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.