Category: Reduce plastic in 2010

A movie about my plastic riddance

prAna blog » Bag It Documentary (video).

Watch this trailer! (Ok, it’s not about _me_, but it sounds like the creator asked the same queestions I did.) Looks like it’ll be a good documentary about the great “away” that we all assume our trash, mostly plastic, magically goes. The narrator asks “where is away, really?” and “is my life too plastic?”

These are definitely questions I had during 2010, when I tried to reduce my plastic usage. The outcome? It was really hard. I still use plastic shampoo bottles, plastic bags more often than not, and my produce still finds a way to sit in plastic in the fridge. And dadgummit, I tried!

Here’s what I did manage to get rid of: plastic storage. I used maybe 4 zip-loc bags in all of 2010, reusing the ones that the TSA makes us stuff our stuff into. I use glass jars like crazy. I think it works better than plastic for storing cheeses. I drink my on-the-go water from glass bottles more often than not (yay, Topo Chico!).  And I’ve finally found a stainless water bottle I like with Hydro Flask. Maybe it’s time I try the plastic cleanse again.

At any rate, this movie looks like a good and thoughtful one, and I love the song they have in the trailer.

Bag It Intro from Suzan Beraza on Vimeo.

The No-Refrigerator Challenge

The No-Refrigerator Challenge, issued by Rowdy Kittens.

Yeah, I coulda put an image of beautiful veggies being kept cool in the fridge, but let's be real. This is more accurate for my lifestyle. Image from http://www.waark.com

Now that I’m getting weekly product bushels, I wonder if I could hack this. Dairy’s not much a part of my life, and most produce is better eaten right away anyway. I’d already been thinking about this desert cooler from Africa (a zeer pot), for my little back-yard structure. No, City of Austin, I’m not building a house back there. It’s a shed… in which I happen to work and sometimes fall asleep, and in which I like to store snacks for myself and also have a sink to wash my hands after gardening, and also with a waterless toilet for… um… use with the pool, so people don’t have to go inside.  Yes, that’s the ticket.

Hmm..

More info on the zeer pot, including a pdf with instructions: http://www.slashfood.com/2006/09/28/how-cool-is-that-zeer-pot/
http://practicalaction.org/food-production/zeerpots

Store produce without plastic

Remember that time, way back in 2010? Remember that time when I was cutting plastic out of my life? Well, I kinda slacked off… like a lot. I’m still not using plastic for storage and very infrequently buy plastic bottles of water, but I feel sheepish knowing I coulda woulda shoulda.

So, here’s a wonderful blog that should help me stay on track better! And the first entry I found is about storing veggies without plastic. Can’t wait for fresher food!

How To Store Produce Without Plastic :: My Plastic-free Life | Less Plastic | Life without Plastic.

Before
After

Bioplastics Not Necessarily the Greenest

from Bioplastics Not Necessarily the Greenest.

Yes! Man, I’ve been shaking my head every time I read about these “green” plastics as replacements for petroleum plastics.  I almost shared a couple of them, annoyed that people are attacking the symptom—plastic bottles heading to landfills and oceans—rather than the problem: disposables.

Dudes, it’s easy.  We don’t have to drink less water, putting Poland Springs drivers out of work.  We don’t have to switch to a different material, shifting our landfills from plastics to plant-based plastics (it’s still plastic and takes quite a while to break down).  The solution is not to use disposables.

Use and re-use things.  Glass jars are good for re-use and re-use and re-use.  Then when they break, you can even use the pieces in random stuff.  Crockery and pottery, too.

It’s not that we’re using too much plastic or anything, really.  It’s that we’re throwing away too many things too quickly.

Have you heard of Plastiki?

via Plastiki Nears End of Journey.

Quite possibly one of the coolest awareness projects ever!  This is a boat made of plastic bottles, designed to raise awareness about the plastic gunk floating in the sea.  And have you seen the Brita ad lately, about how many plastic bottles we use every year?  They’ve also got a spot on their water “Filter for Good” site to give you $5 to the purchase of one of their filters.  My fridge’s filter is due to be replaced; maybe I can use it for that…

I think, for July, I’ve become more and more aware of my own plastic bottle usage and thus will scrap bottled water for good.  Typically, I show up at yoga and have no water.  I swear a little inside my head, then I buy a bottle of water.  Boo, me.  Well, last night I remembered and brought my own water bottle.  Ok, it was a bottle someone had left at my house, but it counts!  🙂 Heck, everything counts, which is why I’m doing this in the first place.
Filter For Good: Pledge to reduce bottled water waste.

Reduce plastic in 2010: halfway check-up

Huzzah for the longest day of the year!  I think I’ll head to the southern hemi in six months and have another longest day.  Man, I’m sure now that I’m solar powered.  Anyway, on to the update.

Back when I had my green and (war)crafty blogs separate, I talked about reducing plastics in my life in 2010.  In January, I vowed to stop using plastic bags at stores.  So far, so good.  In February I stopped using “disposable” tupperware and tried not to get takeout food in plastic.  That one worked at home, but not so well for the takeout.  However, in posting this and admitting my lapse, I’m redoubling my efforts.

I stopped blogging about them, but I kept on reducing plastics.  In March, I concentrated on my cloth shower curtain.  It had been a bit of an experiment: just hanging a cotton shower curtain I’d had for a while, using metal hangers I’d made (which I’d like to re-engineer before I recommend you try them, btw), and spraying tea tree oil and vinegar to keep mildew down between washings.  Today it’s hanging on the line getting de-grossified by the sun.  I use a combination of vinegar and tea tree oil and spritz it down before I get out of the tub.  Ultimately, the best way to keep mildew down is to keep the shower curtain pulled across the space.  Don’t let it fold up and make little spaces for grossness to grow.

Image from Story of Stuff.com

In April, I bought my first Camelbak-type backpack for hiking.  It’s not non-plastic, but it means I can do one more thing without plastic water bottles for convenience, or without plastic sport bottles.  I borrowed a stainless-steel canteen and tried that out.  I’m still looking for a final option for hiking, but for now, I felt one “big” plastic item to use for years is way better than lots of little plastics.  Do you know we use half a billion bottles of water a week?

In May, I made sure to have a spoon and fork into work from home and when our work cafeteria re-opened, I used their real cutlery even when I took food back to my desk.  Every few days I return my borrowed items.  🙂  I have a spoon in my car, too, for random in-car uses (yogurt comes to mind).  It’s minor, but stuff like that adds up, and it’s ultimately no skin off my nose.

Now, in June, I’ve purchased more Mason and Ball jars.  I still save any jar I have and put my bagged items into it as soon as I can.  Someday I’ll figure out how to tare the scale at the store and get all my bulk items in my own jars rather than bags.  I finally used up all the zip-style baggies in the house and found that my quart jars were in use everywhere and scattered around.  I’m happy to not find them!  I like trying to tally them all up and enumerating in my head “one has laundry soap in it, 6 are holding flours and beans in the cabinet, …”

Mmm, green beer…

via: The Growler: A Greener Way to Get Beer to Go | greenUPGRADER.

Dude, when beer, environmentalism, and my own personal goal to reduce waste in my life come together… it’s a good day.

Now off to refill my NXNW growler with sweet delicious nectar… (btw, “Black Jack” is a delicious beer they make there by casking their black ale in a whiskey barrel.  Oh. Em. Gee.  Costs twice as much as any other beer they brew, so the growler cost is like $25 instead of the usual 12 buck refill.  It’s worth it.)