Wednesday, June 2, 2010

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!

2 comments:

  1. Way to go!!! Every little step counts and you should feel great about that!

    Do you know about Terracycle? They are in Canada now: http://www.terracycle.net

    You can sign up and mail them your used yogurt containers and they also have a Colgate brigade that takes dental things like used toothbrushes and toothpaste tubes. The yogurt containers are usually reused as flower pots or some other upcycled item.

    It's not as good as eliminating the plastic, but I think it's the next best option when you are finished reusing the items on your own.

    Best wishes to you! :) Kate

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  2. Thanks Kate E.!

    I remember hearing about Terracycle in the Addicted to Plastic film, and maybe somewhere else as well. But I've never really looked that closely into what they do, so thanks for the tip! It would nice, when I DO end up using plastic to upcycle instead of down, as you say!

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