to avoid E-Waste:
- Think hard before buying- do you REALLY need it to begin with?
- Consider buying used
- Give or sell your items to a friend who can use it, or find someone with Craigslist and Freecycle
- Donate your working items to Salvation Army, Goodwill, Materials for the Arts, or other charitable organizations who will take them- you may be able to get a tax deduction.
- Utilize store recycling programs like Best Buy's.
- Find local electronics recycling events. Check out New York City's here.

Sugar Shock

2010-02-28T21:57:00.004-05:00

I finally got around to buying candy-coated chocolate covered peanuts from the bulk section at Fairway-- because even paper bags of M&Ms are coated with plastic on the inside.

SunSpire Peanut Sundrops: $9.49/lb.
Peanut M&Ms: about $6.72/lb.

Buying food from the bulk section is often less expensive than packaged equivalents, but not always!

Although I shouldn't be too upset with the price difference. In addition to coming without plastic, the SunSpire candies "contain no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Their bright candy color comes from beet juice, beta carotene and natural caramel. Their yummy chocolate centers are made with rich milk chocolate, sweetened with evaporated cane juice and a touch of unsulphered molasses."

I can live with that. I guess.

Jenny McCarthy was on to something

2010-02-25T12:38:00.007-05:00

...just the wrong something. Nicholas Kristoff has another excellent column warning of the dangers of pthalates, toxic chemicals found in many plastics and personal care products, and possible links to conditions like autism, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.

There is still no definitive smoking gun saying "Yep, toxic chemicals in the environment aren't just killing the planet, they're killing US". But the studies and peer-review journal articles are mounting.

Please, go read the whole thing.

How many more articles like this will it take before smart, well educated people will be aghast at the very idea of eating and drinking with plastic, and buying food swathed in plastic, swimming in plastic? Kristoff recommends avoiding plastics 3, 6 and 7-- but forks and straws don't come with numbers stamped on them to begin with, and are we to expect consumers to start examining all containers for plastic numbers on top of the nutritional labels? This is just crazy. Better to avoid the plastic altogether.

I have found a new guru!

2010-02-19T12:29:00.010-05:00

In addition to the always inspirational Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish, there is a new star to add to the constellation of (Anti) Trash Bloggers: Bea, of Zero Waste Home

Here is an article about her in yesterday's New York Times.

Wow. Just...wow. I hope anyone who catches this will enjoy reading her posts as much as I am enjoying them!

More awesomeness from YouTube

2010-02-08T00:26:00.001-05:00

Hat tip to http://riseaboveplastics.blogspot.com/

No, silly. You're supposed to say "Neither! I brought my own."

2010-02-08T00:13:00.001-05:00

I loved this ad until I saw it was about some stupid car.

More bulk bin options in NYC

2010-01-15T13:10:00.005-05:00

Most Americans have gotten the idea that they should have and use re-usable grocery bags. The next step is a big one-- getting everyone to seek out food with less packaging. I checked out the new Whole Foods store on the Upper West Side last week and was encouraged to see that it has a bulk section. I think it is the first Whole Foods in NYC to have one- does anyone know if others in the area do? They even had a big sign encouraging customers to bring in their own containers, which is awesome!

Most natural or organic food stores have bulk sections. A couple examples are Westerly Natural Market and Integral Yoga's food store.

The biggest and most heavily used bulk section I've seen is still upstairs at the Upper West Side Fairway (do the Harlem or Redhook Fairways have bulk sections?) Although the UWS Whole Foods might give it some competition.

My new favorite came about from a commenter on this blog! 4th Street Food Co-op. It is a pretty tiny place, with most of the space dedicated to bulk food items. They have phased out plastic bags entirely, in favor of cloth and biobags. And they have bulk items not found other places, like pasta, oils, vinegars, soaps and shampoos, and spices. I haven't joined as a member yet, but I'm thinking about it.

Do you buy food items from bulk sections to avoid packaging? Do you bring your own bags and containers? Where do you do your shopping?

Plastic Free Deodorant, a Success Story

2010-01-05T15:39:00.004-05:00

I started using plastic free deodorant in November and haven't looked back. Here is how it works:

- container (mine is a plastic food container, but a tin would be nice)
- powder puff (my sister gave me one from her house)
- 1 part baking powder
- 1 part corn starch
- spritz of perfume (optional)

It works really well! In fact it works a lot better than the roll-on 'deodorant crystal' I was trying to finish up. I'm just tossing the rest of that stuff out.

Screening: Garbage Dreams, January 14

2010-01-05T15:33:00.001-05:00

Promoted from comments:

We are screening the film Garbage Dreams at the Queens Botanical Garden next week. Thought you might be interested in attending or posting it to your blog.

A Compost Movie and Discussion Night: Garbage Dreams
Thursday, January 14th, 7pm
Fee: $5/person

Join the Queens Compost Project for a screening of the film Garbage Dreams with a short discussion of waste issues to follow. Garbage Dreams follows three teenage boys born into the trash trade and growing up in the world’s largest garbage village on the outskirts of Cairo. It is the home to 60,000 Zabaleen, Arabic for “garbage people.” Far ahead of any modern “Green” initiatives, the Zabaleen survive by recycling 80 percent of the garbage they collect. When their community is suddenly faced with the globalization of its trade, each of the teenage boys is forced to make choices that will impact his future and the survival of his community.

Screening will take place in the Queens Botanical Garden auditorium; entrance is on Dahlia Avenue, through after-hours gate behind the Visitor and Administration building.

Contact: compost@queensbotanical.org

Here is a trailer for the film.

Nicholas Kristof has another column about Plastic in the NY Times

2009-12-07T22:40:00.003-05:00

I haven't had a lot of blog posts here recently. Hopefully that'll change soon. In the meantime, please read Nicholas Kristof's column in the New York Times. A pertinent excerpt:

I asked these doctors what they do in their own homes to reduce risks. They said that they avoid microwaving food in plastic or putting plastics in the dishwasher, because heat may cause chemicals to leach out. And the symposium handed out a reminder card listing “safer plastics” as those marked (usually at the bottom of a container) 1, 2, 4 or 5.

It suggests that the “plastics to avoid” are those numbered 3, 6 and 7 (unless they are also marked “BPA-free”). Yes, the evidence is uncertain, but my weekend project is to go through containers in our house and toss out 3’s, 6’s and 7’s.

New York Times is on a Plastic Roll

2009-11-10T21:47:00.002-05:00

Wow, twice in a week! The New York Times published an article about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It has taken them a long time to cover it, but I'm really glad that they are.

ABOARD THE ALGUITA, 1,000 miles northeast of Hawaii — In this remote patch of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from any national boundary, the detritus of human life is collecting in a swirling current so large that it defies precise measurement. Light bulbs, bottle caps, toothbrushes, Popsicle sticks and tiny pieces of plastic, each the size of a grain of rice, inhabit the Pacific garbage patch, an area of widely dispersed trash that doubles in size every decade and is now believed to be roughly twice the size of Texas. But one research organization estimates that the garbage now actually pervades the Pacific, though most of it is caught in what oceanographers call a gyre like this one — an area of heavy currents and slack winds that keep the trash swirling in a giant whirlpool.

Scientists say the garbage patch is just one of five that may be caught in giant gyres scattered around the world’s oceans. Abandoned fishing gear like buoys, fishing line and nets account for some of the waste, but other items come from land after washing into storm drains and out to sea.

Plastic is the most common refuse in the patch because it is lightweight, durable and an omnipresent, disposable product in both advanced and developing societies. It can float along for hundreds of miles before being caught in a gyre and then, over time, breaking down.

But once it does split into pieces, the fragments look like confetti in the water. Millions, billions, trillions and more of these particles are floating in the world’s trash-filled gyres.

PCBs, DDT and other toxic chemicals cannot dissolve in water, but the plastic absorbs them like a sponge. Fish that feed on plankton ingest the tiny plastic particles...

Please read the rest of the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/10/science/10patch.html Even if you are already familiar with the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, there's some new information you'll want to see.

Non plastic side note-- It interests me that there's this at the end of the article: "Travel expenses were paid in part by readers of Spot.Us, a nonprofit Web project that supports freelance journalists." Is this the future for research journalism?

Plastic and Food...and The New York Times

2009-11-08T01:58:00.005-05:00

BPA is about to get a lot more attention. BPA isn't in all plastic, but it is in a lot of it, and especially in a lot that touches what we eat. The lining of most cans, for example.

Nicholas Kristof, in today's New York Times:

Your body is probably home to a chemical called bisphenol A, or BPA. It’s a synthetic estrogen that United States factories now use in everything from plastics to epoxies — to the tune of six pounds per American per year. That’s a lot of estrogen.

More than 92 percent of Americans have BPA in their urine, and scientists have linked it — though not conclusively — to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike.

Now it turns out it’s in our food.

I think you will want to read the rest of this article. Here's the link again: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/opinion/08kristof.html?hp

Plastic Is Making Us Fat, Part 2

2009-11-05T15:04:00.003-05:00

Colin Beavan's blog post today sheds more light on how plastic is making us fat.

And it suddenly occurred to me that only food that is bad for us has any trash associated with it. Only food that is bad for us needs packaging. So I've been thinking about a new healthy eating diet. All you have to do is never eat food that has packaging associated with it and you'll automatically end up healthy and skinny!

Healthier people, healthier planet. Yay! Because it turns out that what trashes the planet trashes ourselves.

Read the rest of Colin's excellent post here.

While science may never figure out precicely how the chemicals in plastic affect us, from making us fat to messing with our reproductive systems, it is pretty much a no-brainer to see that the stuff IN the plastic is, 99% of the time, not good for us.

Eat Naked Food!

The Hardest Thing about avoiding Single Use Plastics?

2009-11-04T15:00:00.005-05:00

Eating out. Hands down. I can control the plastic that comes into my house. Getting restaurant food without plastic is the thing I find most challenging.

For example today I met a couple of friends for lunch at Grand Central. We found a table in a public area so that one friend could eat her lunch from home (smart girl!), and the other two of us could grab something from one of the many food stalls. Working close by, I know the lay of the land and what my choices are for food served without plastic. Today's choice was Two Boots Pizza served on a paper plate. Once in line though the strombolis caught my eye, so I ordered one. When the line got closer to the register I saw someone else's stromboli delivered in a foil dish with a plastic lid. Oh no! So I asked the cashier if I could get mine on a plate, without the plastic.

You know the Visa ad where commerce (the ad calls it "Life" but REALLY? It is commerce.) is thrumming along, everyone using a Visa Debit, until someone pulls out cash and the consumer ballet comes to a screeching halt? That is what happened today at Two Boots! The cashier and two other employees behind the counter were on the case, making sure my stromboli got a plate and not a dish. Orders stopped, the line backed up. The kitchen guys were popping their heads in the window to see who cuased the ruckus. After all that I got my stromboli on a plate, served with a plastic dish of sauce, which I returned. Oy. I should have stuck to pizza.

The best thing would be to pack my lunch, but I'm lazy and don't do it very often. So past that I find restaurants and items that are "safe" to order. Even then, I know full well that the food I'm served comes with all kinds of plastic, I just don't see it when it is served to me. Preparing my own food is really the best option.

...unless the restaurant industry can get the message that we all want less plastic with our food. What kind of effort will that take?

Why isn't NYC water the Official Water of the New York City Marathon?

2009-10-31T02:00:00.004-04:00

On Thursday, one of NYC's free daily papers (AM New York? Metro? one of them) was wrapped with a huge shiny ad for Poland Spring, the Official Bottled Water of the New York City Marathon. The ad announced that Poland Spring water is "Born Better". From the ad, and also on the very fancy website:

Keeping the land around our springs clean and sustainable is also important. It's good for the environment and also contributees to the high quality of Poland Spring water. Which is why we work so hard to carefully select our sources and monitor our watersheds. So far we've preserved over 14,000 acres around our springs in the U.S.

While I am happy that Poland Spring is preserving acreage and protecting "their" watersheds from pollution, this text galls me. Just this week, Chesapeake Energy decided not to drill in New York's watershed, because the ruckus being raised by environmentalists and NYC politicians was more trouble than it was worth. Whew. But this isn't over yet- unless the state moves to protect it, some other company could come along and try to drill in the future. Read more details here, at the NY Times.

So reading that bit from Poland Spring about 'we carefully monitor and protect our watersheds' seems a bit like a taunt. As in 'if you lot don't get your act together and protect your water source, you can always buy safe clean water from us...at well over 100 times the price'.

Wouldn't it be nice if New York City, in an act of civic pride, insisted on serving up crisp delicious New York water at the marathon?

Bottle caps

2009-10-23T17:05:00.005-04:00

My photo for the International Day of Climate Change shows bottle caps picked up in my neighborhood. This video shows bottle caps picked up in a different neighborhood: by albatross chicks at Midway Atoll, in the North Pacific.

The photos were taken by Chris Jordan, who traveled there with a group of artists to document the affect of plastic waste at Midway. He explains:

The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

As a child in the 70s, I remember a big public push to get rid of, or at least cut up 6-pack rings, because they were killing marine life. I wonder if Chris Jordan's photos will do the same thing now for bottle caps? Perhaps 6-pack rings were unfairly targeted, because people missed the forest for the trees. The rings were part of a much bigger picture, the problem we still have today: plastic pollution.

It is hard to miss that both items are made from plastic.

350

2009-10-23T15:21:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow, October 24, is the International Day of Climate Action, expressed by a number: 350. Why? 350 parts per million is the safe upper limit of CO2 for the earth's atmosphere. Right now, mostly because of our use of fossil fuels, we are at 387, which is why the polar ice caps are melting.

The mission of International Day of Climate Action is to

...inspire the world to rise to the challenge of the climate crisis—to create a new sense of urgency and of possibility for our planet.

One action is to creatively express the number 350 and send a picture and caption to photos@350.org. My photo is made of plastic bottle caps picked up from sidewalks near my apartment.

Please check out 350.org. There will be plenty to do, even after October 24. It sounds a bit melodramatic, but the future of our planet really is at stake. World leaders are meeting in Copenhagen in December to discuss what the world's governments plan to do about global warming. It is vitally important that they know we are paying attention and that we demand action from them- ESPECIALLY the United States.

Say it aint so, Bo!

2009-10-17T13:57:00.002-04:00

Can somebody tell me what is wrong with this picture?

[Photo: Pete Souza/Flickr]

Who needs M&Ms?

2009-10-10T15:19:00.003-04:00

Since learning there's no such thing as plastic free M&Ms, I've been meaning to make a batch of cookies and take some to work for an afternoon treat, instead of heading for the break room vending machine.

Behold: oatmeal cookies made with several ingredients purchased from bulk sections using my cloth bags: oatmeal, walnuts, raisins, and chocolate chips. Now all I have to do is not eat the entire batch before Monday.

...add "delaying gratification" to the list of skills needed for a life with less plastic. Other skills include willingness to change habits and planning ahead. This less plastic experiment is teaching me things I had not planned on learning!

Plastic Free Penne!

2009-10-09T16:04:00.002-04:00

I finally made a trip to the 4th Street Food Co-op, to check out their bulk selection. What on earth took me so long?!!? Not only do they have penne in bulk but at least 3 other kinds of pasta, including a gluten free variety. They also have several other things in bulk that are not carried at other bulk sections in town (Fairway, Integral Yoga's store, etc.). They have loose spices so you can fill your own container, as well as olive and a few other cooking oils, and liquid soaps.

I am SO PSYCHED. The co-op is in the process of phasing out plastic bags, and have cloth bags for sale, and are selling inexpensive bio-bags as well-- you can bring them back to re-use and recycle (they take them to the Lower East Side Ecology Center for recycling).

I purchased some new cloth bags- could use some more, and these have the tare weight printed on them which my others do not- as well as chocolate chips, walnuts, raisins... and PENNE. That last thing makes me a very, very happy girl.

Good-bye, Red. Oh don't cry, you'll melt so dreadfully. Good-bye, Yellow. And Blue, I think I'll miss you most of all.

2009-09-18T13:28:00.004-04:00

Boosted from comments in "Who Says I Can't Find Plastic Free Junk Food?":

Fake Plastic Fish said...
Okay, I have partial info. The jury is somewhat still out but not completely. I called M&M Mars and spoke with "Bill" today. He could not find the exact materials for the package (and we both agreed that I was talking about the small individual serving size that they sell at the check-out counter. Not the minis and not the huge bags.) But he knows they are not recyclable because they are paper coated with some kind of plastic. Which is kind of what I thought. So I guess they rip because they are paper, but they are also plastic and therefore not so great, actually.

Can you get chocolate covered nuts from a bulk bin somewhere? That's my fave M&M substitute.

September 15, 2009 2:47 PM

On some level, I knew those bags were coated with plastic. I just didn't want it to be true. So no more wandering to the break room vending machine when I'm sleepy in the afternoon, and no more purchases at the bodega counter for an after lunch sweet. I liked the ritual as much as anything-- even though bringing something from home that came from a bulk bin would save on money as well as plastic.

Then again, mixing candy coated chocolate with tamari roasted almonds, bulk bin finds both, does sound kind of awesome.

Feta!

2009-09-07T19:17:00.003-04:00

A little bad news/good news today.

First the bad news. There will be a plastic cup and appetizer plate on my next tally. I went to a party yesterday and was feeling a little shy and introverted. I just didn't feel like asking for a non disposable cup or plate--even though it would have been fine. Boo, me.

Now the good news: FETA, purchased with no new plastic! I went to Mediterranean Foods in my neighborhood with a #5 container brought from home. It was my first time at the market and I didn't know if they would have feta cheese that wasn't already packaged in plastic. Not only do they have unpackaged feta, they have several different kinds! The man at the counter was fine with my container from home- I just had to convince him that I didn't need a bag for it, that I could carry it in my hands without spilling the brine.

So now I have the topping for tonight's plastic free feast: Double Broccoli Quinoa

Ew, gross! I love it!!

2009-08-31T17:23:00.004-04:00

Despite my post about junk food earlier today, I love this new subway ad campaign from NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Because in addition to making us fat, sugary drinks come with plastic bottles and caps. And if you take a walk in my neighborhood you will see lots and lots of those bottles and caps on the sidewalks, in the gutters, washed into storm drains, and thrown down onto the banks of the East River.

See all the ads here.

Why I love my Kleen Kanteen, Reason #2

2009-08-31T16:42:00.003-04:00

Sigg's CEO has finally admitted that bottles made up till last year did have BPA in the liner. Newer bottles have BPA free liners. It should be noted that Sigg released "independent testing showing that its bottles leached no BPA in tests that mimicked liquids like colas, fruit juices, and water." But when asked if there was BPA in the lining they dodged the question...until now, almost a year after they've stopped using it. A casual observer might assume they waited so that they could sell the BPA lined bottles and not be stuck with them-- is that an awful thing to say?

I love my Kleen Kanteen- it is made from stainless steel. No liner needed. I also have a knock off Sigg at home that is a couple years old, and am pretty sure it has a lining with BPA. I'll still use it, but will avoid hot liquids (not that you want to put those in an uninsulated metal bottle anyway!) and will probably recycle it in another couple of years.

And by the way, is a BPA lined Sigg still better than plastic bottled beverages? Heck, yes!

Hat tip to Elizabeth Royte for the story.

Who says I can't find plastic free junk food?

2009-08-31T15:45:00.002-04:00

Dear America,

Thank you for paper wrapped ice cream sandwiches. And M&Ms. And Milk Duds.

Sincerely,

Me

New attention brought to the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch

2009-08-29T13:22:00.005-04:00

Photo: Reuters/J. Leichter/Scripps Institute of Oceanography

When people ask me "What is so bad about plastic?" one of the first things I mention is the Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch. I first learned about it from this November 2006 article in Best Life Magazine- not somewhere you would expect to find cutting edge environmental news. Lots of people have never heard of it. Others have, and like the threat of terrorism or nuclear war, try not to think about it too much-- it is too big a problem to fathom, and what can I do? Let someone else worry about it.

For over a decade Captain Charles Moore has been studying the Pacific Garbage Patch and sounding the alarm to the outside world. His message has been getting through to some and now is starting to really get out in a big way. The Scripps Institute if Oceanography just completed a 3 week fact finding expedition. Their research and the research of Captain Moore and other scientists is just the beginning in this dangerous problem area- created recently by humans and yet largely unknown and almost completely not understood by science and humanity.

Today the AP has an article about the Scripps expedition. Here is what I find to be new and alarming:

The scientists hope their data gives clues as to the density and extent of marine debris, especially since the Great Pacific Garbage Patch may have company in the Southern Hemisphere, where scientists say the gyre is four times bigger.

"We're afraid at what we're going to find in the South Gyre, but we've got to go there," said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institution.

There is a bigger one out there? Oh, no. I knew there were other oceanic gyres on the planet but until today had thought the Pacific gyre, and its garbage patch, to be the largest.

What can be done? Well, like they say, when you find yourself in a pit the first thing to do is to stop digging. That is why I have my blog. Nothing I do will shrink the garbage patches of the world, but I like to think that by consuming less plastic I'm at least not adding as much to them. If more of us do that they may not grow as fast. If we as consumers and citizens let companies, manufacturers and governments know that we want less plastic, after a while they will listen, and the the patches may not grow as fast.

It has to start somewhere.

Things I Hate: Plastic Gift and Discount Cards

2009-08-26T12:47:00.007-04:00

This morning in the office mail I saw a postcard made entirely from plastic. It had perforation lines for the featured promotion, a 20% discount card. Um, wow. Was that really necessary?? It reminded me of something I hate: plastic gift and discount cards. To review, Things I Hate generally:

- are made of plastic
- are meant to be used once and tossed away
- are not in any way recyclable
- appeal to people's vanity and desire for instant gratification
- strive to create a need where there was none before
- are recently created streams of pure waste

Now before I launch in, I have to say my hate is directed at the producers of the cards, not at people who give them. I have a gift card or two at home, intend to use them, and very much appreciate the thoughtfullness of the gift. Also- a couple Christmases ago I gave iTunes cards to my nieces and nephews because I wanted to give them a non-material gift: music of their choice. I suppose I could have investigated buying the iTunes credit online and giving them a paper card with the code, but having a plastic iTunes card to give them was faster and easier. I totally get the convenience and appeal of gift cards. I still hate them.

How long have plastic gift cards been around? Ten years? Fifteen? They are everywhere now--every chain store has them. I killed some time Sunday afternoon checking out the big new Barnes & Noble on the upper east side. The display of gift cards before you get to the registers is HUGE. Why dedicate so much pricey floor space to one-time-use plastic cards? Why do they need a selection of cards so vast- it is a book store, not a gift card store, right? My guess is they make more money selling those cards than actual books. That is really something.

Whatever happened to paper gift certificates and coupons?

I Love My Kleen Kanteen, Reason #1

2009-08-24T15:23:00.006-04:00

Pity the poor people at Condé Nast. This year they have lost many perks to cost savings, including the fancy bottled water:

"When I started, there was this little refrigerator, and it was stocked with amazing drinks,” said one ad-sales source. “Pellegrino, Orangina, Red Bull. And like the water wasn’t Poland Spring, it was like Fiji. I remember when I started working here, I emailed everyone I know and I was like, ‘I have to tell you about the drinks!’”

But then in December, a few months after Condé Nast ordered publishers and editors to cut 5 percent from their budgets, the drink supply emptied out. That Fiji water turned into Poland Spring. Worse, instead of the fridge, the water bottles were stowed in a warm closet.

Mmm. Bottled water that has been stashed for who-knows-how-long in a warm environment. NOT my idea of tasty. Neither is the thought of drinking water that has been shipped thousands of miles farther in a bottle that has twice the plastic-- that would be Fiji.

Gawker beat me to pointing out that if only Condé Nast had waited they could have cut the Fiji water for the sake of virtue, not just to save money: this month's Mother Jones has an excellent article exposing the corporate, environmental and social evils of Fiji water. Of course, even before the article it didn't take much to figure out that an American company importing water from a tiny island nation in thick plastic could not be a good thing, no matter how much greenwashing the company did.

I wonder if the folks at Condé Nast know about Kleen Kanteens. I may not get to see Greydon Carter in my workplace lunchroom, but I do get to drink freshly drawn, crisp Croton Reservoir water from my sleek, über-cool stainless steel Kanteen. Lucky me!

Eventually, I do think this idea will take hold in the popular media and society at large: drinking and eating from plastic is disgusting. But I wonder how long it will take.

In praise of washcloths

2009-08-21T16:20:00.003-04:00

My less plastic lifestyle has happily re-introduced me to washcloths. Somewhere along the line we've been taught that bar soap and washcloths are icky, and a big glop of liquid soap from a plastic bottle on top of a plastic bath poof is divine. Hmm, where does that idea come from?

Now I have a stack of inexpensive washcloths and use them once or twice before washing them. My skin is smoother and happier for it, especially on my back and shoulders. The blog Things Your Grandmother Knew recently said

Skin care & cosmetic companies don't want you to know it, but washing gently with a wet washcloth works better than exfoliating products -- I know, I've worked for those companies!

I believe it! I much prefer a fresh terry washcloth to the plastic poof that rarely got washed, felt slimy on my skin and was even slimier after hanging in the shower for a while. Gross! And those things tended to fall apart quickly in the washing machine.

Not only are washcloths (to me) the cleaner option, but they are gentler and more effective at exfoliating dead skin cells. Like a lot of people I was a St. Ives Apricot Scrub girl. Well, that stuff can be a bit too effective, you know? And then there is the plastic packaging to consider. But much worse are exfoliating products that have plastic 'microbeads' in them- tiny bits of polyethylene plastic that go right down the drain! Beth at Fake Plastic Fish has a more detailed post about those.

Washcloths are great. They are inexpensive, easy to clean, extremely re-usable, and do a better job at cleaning and exfoliating than the plastic alternatives. Win, win!

Things I Hate

2009-08-17T14:57:00.004-04:00

I have a new blog label: Things I Hate. Things I hate generally:

- are made of plastic (of course)
- are meant to be used once and tossed away
- are not in any way recyclable
- appeal to people's vanity and desire for instant gratification
- strive to create a need where there was none before
- are recently created streams of pure waste

A previous example of a Thing I Hate is the ubiquitous-in-warm-weather iced coffee cup/straw/lid combo.

Another example hasn't appeared yet here on the blog, but was mentioned in Elizabeth Royte's Mother Jones Article: the Starbuck's splash stick. These "adorable" plastic lid plugs appeared a little over a year ago. I started seeing them littered on NYC sidewalks this past winter. They aren't around much now, but wait until the weather cools off-- they'll be back. It is a cute little throw-away plastic plug for your cute little throw-away plastic coffee lid. Gag.

Here is the latest entry to Things I Hate: The Colgate Wisp. Have you seen the ad? A hip and gorgeous clubber whispers lowly to her partner in a female impersonation of Arnold Schwarzenneger: "Aahl be right beck." Then you see her pull a Colgate Wisp from her evening clutch purse so she can achieve fresh, kissable breath on the dance floor. Isn't it funny how they don't show her wrestling with the packaging while trying to hold on to her clutch, or sticking the Lilliputian device in her mouth...then swallowing the gunk from the liquid filled bead, along with all the plaque she just brushed loose (since it is designed to be used without water)? And then tossing the used Wisp on the floor to be trampled under foot?

Oh. Well I thought it was funny.

NOTCOT has a series of pictures of the Wisp and its packaging in all its clever glory.

Week 38: Clearing my plastic cache, Part 2

2009-08-16T23:10:00.000-04:00

Here is plastic stuff I was squirreling away in my bedroom.

- 2 boxes of Restastis eye drops. I was prescribed these during my bouts with eye infections; they are for promoting tear production and they didn't really work for me. One box is still completely sealed. Unfortunately they are expired so it is too late to take them back to the doctor's office or donate them. The box bottoms are marked #5 and don't have printing on them that would indicate they held medicine; I'm taking these to Whole Foods for Gimme 5-- they're perfectly clean and sterile. The tops don't have the #5 stamp and do have a sticker that says Rx, so they go in the trash, along with the drops themselves.

- 5 boxes of contact lenses. Sadly they are expired. My eyes haven't been able to tolerate contact lenses since I had that series of infections: if I wear them, I get another infection. I have 5 more boxes that are not expired and emailed an organization called Madre to see if they can accept them as a donation. They will! So I'm dropping them off next week. Thank you to Cat for the suggestion! Expired lenses go in the trash, boxes recycled.

- 2 contact lens cases. They're used, and even if I sterilized them I don't think they are the kind of thing to give away for re-use. It sets off my ick factor. You?

- 1 bottle of expired Benadryl. Hmm, is it recyclable? The bottle is #2, and it is a bottle, so that sounds like curbside recycling. But it is thick white plastic, not clear like water and soda bottles, which makes me think it would have a different melting point and be a contaminant. Plus, I'm under the impression that prescription medicine bottles can't be recycled, though this is OTC medicine. Then there are the expired pills... what a quandary! I'm thinking I should put the whole sealed bottle in the trash to be safe. What do you think?

- Plastic bag, for a 6-pack of new underwear. Is it less plastic if I buy underwear that is individually tagged, not bagged? Hard to say.

- Several plastic tag hangers. I bought some new clothes for my high school reunion. Very Un-Compact of me, I know.

- 1 bottle of old pink nail polish. The bottle is glass but the applicator is plastic. Why do I have it in the first place? Every time I try to paint my nails it looks like the efforts of a five year old, so what I usually do is buff my nails when I want them to look nice and have a professional give me the occasional pedicure. And nail polish is classified as hazardous waste in many communities, so getting rid of it is not all that easy. Unclutterer says to let it dry to a solid and throw it in the trash. Other places on the internet say to take it to a hazardous waste facility. I sent an inquiry to NYCWasteLe$$ to ask which is best. UPDATE: NYCWasteLess says to tightly seal the bottle and throw it away in the regular trash.

- Empty "Z-Pack" package. A 5 day dose of Azithromycin, taken when I had bronchitis. Trash.

- Cranberry Emergen-C packet. Consumed while I was sick. I don't like the stuff but had it leftover from an old roommate. Empty envelope goes in the trash.

- Mach-3 razor blade. I have one or two of these left. Then will be a tough decision-- buy replacement blades for my Mach-3 which I've had for several years (a package of 5-6 blades will last me almost 2 years), or get an old fashioned metal safety razor and a box of metal blades? Beth at Fake Plastic Fish is happy with her safety razor and blades...but I really like my trusty Mach-3 and am scared of cutting myself. Hmm.

- Plastic pocket from a falafel sandwich. It LOOKED like paper, but wasn't. I'm really bummed because the food was fresh and dirt cheap and that was about to become my new favorite lunch spot.

Honey Facial Wash

2009-08-12T17:21:00.004-04:00

After reading about it two months ago at Green Goddess Dressing (including all the comments and the monster thread on the Mothering board), I decided to try washing my face with honey. It is simple, inexpensive, non-toxic, locally produced, AND comes with less plastic than my previous facial cleanser. So there is still a plastic lid, but the jar can be taken back to the green market for re-use.

Guess what? Honey works WONDERFULLY for me as a facial cleanser! I have rosacea, and since I started washing with honey my skin has calmed down a lot. It isn't a complete cure, but my skin hasn't been this smooth in a long time-- and that was when I'd paid a ton of money for laser skin treatments from a dermatologist! Perhaps my skin was reacting badly to something in the generic Cetaphil cleanser from before, or perhaps there is something to the humectant, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial qualities of honey. Maybe both. All I know is that my skin calmed way down within the first couple days of use, and it has stayed that way. I still get flushed, but not as badly, and I no longer get those awful pebbly bumps.

This has to be one of the better things to come my way while seeking less plastic options.

Week 38: Clearing out my Plastic Cache

2009-08-09T14:45:00.008-04:00

This won't be pretty, and it won't be complete. I've been slacking, and letting some plastic things consumed outside the home slide. A half-n-half container here, a birthday cake fork there... Hopefully getting this load of plastic stuff off my chest and out of my house will make it easier for me to stay on top of things and make better choices, which lets face it, is all about planning ahead.

First off, the biggest item. AN ENTIRE REFRIGERATOR/FREEZER. It stopped working sometime over the July 4 weekend. Our super (who is great by the way, one of the best I've had in 10-plus years of NYC living) checked it out, conferred with his repairman and determined that it was cheaper to replace than repair. I don't know what the cost comparison was, and since we rent it wasn't my decision to make. But I'm counting it was part of my plastic tally, since it was mine to use. Here are pictures of the old refrigerator and tape/packaging from the new refrigerator. There must have been a lot more packaging, but this is what arrived when they installed the new one. The 2nd picture also has the broken kick-plate from the old refrigerator. The good news is that since I've been avoiding plastic for a few months, there wasn't a lot of plastic of mine that had to be thrown out- or food, for that matter. My roommate is a different story. The poor guy had gone shopping recently and was away over the weekend. I was out a lot too and didn't notice the thing had shut off for a day and a half. Not a pretty picture!

Now, to sort out the rest. Food packaging is probably the largest category.

- Pirate's Booty bag and Whole Foods tiramisu cake liner. I had a little party in the apartment last week and these were brought by guests. Do I turn away delicious gift food with plastic? No! Most friends know about my plastic avoidance and try to not give me any. Bless them. My aim is to do this project without being an asshole or losing friends, so if I can mention it in a non guilt-trip inducing way I do. If not, not.

- Bottles. Corn oil (have replaced with a glass bottle of canola oil), mayonaise (will try making from scratch one of these days), syrup (will replace with REAL maple syrup eventually; am using jams to put on French toast and pancakes for now), corn syrup (had this for YEARS for some candy making project, never use it, tried using it up various ways but was disgusted with the results, threw out the rest), tonic water (I've heard tonic is available in cans, which though lined with BPA is less plastic...not sure which is the better choice though), cod liver oil (an experiment- I'm not much of a fish eater. If I want those healthy fish fats this is probably my best option, but even with a good brand flavored with lemon it didn't become a habit). The bottles will go to curbside recycling and caps to Aveda for recycling.

- Bug traps. I found six more, left from my previous roommate. In the past couple of months the only bugs I've seen are the occasional centipede and a few disturbing 'water bugs'. That is what my super calls them. I call them HAFRs, for Huge Ass Flying Roaches. I don't think these bug traps would do anything to the HAFRs (in fact the apartment was recently visited and treated for them, which had absolutely no effect!), and with all the rain this summer it is easy to understand why they are around and getting inside our ground floor apartment. I've been dispatching them with the wand extension on my vacuum cleaner. I'm ruthless that way.

- Various caps and lids. Crisco, vanilla bottle, olive oil cannister, balsamic vinegar bottle, a few other things I don't recall. The 2 rigid threaded caps go to Aveda for recycling and the rest go to the trash. As far as replacing these items with less plastic, I had the Crisco around for a long time- probably bought for pie crusts. I use butter now. The other items were on glass and metal containers for the most part.

- Chicken broth Tetra Brik and blueberry clamshell. I prefer homemade chicken broth, but still have a few containers from Costco to use up. I knowingly purchased the blueberries in a plastic clamshell because I couldn't find them in a paper container at the store and didn't feel like delaying my purchase. I might be doing more of that in the future-- letting go of a little guilt to buy good food with some plastic. This week I did get blueberries at Union Square green-market in a paper box with plastic netting and rubber band- a little less plastic. But getting them took planning and I'm not always very good at that. I'd rather strive to be a little less perfect and remain sane! Tetra Brik gets recycled curbside, blueberry clamshell goes to the trash.

- Plastic wrappings and bags. Pocket tissue bag (I had a cold, then bronchitis, and took this from my roommate), plastic wrap from a hunk of Parmesan (maybe I can get it cut and wrapped in paper if I go shopping during the day and ask nicely at the cheese counter, but this hasn't happened yet), a couple bottle neck wrappings, plastic wrap from a pack of butter blocks from Costco (future butter may not be purchased in bulk to avoid that wrapping- but am I really avoiding plastic? After all, it probably comes wrapped that way before the store puts out boxes for display...), candy wrapper, one plastic bag that I've forgotten the contents- possibly related to the new refrigerator. All go to the trash.

- Scrubby sponge. Not food related, but kitchen related. I'm now using a hand knit washcloth for most things, and the scrubby side of another sponge for hard jobs. When that sponge goes, there are some scour pads under the sink that I've had for a couple years. They're still made from nylon though. But I already own them, and they're big so I cut them in smaller pieces to use-- we'll have them around for a long time yet. Beth at Fake Plastic Fish uses a copper scrubber, which looks like a good option when we finally use up the nylon scour pads. Old scrubby sponge goes to the trash.

- 6 bar code stickers. Also kitchen related. I purchased several dark colored washcloths to use for wiping down table, stove and counters in the kitchen. I didn't notice the plastic stickers until later. Yes, I COULD use perfectly good rags I already own for these jobs, but the store was going out of business, they were cheap, and they look a little nicer...I gave in.

Now, on to the rest--

- Two dental floss containers. Finally, these are used up! Now I'm using EcoDent Vegan Floss, which comes in a cardboard box. Plastic floss boxes go to the trash.

- Two eye drop vials. As mentioned before I have an eye condition. Sometimes I need a lot of drops, sometimes not. Trash.

- A plastic spoon, two cocktail straws. This is a representative sample- there was more. Especially on a recent trip to Kansas for my 20th high school reunion. I ordered a number of gin & tonics- they came in a glass, as opposed to a plastic cup of beer- and mentioned 'no straw' but the bartenders always forgot, or would remember too late and take the straw in my drink or about to go in my drink and throw it away. Sigh. I guess I should stick to wine, but I DO like G&Ts in summer. There was also a very fun late night trip to the Chinese take out where we had many a rushed lunch during high school. It was just as fast and as greasy as ever-- and everything came in Styrofoam with plastic utensils. I just went with it.

- Plastic from a junk mail envelope. I don't tally most window envelopes. Curbside recycling will take envelopes even with plastic windows. Now, I know that plastic doesn't get recycled. Beth at FakePlastic Fish does a good job in this category and even tries to get companies not to send them. This is an area of improvement for me. But I did save one plastic envelope because it was just so disgustingly huge, from American Express Publishing. I've since written and asked them not to send me offers-- we'll see what happens.

- Eye shadow applicator and package. Last one! I use my make up brushes for eye shadow now. They are washable, durable, and do a much better job. Applicator and package to the trash.

- Hotel and sample shampoo/conditioner bottles and packets. I was using up my last bits of shampoo and conditioner before trying a 'no poo' experiment. Was. There will be a future blog post about this. I'm taking this packaging to Origins to see if they will accept it for their recycling program.

Whew! That is it for the cache o' plastic that was in my kitchen. There's a smaller cache still to go in my bedroom. More to come.

Plastic Blogging at ReadyMade Magazine

2009-08-09T12:38:00.003-04:00

Katherine Sharpe at ReadyMade Magazine has just finished A Week Without Plastic...in New York City, no less. Check it out!

I'm still here!

2009-08-06T15:44:00.002-04:00

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post. I got a little busy, I got bronchitis, and then I just didn't feel like blogging even though the piles of plastic in my kitchen and bedroom kept growing.

Well it is time to come back or risk becoming a plastic Collyer Brother...because I won't let myself recycle and throw out my plastic rubbish until it has been tallied.

So look for a few updates in short order.

Farewell Hair Clip, Hello Chignon.

2009-06-12T17:11:00.005-04:00

My last plastic hair clip bit the dust recently and I am left with a challenge: what to do with my mane on bad hair days? (Bad hair days are rampant in NYC right now, what with the umpteenth day in a row of rain and humidity.) The Office Ballcap is a look that never had its day. Ponytails can look polished and grown up on some women, but not on me. Throwing it up in a clip was really easy, but that's just the way the brittle clip crumbles. If I want to avoid buying new plastic, I have to use the tools I already own: hair elastics, bobby pins, and metal barrettes.

Today's solution was a chignon. I taught myself the basics with a video clip here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=709698n

...the result is a little Severe Librarian on me, but it worked and didn't fall out all day. I'll experiment with getting a more casual look.

Make-up Brushes Rock

2009-06-10T23:23:00.005-04:00

One of the plastic items I'm throwing out this week is an eye shadow applicator, the last one from a pack that (I think) was provided to me as part of a stage make-up kit for an opera. I have two make-up bags: one at home, and a smaller one I carry in my work bag and the plastic applicators, being small, were in there.

The thing is, I've never liked using those plastic, foam tipped eye shadow applicators. They feel rough and don't do a very good job of applying eye shadow-- which makes me wonder why people use them in the first place. So when the last one was getting grungy, I looked around for a retractable or small eye shadow brush that would fit in my work bag.

As it turns out, I already had a brush the right size at home, back in the remnants of my stage make-up kit*. It works SO MUCH BETTER than the plastic applicator...and it isn't plastic.

Aside from working well, make-up brushes rock because you can clean them-- try that with a plastic applicator and it'll fall apart on you pretty soon. A good make-up brush will last for years of regular use if you take care to clean it regularly.

I clean my make-up brushes by getting them wet and brushing them against a bar of soap, then brushing back and forth on the palm of my hand to work up a lather. Rinse and repeat until it rinses out clear, then squeeze out the excess moisture and let the brush air dry.

The added bonus for me was that I already owned the perfect brush for the job. As others have said and I'll repeat: the 'greenest' purchase you can make is no purchase at all-- use and enjoy what you already have.

*These days I find I don't need the huge tackle box of stage make up I once carted around on opera tours-- my MAC make up collection does the job, with a couple added contour shades, brushes, a set of fake eye lashes or a paste on mustache for the occasional Prince Orlofsky.

Weeks 28 & 29 Plastic Waste

2009-06-09T16:38:00.004-04:00

Here is my plastic waste for the last 2 weeks:

- 2 shampoo bottles
- 1 hair clip
- 1 pasta bag, 1 window from a pasta box
- 2 plastic cups
- 1 mascara container
- 4 old bug traps

Shampoo bottles: I thought I was out, but found a few more shampoo samples/bottles in my toiletry stash. Bottles go to curbside recycling, caps go to Aveda.

Hair clip: My last one--it got brittle and broke. I wish there was a non-plastic alternative, but for now am using the other hair implements I own: bobby pins, metal barettes and hair elastics. Clip goes in the trash

Pasta plastic: I'm out of pasta except for one lone box of rice lasagna left by my roommate. I'll have to be REALLY jonesing for pasta to eat the rice lasagna! Pasta plastic goes in the trash

Plastic cups: one cup I had hoarded in the kitchen cabinet- I think I used it at a work function in December and brought it home to see if I could re-use it somehow. The other cup is new, and came from my favorite coffee shop. I forgot to say 'to stay, please' when ordering my iced granita. Cups, unfortunately, go to the trash. One is #6, not easily recyclable (unless perhaps I take it to the Park Slope Coop, which is far from me and where I'm not a member). The other, while #2, is still not easily recyclable-- the city only accepts bottles for curbside recycling.

Mascara: It smears and is past old enough to throw out. I'm taking it to Origins for recycling.

Bug traps: left by my former roommate. They are old and no longer effective; I'm not replacing them. I've only seen one roach and a couple silver fish in the last two months-- hopefully things stay at that level. Bug traps go in the trash.

Week 27 Plastic Waste, Part 2 - Food Waste Edition

2009-06-09T15:53:00.005-04:00

The same week I went on a Freegan Trash Tour, I also cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer. There were several plastic wrapped items that I would never eat and were WAY too old to pass on to someone else. Witness my shame!

- Veggie burgers, veggie 'turkey' and a fish fillet, left in my old apartment by Former Roommate #1...I moved last August, so this stuff is almost (and probably over) a year old.
- 2 Vitamin bottles, left in my old apartment by Former Roommate #2. I've been hanging on to them for almost a year and never use them--I think they were pretty old when she left them.
- 3 Giant Costco Chicken Breasts, from my last trip there in November. I ate 2 of them and felt funny after both-- either they were bad or my mind was so freaked by the unnatural size of them that my body reacted.

Everything but the vitamin bottle caps went in the trash. Caps go to Aveda for recycling.

Delaying my 'no poo' experiment

2009-06-08T14:41:00.004-04:00

As you will see from my Plastic Tally (when I eventually post it!), I've used up 2 bottles of shampoo recently. I've been anticipating this for months, planning a "no poo" experiment. Going "no poo" means not using shampoo on your hair. Instead, you can use baking soda, or wash with conditioner, or even just rinse with water and scrub the scalp with your fingers. You can read about it here, here, and here.

My plan was to try the baking soda thing for at least 3 weeks. (My friends are already planning an intervention over this one.) Then, if I couldn't stand it, I would try a bar shampoo, like JR Liggetts or Lush. Another option to try would be just using conditioner, though if I'm substituting shampoo for conditioner, isn't that trading one plastic bottle for another? However, I might use less total product this way, meaning a little less plastic. Then, if all else failed, my plan was to reward companies like Aveda and Origins for thier recycling programs by purchasing their shampoo.

As it turns out, I don't need to try any of these things...yet. I found 3 more sample and partially used containers of shampoo in my under-bed toiletry stash. So for the time being I will continue what I have already been doing to use less plastic in the shower: wash my hair 2-3 times a week (down from 4-5 times), and use up what I already have.

Fancy Recycling Symbol- not a recycling symbol, actually.

2009-06-05T16:19:00.004-04:00

Since I'm now in the habit of scrutinizing every plastic container I own, trying to determine it's recyclability, I've come across this symbol and wondered what it meant. It looks fancy, must be European.

Well I was right about it being European, but this actually isn't a recycling symbol. This is called the "Green Dot" and it basically means that it:

complies with the German Packaging Ordinance for the return of consumer packaging. The symbol can, in fact, be in any colour other than red. It is administered by Duales System Deutschland GmbH, a non-profit organisation which was established to enable manufacturers and distributors to fulfil the requirements of the legislation. This shows that a fee has been paid for the recovery of the packaging in some European countries.

What does the symbol mean here in the United States? Bupkis. Nada. Zilch. Furthermore with the specific bottle of MAC tinted moisturizer I'm looking at now, there are no other symbols indicating what kind of plastic the bottle is made from- so I can't put it out for curbside recycling if it is #1 or #2 plastic. Not very helpful.

However, many cosmetic companies have recycling programs. For instance, when I'm done with it I can take my MAC tinted moisturizer back to MAC (though they don't say what they will do with it), or I can take it to Origins- they have a brand new recycling program and will take back cosmetic packaging, no matter what brand, for recycling or "energy recovery"-- I'd love to see more details on what that means!

Now, if only I could find a really good tinted oil free spf moisturizer that doesn't come in plastic...

Week 27 Plastic Waste, Part 1 - Freegan Trash Tour edition

2009-05-30T15:42:00.007-04:00

Last Friday evening (a little over a week ago) I went on a Freegan Trash Tour in Brooklyn. What is a Freegan?

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

The word "Freegan" is a combination of "Free" and "Vegan", (though I don't know that all Freegans are Vegans). Freegans are probably best known for reclaiming waste, i.e. dumpster diving, and the Freegan organization in NYC gives regular Trash Tours that are open to the media and to the public.

During my Compact year, people sometimes asked me if I was a Freegan or if I'd become one. Once I figured out what they were talking about, I said no-- my Compact was (and still is) more about getting rid of the things I don't value to make room for the things that I do. I had and have enough changes to make without "going Freegan". But I do admire Freeganism: they rescue items and food from the trash to use for themselves and to share with those in need, and they point out the massive waste in our society, and question the value and utility of a system that rapes the planet and creates so much waste. I'm really glad I got to do the tour.

I think everyone should do it. Taking a Trash Tour really opens your eyes, shakes you up, and forces you to examine your own feelings about consumption and waste. For starters, you see up close how much edible food gets thrown out each and every night, right in your own community. Then you decide for yourself: will you just watch, or will you take some of it home? I did a little of both- including taking some plastic that was already headed for the trash.

Here is what I brought home:

- 4 bagels recovered in front of a bagel shop
- 2 roses recovered in front of a deli
- a new magazine with the cover removed, recovered in front of a health food store
- a bag of prepared lettuce, one day expired, from in front of a large chain grocery store
- a lime recovered in front of a gourmet grocery store

The magazine was good subway reading material and I'll pass it on to someone else soon. I ate all the bagels (they were great toasted), and had 3 salad servings before the lettuce went bad. The roses joined my freezer compost today, and the lime is still in my refrigerator.

Plastic waste from the evening: a produce bag and a shopping bag that will be used for kitchen garbage and compost, the lettuce bag that is being used for compost.

Want to learn more about Freegans? Look here.

Plastic Free "Only In New York" Fun

2009-05-27T14:07:00.002-04:00

If you find yourself on the Upper East Side this evening, come find me at the corner of Park Avenue and 86th Street and I'll read you a poem by Walt Whitman.

I will be there between 5:45-6:45 offering free Whitman poetry readings to passers-by; several other actors will be at corners along Park Avenue doing the same. This is part of The Sixth Annual Walt Whitman Birthday Bash, a free event sponsored by Theater 1010 and The Walt Whitman Project, celebrating Whitman's 190th birthday a few days early--he was born on May 31.

Coming to the Birthday Bash at 7pm? BYO fork to keep it plastic free. There might be cake.

Finally applied for my renewable MetroCard

2009-05-25T10:52:00.002-04:00

Well, it took me long enough. I just completed the online application for an EasyPayXpress 30-day Unlimited MetroCard. Once I get it, I won't have to throw out another MetroCard until it expires (cards are good for a year, I think), wears out or is lost, stolen or damaged.

Now, instead of purchasing a non-recyclable Unlimited 30-Day MetroCard each month, I can just use one card and it will refill automatically. No more panicked card purchases in the morning while I'm trying to catch the train that will get me to work on time-- an added bonus.

I hope it arrives before my current MetroCard expires.

Many people don't use 30-Day Unlimited MetroCards because they worry they will lose it and be out a lot of money-- this is also a concern they may have with the EasyPayXpress. Another concern some may have is with giving bank/credit card information online to the MTA.

From my own experience, I've been using the Unlimited card for a few years and have lost or had my card stolen all of 2 times. Both times I called the MTA and had my money refunded quickly. And if you are worried about giving the MTA your debit/credit card information-- if you purchase MetroCards from the kiosks using those cards, you ALREADY share that information with them. The only difference is they will have your permission to make a monthly charge to renew your card.

Week 26 Plastic Waste

2009-05-23T21:11:00.005-04:00

It has been 2 weeks since my last tally, and there's kind of a lot to report. Here goes:

- Olive Oil cannister and plastic cap
- cap for a vanilla bottle (red)
- fruit sticker (representative sample- there were more)
- 2 windows from pasta boxes
- blue magic marker cap
- plastic wine cork, Ecco Domani
- generic Cetaphil (facial cleanser) bottle and pump
- plastic wrap from a newish bottle of facial cleanser
- chicken broth TetraPak
- Bob's Red Mill flax meal bag
- a bag that once held rugelach, but now holds the remnants of THREE credit cards
- a Diet Coke bottle and cap

Olive oil: the big cans last me several months, and I feel that is the best way for me to purchase it. The can gets recycled. Vanilla cap: next time I'll look for a larger bottle with a metal cap, or at least a larger bottle. Sometime I should try making my own. Cap goes to Aveda. Fruit sticker: comes on all citrus around here, except lemons and limes. I wonder why. Trash. Pasta box windows: I still have a few odds and ends of pasta to use up and might just get a jar of sauce and finish them off in the next couple weeks. Trash.

Magic marker cap: found while emptying the cabinets when my roommate moved out. Trash. Wine "cork": Beth keeps a list of wines with the kind of cork or cap they use. What is easier for me though is to follow my friend Kate's advice and go for bottles with metal caps. She assures me there are some good ones at Trader Joe's, and she is much fussier about wine, so she should know. Cork goes to the trash. Facial cleanser: I opened up one last small bottle of facial cleanser. It will take me a long time to use up, but when I do I'm changing to a non-plastic option. Goats milk soap? Olive oil soap? I'm open to suggestions. I have fussy, sensitive skin! Bottle gets recycled, pump and wrapping go to the trash. Chicken broth: still have a couple of these lurking in the cabinet. Not a huge fan of store bought broth and will be happy to return to homemade, or bouillon cubes in a pinch. TetraPak gets recycled.

Flax meal bag: I can get whole flax seeds in loose bulk sections. Rugelach bag: my roommate had them around on her moving day, and I ate the last few and kept the bag. They were yummy. But only fyi- plastic free rugelach is pretty easy to come by at many if not most bakeries in NYC. I didn't know what rugelach was before I moved here! Bags go to the trash

Credit cards: Oof. This is a lot of stupid plastic waste, most of it my fault. Two of the cards are from when I lost my wallet last fall, the very night I started this blog. It was miraculously returned to me intact by a neighbor the next evening. Yay, neighbor! But by that time the cards had been reported lost and they sent me new ones. This week I finally got around to activating the new cards and replacing them in my wallet, which says something about how often I use them. The third card came from when Amex discontinued IN:NYC and sent out the latest version of their equivelant card. I wasn't pleased since I had -just- gotten a new replacement Amex. Cards go to the trash.

Diet Coke bottle and cap: another mistake on my part. I stayed late at work and they ordered dinner. I was all fake virtuous, getting a paper wrapped deli sandwich, and shifting the guilt for the bag onto the other people who were getting food as well. Then I ordered a can of Diet Coke, because I saw someone else drinking a soda and wanted one- even though I know the cans are coated in plastic on the inside, and I could have had water in my Kleen Canteen. Well, the deli sent a plastic bottle, not a can. And you know what? It didn't taste that good. Maybe someday I'll stop craving soda, but I still want it now and then. Bottle gets recycled curbside, cap goes to Aveda.

Belated shoreline cleanup report

2009-05-23T15:39:00.004-04:00

Last Saturday I participated in It's My Park Day at Astoria Park, and helped clean up a stretch of East River beach and shoreline, opposite the War Memorial in the park. The clean-up was sponsored by Green Shores NYC, The Astoria-Long Island Waterfront Parks Alliance. It was the first time I participated in a shoreline cleanup, and that has been on my to-do list for years.

Going in, I had fantasies of recycling all the plastic, glass and aluminum drink containers that so often get tossed from the walkway above the shoreline. As it turned out, this wasn't possible. We were told that since they had been exposed to the elements, these items could contaminate recycling batches and therefore weren't recyclable-- instead they were bagged with the rest of the trash. I was disappointed to learn this, but still happy that at least we had the chance to get them out of the park and away from the River.

We were provided with 2 sets of gloves (a plastic set and a pair of cotton work gloves) a black garbage bag and some safety instructions, like: leave glass there (it eventually turns back to sand), stay away from sharps and medical waste, leave heavy items and alert the organizers so a team could go after those later, more that I can't remember but in general use your judgment and be safe. Then we were sent down a ladder and turned loose on the shoreline.

I identified two streams of trash in the area we were cleaning: stuff that washed up from the East River, and litter that was dropped from the walkway. Of the stuff that was washed up from the river, a lot of it was broken glass. Like I said, the beach makes a pretty tinkling noise when there are waves, and the glass bits are in varying states of being worn back to sand by the river. There was also a lot-- a LOT-- of styrofoam. Some were identifiable as broken bits of floating docks and ice chests discarded at the beach or lost from boats, others were funny discolored chunks that were worn and looked like rocks and pebbles, but weren't. Lots was really tiny, and not worth bending down to pick up-- though if I was already down to grab something else, I'd go after whatever small bits I could. It would be interesting to sit down in a small area with a screen and do some digging, like an archaeologist. In areas where stuff collected from the waves you could tell there were several layers, and we were only getting at what was on top. Aside from glass, styrofoam and general flotsam, the things I remember picking up from the beach near the water were a computer mother board, a red velvet cushioned seat, possibly from a boat (actually that was too heavy, but someone eventually did get it off the beach), and a blue plastic star-- I kind of wish I'd saved that or gotten a picture.

Most of the trash that I collected came from the section of shoreline by the walkway, and most of that was beverage containers and food trash. Lots of Mister Softy and Dunkin' Donuts cups and straws, lots of plastic water bottles and even more caps. In areas where there was foliage and layers of dead leaves, I could hear the crunch of plastic under my feet and knew that if I did some digging, there was lots more to be found. But by this time I was working on the "broken window" theory-- only instead of crime and vandalism, I was trying to prevent littering. If we could pick up the visible trash, I figured, people on the walkway would see a clean stretch of shoreline and might not be tempted to throw down trash. Whereas if they see trash already down there, they might feel free to treat the area as a dump. Just typing that makes me sad. Memorable items, aside from the food & beverage trash: a frisbee, a broken bracelet, and a miniature liquor flask on a belt chain, another item I sort of wish I'd saved.

In all I picked up two very full bags of litter before succumbing to allergies and calling it a day. My allergies aren't that bad, but digging around in the foliage caused me to inhale a lot of pollen and I was coated in it head to toe; much coughing ensued! My personal plastic waste for that day: 2 large trash bags and a pair of plastic gloves. I'm not counting the plastic I picked up. I had a sore back for a couple of days, but the satisfaction of doing my bit more than compensated for the temporary discomfort. Though next time I plan to take one of those grabber thingies...and a friend or two.

If you are interested in participating in future events sponsored by It's My Park Day or Green Shores NYC, please check out the links. Not in NYC but want to volunteer for a shoreline cleanup? Check out The Ocean Conservancy, which sponsors an International Coastal Cleanup and can connect you to shoreline cleanups in your area-- and not just for oceans!

This Saturday is It's My Park Day in NYC!

2009-05-13T17:34:00.003-04:00

Join thousands of New Yorkers in caring for and celebrating New York City parks on It's My Park Day. Participate in clean up and planting projects, enjoy free events or just get outside to enjoy your park. Supplies are provided for all projects.

This spring, It's My Park Day will focus on community members working to "Reclaim our Waterfront Parks", with shore clean-ups, free paddling and rowing, and other fun water-based activities at sites throughout the city.

How does this relate to plastic? Well let me tell you. Every time I go for a run along Shoreline Boulevard in my neighborhood of Astoria, I look over the railing and see all kinds of glass, plastic bottles and debris lining the shore. It is hard to tell if stuff gets thrown over by litterbugs or washes up from the East River-- probably both. When there are waves, you hear the tinkling of broken glass, which is actually kind of pretty in a strange way. And I've often wondered what it would take to organize a clean up, and if anyone already did it. Someone does!

This particular event for It's My Park Day is sponsored by Green Shores NYC, The Astoria Long Island City Waterfront Parks Alliance. I learned about them last Saturday at the neighborhood recycling party hosted at Build It Green, and was very excited to learn not only that Green Shores existed, but that there is a clean up this coming Saturday. Here are the details:

Astoria Park, 10am - 3pm

Volunteers needed for shoreline clean-up. Activities include arts & crafts, a recycling workshop and the second annual “It’s My Park Day Scavenger Hunt.” Scavenger hunt participants ride their bikes along the greenway and collect points to lead their team to victory! To register for scavenger hunt, email Taryn.Cunha@mattel.com. Projects and events coordinated by Forest Hills High School – Academy of Public Service, Long Island City Community Boathouse, Children for Children, Green Shores NYC, Astoria Park Alliance, Council on the Environment of NYC – Office of Recycling Outreach & Education and Transportation Alternatives. From 1pm to 3pm, City Parks Foundation will provide free tennis lessons.

Location: World War II Memorial in park, along Shore Blvd.
By Subway: N/W to Ditmars Boulevard. Walk 10 blocks west to Shore Boulevard, walk south to World War II Memorial.

Looking for an It's My Park Day event closer to your neighborhood? Check the website!

How To Reduce Plastic Usage - My Top 10. OK, 15.

2009-05-11T16:02:00.003-04:00

By request, here are my top tips for reducing plastic usage. Many of these are new habits, and habits must be acquired over time. So if you are trying to follow these tips, be kind to yourself!

1. Stop purchasing and drinking bottled water. Drink good old tap, filtered if you must. Use a regular glass or a re-usable bottle. I have two-- a knock-off Sigg and a Kleen Kanteen.

2. Stop purchasing and drinking other beverages that come in plastic, especially in single serving containers-- sodas, iced tea, juices, etc.

3. Use re-usable shopping bags. Also, carry small purchases in your knapsack or just carry it in the open.

4. Use fabric produce bags, like these from EcoBags. For larger produce items like whole fruits and veggies, you don't need a bag at all.

5. Take a look at the processed foods you buy- breads, chips, cereals, condiments...basically anything that came from an inside aisle at the store. Most of it comes with plastic, right? Try to find plastic free alternatives.

6. Purchase loose bulk food items, and use your fabric produce bags. Loose bulk includes things like oatmeal, rice, beans, nuts, dried fruits, popcorn, granola, flour, sugar...all kinds of things.

7. Buy used. Books, clothing, CDs, home items, whatever. If you need it, consider getting it used. Used means no plastic packaging, and it keeps stuff in circulation and out of the landfill.

8. Get to know your local recycling situation. What exactly goes in your city's curbside recycling? Are plastic bags recycled locally? What other programs are available in your area? These include Gimme 5 for #5 plastic items, Aveda's bottle cap program, Best Buy's electronics recycling program, other area electronics recycling events. Once familiar, recycle everything you possibly can. This doesn't mean go buy new stuff because you can recycle it-- recycle what you already have!

9. Acquire re-usable to-go ware. Coffee mug, utensils, foldable fabric bag. Carry them. Use them.

10. Stop eating take-out. Eat in, on real plates! Enjoy your food! Take-out involves a lot of plastic, so just stop. If you like taking leftovers home, some people take containers with them to the restaurant-- I haven't done that yet, but have at it.

10a. I confess to being lazy and not packing my lunch nearly as much as I should. So tip 10a is to learn which take out places offer food in paper-- like Subway, delis, etc.

11. Eat naked food! Basically, this means stop buying processed foods that come in plastic and buying whole foods that come in their own skins. Also, get to know your mongers, if you have them: fish mongers, meat mongers, cheese mongers-- they'll wrap your naked food in paper if you ask.

12. Discover your local bakeries. Bread isn't meant to come with preservatives, pre-sliced, and bagged in plastic. Really.

12. Get used to saying things like: "I dont' need a bag with that, thanks!", "No straw with that, please!", "Can you wrap this in paper, and skip the plastic? Yeah...no...NO...no plastic! Ok, thanks!" "Do you have any real mugs back there behind the counter?" (This last one is when you are stranded on the Upper East Side, land of no good coffee houses, and go into Starbucks).

13. Learn to prep for shopping trips. In addition to making a list, pack your fabric produce and shopping bags.

14. Start looking at the other plastic in your life-- cosmetics, toiletries, home accessories, storage containers, etc. As they are consumed or wear out, can you recycle them? Can you replace them with something that can be re-used, lasts longer, and is more sustainable?

15. Using plastic containers in the kitchen? Me too. Someday I want to replace them with glass refrigerator containers. Until then (here's the tip), I'm keeping them out of the microwave. Heating plastic means risking that bad stuff from the plastic will transfer to the food.

The Compact vs. Plastic Reduction-- when to buy new?

2009-05-09T13:52:00.003-04:00

I am talking with some people today about The Compact, which I did formally in 2007 and do informally today. Compacters pledge to not buy anything new for a year except food, underwear, medicine, and items necessary for health and safety.

Doing the Compact changed the way I shop and consume, and I think of the changes as permanent. Though I do purchase the occasional new item, when I need things now I ask myself:

-- Do I really need it?
-- Can it wait? What happens if I wait a week or a month? Will I still need it?
-- Can I borrow it? Rent it? Get it from a library?
-- Can I get it used?
-- Where did it come from, what is it made of, who made it, how far did it come to get to me?
-- Can I get it without packaging, without shipping?
-- How long will I have it, what happens to it when I'm done with it? Can it be re-used or recycled?

...so there isn't a lot that I buy new.

BUT. There have been a few new purchases recently. These are things that I can use instead of plastic.

One was a stainless steel insulated travel coffee mug from Gorilla Coffee, a local roaster in Brooklyn. I LOVE it-- the top screws on tightly so there are no leaks in my bag, and though there is a little plastic in the top, there's no plastic in the mug proper.

Another was a set of bamboo cutlery, bought at Whole Foods. They are lightweight and don't make clanking noises in my bag.

And I plan to purchase a fabric shower curtain soon. Mine needs replacing and there's no way I'm buying a new plastic curtain. That strong smell from new plastic shower curtains? Turns out it is bad for you. Fabric curtains are kind of expensive, but this is a purchase I've been planning for a while.

See? I'm not really anti-consumerist. I'm for smart consumption.

Cross Post from The Green Cat - FreeMeet in Astoria this Saturday!

2009-05-07T17:10:00.004-04:00

Thanks to The Green Cat for posting this:

A FreeMeet is like a neighborhood garage sale where everything is free. You bring things you want to give away (except in this case they ask for no furniture, large items, or dangerous objects) and you can then browse and take away anything you like. It is a great way to keep useful items, plastic or otherwise, in cirulation and out of the landfill-- and getting things used means getting them without the plastic packaging.

This one will also be a block party, with live music, food, and workshops. It looks like a lot of fun, and right in my neighborhood!

Saturday, May 9th
from 11:00 am - 4:00 pm.
Located at Build It Green, 3-17 26th Avenue
in Astoria/Long Island City.

For more information, click here.

Week 24 Plastic Waste

2009-05-05T17:18:00.004-04:00

I have some catching up to do! This doesn't seem like a lot for 4 weeks worth of plastic-- likely missing some windowed envelopes and fruit stickers. Look for larger items in the coming weeks as I clean out my freezer and run out of things like SHAMPOO (this is a big one).

Laundry detergent scoop: Do 'green' brands like Ecover come without the scoop? I will "tide" myself over by buying the small cardboard boxes of detergent at the laundromat until I figure out my options. Will re-use if I can.

Hair clip: It was in the bottom of my bag. It was old and brittle. It broke. Plastic does that. I got it free at a Swapping Party, so easy come, easy landfill, I guess.

Toothpaste: Very excited to finish up this tube and go with Beth Terry's recommendation of Tom's of Maine SLS-free toothpaste. I like it a lot! Cap goes to Aveda, tube to the landfill.

Bag and sticker from EcoDent dental floss: Very little waste, considering. I still have 2 plastic boxes of floss to finish before starting on the EcoDent. Landfill.

More stickers: fruit and from the Tom's of Maine toothpaste box. Landfill.

Debit card: expired. Cut up, then landfill.

Clothing tags: I purchased several new pairs of underwear. Is this less plastic than if I'd bought a bag of Fruit of the Loom undies? Landfill.

Ice cream taster spoon: I went to the trouble of asking for a cone, then a re-usable cup instead of a plastic one. Would I like to taste the hazelnut? Sure! Two seconds later-- D'oh! Landfill.

Ketchup cup: Next time I order yummy french fries at the Beer Garden, I need to ask for ketchup right on the plate.

Energy Kitchen Cup: This one deserves a letter. The surface is covered with paper, so it looks like paper but is actually STYROFOAM. (Granted I should have stuck with my Kleen Kanteen, but got lazy and was craving a soda.) How can a company that is trading on a healthy image feel OK with using so much plastic packaging and service items? I guess "healthy" and "plastic free alternatives" aren't linked in the public imagination. I wonder if that will change with time. Landfill- after I write that letter.

Bag Tax Action

2009-05-01T14:05:00.002-04:00

It looks like the State Assembly will soon see the proposal for a 5-cent tax on plastic shopping bags in NYC.

The city and State of NY already have a bag recycling law for large chain stores, but without a tax it doesn't do much to decrease the number of bags being used and wasted.

It remains to be seen if this will get public approval. Will it be a common sense fund raiser that also does environmental good, or will it be the straw that broke the camel's back in bad financial times? Talk about the huge MTA fare hikes and people complain but shrug, accepting it as inevetible. But a nickel bag tax? Right now could make New Yorkers IRATE.

BTW my favorite, favorite part of NYC's bag recycling law is that stores that take bags for recycling must also offer re-usable bags for sale. More and more people are using them, and it is good to see.

A sign of sea change

2009-04-30T13:53:00.002-04:00

You know attitudes are changing when you see an infomercial like this:

I just saw this ad on ESPN during my lunch break. ESPN. That means the company is paying big bucks to saturate their message- they smell big profit.

And I am THRILLED.

A word to the wise, though-- from comments on the YouTube page it seems there has been difficulty getting the canteens from this company delivered after ordering. Other stainless steel bottles are already out there and can be purchased in stores, for instance Kleen Kanteens are at Whole Foods.

Earth Day at Grand Central

2009-04-25T11:58:00.003-04:00

Yesterday at lunch I walked by Grand Central and was caught by surprise. There was an Earth Day fair! A big one! I am constantly amazed by this city. Huge events can take place, attracting thousands, and 2 blocks away you wouldn't know it. I should have known about the Earth Day at Grand Central event, but didn't.

It is still going on today until 5pm, so drop by if you are out and about! There are many great booths there, petitions to sign, tap water to sample, drawings to enter, and even a little swag if that is your thing. The fair is on the west side of Grand Central, outdoors.

One of the people I talked to was producer/director Pamela French who is creating short films that ask: "How would you make New York a Greener Apple?" I waited my turn and mentioned a few less-plastic things...I'm afraid I was a little obnoxious. But it was fun!

Check out Pamela's project at www.youtube.com/Agreenerapplenyc

PS- Have you been outside today? It is BEAUTIFUL. Get out there!

Bummer

2009-04-23T16:48:00.002-04:00

It looks like we won't be getting our bottle deposit law for a little while yet. Here's fervently hoping any amendments are used only to allow companies to comply, and not to weaken the law.

Heard this morning on public radio:

The expanded bottle deposits were supposed to take effect June 1st, but now Governor Paterson and legislative leaders say it may have to be delayed. It seems the new law has some unintended consequences. It requires that all water bottles sold in New York have a special UPC bar code, so that bottles sold in other states without deposits can't be used to fraudulently collect the nickel deposits from New York redemption centers.

But bottlers, particularly smaller operations, say they can't make all of the necessary changes by then. And some large distributors say they have so much inventory in their warehouses that they can't sell all of the non deposit water bottles in the six or so weeks left before the law is to take effect.

Governor Paterson says he's listened to the companies' concerns, and is looking at ways to delay the implementation of the law.

"We are talking to them," said Paterson "We don't want to do anything to hurt the industry while we are trying to clean up the environment."

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who also received awards, say they are willing to consider delaying the implementation of the law as well, so that bottlers and retailers can comply. Speaker Silver says he's not interested in "hurting businesses", while Senator Smith says there's no harm in correcting a mistake.

Paterson and the leaders say the change could be accomplished through amendments, and believe they won't have to redo the entire bottle deposit law.

Mother Jones Article - I'm a zealot, but a NICE zealot!

2009-04-22T12:01:00.007-04:00

I'm thrilled with the article by Elizabeth Royte (and accompanying photo of me by Erica McDonald) that is in the May/June issue of Mother Jones magazine.

There is just one quote that is a little misleading. It isn't even inaccurate, just missing some information that leads the reader to a wrong conclusion. It is probably a case of what came out of my mouth wasn't as clear as what was in my head. The quote:

"Whole Foods will take the No. 5s," she tells me. Who knew that bottle caps were stamped with recycling numbers? "Look," she says. I squint at the tiny white digit on the tiny white cap. "This is a 2," she says. "I'll have to bring that one uptown to Aveda. They take any rigid cap with threads."

Here's the thing. Aveda doesn't take #2 caps. Like the Gimme 5 program at Whole Foods, Aveda takes caps made of #5 polypropyelene. The difference between the programs? Gimme 5 (Whole Foods in partnership with Preserve) accepts any clean used plastic item stamped with a #5 symbol. Aveda takes caps only, and the cap does not need to be stamped with #5-- because any rigid plastic cap with threads is most likely made from #5 PP. For further details on these great programs, check the links provided.

As for softer #2 caps, well for those we are S.O.L. at the moment. Landfill, ahoy.

Sneaky plastic avoidance tactic

2009-04-20T02:04:00.003-04:00

Sunday morning I stopped in a coffee shop for a pre-church gig pick-me-up, and didn't have my mug. I sheepishly ordered a paper cup with no lid and turned away the offered stir stick. All of a sudden I made this little apologetic wince and shrug, saying "Yeah sorry, I'm doing the no plastic thing."

Like everybody's doing it.

Maybe if I pretend "the no plastic thing" is all the rage and just everyone is doing it, it will catch on-- even if I only succeed in fooling myself!

PLASTIC IS MAKING YOU FAT

2009-04-17T17:06:00.003-04:00

Now this should get some peoples' attention.

Child Obesity Is Linked to Chemicals in Plastics

The lede:

Exposure to chemicals used in plastics may be linked with childhood obesity, according to results from a long-term health study on girls who live in East Harlem and surrounding communities that were presented to community leaders on Thursday by researchers at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

Story is by the City Room writer with the coolest middle name ever, Jennifer 8. Lee.

The Bay vs The Bag

2009-04-17T15:50:00.002-04:00

I'm copying this over from Fake Plastic Fish. The video is about plastic in the San Francisco area, but applies everywhere. And hey, we live next to an ocean too.

Unexpected good news from the MTA

2009-04-17T10:47:00.004-04:00

Photo: Warga/Daily News

Woot! The MTA just made it easier for all of us to not throw away plastic MetroCards every month. VERY GOOD NEWS. Takes a tiny (teeny tiny) bit of sting out of the rates going up.

Also, this option is a lot more convenient. No more standing on line for a new card while your train is pulling out of the station. Win win.

Here it is in the Daily News:

Straphangers can now buy unlimited-ride MetroCards that last two years - averting the need to stand on line at a token booth or MetroCard vending machine.

Heard back from Pret

2009-04-14T10:05:00.002-04:00

A while ago I e-mailed Pret-A-Manger about the packaging they use for food. There is one near my workplace and I knew the warm wraps came in paper while just about everything else came with plastic. Then they started using plastic stickers on the wraps and I was out one lunch option.

Someone got back to me today-- it looks like they are making efforts to winnow down the plastic:

Thanks for taking the time to write us! We really appreciate hearing
from our customers.

We are currently working with our suppliers to look at alternative films
for our packaging, both biodegradable and compostable.

We unfortunately had to change the stickers, as the previous one did not
securely keep the package sealed - which was a food safety concern. We
are having an environmental audit done in the UK. The results will be
coming out with guidelines on how to better improve our environmental
standing.

All of our paper bags and napkins are made from recycled materials.
Unfortunately due to regulation, we cannot use recycled materials for
products that come into direct contact with food.

Once again, many thanks for taking the time to send us your query!

Regards,

Shequan Planes
Customer Relations