Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com

transformers 2

I presently live in a country that does not have any McDonald’s outlets. I had to check online to find out the current theme for the 1/4 pound of plastic that kids get with their cholestafest.

Happy Meal Toys are bad. I’m not going to mince words the way they mince cow body parts. Giving kids a toy with their meal seems like a recipe for an eating disorder. Paying people in Asia a pittance to design and produce a toy that has some fleeting pop culture significance but that will last for a thousand years is absurd. Sometimes they don’t even do a very good job.

The worst thing about happy meal toys is that they teach small children that acquiring plastic crap is a good thing. It’s not a good thing and the young children that are getting these toys today are eventually going to have to deal with plastic waste along with a host of other negative environmental impacts of human activity. The dad who wrote the blog post in the above link said that his kid played with her toy for 30 seconds before she got tired of it. 30 seconds of entertainment? A single use plastic shopping bag could entertain a kid that long (BUT THEY ARE NOT TOYS)

I seem to remember these toys being optional and I certainly hope that McDonald’s employees ask before putting them in the box. Just say no to plastic toys at fast food restaurants.

 Retweet This Post

Mashable came out with a list of interesting green tweeters awhile back. I was surprised at how many of them were not on my list. Here is the list of 75 names divided into the group that I was already following when I found the list and those that I added afterward.

People I followed before – ecopolitologist ecosphericblog ecovegangal focusorganic follownathan gmcheeseman greenlagirl greenrobeen greenyourdecor hyperlocavore joannayarrow molfamily MomGoesGreen MyGreenSide OliviaZaleski sheagunther swimwithswain thegoodhuman People I follow now – algore nbrightgreen britesprite carbonOutreach no
EcoFan ecofashionista EcoGlamourista ecowarriorr ejgertz elaineishere ForestPolicy ghoberg GreenAdvantage greenergirl GreenSara greenskeptic jejacquot jenandcricket kgrandia kiwimeg KSuzJ mcmilker NikkiJade podcarnews revkin sroakes steveoffutt sweetorganics windpoweruk

I follow as many green people as possible, but I also try to use twitter to get the plastic reduction word out to the general public. Twitter has some functionality that really lends itself to cliquishness and I don’t want to just be in a virtual sewing circle of people who are already doing the simple stuff like using reusable shopping bags and drinking tap water.

 Retweet This Post

Some people probably won’t like my green wedding ideas. They mostly involve not doing things and not buying things.

My second wedding was a beach wedding with only our children, an officiant, a photographer and a photographer’s assistant present.

• No flowers.
• No wedding cake.
• No presents for the guests.

We weren’t trying to be green. Frugality and practicality were the dominant motivations. As it turned out, the day was romantic and meaningful and it didn’t rain.

 Retweet This Post

According to the people who make plastic pallets, they are better that wooden ones in almost every way.

Plastic pallet has many advantages compared with wooden one as follows: less weight, neat and good appearance, no nails or splinters, no odour,no poison, impervious to acids & alkalis, no sparkles, explosion proof, skidproof, high value in return use. Its original dimension, rigidity and impact strength will last for many years.

As is well known to us, it is dangerous to operate with wooden pallets. Plastic pallet guarantees security for a long period. It is suitable for food, aquatic products, health, chemicals, apparel, shoes, electronics & electrical, rubber, fertilizer, feedstuff, port, and so on. It has become a good assistance in storage and transition and ideal packing container for factory and enterprise.

I spent a good chunk of my working life around wooden pallets and I have to concede a few of the points made by the makers of plastic pallets. They don’t last forever and sometimes a person ahead of you in the supply chain decides to try to get one more use out of a pallet that should have been diverted to salvage from their place of business.

I still prefer wood because it comes from a renewable resource and it is biodegradable. Companies have the option of using FSC certified wooden pallets. Of course, I am not in a position to decide what kind of pallet is used to cart my consumer goods around the world.

The coffee roastery where I worked in 2004-2005 gave away worn out pallets to a local person who built boxes for apple harvesting. While I was working there we made some major changes to our supply logistics and started receiving green coffee in full containers with no pallets. I made a custom order at a local pallet maker for large, heavy hardwood pallets for our new warehouse.

I will be keeping my eye out for plastic pallets on the beaches in the future.

 Retweet This Post

 Retweet This Post

I discourage people from giving me gifts. You may or may not be surprised to read that this behavior is almost 100% effective. Father’s Day is one of the occasions where I know that I will not receive any tangible expressions of appreciation for all the French toast and strawberries that I feed my kids and all the dangerous creatures that I remove from under the beds.

For those of you who are into gift giving (and receiving), a safety razor like the one sold by RetroRazor would make a great gift for Dad. Sharp things in general have a certain appeal as gifts.

Solar cooking is getting trendy enough that there are convenient case suitcase shaped ones for sale at various online boutiques. It looks like some are made at least partly from plastic. Taking a design from SolarCooking.org to a local sheet metal fabricator for construction is a better idea. The language barrier is holding me back from doing that for myself. If my cardboard and tinfoil version doesn’t hold up, I think my second cooker will be sourced in this way. My waste baskets appear to be locally made from metal scraps from a local cannery.

A home cooked meal made from local food is another great gift for Dad. The thing that bothers me about gifts in general is that they are far too often things that the recipient doesn’t really want or need. Good food is an infinitely better gift than an ugly tie.

If you have a father like me who is adamant about not wanting anything, give that a try. If he wasn’t serious, there is always next year.

 Retweet This Post

Here is a screencap of a new Twitter account supposedly held by Phil Rozenski, director of environmental strategies at the plastic bag maker Hilex Poly Co.:

I was a bit confused by the ‘retweet’ I got so I went to check out the tweeter. A retweet is usually someone repeating what you said to share it with a wider audience. Phil had zero followers and I never wrote the sentence that he put after RT @plasticless.

If he had cared to read my blog he would have seen that I spent a whole weekend writing a series of posts that closely examined the arguments made by the plastic bag industry.

The accusation that I was being a drama queen was interesting. My quip that there was a 50% chance of finding a plastic bag in my front yard apparently touched a nerve. Again, if he was acquainted with the level of commerce and the wind direction and velocity on my street, he might not think I was being dramatic.

Welcome to Twitter, sir.

 Retweet This Post

When the perfect box for my long imagined solar cooker project showed up on the curb across the street, I was happier than any normal 40 year old should be. After choosing a plan from SolarCooking.org and doing all the calculating and cutting and measuring, I realized that 40 year old men are not supplied with big plastic squeeze bottles of glue the way that 11 year old kids are. At least one plan mentioned wheat glue. Many of these plans are devised and written with the developing world in mind. I was surprised at how easy it was to cook up a batch of glue. The method that I used called for boiling the flour and water mixture for two minutes before removing from heat and mixing in sugar. There is a plan for a bigger batch of glue on ecochildsplay that does not involve boiling and has the addition of a little vinegar. It is a recipe that your kids could do with some assistance.

I used the entire batch of glue on my solar cooker, spreading it with a used toothbrush. I always keep old toothbrushes for those inevitable dirty jobs. I used to clean bicycle chains with them.

Wheat paste can be stored in a container for repeated use. I would advise against leaving it in the pot as that would make for some difficult scrubbing afterward.

If you try wheat glue and it turns out to be unsuitable for your desired application, you can also make glue using milk. Elmer’s Glue uses milk protein and you can replicate their product fairly easily.

Avoiding the consumption of plastic containers is only one reason to make your own glue. It can also save money. Making glue is a good kitchen ‘experiment’ for kids, with the advantage that you don’t have to eat it, although technically you could.

 Retweet This Post