Use Less Plastic from TakePart on Vimeo.
This cause is really starting to gain some attention. There is now a big flashy site called Save My Oceans with a page devoted to the issue of plastic waste. I would love to see some statistics later on to see how much real reduction results from all of our efforts.
I have been thinking about writing this post ever since my aborted attempt at repairing some USB headphones this weekend. I am very frustrated with the fact that almost all consumer electronics are designed to break. It makes perfect sense from a business standpoint, but it is pretty much the opposite of green.
I try to reduce the amount of waste resulting from my use of technology. I buy fewer mobile phones than the average consumer. The industry has successfully created a 24 month replacement cycle. Many technophiles and early adopters buy even more often. My family of 5 makes do with three phones and one of them is 5 years old.
We don’t have a television set or a DVD player. Pretty much every device or peripheral that we have has legitimate work or educational purpose. I get really frustrated when an item like a computer mouse or a set of headphones stops working after only a year or two. I get extra frustrated when the item was a ‘better quality’ model. The head set that broke this month was purchased for the purpose of teleconferencing, recording tutorials and other work related stuff. They looked durable and they cost more than twice as much as the cheapest alternative. When I disassembled the volume control I found that the impression of durability was an illusion.
It’s not like it’s impossible to make durable electronics. I have a transcription pedal that appears to be built to last forever. When I was a teenager several of my friends had guitar effects pedals that you could probably throw against a wall without causing damage. Manufacturers of these specialty products are competing for a very finite number of customers who. This might account for the build quality. I’m not so sure about that though.
Last year I spent a few months toying with the idea of making field recordings on world music and creating a website where people could provide a fair payment directly to the musicians. There are several different companies selling affordable mobile digital audio recording equipment. I did a lot of research because I couldn’t afford to buy something that wouldn’t be adequate for my needs. The online reviews have lead me to believe that every make and model has issues with build quality and reliability. I felt like there was a good chance that I could spend hundreds of dollars, including a hefty shipping cost, only to find that my device was defective. The frustration with this issue played a part in stalling the whole project 
Anyway, the point of this post is this… I think there are enough conscious consumers to represent a market for durable green electronics. If you needed a new computer mouse (for the nth time in your life) and there was a mouse in the store that was designed to last forever, would you buy it? What if there was a mobile phone that was built to last forever? Would you be willing to pass up the early adoption rush that Apple et al. cash in on for the rest of your life? There are several consumer electronic items that are not going to change that much with regard to function for the rest of our lives. I would like to see a market develop for truly durable items and I think the products could be legitimately advertised as ‘green.’
If you think there is already a supply for this hypothetical demand, please comment with links to the products.
The War on Boredom shares some traits with other recent and ongoing wars against mental states. These wars waste a lot of resources. I think the War on Boredom can be won without resorting to buying plastic things like gaming consoles or supersoakers.
First things first. You must know your enemy…
Boredom is an emotional state experienced during periods lacking activity or when individuals are uninterested in the opportunities surrounding them. The first record of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852, in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a bore had been used in the sense of “to be tiresome or dull” since 1768. – Wikipedia*
The first line of defense against boredom is to carefully examine the opportunities surrounding you. Sign up to local newsletters that include events calendars. Organize your stuff. Read the user manuals of the gadgets that you already have. If you are reading my blog, you obviously have access to the internet. The internet has been an unceasing source of information and entertainment for me for over ten years. We abandoned a gaming console in Africa late last year. I thought that the kids would be begging for a replacement. So far, they are keeping boredom at bay with online and outdoor activities. Sometimes they even read BOOKS 
I am not a crafty person, but some people certainly are. The greenest way for these people to fight boredom is to make useful and/or decorative items out materials that would otherwise be a burden on landfills or recycling facilities.
I am looking for some allies in this green War on Boredom. If you can think of any great ways to fight boredom without wasting plastic please leave a comment
I’m going to end this post with a few videos advertising plastic crap designed to fight boredom on it’s home turf (the office). I hope you find the videos entertaining, but please don’t buy this crap. I don’t want to pick on Vat19 – they sell some really awesome canvas bags.
I recently received two beautiful cotton batik reusable shopping bags from Wrapsacks.com. These bags fold and zip into a compact size. I like the way that the outside of the storage pouch doubles as a reinforced bottom for the bag. I am happy to finally have a grocery bag with shoulder length straps. Upon closer examination, I noticed that the strap material goes all the way down the sides of the bag and into the reinforced bottom. This should make them a lot more durable than the cheap bags that I bought on the street in Bizerte. The cheap bags have mostly held up for more than a year, but there have been two handle failures. One failure was the result of very heavy groceries and the other bag got caught in a bus door with me still standing on the sidewalk.
Catherine loves the ‘Marrakesh’ design (shown above). When I added this brand of bags to my reusable bag roundup earlier this month, I mentioned the wide variety of designs. Most of the designs are what I would describe as pretty. They were smart to include a design that’s not pretty and, strangely enough, it’s my favorite. The ‘Pedal Power’ pattern has black block printed bicycles and bicycle chains over a background of earthy oranges and browns. It would be perfect for anybody who drives their bike to the farmer’s market.
Michael Miner, the co-creator of Wrapsacks, regularly visits the production facility in Indonesia where the bags are ethically produced. While he was there recently, he took some stunning photographs of the batik dyeing process. I love the fact that they are still using the power of the sun as a dye fixative.
It’s a nice coincidence that I received these free review samples right before leaving for Gozo, where the plastic shopping bag has just recently become the target of some regulation. They had tried a small bag tax years ago, but retailers were willing to absorb the cost rather than inconvenience customers who were set in their ways. Now they charge 0.18 Euros.
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.
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
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 
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.
This isn’t exactly a review of Fat Bottom Bags. I chose local solutions as much as possible and these bags are made in the North West of America. They caught my eye because they look quite a bit like the grass basket that my wife bought in Hergla.
Below is a bag made by Berbers from grass…
…Above is a Fat Bottom Bag made from plastic bags
Fat Bottom Bags are made out of single use plastic shopping bags that are supplied by several local households. Christi started out making bags as a hobby and as a way to make use of the bags that had been accumulated in her household and by her extended family. This was an unsustainable system (in a good way for once); the single use bags were being incorporated into durable reusable bags that were put to good use, thus curtailing the accumulation of disposable bags. Rather than move on to another project, Christi chose to broaden her collection efforts to dozens of local families and sell the finished product. I really like this concept. It is a much better idea than putting a pile of plastic bags into the conventional recycling stream. When that happens they could end up on a slow boat to China.
I am happy to add Fat Bottom Bags to my reusable bag roundup post.
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.
