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 reusing a statement made by Jason Sweeney as my title for this post. Those three words have sent my mind in a hundred different directions thinking about what impact the human pursuit of perfection has on this planet. Most of it isn’t good, some of it is involves plastic.

The concept was still rattling around in my head when I went to the kitchen this morning to make the kids some French toast with cooked fruit topping. The apples that I bought on Friday are not perfect. They look like the apples that I used to scrounge from abandoned homesteads in Canada. They taste delicious.

Consumers in the developed world supposedly want perfect apples. The customer is always right, and those customers get pesticides, genetic engineering and lots of protective packaging.

Photo credit: Brett L

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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

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The Columbus Washboard Company has an awesome website. It makes me happy. There is only one aspect of their business that makes me sad. They are the ONLY washboard manufacturing company left in the USA.

Clothes washing is a chore that is automated for the vast majority of people living in America and other developed countries. For many people, going green in the laundry room means buying big appliances that use less water and electricity than their old ones. They might also choose soaps or detergents that pollute less and come in sustainable packaging. Washing all your clothing by hand sounds like absolute madness.

When we moved to a developing country, we were a bit surprised to find that our options for furnished accommodation did not include washing machines. We were very surprised to find that it is in fact humanly possible to do all your laundry by hand. When we decided that we staying long term, we bought a twin tub washer spinner. It is, unfortunately, a very big hunk of plastic (I never claimed to be perfect). I am able to effectively reuse gray water from the laundry for toilet flushing and watering the garden (non-food).

I had my eyes peeled for a washboard during the weeks that we were hand washing. There was still a washboard in use when I was growing up. It was mostly for socks. My mom insisted on us washing our own stinky sports socks. Washboards are popular with the Amish and with soldiers. If you are planning to make some changes in your laundry procedure for the sake of the environment, give the old scrub board some consideration. Automatic washing machines don’t do anything magical, they just move your clothes around in some soapy water, remove the soapy water, rinse and repeat. Washboards are obviously labor intensive, but you could consider the chore to be part of your fitness regime. There’s probably a piece of equipment at the gym that simulates the main action required to wash socks on a washboard. I don’t know if it targets your abs.

Washboards work well with bar soap. Some people are moving to laundry soap in bar form to avoid excess packaging.

A lot of other household tools and gadgets disappeared for good when the avocado colored appliances landed on our planet back in the 70s. The washboard managed to hang on partly because it was in demand for alternate uses like musical percussion and decoration. It is also really useful.

Photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker

Update: The question of drying clothes came up in the comment section and I mentioned wringers. I realized later that many people aren’t backwoodsy and ancient like me so they might wonder what I am talking about. Here is a photo, I am pretty sure they aren’t due for a comeback.

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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.

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I said that I would do this if anybody double dog dared me. That was meant to be a lighthearted movie allusion to add some color to this otherwise quite boring green blog. Somebody dared me, in the comments, about ten minutes after I published.

I like the fact that the Overfly Brand Safety Razor comes in a cardboard box. I also like the fact that it is displayed by the dozen in a larger cardboard box. I don’t like the plastic on the handle. I considered reneging and using the plastic handle as an excuse. Then I remembered that the razor that I already own came in a plastic case. Chadd at retrorazor mentioned that his earlier importing efforts included razors in plastic cases. They have them in cloth bags now.

If the cheap Overfly Razor proved to offer an adequate shave, it would actually be a better choice than my original razor.

Here are links to photos of my test shave…

Sorry for going all old media on you with all the multiple page views. I figure I deserve some extra traffic since, as you see in the last photo, I bled quite a bit. It may have been the worst shave I have ever had. If you are tougher and/or more skillful than me it might be adequate. I have carefully dried this razor off and put it away. If I ever lose my good razor it can bridge the gap while I look for another good razor.

Update: Apparently the way I built the links late last night you could only see the pictures if you were logged in to the Plasticless admin, oops. It’s fixed now.

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Virtual alternatives are greener than the real deal in most cases. I am satisfied the the calculator that came with my computer operating system. I don’t need to go out and buy another handful of plastic and heavy metal to help me balance my checkbook (like I’m the one who actually does that, lol).

I don’t need to buy bubble wrap or a Rubik’s Cube to occupy my idle hands either. There are free virtual versions of those plastic things.

I’m the one who made the stickers all green. You can get a regular one at RyanHeise.com.

Note: The Rubik’s Cube is embeddable on your own blog or website, but it seems to have some buggy javascript, or else my server/Wordpress install just can’t work with it.

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I have been blogging about alternatives to plastic for almost two years and I have hardly ever mentioned hemp. It’s not because I haven’t looked into it as an alternative material. It’s partly because the body of information online is sullied with the unfocused ramblings of stoned slackers. It’s mostly because I sometimes publish unfocused ramblings and I don’t want my mom or anyone else to incorrectly assume that I am a stoned slacker.

Hemp was actually displaced by other natural fibers before plastics like nylon and polyester were invented. During the Industrial Revolution materials like wood pulp, cotton, jute and manila were found to be more suitable for large scale mechanized production of paper, textiles, rope and other products. Technological advances also meant that rope ceased to be as vital to commerce as it once was. When the US government used a tax law to prohibit hemp and marijuana in the 1930s, there was no strong lobby to oppose the move.

Hemp does have some unique attributes. It is fast growing and dense. This means that herbicides are not required for hemp production. The length and strength of its bast fibers are actually a significant stumbling block because they make it difficult or impossible to retrofit existing processing facilities. Canada has fostered a fledgling hemp industry since the 90s and the biggest problem has been the risk of oversupplying the market for the fiber. Basically, production is infinitely scalable while processing and market demand are not.

Hemp should be part of the solution to the plastic problem, but my opinion is that it won’t be anytime soon because of logistics and more obviously because it is illegal to grow it in the USA.

There are some good hemp products on the retail market including reusable shopping bags. The information on this organic hemp products website suggests that many hemp products are made in China where they are processed using toxic chemicals and manufactured using unfair labor practices.

Update: I went back to this topic this afternoon and found a few websites belonging to large technologically advanced hemp processors. They make some pretty interesting products including auto components. With all the recent concerns about plastic auto parts off-gassing into the interior of new cars, hemp might find a niche in this industry.

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Beth Terry over at FakePlasticFish has just put up a blog post asking everyone to tally and photograph a week’s worth of personal plastic consumption.

This sounds like a great project and I hope she gets a broad spectrum of participants. I plan to tally my week starting sometime in the next few days. I almost wish that I had a precision scale for projects like this.

Please check out the details over at FakePlasticFish.com

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1975 to 1982 was the golden age of movie merchandise according to the NYT. The articles that I found on the subject mostly talk in dollars. I have to wonder what the numbers mean in terms of tons of plastic.

In more recent decades, toy manufacturers have experienced a lot of expensive failures with movie merchandise. It is a high risk venture. I think one of the ways that they mitigate the risk is by making really cheap plastic products. On one of my walks on the beach, I found a broken Spiderman bucket and filled it with other plastic trash.

There are three main strategies used in movie merchandising and the target demographic of the movie will determine which one gets the most attention. The main difference between plastic toys and plastic collectibles is the price. Blockbusters that are aimed at the cool kids are better off selling clothes.

I would love to see some big name movie producers make a responsible decision and simply not grant licenses related to making crappy plastic movie merchandise. Worldwide illegal sales of unlicensed merchandise would continue, but consumers might buy less.

The Trekkies are typically enthusiastic consumers of plastic crap. It’s too late to argue against merchandising with regard to the current release but it’s not too late to suggest to fans of Star Trek that they enjoy the experience of the movie without buying any plastic collectibles. Resistance is not futile.

Photo Credit: Nanoprobe67

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