PlasticLess.com

If can buy eggs either straight from the farmer or in bulk from a wholesaler, a basket or two can come in handy. Our local retailers package eggs in plastic cartons, so we were very interested in finding an alternative. Or first strategy was to reuse the plastic cartons when we bought eggs in bulk from a vegetable truck. The skimpy plastic containers were not designed for reuse.

This basket that is locally made holds a dozen eggs. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer people who know how to make these as time goes by.

I visited Ireland this past weekend and when I stopped for a Fair Trade Organic Coffee at a shop in Dalkey, I had a small disappointment and also some inspiration. I was sitting down in the store to have my coffee and I would have preferred to drink from a reusable cup rather than a disposable one with a plastic lid. I saw a poster at the till touting their refill program for things like toilet cleaner and shampoo. While we enjoyed our coffee, we discussed the possibility of starting a program like this ourselves. There are a lot of benefits to this type of program besides waste reduction. If you source the most environmentally responsible products possible for each purpose, you may be reducing the amount of toxic chemicals that are going down you local drains.

Something that I found been produced and consumed quite profusely in Ireland were spoken words. Opinions, narratives, arguments, philosophies and more were almost overwhelming me while I was in Dublin. When I was researching this post, I landed on this wordy page about the UberGrocer. Words are not biodegradable.

First off, I want to welcome a new blog to my blogroll… Plastic Bag Watch is a very focussed blog dealing primarily with banning campaigns throughout the UK. Here is a neat map that he used to show many of these campaigns:

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The most interesting post on this blog for me was a commentary on EU laws standing in the way of outright bans of plastic bags. I myself am quite perturbed that the EU is forcing Malta to stop requiring local beverage companies to use returnable glass. This will be a step backwards as far as I am concerned as the businesses will undoubtedly go for the cheaper plastic. This will only add to the already prevalent problem of litter.

I wasn’t over indulged as a child when it came to action figures. I remember vividly the times when I got to visit my spoiled suburban cousin who had piles of action figures.

I admit that I was impressed with some of the stuff. I also remember the fact that he was completely and utterly bored with all of it. The people who sell this stuff easily convince kids that the plastic objects are necessary parts of imaginative play. By the time most parents are finished raising kids, they have a pile of anecdotal evidence to refute this fallacy.

Kids can have imaginative play using anything, or even nothing. My kids had a game where they created a pretend religion whose deity was an emerging tulip plant. They got me to make some miniature segments of picket fencing to place around the sacred one.

If you were in traffic recently and you thought you saw a redneck truck with a set of plastic testicles bolted to the rear bumper and then quickly decided that you had to be mistaken, I have news for you. You did see a redneck truck with a set of plastic testicles bolted to the rear bumper.

I have a very simple alternative to putting plastic testicles one your vee-hickle… DON’T.

I am going to have a recurring series of posts highlighting the most pointless plastic products that people buy. Plastic license plate frames are quite pointless. I can understand why they are produced as promotional items to give away to car owners. We tend to look at the license plate of other people’s cars when we are behind them in traffic and if we see a car dealer name dozens of times on our commute we will involuntarily develop some brand recognition. What I really don’t understand is the people who waste there money on novelty license plate frames. Your license plate doesn’t need a frame.