Reduce plastic waste :: PlasticLess.com

I have to confess that I have never thrown a party for dozens of people. I am an introvert. If I were to wake up as an entirely different person and decide to have a big bash for all of the acquaintances that I would call my friends, I would try to figure out an alternative to the disposable plastic beer glass.

Disposable plastic beer glasses are recommended by many authorities on serving alcohol at large parties…

…You need to invest in some plastic beer cups. The investment is relatively cheap. You can get a large stack of plastic beer cups for about the same price you are going to pay for a bottle of dish detergent to clean all those glasses.

The savings in time is astronomically higher. Instead of washing and drying all those glasses, just pull out a black plastic bag, sweep them all into it, and you’re done.

I think the most obvious alternative to plastic beer glasses is to have your guests drink straight from returnable glass bottles. The only drawback that I can see with this is the safety issue. I attended an Agricultural College in Canada. I saw a lot of beer drinking at pubs and events. Most of these events did not involve disposable cups and I can only remember a handful of bottle related injuries. One or two of them were very memorable.

A slightly more inventive alternative would be to ask your guests to bring their own drinking vessel. Those wacky medieval recreationists do that all the time.

Serving beer from plastic laundry detergent jugs is a step in the wrong direction. Don’t do it.

If your party is commemorating something important, you could shell out for keepsake glassware. If you bring home a beer glass or champagne flute from someone’s special day, don’t have it sitting on your windowsill filled with plant cuttings that you are trying to root when they visit you after the divorce. I’m just sayin’.

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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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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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I have made the case against making babies from a few different angles on this blog and elsewhere. It’s always a good way to stimulate discussion. I am personally responsible for one pregnancy. If and when you create a human, you will need to buy or borrow things that have been designed to contain and transport them safely.

Moses’ parents supposedly stuck him in a reed basket and sent him floating down the Nile, I don’t personally recommend that method of child carrying even though it was very plasticless.

Parents in many countries are now required by law to place young children in age appropriate car seats. 15 years ago, I borrowed two infant car seats from some community program. I returned them once my babies reached the minimum weight requirement for the next step up in car seats. As far as I know, all baby car seats are made from plastic. The best thing that you can do to reduce environmental impact is to borrow a seat from a family member or a community program. You should read up on proper installation and adjustment of these things. Having one doesn’t make your baby safe, you have to use it correctly.

Green Baby Guide says that car seats up to six years old are safe as long as all the parts are there and in good condition. It’s better to say thanks but no thanks to family and friends that offer you anything older or in any way worn out.

If you have to buy a new car seat, take good care of it and save all the packaging and user manuals for the next owner.

Our baby carriage was a crazily overpriced metal framed Italian job. I was assured that they had a high resale value. I have conveniently forgotten whether that was true. I was impressed by the quality. We lived on a road with a gravel shoulder, so those crappy little strollers with the little plastic wheels weren’t going to cut it.

If you want to do what is best for your baby and also better for the planet you have a lot of options to choose from.

Lots of people swear by baby slings. I have never used one, so I can’t really vouch for them. There have been safety concerns. Most injuries that have occurred are the result of improper use.

Photo Credit: AMCDawes

I did a lot of baby carrying without a sling. I once made the terrible mistake of attempting to walk down my unfinished wooden basement steps while wearing wool socks. I had a baby in my arms. I managed to fall in such a way as to gently plop the baby one step up from where my head landed with less gentleness and about four steps up from the where my ass landed without even a hint of gentleness. Carrying babies with your bare hands might be the greenest choice, but it is not the safest.

Combination car seat/strollers didn’t exist when I had babies. They are plastic, but they are one hunk of plastic that does the job of two. They also meet the requirements for taking on board an airplane. If anybody has had good or bad experience with one of these, please comment.

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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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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 plastic people got this one right. The plastic is made quite efficiently. That’s why so much pointless crap is made from it. Most opponents of plastic shopping bags focus on the environmental impact of discarded plastic.

The only fact I can think of to counter with is that the oil used to make plastic bags is a nonrenewable resources. Alternatives like cloth bags (or paper for that matter) are made from renewable resources.

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It is going to take a lot of changes from a lot of people to create long term sustainability for life on this planet. If you feel like you can only do one thing right now, consider bringing your own bag to the store. Here is a convincing list of statistics taken from the Bring Your Own Bag campaign:

• 100 million plastic bags a week go to landfill.
• Plastic bags can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment.
• Each year, an estimated 500 billion – 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That translates to over one million per minute.
• North America goes through 110 billion plastic shopping bags annually.
• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways polluting our soil, rivers, lakes and oceans.
• Production of plastic bags requires vast amounts of oil.
• Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

I just learned about Bring Your Own Bag today. I really like the fact that their message is aimed at average consumers. When I am promoting my website on social media, I sometimes get a bit disheartened by the fact that I preach to the choir a lot. The environmentally responsible people are all following each other and friending each other and they already take a cloth bag to the grocery store. They already bring their travel mug to the cafe.

If you have somehow landed on my blog and you have never thought about reducing you plastic consumption, get yourself a nice reusable shopping bag from wherever is most convenient. I got one for free at a mall one weekend from some non-profit group. I bought some really cheap woven bags from a hawker who stands in front of the vegetable market here. Bring Your Own Bag has a page showing all their participating retailers. If I still lived with my mom, Pete’s Frootique would be my local retailer. Their bags look really good as in good enough to take on casual shopping trips rather than just the weekly grocery run. Drivers will like the flat bottoms.

The change to reusable grocery bags is easy and it is conspicuous. Once you get used to it you will take it for granted and you will start looking for another positive change.

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The elimination of trays at a number of university cafeterias was a green initiative, but it wasn’t about plastic. It was a simple idea that has been reducing food waste in several schools in recent months.

Some diners are upset, but most institutions are happy with the result. Students who are on full board at a university tend to experience weight gain. It will be interesting to see if taking the trays away puts a dent in that statistic.

Food waste is a huge environmental and social issue in the USA and elsewhere. There are some great blogs out there that are devoted to this topic.

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