CBS took a moment away from reporting about how much media coverage Michael Jackson’s death is receiving to talk about bottled water and the people who are not in favor of it. They mention phthalates and they mention the price difference between bottle and tap, but they don’t mention plastic.
First off, a hearty congratulations are in order for To-Go Ware. Their cause and their products got the most important endorsement in the Universe. Oprah likes their stuff.
The Earth Day edition of the Oprah Winfrey Show put a spotlight on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and gave some valuable advice to her viewers on how to reduce plastic waste.
I hope that Oprah will remember the issue of plastic waste for more than just one episode. Hopefully future installments of her Favorite things won’t include stuff like melamine bowls.
Here is a list of electronic gadgets that I do not have to purchase because my PC can perform the same tasks. I am not claiming that I haven’t bought any of these things in the recent past or that I will never under any circumstances buy them in the future. I am just pointing out that many of us are still shelling out money to buy single purpose items that perform tasks that can be performed by a basic PC or laptop. It is a waste of money and materials.
The most obvious one is a calculator. I had to buy a some hand-held calculators for my school aged kids but I generally go for the one on my computer desktop (mostly because I know where to find it).
I don’t need to buy any stereo equipment. We are generally pretty bare bones with our computer purchases but the last time we bought one it was a ‘value package’ that came with adequate amplified speakers. Using the hard drive for music storage means that there is no need to buy CDs either.
I don’t need to buy a TV. Streaming video over the internet has advanced to the point that television is arguably redundant for a lot of people. I do have a TV in my furnished apartment and I watch it every now and then, usually the news.
I certainly don’t need to ever buy another audio recording device. As a teenager, I was obsessed with getting a 4-track tape recorder to do overdubs for my music compositions. I was never able to afford such a thing and I am glad that I delayed my gratification because when it finally arrived it was free. All I need is a basic microphone and a PC. GarageBand or Audacity have more editing functions than I could have imagined back when I was ogling clunky recording equipment in 80s guitar magazines.
I am not a gamer. If I had a lot of free time and if there was something seriously wrong with outside, I could entertain myself adequately with browser based games. I don’t need a Wii, Playstation, or Gamecube.
Can you think of anything else that has been made redundant by the PC?
I have never personally bought a television but I am not one of those anti-TV zealots. I know a guy who is a strident crusader against television. He even has one of those little remotes that are designed to turn off any television model within its range. My overzealous plasticless tip of the day is stop buying remote controls. Many of the electronic devices that have a remote control feature also have perfectly good non-remote controls. You just have to get off of the couch and walk those three or four steps over to your entertainment center. Can you imagine what our great grandparents would think of the idea that every household has to have its own entertainment center?
But I digress… The main thing that I wanted to talk about in this post is the looming threat to the environment of millions of television sets that are about to become obsolete when the USA goes digital only in about 70 days. Here is a widget from TakeBackMyTV.com, a site that is pressuring electronics companies to establish responsible recycling programs.
The plastic parts of a television set are arguably less hazardous than the heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium. There is a lot of PVC in a TV and here is what TakeBackMyTV has to say about it:
Hazardous chemical additives (like phthalates) can leach when PVC components of electronic products are landfilled, and burning PVC produces dioxins, a group of the most potent synthetic chemicals ever tested, which can harm the immune and reproductive systems, and some of which are known to cause cancer. The U.S. EPA estimates that levels of dioxin contamination in the general population is at or near the level at which adverse health effects can be observed in both humans and animals. PVC manufacture and disposal adds to both the phthalate and dioxin body burden in all of us.
My suggestion to avoid plastic consumption as it relates to this planned obsolescence of televisions is to not bother replacing your old television. If you are reading this blog, you must have internet access. Television-like experiences are still increasing in quantity and quality on the internet. You can leave your old television where it is, maybe your cat likes to lay on top of it.
