Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com

When I lived in Canada, I had the basic power tools required by the unwritten laws that men live by. There were already big box stores in my neck of the woods when I moved out on my own, so I was able to pick up some pretty affordable tools. They had plastic bodies and plastic handles. Some of them came with plastic carrying cases.

The affordability of the power tools marketed to the average homeowner is reflected in their quality. I can remember having my Makita drill break when I was foolishly trying to put screws through a piece of Larch without drilling any pilot holes. I kept the non-functioning drill for a few years because the company provides free labor on repairs once a year at its factory outlet. I never got around to taking it. I don’t know if I would have been able to find Makita in the giant industrial park anyway.

I love the idea of tool libraries for a number of reasons. I like anything that reduces the consumption of cheap consumer items that will not last and that will head to a landfill. I like the idea of homeowners having access to good tools.

If you have a handyman on your Christmas shopping list, think twice before you buy them a tool that is not built to last a lifetime. Also, check to see if there is a tool library or even a tool rental shop in your area. I just realized that gift certificates from an equipment rental business would make a great gift for DIY people.

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I am not an expert on this subject, please do yourself a favor and seek out people who are. I just wanted to point out that a great way to cut down on food packaging is to have the food sitting on the vine or under the ground just outside your backdoor.

I wrote about gardening with less plastic two summers ago. Not much has changed since then, apart from backyard gardening becoming super cool and important thanks to people like Michelle Obama.

I didn’t grow these tomatoes myself. The landlord that I had back in Gozo gave them to us and we dried them in the sun with lots of salt. They make great additions to salads or pizza.

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Coffee is arguably the most important commodity in the world. In terms of dollars and cents, it is #2 after oil. Coal is said to have fueled the industrial revolution, but coffee was there as well. Its effect on the central nervous systems of humans may have been a catalyst for most historical events that get tagged with the word revolution. A favorite anecdote for coffee historians concerns a decree by a British monarch that all coffee houses were to close their doors. The reasoning was that the thinkers of the day were talking about a revolution over coffee (and this was long before the crunchy granola waitresses had started incessantly playing Tracy Chapman CDs).

The wholesale abandonment of disposable coffee cups is a revolution whose time has come. The White House of George W. Bush switched from expanded polystyrene cups to biodegradable paper. Team Obama is looking for an even greener option.

An issue of concern to many is the cafeteria. So, let me give everyone a brief update. We took a small but significant step when we started selling new reusable coffee mugs in the cafeteria and the Foggy Bottom coffee shop. I am pleased that so many of you decided to support this endeavor. So much so that they sold out immediately, but now are again available for sale. (State Department Earth Day Remarks)

The simplest and most convenient way to personally eliminate disposable cups is to sit down at home or at a cafe and drink from a reusable cup. If you drink so much coffee that this seems like a hardship, you might want to consider cutting down. Three 8 ounce cups of coffee per day provides the recommended maximum of 400mg of caffeine. If your schedule simply doesn’t have room for a sit down cup, get a travel mug. Lots of cafes offer discounts to customers that fill up using their own mug.

I blogged about buying coffee in bulk to cut down on packaging waste back in 2007. That is the best way to buy coffee if you live in a place with local roasters. If you can find it, Fair Trade Organic coffee in bulk is the absolute ideal way to get your coffee fix.

I think I may have found the second best way to buy coffee today. One of the most famous Italian coffee roasters sells coffee in these nice metal canisters.

It looks to me like there is no BPA lining on these cans. That would make sense since there is little risk of food poisoning with roasted coffee. The canisters are durable and attractive and they can be used to store other dry goods after you have finished your coffee. A French press contains a lot less plastic than a typical drip coffee maker. It also makes better coffee.

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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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The statements above sent me off on a little research jag. There is a little bit of spin and misrepresentation going on. Here are the facts behind the facts:

• The EN13432 standard requires 90% biodegradation within 90 days under commercial composting conditions.
• There is no standard that applies to home composting.

That does not mean that plastics can’t be formulated in such a way as to compost in backyard composters and it does not mean that the ones that are currently being used do not biodegrade at all in less controlled conditions. The dog poop bags that I mentioned last month are made from a corn based plastic and break down in 10-45 days.

Commercial composting is an industry that should be growing. The agriculture industry is far too reliant on chemical fertilizers that require a huge energy input to produce. 2% of the world’s energy production is used to convert atmospheric nitrogen into fertilizer. We need to have a viable alternative in operation before we truly hit the wall with fossil fuel scarcity. If we weren’t frighteningly behind in this regard, we wouldn’t be worried about what to do with biodegradable plastic bags.

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First things first, I think that the vast majority of the 44% of Americans and 30% of Canadians that own dogs shouldn’t. That is simply too many dogs. Many of them are left alone all day and develop separation anxiety. Many of them are purchased for children who quickly lose interest in their companion. In my opinion, the best alternative to using a plastic bag to pick up dog poop is to never get a dog in the first place. If Barack Obama hadn’t made a promise to his kids, I would have been busily advocating for a pet free White House. I just recently had a talk with my kids explaining that we were definitely not getting a dog. When my kids were much younger, we did own a black lab-like mutt that came from the SPCA. Buddy lived a great life with us until his epilepsy became untenable and I made the decision to have him put down. When I lived out in the country, it never crossed my mind to pick up after him.

Not picking up after your dog at all is an alternative to using plastic bags. If you live out in the country this might be the logical choice. If you live in a community with strict laws and/or entrenched social norms related to dog poop it might be a bad choice.

If you have a dog already and have a legal, moral and/or social obligation to pick up dog feces, you can get biodegradable poop bags. They are made from corn and degrade completely in just a couple of weeks. I can think of one thing that would make this product better. The compostable plastic industry should come to some kind of consensus about labeling so that their product won’t be confused with regular plastic. I know some people who used to get really mad when dog walkers would toss a plastic bag of poop in their municipal compost bin. The workers would see the plastic and refuse to empty the bin. I think these black compostable bags would cause the same problem.

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Green used to mean money.

More recently, green has come to mean environmentally responsible.

Once enough consumers started shopping with the environment in mind, there is an ever increasing overlap. Companies are falling all over themselves appealing to concerned consumers.

The term Greenwashing is about 20 years old and these days it appears that the majority of marketing is guilty of this practice. Some of it is easy to recognize, like British Petroleum’s transformation to Beyond Petroleum.

Other misleading or irrelevant marketing may fool even the smart people. I am still undecided about the hosting company that professes to use solar and wind power. I am not naming it because of my indecision. I bought their marketing hook line and sinker and I even joined an affiliate program because I planned to talk it up on my blog. When I sat down to do the serious research on the company, I found a lot of negative word of mouth. They are either a very mediocre web hosting company that decided to greenwash as a way to attract a niche market OR a legitimately green web hosting company that is tragically lacking in customer service and reliability. Either way, I am not recommending them.

I think that one of the catch 22s of green marketing is the fact that many environmentally conscious individuals are skeptical of ALL marketing. If you create a product that sells itself by virtue of its greenness, you have it made. Otherwise, you have to market to people very carefully.

The FTC has some pretty clear policies when it comes Environmental Marketing Claims. Other agencies and organizations have some very strict rules and auditing procedures for companies that want to call their products organic.

Organic is practically a brand. It is instantly recognized as a good thing and it has a lot of brand loyalty. This is a good thing for people with something truly organic to sell. Unfortunately, there is a lot of counterfeit Organic on the market. That’s where third party auditing and certifying comes in. It is an added cost and inconvenience for business, but it is necessary.

Scot Case, president of Terra Choice Environmental Marketing Inc., recently told a journalist that buyers need to do their homework and check out a company’s environmental track record when it comes to green products.

Sources for this post:Palm Beach Post, FTC Website

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I know that this is a bundle of parsley. I am asking about the very strong piece of grass that is used to tie the parsley into a bundle.

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The plastic thing that is making the news today is a faulty leaf blower part that has been injuring people. The Toro Power Sweeper has a plastic impeller that has been falling apart and shooting out of the blowers. Ouch.

I have never owned a leaf blower. I don’t know if I completely understand the internal workings of a mind that decides that such a gadget is a necessity. I suspect that one piece of the puzzle is a reluctance to rake leaves. I can understand that.

How about a getting kid-size leaf rake for each of your kids? Show them some old long distance phone advertisements or Mormon messages (or whatever they were) showing kids joyfully raking leaves into a pile. There is a chance that one of your kids could spend his time using a virtual rake to pile up virtual leaves in order to earn some kind of virtual currency on an MORPG. That’s great, he will understand the concept.

If you are a master at getting kids to do manual labor, you can get 10 rakes what it would cost you to buy a defective leaf blower. Or you could buy one really good adult-size rake and have enough money left over for some beer.

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Plasticless was unexpectedly given an award. It’s the kind of award that is a cross between a pat on the back and a chain letter. Many thanks to Live Life Veg for this award

I decided to pass the love along to a bunch of garden bloggers. Several of these bloggers probably have blue thumbs wrapped around snow shovel handles rather than green thumbs wrapped around whatever it is that gardeners use their thumbs for. Can you tell that I am writing this late at night? When life hands you lemons…

• 1 2 3 Gardening
• Canadian Gardening
• Empress of Dirt
• Fairfield Gardener
• Garden Clubs of Central Il
• Garden Voices
• Gardening while Intoxicated
• Gardenweb
• Heavy Petal
• I can Garden
• Landscape Living
• Mother Earths Garden

The rules of this award for recipients:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude.

3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

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