These two blue bags are both quite thin and flimsy. They also both contain a small amount of collected rainwater which may be of benefit to the local mosquito population. Plastic containers in the environment have been noted for containing the standing water required to support the growth and maturation of mosquito larvae.
The White Supermarket Shopping Bag has a very wide range and can be seen year round nesting in fruit trees, evergreens, even tall grasses…
Suprisingly, these feral bags do not breed in the wild. They have a lifespan of several hundred years.
Walmart is a phenomenal success story and it has a huge impact on the retail landscape wherever it spreads. The largest retail corporation in the world has a lot of detractors from various segments of society, some of which overlap. But they sell reusable shopping bags to their customers for 50 cents, so they’re not all bad, right?
If you are stridently anti-walmart and there is a store nearby, why not stop in and pick up one of these bags? When you get home you, or a crafty friend, can add some extra taglines to the logo. It’ll really make a statement at the next local farmer’s market 
A toy doesn’t have to be very complex to be good(Not to impugn the excellent design and craftsmanship pictured above). Basically it needs to have a shape and it needs to stay in one piece. Everything else is just detail. Toy commercials on television would have us believe that children have very little imagination and require a ready made set of characters and actions in order to have imaginative play. Every parent knows that that is bull, but most parents still buy the crap. Get some kid a handmade wooden toy this year and fight the power.
Photo credit: Bitninja
I use a safety razor as a plastic-less alternative to disposable razors. When I first made the switch, a few people in America left comments about how they could not find razors packaged without plastic. Hopefully that has changed now that retro-shaving is cool. Here in Tunisia, I have at least three brands to choose from. Gillette blades can be found in cardboard packs of 10, hanging on cardboard display panels right at the checkout.
People who follow me on Twitter may recall that I was sold a single Gillette razor blade last week by a shopkeeper who was down to his last pack. I had a bad experience with cheap razor blades earlier this year, but I decided to give it another shot with these Shark brand blades.
This is going to be a very short review. These Egyptian made blades do a perfectly adequate job. I would buy them again.
These plastic crates are used as part of a local returnable bottle supply chain. Consumers in this city also can choose to buy plastic bottles that came with thick plastic wrapped around every six bottles. These come by truck to a local supermarket on a pallet and the whole stack of six-packs are held steady using a lot of plastic wrap. It’s not hard to figure out which option is less wasteful. I had a discussion on twitter recently about the carbon footprint of returnable glass. It really comes down to distance traveled. If packaging and distribution is localized, the returnable glass option looks pretty good. Despite the logic, returnable glass distribution networks continue to disappear in the developed world.
More people should be carrying water from their house to their place of work. I read recently that most people don’t drink as much water as they should. A stainless steel water container in your bag or briefcase would be a tactile reminder that you need to hydrate your body throughout the day. A pocketful of quarters could buy an overpriced plastic bottle of water from a cafeteria or vending machine, but many of us would be swayed by the sugary drinks and snacks that are often in the same vicinity.
I do not own a stainless steel water bottle. They are highly recommended by Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish fame. Back when I was working on my Dad’s farm in the summer, we always drank water from a reused plastic 2 liter soda bottle.
I carried on with that practice during most of my years at the sawmill. As luck would have it, some 21st century technology required the input of purified water, so the company installed a filtration system in one building. We were blessed with some water coolers and a hose from which to refill them.
When I managed to land my awesome job roasting coffee, it was for a company that had a cafe attached to the plant so of course they had to have a system for dispensing good water. I drank from a glass.
If I were commuting to a job every day now, I would most probably invest in a stainless steel water bottle and fill it from my Brita pitcher at home.
I am living in a unique economy here in Tunisia. One big difference that I see is the persistence of returnable glass in the supply chain of liquid consumer goods. In much of the western world, this is something from days gone by. The only niches where it has persisted is with beer and to a lesser extent wine.
Three doors down from where I live, a typical neighborhood shop sells cooking oil, vinegar, bleach and detergents in identical bottles that are delivered and picked up by the same truck. The soft drink suppliers bring both plastic and glass to the store, but they only pick up the glass.
My casual observation is that close to half of the non beverage trade of liquids is carried out using returnable glass.
Plastic and aluminum appears to have returnable glass beat in the beverage trade. I could be wrong about this. When I attended a wedding reception this summer, I was served a 200ml returnable glass bottle of soft drink. Most small stores have soft drinks available in both returnable and disposable containers. Local customers are often not charged the deposit with the understanding that they will bring the bottle back to the store in a timely fashion.
It’s actually a lot like North America 30 years ago. I would love to see someone do a careful study of the environmental costs of the two options in a small economy.
One way that I avoid plastic packaging is to feed myself and my family lots of whole, fresh fruit every day. Here is a slide show of what we had over the course of a week 
This is all relatively local and relatively in season. I hardly ever buy bananas. Besides the transport issue, all the banana boxes come wrapped thick plastic that I often see blowing around the streets.
I prefer to go to places where I can pick through the fruit myself. I had to learn this the hard way during strawberry season. I jumped at the chance to pay 1/2 the going price only to find that I had to throw about 1/2 of them away. When I living in Gozo, the strawberries were sold in plastic boxes. I was relieved when I found out that the fruit seller would take them back to reuse.
