Less Plastic: On Being Plastic

It has been a long time since I have written about plastics, and they are what started this marvelous journey into wakefulness. I realized tonight, as I started to read some other blogs whose bloggers are at different points in the journey from myself, that some things have become habit for me and I have stopped stressing about plastic so much.

I have my shopping and cooking all streamlined to be "less plastic," and so I don't even think about that anymore. I grab my canvas produce and grocery bags to go to the store, and I don't set foot beyond the bulk bins. I also rarely eat out and never get take out, so these are non-issues. I carry my Klean Kanteen and to-go mug with me all the time, and I take lunch to school in my tiffin tin and eat with a real fork and a cloth napkin. These things are all habits now, and it feels wonderful!

To give you some more examples: I haven't had to buy toothpaste since December, and this tube is going to last me a while. I have completely stopped thinking about the fact that I wear glasses now, even after ten years (!) of wearing contacts.

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I am going to NYC next week, and the true challenge will begin. I will be on-the-go all the time, and I don't know how much I'm going to be able to avoid plastic. I will take my water bottle and to-go mug, even if airport security gives me funny looks. I will take a fork and a cloth napkin, and I will try my best. I plan to go grocery shopping when I get there and buy PB & J, even though I know these will involve plastic...in this case, the financial savings is really important to me. However, I'm going to make granola tomorrow for my trip.

I'll let you know how the trip goes, but for the time being: what kinds of changes are becoming second nature to you?

Noitalever: "Less Plastic?" "That's what she said!"

Jamie brought up a valid point yesterday when she noted that the quality of environmental jazz isn't going to change much until the corporations get behind it.

This is true, but that does not mean that you shouldn't try to adjust your lifestyle and work your small-scale magic. Here's why:

1. Every little bit counts. You need to remember that you are making a tangible difference. If you need a reminder, check this out. Another method is to start a "shrine". For the next month, save all of the plastic bags you consume (i.e, take home from the grocery store) in a drawer by themselves. Then, take them out at the end of the month and count them. Do the math and figure out how many bags you'd consume in your lifetime continuing at that rate. Eliminating that waste isn't such a small change.

2. Your friends will catch on. If your friends see you make change look this easy, they will try to change these little things, too. At this point, it's not one person's plastic bags (slash coffee cups slash water bottles), but five or ten.

3. People will notice. Once it starts creeping into everyone's field of vision, they will reevaluate. This is the point at which corporations will begin to care, because it will become profitable to market to these consumers. However, if everyone waits for the corporations to shift their paradigms, no one will ever make a move.

4. It's not hard. You should be doing the small things anyway, because they aren't difficult and most of them make economic sense. For example, if you can refill a water bottle from a water fountain instead of buying a new bottle every day at work, you'd save at least $5/wk. Or, if you reduce your waste in general (for example, avoiding excessively packaged products), you can lower your utilities bill (at least in Oregon, they charge by the gallon).

Here are five changes that are economical and environmentally-friendly:

1. Stop buying bottled water - the stuff from the water fountain/sink is free.
2. Switch to bar soap - this is often way cheaper than liquid because of lowered production costs.
3. Wear your jeans/skirts/whatever more than twice - I have found that under most conditions, jeans can be worn for at least three days. Towels, if treated properly (not lumped on the floor after use), can be reused several times also. This lessens the amount of laundry you have to do and thus lowers your water bill!
4. Bring your own coffee cup - most places will now give you at least a twenty-five cent discount for bringing your own coffee cup, and you'll save all of that waste (some of which is often plastic and can't break down).
5. Bring your own grocery bags - a lot of places (IKEA, Whole Foods, etc) are starting to charge for each bag you take.

In closing:

I'm not asking you to stop wearing polyester and using deodorant - I'm asking you to stop these little habits that are byproducts of a "disposable" lifestyle. I'm also not asking you to step on eggshells in our world. I think that these are five examples of small changes that can be implemented today in order to bring about big change for tomorrow.

Noitalever: How We Will Make It Happen

So, I have been thinking for the last day and a half about how to integrate Less Plastic living into my current habits. I think that the best approach for me is this conscious, slow integration instead of the "cold turkey" approach taken by many.

First off, I realize that there are many things that won't change in my lifestyle anytime soon. I will not give up my contacts, a choice which requires me to also keep buying contact solution (plastic bottle). I also refuse to obsess over clothing choices - rayon, nylon, etc are all plastic-based. I wear mostly 100% cotton clothing anyway, but I won't go out of my way to change this at this point in the game.

However, some changes will come easily and naturally.

My first "target area" is personal hygiene because this is the area in which I buy the most bottled-in-plastic/plastic-packaged goods and also an area which has a use&toss mentality (compared to my coffee pot, which will live for a long time).

This week, I ran out of dental floss, shampoo, and facewash. Today, I went to the Co-op and purchased:

Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint Shampoo Bar (cardboard box) - $6
Burt's Bees Garden Tomato Complexion Soap (again, cardboard box) -$5 (less than my current facewash...)
Eco-Dent Floss $3

The floss is the most interesting, in my opinion. It's package (cardboard) converted to the little floss holder, and it has 100 yds of floss! (much more than regular containers of floss) It was also very inexpensive.

My other "target area" is the ol' "Bring Your Own Bag" game. Today, I purchased two canvas bags (at $5 apiece - not bad at all!) for this adventure.

The next things that I will replace, as they get used up, are:

- toothbrush (probably will go with Eco-Dent's version for which you just change the head - something that uses minimal plastic anyway)
- chapstick (I already use Burt's Bees, so I'll just find the kind that comes in the metal container)
- razors (will go with Recycline's Preserve model, which has a recyclable base so that you just throw away the blades. They also have replacement blades now, so really you only need to buy one anyway)

Non-hygiene things...

-laundry detergent (switch to dry version - duh!)
-trash bags (no more plastic bags!)
-hairbands (must find alternatives like all-metal bobby pins and clips)
-pencils (switch to the good old-fashioned kind)
-highlighters (use colored pencils)

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If you're wondering, I'm not really worried about food stuff at this point in my life because I don't cook for myself. Eventually, I will do things like Bring My Own Containers and Buy In Bulk.

Noitalever: Plastics Make It Possible?

So, after reading this article and beginning to browse through this blog, I have decided to follow in Amy's footsteps (kind of).

I am in no position (student, not owning my own house, etc etc) to completely eliminate plastics from my life, but I can look around and think of at least fifty ways in which I could greatly reduce my plastic consumption. So, I plan to spend the next few months vigorously looking for ways to do this, while not beating myself up over things that I simply can't change right now (new car purchased in '07? I think I'll keep it, thanks).

I also want to post my own little reminder: paper can be recycled! As you finish up school for the year and think to yourself, "Man, I never want to see these notes/tests/whatever again!", please find a place to recycle your mixed paper.