PlasticLess.com

I look for news about plastic reduction regularly. Today Fox is talking about how ConAgra, the makers of many different brands of TV dinners is making a change to recycled trays. This should result in 8 million fewer pounds of trash.

Convincing consumers to stop buying these convenience meals would have a much bigger impact. Making meals from scratch is almost always cheaper and more nutritious than a TV dinner. There is this thing called a sandwich that can be created, stored and consumed without the use of plastic.

I just stumbled on a site called celsias that has a section called Actions that’s all about people making small but important changes in their lives. There is a social aspect to this, each change appears in a list that shows how many people are pledging to do it and how many people want to do it. Members and tasks have some kind of system of degrees that I don’t understand.

As of today, 39 celsias members are not using plastic bags. That’s a good start

There is a bowl of plastic grapes on top of the deli counter at my local shop. Why?

Plastic replicas of food are on my top ten list of pointless uses of plastic. I haven’t gotten around to actually writing a list, sorry.

Just a quick note to say that I am blocking spam with Akismet now. The spammers were noticing me more to the tune of 100 spam a day. My apologies to any nonspammers who get caught in the web. This shouldn’t happen as long as you don’t put too many links in your comment.

Cork is mostly produced in Portugal and it is a sustainable industry. Wine producers turned to synthetic corks for economic reasons, but consumers (the snobby ones) don’t like them. Natural cork has regained 60% of the market.

There are some viral videos starring bad actor Rob Schneider that promote real corks as the best choice for social justice and for the environment. Trees that are being used for harvesting cork absorb more CO2 than comparable trees that are left alone. Biodiversity in cork forests is exceptional. If demand for cork diminishes, you could assume that some forests would be developed in less friendly ways.

My local table wine is stopped with cork, but it has plastic capsule. Capsules are sometimes made of tin or aluminum. They used to be made of lead and some decades old bottles may still have a lead capsule.

Metal screw caps contain some non-recyclable plastic.

If you can find a wine that suits your taste and budget that has a real cork and no plastic capsule, cheers. I could choose to buy wine from the fruit truck. It comes in reused bottles. I have been served the local home-made wine on occasion and the alcohol content is a bit over the top.

This is just one of MANY YouTube videos about the Great Pacific Gyre. Some of the best ones have quite a few views. When you look at the number of views that dedicated YouTube celebrities get though, the issue doesn’t seem so popular. Maybe we should be asking people like Brooke Brodack, Caitlin Hill, Charlie McDonnell, Chris Crocker, Christine Gambito, Cory Williams, Jackson Davis, James Kotecki, Jay Maynard, Jeong-Hyun Lim, Jessica Rose, Kevin Nalty, Lasse Gjertsen, Liam Kyle Sullivan, Lisa Donovan, Lucas Cruikshank, MadV, Magibon, Marié Digby, Marina Orlova, Matt Sloan, Melody Oliveria, Mia Rose, Michael Buckley, Neil Cicierega, Noah Kalina, Pat Condell, Paul Robinett, Peter Oakley, Philip Defranco, Stevie Ryan, Taryn Southern, Tay Zonday, Terra Naomi, Tony Huynh, VenetianPrincess, and William Sledd to talk about the big plastic patch. I should mention that I have no idea who some of these people are, I got them from a list. Hopefully some of them have alerts in place for when people blog about them.

I am speaking, of course, of unsliced bread.

I can get a loaf from the corner shop without any packaging. It might not be quite that easy everywhere, but small bakeries can be found in most cities in North America. If you grew up on sliced bread, you might have to practice a bit before you master the use of a bread knife. You may also need to get your knife sharpened.

One local bakery does not add preservatives. This takes some getting used to as well. The trick is to avoid over purchasing. French toast is a great way to make use of day old (or two days old) bread. Look for syrup in a metal container, make your own syrup, or just use fresh fruit instead.

Yes, it’s that time of year. Many of the items that the public school system and/or your kids demand that you purchase are typically made of plastic. I have a few suggested alternatives for your shopping list…

Metal rulers are better than plastic in just about every way.

You can find a metal lunchbox to suit just about any child’s taste from Hello Kitty to (wretch) Slipknot.

A Chinese lunchbox seems more practical than the painted kind that we had in our childhood. I remember the beating that my lunchboxes used to take and they were often in a state of disrepair after a month or two. I wish I had documentary proof of the fate of some of my stuff because it would make collectors cry. I’m not a big fan of collectors.

A shoulder bag made of canvas should outlast the cheap nylon items that are more common. A good quality metal pencil case is also a great idea, not only to replace the plastic case, but because there could be less breakage of pens and pencils.

…that would be NOTHING like the ones I used to know. The gifts were often plastic. There was lots of plastic packaging and even many of the decorations were plastic. Bah, Humbug.

If you are about to start your shopping, stop to consider the idea of going the non-gift route. It’s not sacrilegious, as far as I know. If that idea won’t fly, I recommend Lee Valley Tools as a place to buy non-plastic gifts. While you’re there pick up some wooden tree ornaments

Oh and instead of buying a plastic snowman, try making one out of SNOW.

My efforts to reduce plastic have been met with several stumbling blocks. One of them involves running out of credit on my pay as you go cellular phone. I can pay for a 14 digit number at many locations. This number is on a plastic card that comes wrapped in plastic. This is completely avoidable. I can get a number without any material waste at all from the service providers kiosk or I can use my credit card and get topped up over the internet.

One thing that I have done to reduce my plastic waste is to avoid the temptation to get a new phone. I think the constant upgrading of cell phones is one of the most pointless and wasteful practices going on in our culture today. Mine isn’t as old as the one pictured. I didn’t even get one until 2005.