plastic free personal hygiene

For my cousin Jill, with whom I had a delightful visit and catch up last weekend (I truly have the best family in the world, now if only I could swing seeing them more often than once every 18months...), a little post about plastic-free personal hygiene.

I suppose I haven't said much on this topic because it's largely already been done by other plastic-free bloggers. But for those of you out there who haven't yet discovered those blogs, and for those of you interested in what I am doing, personally (I'm not flattering myself, I know my family reads this! Thank you Jill!), here is a run down of what I've discovered.

The hard one first,

1. Oral care

Oral care is tricky. It's not that easy to get away from plastic toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and floss. BUT it is possible, sort of. Tom's of Maine toothpaste comes in an aluminum (recyclable) tube and apparently they will take back their plastic lid for recycling when you are done. I've also heard of wooden handle toothbrushes, or toothbrushes with replaceable heads. Plastic Manners went with the bone and boar brush, Clean Bin tried out a few recycled plastic brushes,

It's apparently not difficult to make your own toothpaste, but I won't be trying that for a while.

Myself, I'm far too fond of my electric toothbrush and far too concerned about the weakness of my teeth (if I don't floss every single day I WILL get a cavity), so I haven't changed much yet. I bought the Tom's of Maine paste once and might do again sometime. But I also got freaked out about the lack of flouride and bought regular ol' Crest the next time. We'll see what happens when I run out of heads for the electric one, or when it dies. For now I'm sticking with.

2. Hair care

WAY easier than teeth, and this is something I've actually been doing! I was close to running out of shampoo several months ago so I preemptively started looking for alternatives. There are of course, shampoo bars (I bought one from Lush, but really you could use just about any bar of soap I assume), but what I've found I prefer is the baking soda wash, followed by occasional vinegar rinse. Fake Plastic Fish does it, so did Jen at Clean Bin Project, and so did Life Less Plastic, but with more mixed results. She outlines her difficulties with plastic-free hair care here.

In the end I think we all have different bodies, and different hair and what works for one may not work for all. Baking Soda is working for me, for now, although I do occasionally use a Lush shampoo bar as well. In fact, the baking soda is working better than the shampoo I went back to using to try to empty out the bottle. (I want to keep my vinegar rinse in the empty bottle. I'm using another empty shampoo bottle for the baking soda solution right now and it's super convenient). Shampoo made my hair heavy and kind of greasy-like. The baking soda leaves it perfect! I use a tablespoon of baking soda dissolves in water, which I pour from the empty shampoo bottle onto my head. It's strange cause it's just like pouring water on your head, but it works like a charm, at least for me!

3. Deodorant

I haven't run out of deodorant yet, and I haven't quite decided what it is I am going to do when I do, but I am inspired by those who have come before me....

Life Less Plastic and Fake Plastic Fish both use baking soda on their underarms and swear by it.

Jen at Clean Bin took it one step further and mixes her own deodorant into a paste which she then scoops into an empty deodorant container for easy application.

I have to admit, I like the idea of the homemade stuff in the old container. There's something reassuring about spreading the stuff on, I think.

Ok, there's more I'd like to write about, but I'm going to post what I have for now in case I put of doing the rest for a really long time (like what has happened with all the other posts I've been thinking about writing and NOT).

Face cleanser is next on the list, and something that I'd actually love some input on. I'm close to running out of what I've got, and I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do when that happens. Any ideas?

Epic sustainability

So some other things I wanted to report on from the month of May.

I went to the Epic sustainability conference when it was here. Had a surprisingly interesting time. Picked up some cards of green wedding dress makers for my affianced friend, checked out roofing options with my friend who's renovating. Had a big chat with the London Drugs representative about their packaging take back program. They recycle styrofoam! Which I thought was pretty exciting. Or rather, they'll take the styrofoam you get from whatever you buy at their store and bring it to Genesis recycling who squishes it down to ship off somewhere to be recycled. Ok, so sometimes the styrofoam ends up in China and that's definitely not a good thing. But let's focus on the fact that they TAKE BACK their styrofoam! Crazy, no? They'll also take back old appliances to recycle if you buy your new one at LD. Something to consider the next time you are appliance shopping, perhaps.

Now why can't all stores do that? Or why can't the legislature, parliament, whoever, legislate that stores are required to do that?

Of course, I'd rather see the styrofoam just not used. But I like the direction of the take back program. Pushing responsibility for garbage up the chain is a good step, I think.

What are your thoughts?

ups and downs of an evening

These are the kinds of ups and downs that one experiences when trying to live plastic free.

I went out salsa dancing the other night. There was a lesson at 9 and then music afterwards. I didn't know what to expect in how it was set up and I wanted to travel light, so I didn't bring a bag - no purse or anything, and therefore no water bottle. I knew this was probably a mistake, but I didn't want to have to worry about keeping track of a bag if I was going to end up in a club or something so I didn't bring it. Also I had hopes I would have options in terms of getting something to drink.

Well the place wasn't a club, it was a community hall. And drinks were served in plastic cups. Or plastic water bottles. Or beer in a glass bottle.

I squeezed up to the bar planning on asking if there was anything at all the bartender could do for me so that I didn't have to consume plastic, noticed there were glasses on the shelf, and so I asked if I could use one.

The guy was totally rude. Totally shot me down, refused to help, and basically just walked away from me when I said I didn't want to use a plastic cup with no interest in trying to help.

And I got really upset! I mean, it's always upsetting to be so dismissed, but he just WALKED away. Like, even if I had changed my mind and decided to use the plastic, or if I wanted to buy a bottle or something I wouldn't have been able to because he was ignoring me. How the hell was I supposed to get something to drink??

It sucked.

So I left. I was actually tempted to just flat out leave, but I started with stepping outside to get some air aka taking a walk to find something to drink that didn't involve plastic. Luckily there was a gas station across the street and SUPER luckily they sold iced tea in glass bottles and - get this - they didn't even have the plastic seal around the metal lid!! I HATE that plastic seal, it excludes so many things I would otherwise be able to buy.

That gas station and glass bottle totally made my night. I returned to the salsa in a much happier mood, and extremely pleased to have stuck to the no plastic rule.

Two extremes in mood produced by the no plastic challenge. From extreme upset to extremely pleased in the space of about 10 minutes. This is my life without plastic. :-)

roman hotel made of beach trash

I think this article is pretty neat.

It was garbage on beaches that first prompted me to take up the no plastic challenge. I wish I could visit this hotel in Rome!

general update

It's been a long time since I posted much about plastic, or about my experiences trying to live plastic free, so I thought I should say a quick something.

I'm still mostly sticking to the resolution, although I've slacked off a bit the last month or so and allowed myself to cheat on a few key items. A prime example is today, when I bought a new toothbrush, floss and toothpaste. Dental care is one of the toughest things to do plastic-free, and I've decided I need a toothbrush at work because my poor weak teeth need a post-lunch brush.

I've also bought a few tubs of yogurt. Making my own has proven less than satisfying. So while I still make it sometimes, I also sometimes buy the plastic. Which is terrible on so many levels. But not so terrible that I lose sleep over it.

So there are some items like that, but on the whole avoiding plastic is still a major part of my consumer choices. It really is remarkably easy most of the time. Reducing plastic consumption is so easy it seems strange to me now that everyone doesn't do it. Eliminating? Ok, that's proving trickier.

There are lots of other things I've been thinking about and wanting to post about, but I didn't write any of them down, and I can't think of them at the moment. Life has been hectic. I started a new job this week, among other things. This post was mostly meant to say: yes, I'm still here, and I'm still trying to be plastic free. And I will write more again one day!

Congratulations to Clean Bin!

Another quick shout-out to some fellow Vancouverites, this one to Grant and Jen of the Clean Bin Project. They have completed the documentary they did of their year long (turned life long, as it so often does) project, and I was lucky enough to attend one of the first public screenings this past Saturday.

And it was fantastic!

I have to admit I was the teensiest bit concerned because I had dragged some friends to it with me who were like, "what? it's a movie about garbage? um... ok, well I guess if that's what you want to do..." but they all thanked me afterward for bringing them because the movie was excellent, and despite a long delay at the beginning due to some technical difficulties at the cinema, the evening was 100% worthwhile.

They are cycling the film across the country, so if any of you are reading this blog from other parts of Canada, check out when they might be coming to a theatre near you, or perhaps contact them to set up coming to a theatre near you! Both can be done through the Clean Bin Movie site, I think.

yay plastic manners!

just passin' on the word from fellow plastic-free vancouverite, plastic manners. she was on CBC!

getting desensitized

I've been working at a coffee shop part time for the past several weeks, and I'm afraid it's having a negative impact on my commitment to living plastic-free.

We just use so much plastic! All the time. And I quickly stop noticing, it so quickly becomes automatic.

The first time I noticed was when I grabbed a day old muffin to eat on the way home after work. We bake muffins every day, and at the end of the night any muffins left over (usually only one or two, if any) get wrapped in plastic and put on a plate to be sold the next day as 'day olds'. So one day I was on my way to another job and needed a snack to get me there so I grabbed a day old muffin, plastic wrap and all. Didn't even think twice about it.

Not buying plastic-wrapped food is one of the EASIEST things to do to cut down on plastic consumption! And here I was, not even thinking about it.

The other day I caught myself using a rubber glove to mix the scone batter.

And here we come back to a something I posted about earlier: food safety.

If I'm using my hands to mix scone batter, is it ok if they are just well washed? Or should I use the rubber (plastic?) glove? Which would you rather have touching your scone before you eat it?

depressing photos

and this, my friends, is why i've stopped using plastic.
http://www.chrisjordan.com/
the album called 'message from the gyre'

The Perils of Plastics, Time magazine

Just a quick link to a Time magazine article about plastics

to market to market to buy a fat... bottle of laundry detergent?

I was at the Blim Market on Main last weekend. I had only been planning to drop in to say hi to a friend who was selling her Chai tea there, but fate intervened....

Earlier that day I had run out of laundry detergent, and I hadn't quite decided what to do about it. Going plastic-free has had the side effect of making me think about the consequences of what I buy in a wider than just plastic way, and I wanted to buy some sort of "green" detergent in, obviously, a non-plastic container. I should also add I'm rather partial to liquid detergent. For no particular logical reason. I just like it.

Anyway, the idea of researching what was the best detergent to buy and where I could get it seemed daunting to me, so I had placed the 'what will I do when I need to do laundry next' problem safely in the back of mind.

I arrived at Heritage Hall, a beautiful big old building on Main Street that looked more like a church than a place to hold a community market. The place is gorgeous. I started looking for my friend by heading left, which took me past T-shirts, jewellery and... soap. Handmade, all-natural ingredients soap. And, there on the table, in a great big mason jar: laundry detergent.

Perfect timing, anyone?

I was pretty excited.

Obviously, I bought a bottle.

Unfortunately, I have misplaced the card of the people I bought it from, but when I find it, I will add their names, and a link if they have one.

I was also reminded of what wonderful places markets are for living plastic-free. If there's one place you don't have to worry about plastic packaging, it's a place where the people behind the tables are the ones who hand-crafted the stuff in front of you. You can bet they're not wasting their time and money on excess packaging!

I'll be trying to hit them up more often in future.

The soap folks also had shampoo bars, which got me thinking about what I'm going to do when I run out of shampoo, which will be soon. Fake Plastic Fish uses baking soda, as does Life Less Plastic. Lush also sells shampoo bars.

I'm still considering.

March's monthly plastic tally

I tried to be more conscientious about my plastic collecting habits this month, so hopefully this count is a more accurate representation of my plastic consumption for the month.

I don't know if it's because I ate out more, or because I was paying more close attention, but this month I finally experienced what I've read some others' frustrations about: collecting unwanted and unasked for plastic at restaurants. There are two plastic straws in my collection this month, which came in drinks I didn't ask for, or forgot to ask to get without a straw. I also have one of those weird toothpicks with the random plastic crap on the end, and two plastic cups that held salsa and sour cream which came with my burger. It wasn't a take out place, I was definitely not expecting that there would be plastic thingys on my plate when it came. Frankly, it was kind of annoying.

Then again, this is one of the reasons I undertook this challenge. These are the things that we remain blissfully unaware of until we force ourselves to notice. In my case, it took collecting all the plastic I used for the month (and therefore dumping out the leftover salsa, wrapping the plastic tub in a napkin and tucking it in my pocket to take home - and HANG whatever anyone who saw me thought!) to make me realize there was plastic on my plate, but others might be inspired in different ways. I encourage everyone to pay a little closer attention to the sneaky ways disposable plastic items creep into your lives, without you even noticing, for just a day. You might be surprised.

And now, on to the list.

1. Two wrappers from cheese. I haven't found a good plastic-free cheese source yet (still haven't made it to the farmer's market) and I can't give up the cheese habit. I just can't. But I am going to a cheese-making workshop this month! I don't know if that will impact my cheese-buying habits yet or not, but it should at least be interesting.

2. One plastic cup. Another restaurant collection. This came from a very sweetly intentioned Indian man. I had stopped in at his shop for a quick bite of lunch, hadn't looked closely enough and taken stock of the fact that it was very much a fast food joint, did ask if they would serve my meal on a plastic dish, was told no no, it comes on a metal plate, and thus ordered some combo meal or another. He brought it out to me on, as promised, a metal plate, but with plastic utensils. I was horrified, and a bit frozen. What to do? Take the plastic and chalk it up as a learning experience? Or try to get out of it? So I asked, ever so sweetly, I know this is a little unusual, but is there any possible way he might be able to let me use a metal fork or spoon? He hesitated a moment, then, yes, perhaps, one moment. I waited patiently at the counter. He came out with a spoon "that's all we have" he said apologetically, "this is a fast food place." Yes, I know. I thanked him warmly and sat back down to my food, feeling rather pleased with myself. A few moments later he sweetly came over with a cup of chai tea "on the house." In a plastic cup. I smiled and said thanks. And took the cup home to add to my pile. Sigh.

3. Seven plastic-window envelopes. Still working on reducing this number.

4. One bottle of tonic water. What can I say. I wanted a gin and tonic. Sometimes a girl needs her gin and tonic. You know?

5. One tofu package. Getting sufficient protein can be annoying. Particularly when you are stuck reconstituting dehydrated beans all the time. I was bored of lentils and wanted a stir fry. With tofu. Sometimes other things win over the plastic challenge. Such is life.

6. Four milks bottle lids.

7. One credit card plus sticker. They sent me a new one this month. That one expired. This is one of those supposedly unavoidable plastics, I think.

8. Two restaurant containers. Explained above.

9. Two plastic straws. One from a water at a boston pizza, and one from...i think it was an iced tea at the same place as those containers.

10. One cookie package. I think this was actually leftover from the Olympics, but I don't actually remember.

11. One random piece of plastic wrap. This may have been from a muffin I ate at a coffee shop. Also don't remember.

2. Packaging from a pair of scissors

13. Packaging from a piece of chocolate my roommate brought back for me from Atlantic House. Also left over from the Olympics.

14. One plastic-tipped toothpick. This magically appeared on a sandwich I ordered. Wasn't there when I ordered it! I promise!

15. Two other small pieces of plastic related to price tags.

16. Six contact containers. And their associated contacts. Not much to explain here, I don't think.

17. Roughly twenty five 20 cm long pieces of floss. I don't collect this, but I do floss daily, or almost daily.

18. One jug of tide laundry detergent. I ran out. Was feeling a bit blue at the prospect of buying new stuff. But happily discovered some at a market... more about that later.

19. One lining for a bottle of some kind. I don't remember what this is from. It looks like what comes under pill bottles. Or maybe a juice bottle or something like that. But I really don't know what I consumed in the last month that fits that description.

All in all not bad. 19 looks like a big number, but it's not a very big pile. I feel ok about it.

a find from Fake Plastic Fish

Firstly, if any of you are reading me regularly, I hope you are also reading Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish. She posts much more regularly than I do, and she has so many wonderful things to say.

In her last post, she had this link. Which I think looks like it's going to be an awful lot of fun. So I wanted to make sure I shared it with all of you.

mining for plastic

I rewatched Addicted to Plastic the other day, and a few of the recyclers featured had a really interesting view on plastics and garbage dumps.

They had both developed technologies that would turn any kind of plastic into one type of usable material. And both of these guys talked quite matter-of-factly about mining plastic from garbage dumps in the future.

The first thing that struck me about this is the scary beauty of capitalism. When recycling plastics becomes sufficiently profitable, I expect it will be amazing how quickly things move, technology develops, and garbage starts disappearing. Literally, dumps will disappear. There will be no such thing as an unrecyclable plastic. Of this I am absolutely certain.

The other striking thing about this proposed cycle is the no guilt aspect. "Oh, it's ok if we have a disposable culture now, because we'll just go clean it up later when we run out of what we need to make it and we'll just make it again! No harm done."

I assume I don't have to point out who the losers are in this scenario.

But I digress. What these segments really did was make me curious about the feasibility of this, and whether or not it's already happening. And it appears it is! I've only done a quick search, but I've found a few articles about garbage mining, one about the likely prospect of dumps in the UK from the 80s being opened up and mined for their plastics sometime in the next 20 years or so, another from back in '93 about some towns that were already mining their dumps in Pennsylvania, and this one from San Francisco which also mentions that SF already diverts 70% of their waste to either recycling or composting. This seems like a huge number to me and makes me really curious about Vancouver.... so that is my next project. What exactly does Vancouver do with its waste? And where does the recycling go they collect in the Blue Boxes? And how am I going to find this out?

Hummous

I found a store that will fill my container with hummous today. That made me happy.

recyclable milk bottle lids

Excitement abounds! I have just discovered that the milk bottle lids I've been collecting are recyclable! I don't know why I thought they weren't, but I did. But they are! #4 plastic, 100% accepted by the blue box recycling program. yay!

London Drugs as source of plastic-free living goods? Who knew!

I am such a sucker for sales.

I just went for a visit to London Drugs because I heard they had a sale on Wasa crackers, which have lately become more or less my bread replacement since the (amazing) plastic-free bread I've been enjoying is both too far away and too expensive to enjoy on as regular a basis as I might like. At half the price I usually buy them for, and given the rate I've been going through them lately, it seemed stocking up on the Wasas was a good idea.

Now, I can't wander into a store, particularly a store like London Drugs, without wandering down the aisles and admiring what's what.

Imagine my surprise, and indeed delight, to discover that today's little wander uncovered all manner of plastic-free living delights!

First, the chocolate.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a sucker for a good snack craving. Usually it's something salty, which I've so far been satisfying with popcorn and occasionally cheese (yes, still buying the plastic-wrapped variety). But every now and then it's for something sweet, and even something chocolate. I've been pretty distrustful of most chocolate bar-wrappers, even the foil ones can be deceptive, but I hadn't given much thought to it. I generally feel it's best to ignore such cravings and if living plastic free gives me another excuse to do so, mores the better! But today in London Drugs I was reminded of a perfectly good plastic-free chocolate alternative:

Glosettes!

Now, ok, I know, they aren't the Belgian Milk Chocolate, or the Swiss Dark, but hey, they come in a cardboard box. What could be more plastic-free than that?

Next up, thermos mugs.

After the styrafoam cup use referred to in my last post, I determined to do better. And indeed i did. The next time I went to that particular outdoor Olympic venue I came with a great little thermos mug. Unfortunately, it wasn't mine. See, I've never had a travel cup that I really liked. I find them mostly rather oddly shaped, or still containing plastic, or SOMETHING. Well, my roommate has this awesome little thermos mug which she apparently got at mec, and I've been planning on getting myself one soon. (I couldn't actually find what she has on their website, but it was something like this. Point is, it was compact, lightweight, and fit into my purse).

So today I wandered into the 'food containers' aisle at London Drugs, and what did I find?? Thermos mugs! ON SALE!

Well, ok, not quite thermos mugs, actually these dudes are intended for food storage. But they were regular 21.99 on for 9.99 so (sucker for sales, right?) I bought two. Plus another one a different size.

The best part? They were all completely packaging free.

Now, I suppose they probably originally came individually wrapped and London Drugs just unwrapped them to display them more attractively and take up less space... but I like to imagine perhaps they were plastic-free in the first place.

And then, right below the thermos mugs, MC2 by Innate, a Vancouver company that I feel I really should have known about by now. (Of course, these local company, plastic-free alternatives were displayed on the bottom shelf, well below the Glad and Tupperware options). Anyway, they produce a stainless steel with silione lid food container that will, I believe, also fit into my purse. Also on sale. I also bought two. So now I have something other than a plastic container to bring with me if ever I need to bring home leftovers or request take out in my own container. And something other than plastic in which to store my own home-cooked leftovers! In fact, between the five (five? Did I really need to buy five?) containers I purchased today (that was expensieve trip to buy crackers), I'm not even sure I'll need to use the plastic containers we have in the house anymore at all. And that really is an exciting idea.

In all this day was exciting because I am essentially a lazy person, and going out of my way to seek plastic free options is not always something I do. So when I find the plastic-free options withOUT going of my way, I feel relieved. And happy. And like I need to share these discoveries with the world!

Also, Innate is located pretty much down the street. Ok, a ways down the street. But still, I'm thinking of going for a walk to go check them out.

Oh happy, plastic-free day.

And yes, I did also buy the crackers. Six packages of them, in fact.

February plastic tally

I've decided to do what all the other plastic bloggers do: keep a plastic tally.

So I've tried to keep all the plastic from the last month that I've used and would normally throw out. Now, much like the rest of this plastic challenge, I've been much less stringnet about this than some of those other plastic bloggers, and I'm sure I will have missed a few things. I am still hopeful that this process might bring some items to my attention that I can work on removing from use. So, here goes.

The tally:

- Ten plastic window envelopes
- One styrafoam cup (the most evil of the plastics in losingplasticland, it would appear), used when my incessant coughing required a warm drink while at an olympic event
- Five plastic milk bottle lids. It's funny, I don't usually drink this much milk, but I've been making a lot of yogurt. So those five lids are replacing at least four yogurt containers. Much less volume of plastic waste, but the yogurt containers are recyclable. I wonder what that means in the overall plastic tally
-Three random pieces of plastic packaging. I'm not completely sure where each of these came from. One lost like the shape of a cd, which may have been something I just opened from Christmas, one is from that metronome I posted about, and one is, I think, from the calender I ordered from fujifilm, but I'm not sure.
- One plastic razor. Left over from a few months ago, just cleaning out cupboards and got rid of it
- One travel toothbrush. Used for two months straight in Panama and Colombia. This little baby served me well, but it is time for retirement
- Two contact lense containers. The fact that there are only two in this bag suggests to me that it is time to replace the contacts I've been wearing. They are only intended for two week at a time use!
- One plastic garbage bag and tape. These had been used to pack some boxes I had in storage which I finally unpacked this month. The garbage bag ended up pretty ripped, so I don't think I can reuse it.

All in all, not too bad I feel. I'm most astonished at the envelopes. I've never realized how many plastic-window envelopes I receive, because I usually just toss them in the recycling without thinking about it. Looking this pile, though, has made me reconsider if I really need to receive all of this mail. I have since gone paperless on my bank statement, and will be cancelling my subscription on one other regular sender. I'm still considering my options on some other bills, but I think that's a good start.

I feel certain I must have used more plastic than this.

Oh yes, I just remembered. There was a sushi container that should have been added to this pile. And a beer cup, again from the Olympics.

And probably more. I will try to be more vigilant in collection for next month.

olympics, and dish soap in glass bottles

This has been an interesting week. I have lots to report, both good and bad.

First, the good. I found dish soap in a glass bottle! Definitely the event that made my week, this stuff comes in what is basically a milk bottle. I haven't used it yet, but I couldn't help buying it I was so darn pleased to find it! Unfortunately it does still have a plastic lid (as do the milk bottles filled with milk), but I'm still looking forward to cracking it open and giving it a try.

Actually, I have been quite enjoying using the bar soap I bought when we first ran out of dish soap a few weeks ago. It works surprisingly well, and I have definitely decided that this notion that liquid soap is necessary for clean dishes is one that is true only in my head, and not at all in real life.

I still bought the glass bottle though!

Discovering this dish soap also made me appreciate, once again, this beautiful city that I live in. I bought it at Capers, as plastic-free-friendly a place as you're likely to find, as the place is filled with organic and natural goodness. It also made me realize how unlikely it is that I could find this particular dish soap back home, in the small town in the interior of BC where I grew up, as stores like Capers really do exist only in bigger centres, and then only in "green" bigger centres like Vancouver. Then again, as I just pointed out, finding dish soap in a glass bottle isn't really necessary to give up dish soap in plastic bottles.

Coming back to this beautiful city I live in, we are presently hosting the Olympics and while I had been a little bit dreading it, expecting the city would go crazy and not in a good way, it has turned out to be a pretty fantastic experience all around. It's hard to stay resistant to the Olympics when you're surrounded by this infectiously festive atmosphere. It's not just a party, it's a tangible excitement. There are literally people from all over the world who are here, just to see the games. It makes me feel very ungrateful for not having been 100% supportive from day 1, whatever my reasons might have been.

My plastic experiences with the games are essentially all instances of me not being sufficiently prepared. The community band that I play with has been hired to entertain people as they enter one of the venues. The gigs have been amazing, and this is where I really experienced that excitement and energy I was just talking about! We have to be there for several hours, and there's not really much in the way of food available. Day one I was pretty unprepared, hadn't brought enough to eat, and basically ended up eating plastic-wrapped cookies out of sheer 'I have to eat or I will be extremely grumpy and feel like crap' edness. Day two I brought more food, but I wanted to bring enough for everyone and I decided on hummous with veggies and pita. Like I said, not sufficiently prepared, so the hummous was purchased at the store in, you guessed it, a plastic container.

As a follow-up to that, I later asked at the deli at this store, a Safeway, if I could get a spinach dip put into my own container, but they wouldn't do it. "Health concerns," they said.

Now, I have several problems with this situation. First, I find I am a little resentful of these "Health Concerns." Who is Safeway to tell me what I can and cannot put into my body, or what I can or can not store my food in? I feel it implies an assumption about my lack of ability as a free-thinking, independent adult, to make a decision about what is safe for me.

Mind you, there are plenty of free-thinking, independent adults who make plenty of poor decisions about what is or is not safe to put into their bodies, or store their food in every day.

But shouldn't we be free to make our own choices about that?

Furthermore, this sort of systemic problem could be so easily fixed, it almost hurts me that we don't already do it, although I do understand why we don't, I think.

If we all brought our own containers all the time, it really wouldn't be difficult for Safeway to sanitize them before filling them for us. Particularly if we were really clever and had a standardized container that we could exchange for a cleaned and sanitized, refilled container. See, it wouldn't even have to be our own, it could be someone else's that they brought in to exchange! Of course, these containers would probably have to NOT be plastic, since I'm pretty sure that for the most part plastic doesn't stand up all that well to that kind of reuse.

And then there is the somewhat ridiculous notion that the containers that Safeway will put the spinach dip into are in some way cleaner than mine. Now, I admit, they might be. I may not have cleaned mine as thoroughly as it should have been (I am using bar soap these days, after all), and presumably the big pile of plastic containers that Safeway has stacked on its counter all came freshly sanitized from the big plastic factory, wrapped in a sanitized plastic bag until they got placed in a stack on that sanitized counter by perfectly clean and sanitary Safeway-employee hands.

Does anyone else see anything wrong with that scenario? If any of you have ever worked in a grocery store, I am sure you will recall, as I do, how grotesquely unclean they actually are. Now, I will admit that it is probably still more likely that my home-washed plastic container has some harmful bacteria in it than that disposable Safeway container, but it's a chance I'm willing to take, and a chance I feel I should be free to make. Particularly since, while I'm inclined to believe in the sanitariness of the container, I'm not at ALL inclined to believe in the "safety" of that spinach dip. (I've seen behind that deli counter, folks, and it is not pretty).

This leads me to my final point, and one which may deserve a post all to itself.

I'm not at all comfortable with the obsession with safety and, indeed, "security" that is so prevalent in our culture, including our food culture.

I say this knowing it's a bit of a hard case to argue. After all, who wants to get sick from what they eat? And of course we all want to be able to trust our food sources. The less we prepare things in our own kitchens, the more we are forced to put our faith in others to ensure the quality of our food. But when ensuring food "safety" means using chemicals and materials that are harmful not only to ourselves, but also to our earth, I tend to think that maybe it's gone a bit too far, and grossly in the wrong direction.

Ok, I think I've rambled enough for one posting. I have more to say on this topic, and more to report on this week, but it will have to come later!

yogurt and metronomes

Hi all. I've been told I need to keep blogging. This despite feeling like I don't have much to say.

To follow up on the last post, yogurt-making attempt #4 was met with success! I haven't tried a fifth time yet, although I will need to do so soon because I am nearly out of yogurt. I think my biggest problem was incubating methods. For the successful attempt I used a cooler and I put a magic bag in the cooler with the yogurt both at the beginning and halfway though, after re-heating. I have also become much more confident in the heating and cooling process of the milk, which is speeding everything up overall. The first few times I did it I was so cautious it was taking me ages to bring the milk up to just below boiling and then to cool it down, and I was spending the entire time staring anxiously at the thermometer, checking if it was ready. But now I've got a much surer sense of when it's ready, so I just blast the heat on it, and then cool it in an ice bath. This makes the process is in general much less involved. Which only means that I am much more likely to actually go through with from time to time. Which means less plastic! Yay!

In other news, I had a terrible lapse of plastic-free consciousness the other day. I bought a metronome at a music store. Now, not only was the metronome made of plastic, but it was also (of course) WRAPPED in plastic. It honestly didn't even occur to me until I was out the store and halfway home, I was just so lost in all the beautiful instruments in the store, and focused on this idea of getting a metronome. Completely did not think it through.

I'm not sure I have the strength of conviction to keep this up. Some things have turned out to be fairly easy, like not buying food in plastic (except for cheese, I'm still buying cheese for now. But I think I may have found a good cheese supply that I will be able to get without plastic! Must go to the next farmer's market in two weeks to find out), but honestly, in order to find a metronome without plastic I'm pretty certain I would have had to really search... and it definitely wouldn't have done all the cool stuff this one did! Of course, I could possibly have found one second hand. But I didn't. Oh well.

I think that's about it for updates. I went to a conference this week and was worried I would have to be careful to avoid plastic there, but everything was already pretty plastic-free. They didn't use any disposable dishes or cutlery, and the only plastic that escaped my notice was the hanging name tag they gave me.

yogurt failure #3

I have officially failed at my third attempt to make yogurt.

Everything I've read says it's easy.

I don't think it's easy.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. The first time I thought it was the incubation temperature, the second time the milk separated, and this time... well, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the incubation. Maybe my yogurt starter was too old?

I'm going to try one more time. Fresh milk, fresh yogurt, and making sure I'm at home for the incubation process to continually monitor temperature.

In all, it's a pretty involved process though. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to use it to replace the yogurt I buy in the plastic tubs at stores. I eat too much of the damn stuff, and I'm not about to give it up for this plastic challenge. My shopping habits (and subsequently diet) are restricted enough as it is between no plastic and no meat.

But I am going to try one more time. The yogurt has not beat me yet!

American Chemistry Association on Plastic

I just thought I would share what I've been reading today,

http://www.americanchemistry.com/s_plastics/doc.asp?CID=1571&DID=5972

the dangers of entertainment

I came across an accidental plastic use yesterday. It's one of those things that you just don't even think about until it happens and then you go, 'oh, shoot. Why didn't I think of that?'

I went to a 3D movie and the glasses, of course, were made of plastic and came wrapped in their own little individual plastic bags (that way you know it's sanitary, after all). Oh, despair. True conviction would have led me storming out of the movie and demanding my money back... alas I am not so committed. Plus, I didn't think my date would appreciate it.

On the plus side, I did get iced tea at the concession put into my water bottle. Said date laughed in an uncomfortable way that suggested he definitely thought I was crazy when I did that. One of the first times someone has reacted in that way, and also the first time I tried to get something put in my own container since the tea on the airplane. I was glad I happened to have my water bottle with me. The last time I went to a movie it was another cause for accidental plastic use as I hadn't brought any kind of container whatsoever with me, yet was extremely thirsty, so I bought a drink. With a straw. Horrors.

All this just means I can't go anywhere without a water bottle, and probably a container for food anymore. I haven't been venturing too far from the house much for the last two weeks, so I haven't thought much of it, but there was talk of grabbing food quickly at a Whole Foods or something last night and I was freaking out about not having a container to get food put in.

In the end I supped on popcorn. Much simpler. And it didn't even come in waxed paper bag!

One more blogger

Ok, just this last one, No Impact Man. He's more extreme than just plastic, and I haven't read through all of it yet, but apparently he has a movie out.

All of this leads me to that Big Question that I have been trying to avoid thinking about, though. What difference does it really make? All of these people doing all of these eco-friendly things, and reaching out and inspiring other people to do do eco-friendly things. Does it have any sort of measurable impact? Does it make any difference whatsoever to the destructive impact humankind continues to have on a daily basis on the planet? Will it? Ever?

Fake Plastic Fish seems to believe it does. She certainly gives good reasons for personal changes in her most recent post. It's not that I don't agree with her, exactly. Obviously, I must, or I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. I can't help still feeling ultimately powerless, though.

Other plastic-free bloggers

It should come as no surprise, but I have discovered there are other people who have done this 'no plastic' thing and kept a blog about it. Actually, there are people doing all manner of eco-friendly things and blogging about it. I'm only just beginning to delve into this big ol' blogging world and I have to admit it's a mite overwhelming. So far I have found at least two blogs that are doing more or less exactly what I'm doing. Or, better to say they have been doing it, for two years or more! They are also both much more clear in their plastic rules. Whereas I am rather wishy washy, 'oh, I'd like to eliminate it, but I'll settle for just not buying any, or throwing any out, or not using plastic packaging...' these two have much more clearly outlined the rules to their projects.

The first blog is this one, written by EnviroWoman, a fellow Vancouverite. She took what she calls the 'NoNewPlastic Pledge,' the rules of which she outlines here as a New Year's Resolution in 2007.

The second blogger started in September of 2007 and logged her expereinces at Life Less Plastic. It's nice to see what other people have experienced trying to reduce or eliminate their plastic consumption. It's also nice to refer to them to see if they have solved some of the problems I've run into. For example, we ran out of dish soap last week. Now, you tell me, have you ever seen dish soap come in a plastic-free container? I assume in theory it could come in a glass jar, but I haven't seen any recently. Well, Life Less Plastic ran into this problem also, and described her solution in this post. I had already chatted about it with my roommate and we had done the old, 'what did they do before plastic bottles?' thing. We concluded that people had likely used bar soap, so I was already thinking this was what I should buy. Discovering that post, though, and knowing that someone else had been using bar soap, and succcessfully, to wash her dishes, was reassuring and added significant confidence to my soap-shopping venture.

Ok, I started this post with two bloggers, but in linking those bloggers to this post, I discovered links on their posts and have discovered a third blogger, Fake Plastic Fish.

That's it, I'm not writing anymore until I've decided who my favourites are.

Can anyone tell me about waxed paper? How is it that paper is made waxy, and does it involve plastic at all?

cds and other materials

I said in one of my very first posts that I believed this project was ultimately impossible, at least in practice, at least for me. A friend of mine recently sent me a list of things he had noticed that were plastic that would be difficult to avoid (it thrills me that this project has affected the way other people are looking at the plastic in their lives, it's more that I could ever have hoped for). His list pretty neatly sums up why I'll never be able to completely avoid plastic.

1. Condoms

When it comes to the condoms themselves, I think it's ok. They are generally made of latex, which comes from plants. I was pretty excited to discover this, but then I remembered that they also generally come wrapped in individual plastic wrappers. So now I don't know. Theoretically I guess there's still no problem, as long as a person just doesn't have sex! Nope, no problem at all.

This is a pretty hilarious video. The image of a washing machine full of condoms is priceless.

2. Contacts and glasses.

I have been struggling with this one. Both with using the contacts themselves and with the fact that my contact solution is getting very low, and I will soon need to either buy a new bottle (and I've only ever seen that stuff in plastic bottles) or stop using the contact lenses. Thing is, I've already had the things almost two years. They don't last indefinitely. And I like wearing contacts.

I still haven't decided. Until I'm out of solution I'll keep wearing them. When I'm forced to buy solution, I don't know what will happen. In theory, however, this isn't a problem, as long as I'm willing to give up contacts. Yes, there is plastic in my glasses, but it's a pretty small amount. And I'm sure if a person was really determined they could rig something up without plastic.

3. CD's

CD's and all things computer are another reason I, personally, am bound to fail. Even though I don't buy cd's that often, and it's possible I could avoid buying them for a year. It's also possible I could avoid using them for a year. But not indefinitely. And if I'm not using cd's, I'm using some other plastic-containing, computer-related tool. It's pretty much unavoidable.

4. Garbage bags

I still haven't solved this one. I don't know if the city will take garbage out of the bin in back if it's in a paper bag, but I don't see why they wouldn't. So far my solution to this problem, rather than to eliminate the plastic bag (although I'd very much like to), is to reduce the garbage output that goes into the bag, thereby reducing the number of bags used. I have to start composting (my second New Year's resolution that hasn't been undertaken yet) and once I do between compost and recycling, and not buying any plastic in the first place, I don't think there will be a whole lot of garbage, and probably no wet garbage. Without wet garbage, I could use a paper bag, I think, although I'll have to confirm that's allowed by the city. If not, I know there are compostable plastic bags out there. Maybe I could get myself some of those. Although the issue of grain-based plastic is another whole question for ethical debate...

5. Bank/credit cards

I don't know if it's possible to have a bank account without a bank card these days. If it is, I think in theory you could use cash for most of your transactions, and be face to face with a bank teller to get that cash. I won't be giving up my cards, however. I like earning air miles too much!

Any other thoughts on this list?

bread, cheese and yogurt - to live without? or make your own?

I bought bread yesterday, for the first time since starting this project.

It's been a bit of a puzzle. Bread generally comes in plastic bags and even when it doesn't, paper bag-wrapped French bread, say, how am I to keep it fresh without storing it in a plastic bag?

I keep reminding myself that there was a time before plastic, and many of these activities were undertaken in that time. So what did people do about bread? I'm thinking they mostly ate the bread before it went stale, and my roommate pointed out that they probably also ate stale bread. That is, after all, how French toast began, is it not? Ok, so I decided to get bread at some point and see how I did with it. But I'd been having a tough time finding some. I hadn't looked very hard, mind you, but there wasn't anything good in the Safeway, and all of the bread at the bakery down the road was in plastic bags, not paper. I'm sure I could have gone to that bakery with a paper bag, but I wasn't that inspired by the bread, and just generally not that keen. I've also been thinking about baking bread, or biscuits, or buns. I was out yesterday hunting for the ingredients to make 'nutty oat cakes' from my Nut Gourmet cookbook, actually, which brought me to the Greek food store looking at bulk nuts, where I saw bread in paper bags.

I hadn't even realized how much I had been wanting bread until I saw the little round loaf (I could easily finish that off in a day or two, I thought) in the paper bag. It wasn't even waxed paper, just regular plain paper. It was a really good loaf of bread too, multigrain, sour dough, my mouth was watering just looking at it.

So I bought it. It was the only thing I got at the store, although I did take note of the dried cranberries they sell in bulk there, and the cheaper price for bulk walnuts.

It was $4.50. For a small loaf of bread. Unbelievable.

Damn tasty bread, though. And the avocado-cheese sandwhiches I made with it were amazing.

Oh, that's the other thing. I broke down and bought cheese. I couldn't help it, I love it too much! And I'd gone without for pretty much two weeks. I saw it in the cooler and it was calling to me...

I haven't given up my yogurt habit yet, either, but I'm still on the lookout for a suitable incubator, and once I find one I really will start making my own!

wired science on plastic in the ocean

This is a really cool little video.

Methods to avoid using plastic: Part One

Ok, this is going to be an ongoing project consisting of listing ways in which to avoid plastic, if that was something a person wanted to, which I obviously do. I might create another ongoing project in which I figure out whether I think the entire world should avoid plastic or not, or at least give some legitimate reasons to avoid the stuff (other than a movie, a book and a beach), but that's a project for another day. Today, the easy stuff.

Methods to avoid using plastic: Part One

1. Bring a reusable (preferably cloth) bag to the grocery store

This is so easy, I'm sure lots of you already do it, or at least try to. I see lots of people, especially in Vancouver, using their own bags. What I don't understand is why the grocery stores haven't jumped on this bandwagon yet. When I lived in France three years ago you had to pay something like 5 cents a bag if you didn't bring your own and let me tell you, EVERYBODY brought their own bags.

2. Bring a reusable bag to fill with bulk goods, fruits and vegetables

As you've probably noticed, nearly everything you buy in the grocery store also comes wrapped in plastic. Whether it's putting your fruits and vegetables in plastic bags, buying your rice or pasta in a plastic bag or (get this) the plastic lining on cans, the stuff is everywhere. One way to partially avoid this is to, once again, bring your own bag. Now I so far haven't quite managed this, so I am presently reusing plastic bags, but one day soon I am going to make some small cloth bags to bring to the store across the road, which sells grains, flours, granola, nuts, and much more, in bulk. You generally don't actually need to use a plastic bag for fruits and vegetables, at least not if you are buying a small amount like I usually am, but if you do I'm sure cloth bags could be fashioned to fulfill that purpose as well.

3. For the ladies: reusable pads and menstrual cups

This is one of those things that seems really complicated until you actually do it, but once you've done it you wonder what on earth stopped you from doing it for so long. I went with lunapads, because they're a Vancouver company and because they had a booth at the Folk Festival last year, which is where I first heard about them. But seriously, I read all the testimonials on the website about how much using lunapds or the divacup changed the way women thought about their periods, about how much more comfortable they were, about how women looked forward to their periods now, and I thought they were all crazy. I wanted to switch so that I stopped throwing so much stuff out every month, particularly because so much of it was plastic, so I did. And then I discovered that all those 'crazy' testimonials were right! They are sooooo much more comfortable than a plastic pad and the divacup is like the most brilliant invention ever and it was really useful travelling!

Anyway, I can't recommend them enough. And switching may just be the single most profound thing that a woman can do to change her garbage impact on the earth. So do it. All of you. Seriously, do it. It's worth it.

Why give up plastic?

I’ve been putting this off because I haven’t known what I was going to write, but a friend suggested to me last week that I should write a post about why I wanted to avoid plastic and he’s absolutely right, this post needs to be written. So why do I want to avoid plastic? Well, that’s a very good question, one to which I'm not sure I have a very good, or at least a very logical, answer.

The simple answer, and perhaps the most accurate, is a movie, a book and a beach. The movie is the Canadian documentary Addicted to Plastic, which I watched at the Vancouver Film Festival last year, the book is 100-Mile Diet, which I read over the Christmas holidays, and the beach is the pristine white sands of Kuna Yala, Panama. And Sayulita, Mexico, for that matter. And Kitsilano, Vancouver if you really want to get down to it. But it was at Kuna Yala that I found it most striking. I was on a patch of sand in the Caribbean in early November, a deserted island you might say, nothing but white sand and coconut trees. And plastic. Lots and lots of plastic. It kind of made me want to cry.

Really, when I decided to make a New Year’s resolution about it, it wasn’t much more thought through than that. Just a vague sense of something being terribly wrong with the world and plastic having something to do with it, and the inspiration of trying to do something for a year, the way the authors of 100 Mile Diet tried to only eat food that came from within a hundred miles of their house. The difference being that their resolution was possible, whereas mine is definitely not. At least, not for me. Maybe it is possible for someone in theory, I don’t know.

I suppose it comes as much from ignorance as anything. I think I’m hoping that not using plastic will make me think more about plastic, maybe do some research about it, learn more about it, maybe I’ll discover that there’s no reason not to use it after all. But at the moment images of plastic gyres in the Pacific, tons and tons of oil used to produce plastic, the impression (everybody says it, therefore it must be true) that so much of it can’t be recycled, that it doesn’t really break down, and that when it does break down it cause toxic chemicals to be released, well, all of these things make me wish that maybe we could all stop using it.

Another friend pointed out that I would be foolish to get rid of the plastic drawers I am presently using. After all, sometimes plastic really is the most durable, flexible material, and, she sensibly suggested, if I threw out the plastic and replaced it with wood, wouldn’t I only be contributing to the problem? Of course she’s absolutely right about throwing out the plastic drawers, but one of the things that I hope to achieve from this process is to challenge the second idea – that sometimes plastic really is the best material. While I'm sure there are occasions when plastic might be best suited to a particular task, I’m not at all convinced that it needs to be as ubiquitous in daily life as it presently is. I feel there must be other material options, and maybe even better ones, not just better because they're not plastic, but better because they're actually better. Part of the point of this is to open my eyes to those other options. I’m hoping to cure myself (and maybe other people reading this) of the automatic tendency to choose plastic, either because it’s easier, or maybe just because it’s cheaper.

I think that's basically it. The vague, not-particularly-thought-through idea.

As for the research, I've been learning about Persistent Organic Pollutants today. I'll try to summarize what I learned in a posting sometime soon. That is, after all, the real point of this venture. To force myself to write, which forces me to read, and learn, and maybe share what I've learned. I have five followers now, too! Can't leave you all hanging! :-)

And thank you all so very much for replying and posting!

tea in a tin

I was hit with an unexpected challenge today, and it's all to do with tea.

I've been moving towards loose tea for some time, in part because I like it better and in part, as always to reduce the packaging used by the process. I had been getting them in bags,but I looked at the bags not long ago and realized they were covered in plastic. The bags themselves weren't plastic, but the outside was a pretty crinkly sort of thing. It seemed to me at the time that the best solution was to start getting tins filled instead.

Well, I just arrived back in Vancouver last night, so when I went out for my first grocery shopping trip today (not a big one, just a few breakfast essentials) I went down to Bayswater tea intending to get myself some good green tea in a tin. I picked out the tin I liked ($4.95 for a 100g-sized tin! I'm not sure I'm going to be able to afford to keep up the plastic-avoidance!) and handed it over to be filled with a jasmine-green blend. As she handed it back I looked more closely at the colorful design on teh outside. It looked awfully glossy to me, and felt very smooth. I think it might be coated in plastic. I don't know this for sure, and my homework for the day is now to figure out out designs get put on tins, but it sure looks plastic-y.

Sigh.

travelling success

I had some big successes yesterday!

It was my brother who pointed out the particular challenges that plane travel might present. I hadn't really thought too deeply about it - it was only an hour and a half flight, I wasn't much worried about getting bored, about trying to sleep, or about getting hungry. But it's true I do like to get a glass of apple juice on the plane. And sometimes tea.

"What are you going to drink out of when they come around with refreshments?" he asked.

Darnit. I hadn't thought. But that's ok, I figured, I'll get them to put a drink in my water bottle for me.

In all, it was really no problem! The first success was in the airport, when the plane was delayed and I decided to buy supper. Armed with the failure of the plastic-wrapped sandwiches I was keen to find myself a meal that was plastic-free. I surveyed the sandwich options, considered subway, but opted against the over-the-top wrapping that involves, and settled on chinese. It was served on a paper plate, and out of metal containers. Yay! Things were looking up until my plate was half-full and I suddenly realized, crap! I'm going to have to use a plastic fork! But no, this was chinese food, and they had chopsticks! Fantastic.

Next, would I like a drink with that? I was a little thirsty, but I squinted at the options in the cooler and they all came in plastic bottles. "Nothing to drink, thank you," I said to the girl behind the counter, a little sadly. Lucky for me, she understood what I wasn't saying.

"Would you just like some tap water?" she asked. Oh yes! I remembered, I had a water bottle!

"Could you put it in here for me?" I asked with a gleeful smile. She smiled in understanding, a kindred spirit to be sure, and filled it to the top. The girl totally made my day. I practically skipped (I'm sure if I hadn't been carrying a tray full of food I would have) over to a seat next to the window and ate my meal feeling very pleased with myself indeed.

So then I get on the plane and I've realized that I can't get my apple juice in my water bottle because, duh, it's full of water. But that's ok, I can live without apple juice. I've got a powerful hankering for tea, though, darnit. Then I remember that I've got a tea cup in my backpack. Not a travel mug, designed for this kind of thing, but an actual teacup. I had decided at the last minute to bring it with me, and I didn't want to repack everything in my suitcase in order to get it in there safely, so I had just tucked it in my backpack.

"What kind of tea do you have?" I ask the flight attendent.

"Regular black tea, and peppermint."

"Peppermint please, and can I ask a really strange question and get you to put it in here, please?"

"Oh yes," she says, "I totally understand. I HATE drinking tea out of a styrafoam cup."

Yay! How lovely! Yummy peppermint tea in my blue porcelain cup. Water in my stainless steel water bottle. I managed the whole trip without plastic!

Well, that's not true. Westjet likes to put big backpacks in plastic bags. But I figured I'd be better not to request that mine not get put in a bag since it wouldn't be only my bag that would be affected if straps got caught in things. I would like to point out, however, that that bag has been on many a luggage belt and it hasn't been caught yet. Maybe I've just been lucky. Or maybe we dont' really need to use the plastic bag after all.

The details of the resolution

So the idea is this: I am going to attempt to remove plastic from my life. I recognize that ultimately this is going to be impossible; the laptop that I am typing these words on is plastic, cds are plastic, my favourite hiking shirt is a delightfully efficient polyester blend. Nevertheless I am hopeful that there may be much to learn from the process of the attempt. This means no more plastic bags, eventually replacing my plastic drawers I store things in, getting milk in glass bottles, adn generally making consumer choices that mean not buying anything wrapped in plastic. We'll see how it goes - as indicated in my previous post I have already failed miserably today - but I think it's just a matter of making a commitment and then making different choices. So I'm going to try. Any input, ideas or encouragement would be much appreciated.

New Year's Resolutions and how easily they are broken

Well it’s been one day and I’ve already broken my New Year’s resolution.

Remove plastic from life, I said. Starting with the easy stuff: packaging. Then I went for lunch with my friend today and the sandwiches at the coffee shop were pre-made and wrapped in plastic. What can I say, I was hungry. I wasn’t going to NOT eat. Of course, we could have walked down the street to the other coffee shop where they make your sandwiches fresh to order, but I liked this coffee shop. It was quiet and we had a nice table by the window. The other place is always so busy you’re lucky to get a table at all, and it usually takes a good half hour, often more, to get your food. So I bought a sandwich. And a tea. And the tea bag came wrapped in plastic. Now, this is where I really failed. I had my choice between the Numi morrocan mint tea and the Mighty Leaf mint blend. Each were individually wrapped, but the Numi was wrapped in plastic and the Mighty Leaf was wrapped in the usual foil-like tea wrap. I didn’t even really think about it, I just wanted the Mighty Leaf flavour, so I grabbed it.

This may turn out to be harder than I thought.