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.

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Buying flowers for your Mother on Mother’s Day is pretty much a default behavior for many North Americans. I grew up in a rural area and I used to go out into the forest and find some mayflowers. When I was an adult living away from home, I would sometimes buy a hanging plant or a shrub. Cut flowers such as roses are the preferred option for many consumers and their demand fuels a big multi-national industry.

I was surprised to find out that over 75 percent of the 4 billion cut flower stems purchased in the U.S. come from Colombia and Ecuador. The conventional cut flower industry is far from green. It’s a very chemical intensive form of agriculture. There is of course lots of plastic involved in the production and packaging.

“I remember when it was all dotted with family farms, and now the Sabana is blanketed in one vast plastic sheet.”- Carolina DelGado from Jobs with Justice

The industry is using up vast tracks of land that was once used for subsistence agriculture and researchers have found pesticide contamination at soil depths of 300 meters. So much toxins are put into the soil ecosystem that it simply can’t all be broken down.

The post harvest treatment often uses chemicals that are banned in the US.

There is of course a huge amount of fossil fuel burned in order to transport these flowers to the recipient. Along the way they get fumigated by order of the USDA and they also usually get more plastic packaging. The worst part of it all for me is that they serve such a small purpose. They are pretty, but they die after just a few days.

Buying American grown living plants is clearly a better alternative to cut flowers. The product pictured in this post is from GivingPlants.com. They offer fast delivery of living plants that will keep on reminding your mom how much you care for years to come.

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New sports shoes from German manufacturer Puma will soon be shipped in a reusable bag made from recycled plastic. There is still a piece of cardboard inside, but it is easier to recycle and uses less resources than the traditional shoebox.

I hope this will put reusable bags in the hands of consumers that will actually use them in place of disposable bags.

I needed to buy new shoes for my kids last week and I was disheartened to find that they were in a clear plastic bag inside a shoebox. I can reuse or recycle the bags but they seemed really unnecessary.

Source : http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/04/13/puma.bag.design.sustainability/index.html

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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.

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I try to reduce the amount of packaging that I bring into my house but sometimes I impulsively buy something just because I like the packaging. I tell myself that I can reuse that packaging. I don’t have a specific need for that material but I somehow just know that it is the solution to a problem that I don’t even know I have. This morning as I was putting away the empty egg containers that I actually do use (for containing eggs that are sold unpackaged from the back of a truck), I saw an old frenemy in the back of the cupboard. The burlap potato bag that I bought this winter.

As I wondered what to do with it for about the hundredth time it dawned on me that I should just write this post asking for suggestions. So what do you think I should do with this material?

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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.

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I am somewhat romantic. Really, I am. I just don’t tend to equate romanticism with gift giving. Valentine’s Day will always have an element of meh for me thanks to the conspiracy between card manufacturers and elementary school teachers. I know that I am a bit of an exception in this regard, so I am offering this gift suggestion for the people that want to give a heart-shaped consumer good to their sweetie.

The folks at Wrapsacks have a Valentine’s package featured on their site that includes 2 reusable shopping totes that zip up into a heart-shaped pouch as well as 1 medium fabric gift bag. I have been using their shopping totes for the last 3 months and they are awesome. They have handles that are long enough to put over your shoulder but they are sized so that they aren’t too close to the ground if you choose to hold them in your hand. The handle material goes all the way down the sides of the bag so they aren’t the weakest part of the bag. I’ve had cheaper bags lose their handles after a few months of carrying stuff.

*Wrapsacks provided me with free bags for the purposes of review. I don’t typically ask for or receive review products because of my remote location.

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I bought potatoes in a big jute bag this morning. In retrospect, the greener choice may have been filling up a shopping bag with local potatoes. I am faced with shopping on a tighter budget these days and these seemed like a good value. There are lots of blog posts floating around about how to live green and frugal at the same time. Making greener choices and saving money at the same time can be a bit of a juggling act. The commercial food industry sees green as a value added part of their business. If money was not an issue for me I would be paying the premium for organic food all the time. Put your hand up if money is not an issue.

Here are some suggestions that might help the planet and your bank balance:

Minimize food waste through careful planning and list making. When perishable items do go bad, make a note to buy less the next time. Shopping at markets where you can pick over the produce yourself will reduce the amount of waste that you deal with at home.

Comparison shopping isn’t all about price. Find out which vendors carry local produce. Sometimes a compromise between distance and price is in order. For instance, we buy Sicilian oranges this time of year even though there are local ones available. The distance is just around the 100km mark and they get pretty cheap in the middle of the season.

Plan your meals around seasonal produce. As much as we love strawberries, we are willing to forgo the joy for ten months out of the year to save money and fossil fuels.

You can reduce the amount of pesticides you consume by choosing varieties of produce that are not subjected to as much of it in conventional agriculture. Sadly, potatoes are on the list of 12 foods to avoid if you are worried about pesticides.

Prepare the bulk of your meals at home from scratch.

Eat less meat. If you love meat and you have a handful of tried and true meat heavy meals that you don’t want to give up a good way to accomplish this is to commit yourself to a Meatless Monday. We haven’t done that, but we typically have more than one meatless day. High protein produce is less expensive and better for the environment than meat. During our year in Bizerte, we developed a taste for chickpea sandwiches.

I am not a zealot when it comes to buying ecologically responsible food. Our first priority is to provide a balanced diet for my family. I do make a conscious effort to keep my eye our for ways to do that in ways that are both cheaper and greener.

This post hasn’t had a lot to do with reducing plastic waste. When it comes to food I look for every affordable plastic free option and when there are none I consider whether that item is important enough to compromise. The best example I can think of where I spend extra to avoid plastic packaging is with pasta. Barilla, the BEST PASTA IN THE WORLD, is available in boxes. The less expensive alternatives are in plastic bags.

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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.

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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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