Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com

I was going to create a post that was addressed to DEVO and asked that they stop wearing their silly plastic hats. Then I realized that they are irrelevant. At about the same instant, my horribly song-tagged head underwent a kind of metamorphosis whereby it was no longer tagged with the original song. It now contained the song as a Swiffer commercial.

Gadgety household cleaning tools sell well because people generally hate the job for which they are intended. Advertisers feed on needs and wants. We all need to use something to clean our floors (at least once in a while). We all want an easier way to clean our floors. My experience has been that gadgetry doesn’t cut it. I am suspicious that the convention of having a broom closet came into being so that we could hide all of these ineffectual impulse purchases from view. It goes without saying that there is a lot of plastic waste involved in this cleaning gadgetry. I really hate those plastic covered metal handles that seem like they are designed to rot to pieces within a year.

Big commercial machines like the ones that I have seen in use in airports and hospitals do a good fast job, but that would be overkill for our little home. These machines are not a very green choice either.

We have tile floors. This is the norm for much of Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The way we clean our floors is described on the English speaking internet as the French way. We push a wet rag around the floor with a broom. To be more accurate we buy what we call floor cloths. These are thick and absorbent and just the right size. One will hold up for about a months worth of cleaning on a smooth tile floor. If I had a new one, I would post a picture. The one we are using isn’t very photogenic.

Natural broom bristles on a broom like this one are made from fibers harvested from palm trees. That was news to me.

Everybody knows what corn brooms are made from… that’s right… Sorghum. If you are shopping for a corn broom, consider getting one that is produced on your own continent to reduce the carbon footprint. Mexico is a producer, but China is flooding the market with cheap brooms.

Sidenote: If you are ever planning a costume that involves headgear, reuse helmets or safety hats rather than making something from scratch.

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I buy reusable bags from a guy who stands outside the entrance to the main vegetable market in the city. They come in either black or brown. I get some of each and relegate the brown ones for the produce that comes with soil on them. Oh, and they cost less than 50 cents each.

I have blogged about a few reusable bag retailers in the past. There are lots of bags out there that have interesting design, cool source materials and/or an entertaining logo. These are unnecessary attributes but I appreciate them anyway. All the entrepreneurs and organizations that are working to gain attention for their own bags are also bringing attention to the good idea of using reusable bags instead of disposable plastic.

If you sell or give away cloth shopping bags please leave a comment on this post and I will do what I can with this blog to promote your product in future posts and through social media. If you are looking to buy some shopping bags, try to pick a local retailer to minimize the carbon footprint of your purchase. Products that are produced locally are even better.

Funky:

Snobby:

Plain:

Jute:

Make your own bag.

Bags made from Recycled Plastic:

Fat Bottom Bags:

Rip-Stop Nylon:

Super Cute Shopping Bags:

Simple, Smart Design:

Water Repellent Polypropylene Bags:

Black Recycled Cotton Shopping Bag:

Snarky Anti-Plastic Bag:

Artsy Design:

This list will grow as I discover more sources of reusable bags. I have not personally used any of the above products, so I can’t personally vouch for their quality or customer service. Several of the retailers were recommended to me by people that I follow on Twitter.

The Good Human recommended Flea Markets as a good source for reusable bags. I recently bought a used equipment bag at a market table to with our snorkel stuff.

Update: Just found out via email that Calypso Studios is giving away a bunch of their bags to celebrate Earth Day.

Calypso Studios launched the S.H.O.P. Totes ™ January 1, 2009. The company collaborated with American artists, such as Lori Siebert, Emma Hand, Robin Roderick, Tina Higgins, and Andrea Tachiera to provide beautiful art on the totes. The totes are a fashionable way to Start Helping Our Planet by using reusable bags. The spacious bags are 17” x 19” when opened and easily roll up into a 2” x 3” size. Three bags are conveniently stored in an 8” x 6” wristlet carrying case. Calypso Studios S.H.O.P. Totes were also chosen as one of the celebrity giveaway swag bags at the Academy Awards in February. Celebrate Earth Day carrying the bag the celebrities use!

UPDATE:

A promotional firm called TBWA Vancouver decided to bait the sensitive ecopeeps with some ironic bag designs. Click the image to see more designs and find out how you can get one of your very own.

UPDATE:

These shopping totes are sold by Wrapsacks.com. As far as cloth shopping bags go, these might hold the record for the biggest selection of colors and patterns. The company specialized in reusable gift sacks and they chose 22 of their patterns to use with these shopping totes.

The shoulder straps and foldaway design are nice touches. If you already have enough bags of your own, you could get a tote and a gift bag from Wrapsacks to use as a gift to someone that is presently still toting plastic grocery bags.

UPDATE:

Corporate Sloganny Bags -

If you are short on reusable bags AND cash some of your best options may be the bags on offer at various retail outlets. The catch with these bags is that they boldly advertise the store. Some stores sweeten the deal by donating proceeds from bag sales to a charity. The Body Shop does this in most markets. I was browsing there today (okay I was scoring some Try Me hand lotion) and I noticed that they were supporting a local reforestation project with their bag sales.

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The front entrance area of my residence has transformed into some kind of gyre. The wind brings plastic bags and assorted other trash in from the street and it never leaves. On the bright side, there is usually an intact plastic bag there for me to but all the ragged ones into. I have been tidying once or twice a day but I am now considering taking a break to allow an impressive amount of plastic garbage to gather so I can make a video clip of it swirling around.

Wind is the inevitable vector that takes discarded plastic bags away from civilization and out into the environment, including waterways and oceans. Plastic bags often escape garbage cans, dumpsters and landfills in this way.

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I don’t usually go out for snack food late at night. Last night we were wide awake at our usual bedtime because of the loud music next door. I went for a walk up the street and came back with this…

The packaging is a page from a magazine.

It was a little odd to open it and find the word poison next to my warm almonds. It could have been worse, the page was from November 2004 and the opposite side had a photograph of George Bush and Karl Rove walking across the Whitehouse lawn. The paper is clean enough to save for reuse. I kind of wish that I had a birdcage.

The UK tradition of wrapping fish&chips in newspaper has fallen out of favor in many areas. I can understand the concerns that people might have about contamination of their unhealthy food with chemicals from the ink and the paper. I would still pick newspaper over the polystyrene containers that are replacing it.

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This is the closing paragraph on the front page of a Canadian plastic industry website:

The Canadian plastics industry has had a decades-long commitment to product stewardship and environmental responsibility to ensure the wise use and recycling of plastic shopping bags.

In case you are confused, the word ensure means to make sure, certain or safe. So essentially the Canadian plastic industry claims a 100% recycling rate.

To their credit, recycling rates are very high in some parts of Canada. Prince Edward Island is an absolute anomaly in North America with a recycling rate of 57% for plastic bags.

The main population centers of Canada are more in line with the rest of the continent with recycling rates in the single digits. (pdf)

The pdf link is to a report from a plastic bag reduction task group that strangely enough includes the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. Reduction is the wisest thing that we can do with regard to plastic consumption. I don’t think the plastic industry people are going to ensure that.

Title Credit: Adapted from title by Dream Warriors

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Most of the pens that are affordable and conveniently available these days are plastic. The information age has probably reduced the per capita demand for pens. In 1998 there were 8,471 American workers making pens and in 2006 there were 4,820 (source). It’s possible that the demand didn’t shrink that much and that jobs went overseas. 98% of bloggers use statistical figures in a misleading and self serving manner.

I personally use pens a lot less than I used to. The main thing that I use them for is grocery lists. The obvious plastic free option is to use a pencil instead. The structural component of a pencil can be made out of just about anything, including recycled denim and recycled US dollar bills. Recycled wood fiber is less hip than those options but it is still pretty serviceable and the pencils are affordable enough to stock up on.

A comment left on TreeHugger’s plug for the denim pencils pointed out that mechanical pencils are a less resource intensive option. That makes sense to me. Here’s a revolutionary idea that I haven’t seen before, it’s a pen and a pencil all in one. The ink and graphite are refillable. Refillable pens are a better choice than disposable when it comes to plastic consumption.

The invention of the pen pre-dates plastic by a long shot, so there is always the option of going back to old school technology. There is a fair amount of interest in antique pens. The people who are involved in that hobby are just as interesting as the people that are straight razor enthusiasts, but they may not be quite as adventurous.

I try to conserve paper by writing my lists on the white space on junk mail or used envelopes. I could put a list on my phone an avoid using any ink, graphite or paper, but that isn’t something that I can see myself doing. I am a very slow texter. I might try it out, since I have this bad habit of forgetting to take lists with me when I go out. Here’s a photo simulation of me going out with a shopping list recorded on my cell.

Update: I am regularly reminded of the issue of plastic writing instruments because I have a metal can full of them on my desk. I recently read about a good alternative to highlighters. Scott Wells at Low Plastic uses a red pencil to underline or circle items. That’s a good idea.

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Photo Credit: idiolector

The BIC® lighter was an ever present item throughout my childhood. I had one parent that was a smoker up until recently. These lighters should be the poster children for disposability. One source threw out the number 1.5 billion per year.

I have four separate uses for matches or lighters in my present home. I need them to light the cooker (that’s what gas ranges are called over here). I occasionally need them to light candles. I sometimes need them to light the water heater (it has a built in static ignition, but it is unreliable). The ignition for the space heater is unreliable and very loud, so I often use a match for that as well.

My bias against plastic led me to make a quick choice in favor of matches. The shop next door sometimes runs out of matches and he generally points out that he has disposable lighters. I say thanks but no thanks and head off to the next closest store.

My recent informal surveys of beach trash reminded me of the issue of disposable lighters. When I started looking for source material on the topic I found that environmentalists say that cardboard matches are a better choice than wooden ones. I have mostly been using wooden matches.

I save a few used matchsticks and I can reuse them once or twice when there is a lit burner on the stove.

It just dawned on me today that there is an even better choice for lighting the stove. I am thinking about getting a torch striker. The gas stove doesn’t need to be lit with a flame. A spark will do just fine.

Update: I asked for opinions on Twitter and I got back some responses suggesting metal refillable lighters as a green option. This seems to make sense. The fuel typically comes in metal containers. I am not sure how much packaging is involved in the flints and the wicks that need to be replaces periodically.

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A couple of weeks ago, I was searching for scientific evidence of toxins leaching from the common plastic water bottle. I had trouble finding anything conclusive. Now it seems that I was simply looking too soon.

Researchers at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt are the first to find consistent contamination of bottled water with a hormonally active substance leaching from PET.

It’s not a big study and I expect that it will be countered with research funded by the plastics industry. Their research will use different methodology and the results will be interpreted differently.

My main reasons for not buying bottled water are related to the impact of the bottles on the environment rather than on the water inside them. I would drink water from a plastic water bottle if that was all that was available to me and I was thirsty.

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The Evolution of Leprechaun

If you were to ask anyone to come up with a few things that they associate with St. Patrick’s Day, silly plastic hats might be the second thing mentioned after alcohol. Many of these cheap plastic hats end up strewn around the vicinity of the bars and parade routes where people celebrate this special day, along with a few beer glasses (not beer goggles, people take those home with them). Please consider buying a non-plastic green hat that will last for years and can even be worn on non-Irish days. This one is very green and slightly amusing.

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Photo Credit: Amanky

I am a bit lazy today. I am not going to search all over the internet looking for statistics related to the use of bandaids. I have first hand anecdotal evidence that the majority of adhesive bandages are applied unnecessarily. The symbolic act makes the injured and the caregiver feel better. My kids are past the age where they need to have ceremonial attention for every boo-boo. There is a page on the Bandaid corporate website that encourages parents to supply kids with bandaids to put on their stuffed animals. If you are a new or prospective parent, try to develop some kind of triage routine that does not involve the pointless application of plastic bandaids.

Actually, one of the best ways to accomplish this is for parents to be properly trained in first aid and to have a carefully thought out and well stocked first aid kit. If you rush to your kid’s aid with a box with a big red cross on it, they feel like you are taking care of them. If you can confidently tell them that the proper treatment involves something less drastic than a bandaid with their favorite cartoon character on it, they might accept your expert diagnosis. If they are in a situation that requires more than just a bandaid, you will be glad that you are prepared.

I was going to provide a link to a ready-made first aid kit, but they all seem to come in plastic cases these days. You might be able to find one in a metal case at your local pharmacy. The Red Cross has a great list of essentials if you want to build your own first aid kit. Don’t leave yourself under-supplied while you look for plastic free alternatives.

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