Let me be your guinea pig, please!

Seriously, if you have created something that you think will help us reduce waste and won't just add to the mountains of garbage, plastic or otherwise, littering our world, send it my way to try out. But don't send any plastic packaging or I'm liable to ship it right back to ya. I received two nifty items in the last few weeks, both packaged sans plastic and both very cool.

The first was from Bibi Rogers, who has created a company called 4U2ReUSE. Bibi has sent me several emails explaining how important this project is to her and her vision for a healthier planet. While out on a kayaking trip with her son, they came upon a beach littered with plastic bags, the sight of which profoundly affected her. She wanted to do something to solve the problem. Experience told her that carrying reusable bags was the best choice, but often people forget to bring them. What if they had a cute carrier to store their old plastic bags in so they could reuse them over and over again instead of tossing them after one use? Might this be a way to transition people from plastic to reusable bags in the long run?

Her philosophy of bag reuse matches what I wrote all the way back in August about how we should reuse the plastic bags we already have before running out and buying new reusable bags. Since then, cleaning out plastic bags has become a hassle that I subsequently whined about in December. But you know, I think her idea is right on. Through her work, she seeks to promote the following:

• Saying NO to new plastic bags
• Reusing plastic bags already in existence
• Once plastic bags have been reused, disposing of them at local drop-off points to be collected for recycling
• Not disposing of plastic bags by picking up pet waste or dumping them in the trash
• Reducing consumption in general, and making sustainable choices

Bibi called her first plastic bag carrier the Ridley, after one of the world’s smallest, most endangered species of sea turtles. She sent it to me wrapped lovingly in recycled paper with hemp cord inside a plain cardboard priority mail envelope. In her note to me, she says that this is how she will be sending them to all her customers. I'll admit it took me a few weeks to actually open the package, being busy with so many other things. But honestly, I was enjoying just looking at the wrapping!

Inside is the bag, made from 100% hemp with piping of hemp & organic cotton and handle made from grosgrain ribbon remnants. All her other bags are made from either new organic fabric or recycled materials. Even the instruction tag attached to the bag is printed on 100% post-consumer recycled paper and attached with a piece of twine. And the bags are sewn at a workshop in L.A. that employs fair labor practices.

The Ridley is meant to hold up to 10 plastic or biodegradable bags and has a little side opening from which you can pull them out like Kleenex. You can toss the Ridley into your purse or backpack or attach with the strap to grocery tote. Having the Ridley attached to a reusable canvas bag might remind folks to bring their own produce bags back to the farmer's market or grocery store instead of taking new ones. And another bag, the Kemp's, is made to attach to a dog leash for storing biodegradable poop bags.

So anyway, I wish Bibi all success in her endeavor. Hers is the kind of business we should be supporting!

And another entrepreneurial diva answered my call when I wrote about how I needed a non-plastic packaged reusable filter for my new porcelain plastic-free coffee maker. Organic Needle is that seamstress and she sent me a filter that works like a dream! Made from 100% organic cotton canvas, this #4 cone filter hasn't gotten clogged once since I started using it daily a few weeks ago. I just scoop out the grounds into my compost container, rinse the remainder with cool water, and I'm good to go for the next mug.

Yes, it takes a bit more work than using a disposable filter, but think of all the trees saved. Plus, Organic Needle's filter does not come wrapped in plastic like some reusable filters you can buy in the store. She'll send it to you in a plain envelope. You can buy these filters from her Etsey shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5619053. And if you want to see what it looked like before I made coffee in it the first time, here's a great photo of the filter as demonstrated by Organic Needle's trusty assistant. The Internet is just great, isn't it!
 

 

In Sierra Club's book Hey Mr. Green, the method is the message.

This phrase, "The method is the message," has been running through my head now for several weeks. I think it's a corruption of "The medium is the message," but I like it for the way it conveys my meaning, which is as an answer to the age-old question, "Do the ends justify the means?" To me, the means, the medium, the method ARE what is most important.

That's why my recommendation of the children's book Michael Recycle was somewhat tepid. A book about recycling that's not printed on recycled paper? Something's not connecting there. It's like the seminar on "Greening Your Law Firm" that Michael and I attended during which three of the four panelists were drinking the bottled water provided by the facility while explaining how their firms had given up bottled water. Or the forum on protecting the SF Bay where plastic-wrapped snacks were served as the speakers bemoaned the amount of plastic pollution in the water.

So, it was with appreciation that I received my promotional copy of Sierra Club's latest book, Hey Mr. Green. I requested the book be sent without plastic, and sure enough, it arrived packaged in a Jiffy Padded Mailer cushioned with recycled paper fibers rather than plastic bubble packing. Great! And the book itself? "Printed in the United States of America on Cascades Enviro 100 acid-free paper, which contains 100 percent post-consumer waste, processed chlorine free." All right!

So the method is good. (Of course, part of the method is whether or not the book is new or used or borrowed from the library, right? That part's up to you.) So what about the message itself?

The book is a compilation of "Hey Mr. Green" columns published in Sierra Magazine beginning in February 2005. It's a quick read at 175 small pages and keeps the question/answer format, similar to Grist's "Ask Umbra." The book contains a lot of the usual tips about saving energy and reducing waste at home and on the road that many "How to be Green" books contain these days.

For my taste, some of the author's recommendations focused on energy conservation at the expense of other environmental concerns, like toxicity. For example, Mr. Green says that in a pinch, if he's left his reusable bags at home (which he never does) and absolutely needed to carry something home in a bag, he'd opt for plastic over paper because 1) he can reuse the bag many times, 2) the 4 million barrels of oil used per year to make plastic bags equates to only 1/10th of what SUVs require, and 3) paper bags don't biodegrade in landfills anyway. (Pages 86-87) Um... is that even logic?

First of all, the concern about the non-biodegradation of plastic is less about what happens in landfills and more about what happens to the plastic that never makes it to the landfill. Mr. Green never mentions the plastic garbage patch in the North Pacific Gyre and or the harm to wildlife caused by escaped plastic bags. And he also doesn't seem to realize that many paper bags these days are made from recycled paper. Neither choice is great, of course. But I still think in a purely hypothetical situation, I'd opt for the paper bag.

So, yes I just spent two paragraphs picking on his answer to one question. But part of his answer, the thing about how much more oil SUVs use than plastic bags, is kind of representative of the tone of the book. He wants us to focus on the big problems, which is great. And he seems to be worried that if people get hung up worrying about small things, like whether or not their organization reuses plastic name badges at its meetings (Pages 100-101) they will forget about the jet fuel spent to get them to that meeting. And I can understand his point. But if we can do something about the small things, in addition to the large things, shouldn't we?

The part of the book I really found myself enjoying was the last section called, "The Big Picture: Thoughts on God, Government, and Other Dinner-Table Topics." Here he turns part philosopher and part ethicist as he tackles such questions as whether or not religions cause overpopulation, what happens (to your body) after you die, and whether or not it's "wrong to judge people's eco-awareness by how many paper towels they use in a restroom." The last part is fun to read and mull over.

That's my report. Thanks, Sierra Club, for sending the book to me and for taking such care with the materials used to produce and ship it. Now that I've read it, I'll be sharing it with my local library so other Oaklanders can glean the green goodness.

I've just started reading Diane MacEachern's Big Green Purse, which is really informative but also has its problems. For one thing, the Method vs. Message issue is quite glaring to me. On page 29, MacEachern writes, "A paperboard package composed of '50 precent recycled fiber' is a more reliable ecobuy than one vaguely marketed as 'made from recycled paper.'" Yet the statement inside the book itself reads, "This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper." Kinda vague, wouldn't you say?

05/10/08 UPDATE: I received this comment from Diane MacEachern today and wanted to share with you:

Thanks for the feedback on the recycled paper labeling for BGP. Actually, I had heard from the publisher that "printed on acid-free recycled paper made from 30% post-consumer waste" would be listed in the book, so was as surprised as you to see the more generic "acid-free recycled paper." Just goes to show how important it is to double check in the "practice what you preach" column (but, perhaps, to also question one's own assumptions when hunting for examples of blatant inconsistencies that turn out to be oversights). Diane MacEachern, author, Big Green Purse.

She is absolutely right about my needing to question my own assumptions. I realize that when I wrote the letter to Santa Sabina in my previous post, I bent over backwards to give them the benefit of the doubt. I didn't do that when tossing out the comment about Big Green Purse's recycled content, and I apologize. It was late, I was tired, which are lame excuses because it's ALWAYS late and I'm ALWAYS tired when blogging here! So, let this be a lesson to us all, once again, to assume the best of others' intentions and seek clarifying information before calling them on the carpet.

So anyway, I'm only on page 81 of 374 BIG pages and am enjoying parts, learning a few things, and already disagreeing with a few others. This was another promotional copy I received from the publisher, so you'll be hearing my take on it probably next week.
 

 

Dear Santa Sabina,

The following is a letter that I am sending off tonight to the Santa Sabina Retreat Center, where I spent this past weekend, and about 12 previous weekends since 2000, sitting in silence. I share this letter here only to demonstrate that we can have a voice, write our letters and make our calls, and do it all in a spirit of sharing and love rather than confrontation or hostility. I love Santa Sabina. I truly do. Here's the letter:

Dear Santa Sabina Center:

As a participant in Jon Bernie’s meditation retreat this past weekend, I write this letter in a spirit of gratitude for the beautiful space that you provide for rest and silence. This note is meant to thank you and also to offer some suggestions.

I’ve been attending Jon Bernie’s retreats at Santa Sabina ever since the very first one in 2000. Every time I come back, I feel like I’m returning to a loving home. From the care taken for the lovely gardens to the wholesome meals to the little bits of poetry and flowers placed in unexpected places, Santa Sabina helps retreatants feel safe and nurtured during our stay.

Given this attention to detail, then, it is a bit ironic to find certain personal care products, such as antibacterial soaps (Soft Soap antibacterial liquid hand soap) and synthetic air fresheners (Oust Air Sanitizer and Glade Neutralizer) offered for guests’ use. And since Santa Sabina is all about caring for the health of the planet and the creatures that dwell here, I assume that these products are offered without knowledge of the harm that they are currently causing to our environment.

First, Oust Air Sanitizer contains an additional active ingredient called Triethylene Glycol, which can be a strong allergen and hazard for asthma sufferers. In fact, the label on the can states: “Asthma and allergy sufferers: Consult your physician before using this product in your home.” It contains a further warning: “Before spraying, remove birds. After using, ventilate normally prior to returning birds to treated areas.” I discovered cans of this Oust Air Sanitizer on the backs of several toilets for retreatants to spray after using the facilities. And whereas I don’t personally suffer from allergies or asthma, I would be very careful what I sprayed into the air that all of us share.

In addition to that particular chemical in the Oust spray, there are other chemicals in synthetic air fresheners (like Glade) which are hazardous to humans and wildlife. I’ve enclosed a couple of pieces of information with this letter. The first is a press release on a study of air fresheners by the Natural Resources Defense Council. One of the issues with air fresheners is that companies who make them are not required to list all of their ingredients on the label of the can. What NRDC found in their study is that most commercial air fresheners contain chemicals called phthalates, which are reproductive toxins.

Phthalates are generally found in any product that simply lists “fragrance” as an ingredient on the label. Air fresheners and soaps that do not contain phthalates will be more specific about their ingredients. For example, the air freshener I use at home is Ecco Mist by Ecco Bella which contains only essential oils, emulsifier and water and comes in a recyclable aluminum can. Another option is Citrus Magic (Ingredients: 100% Pure & Natural, specially formulated citrus fragrance oils from oranges, lemons, limes, tangerines and grapefruits.)

I’ve also enclosed the Environmental Working Group’s report, “Down The Drain,” which discusses the problems caused by washing chemicals such as phthalates and Triclosan, the active ingredient in antibacterial soaps, down the drain and into the San Francisco Bay. Triclosan is a thyroid disruptor and is also thought to contribute to the problem of resistant bacteria. There are many natural soaps that do not contain Triclosan or synthetic fragrances or colors.

I would be happy to help you find environmentally-preferable soaps and air fresheners. And if cost is an issue, perhaps spending a bit more for natural soap and giving up the air freshener entirely might be an option. The bathrooms have windows that can be opened for air freshening. Might the sprays be unnecessary?

Thanks so much for your time. I love Santa Sabina and only wish for it to be as gentle on the earth as is possible. Please let me know what I can do to help.

Sincerely,

Beth Terry

This is what I meant yesterday by "perfectly imperfect." But one of our practice instructions is to move towards that which is difficult. I think it was good for me to sit with the seeming irony of this natural, beautiful place and the moderately hazardous chemicals in its midst. My mind kept crying out, "I don't understand! I don't understand!" Sitting with confusion instead of fighting it can open us into compassion. For ourselves and the rest of this crazy world.
 

 

Week 46 Results: 3.0 (?) oz of plastic waste.

Wow. I almost, almost had a plastic-free week. Thursday, we had a special meeting at work, including Chinese food for lunch. I asked that mine please be delivered in a cardboard container instead of Styrofoam. Well, I guess the order-taker understood the "no Styrofoam" part but not the cardboard. While everyone else's lunch came in a Styrofoam container, mine was packed in a Polypropylene (#5 PP) clamshell. I didn't even know they made clamshells out of PP!

I couldn't bring the container home with me because I was leaving directly from work for my retreat, and there was still food inside, so I left it in the refrigerator. I'm sure the food's been eaten by now and the container tossed. What are ya gonna do?

So that's my tally for last week. (Like my artwork?)

Thanks to Michael once again for filling in. The retreat was perfect, in the perfectly imperfect way I wrote about a week ago. More on that in a future post. Most of all, I just want to express how profoundly grateful I am to all of you who read this blog and who are doing the best you can to take care of our world. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
 

 

I can has floor?

So, with Beth away, I have the floor. Actually, the cats have the floor. They have pretty much the whole apartment. But I should vacuum the floor to protect them from nasty chemicals.

OK, so I'm digressing already. Unlike my previous filling-in-for-Beth posts, this one won't have a big, unifying theme, like polar bears or general forgiveness. Instead, it will be a bunch of short notes on various plastic- and sustainability-related matters as I've been dealing with them. There won't be a lot of links or pictures, either, because they take a long time to insert, and unlike Beth, I don't like to, and can't, stay up all night to write the post. If it were totally up to me, I would just make my supper, make my lunch for tomorrow, and then sit down on the couch with the newspapers and, I would hope, the cats. But Beth has committed me with today's post. Alternatively, I'd write the post over the weekend, but Beth says no one reads then. So here I am, in basic prose.

(Also, my pictures are on my desktop computer in the front room, where don't let the cats go, even when I'm trying to be "good cop", and curry favor with them. Instead, I'm using Beth's laptop, in the kitchen, in the hopes that the cats will come by and rub against me and even sit on my lap.)

So, I've actually been keeping track of my plastic use, too. Well, not the way Beth does. I've just been accumulating the plastic I use since about mid-March. I guess I'll weigh it at some point. Right now, I'm just forcing myself to look at it and see how much I'm using. Most of my use consists of wrappers for energy and granola bars. The former I get pretty cheap at the Grocery Outlet (aka the Used Food Store, the "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time" Store, and the GrossOut), and the latter I get free at work. I've cut way down on my GrossOut purchases, pretty much all of which are wrapped in plastic. I used to get a lot of lunch meat until Beth really scared me about the nitrates. Or I would make a lot of impulse purchases of snacks, until I realized how much wrapping they had. But energy bars are just so convenient. And yummy, like candy bars or cookies. But better than cookies, I like to think, when I have the munchies. Marginally? And they make me feel like an athlete, renutrifying myself after my morning workout. (See below.)

What I should do, I know, is just bring a (stainless steel) bottle of milk (with chocolate syrup! yum!) to drink first thing in the morning.
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ok, that was Soots, walking on the keyboard.

And I don't have to eat my firm's granola bars, just because they're free. I could bring my own. I mean, the firm has free coffee, and soda, and peanuts, and I don't feel compelled to consume those. Soors-=, you are making this difficult. Terracycle has a cool program with Clif Bar under which they take back energy and granola bar wrappers, make them into something useful, and give a few cents apiece to a charity. But participation is limited to a paltry 500 companies, and they have their full complement already. That's lame. If you've already signed the Take Back the Filter petition, which you better have, or I shall lay my terribleness upon thee, maybe you can bother Terracycle and Clif about expanding the program.

I've also been thinking about my exercise program and its footprint. Literally. Well, not quite. I run about 70 miles a month. Which means three or four new pairs of running shoes a year. Yes, running shoes can be recycled into surfaces for playgrounds (Nike has such a program), and I drop my used (and by the time I drop them, quite smelly) trainers off at a local store that recycles them, but still, each pair probably uses a barrel of oil to make the foam rubber insole and imitation leather and mesh upper and faux rubber outsole and nylon laces. I wonder if there are any shoes made out of canvas or other natural materials that would give me the support I need. I mean, I can't run the 12K Bay to Breakers in Chuck Taylors.

I swim twice a week, generally. I ride my bike over to the pool. I wear plastic goggles, but I've had the same pair for years. I made a new strap out of a bit of bicycle inner tube. But is the chlorine in pools bad for the environment? Are pools a waste of water?

I also go to the gym twice a week. There I use a stair climbing machine. I have to light on my feet and agile, like Fred Astair. Ha ha. OK. I shudder to think how much energy it takes to run the machine, to move those big heavy steps in an inclined oval. I could stop going to the gym, and run and swim more, but the stairs don't jar my knees as much as running. But at least while I'm there, I drink out of my Klean Kanteen. I used to use plastic bottles - reuse them, in fact. Ugh. I suppose I could stop going to the gym, but Beth got us a great deal on membership a few years ago, and I feel I have to make use of it. Recover my sunk costs. The way we're doing in Iraq. Ugh.

Once a week, generally Sundays, I ride my wind trainer, which is a bicycle set up on frame with a flywheel that creates resistance and allows me to exercise without going anywhere. I've had this for twenty years now, and generally used it only when nasty weather prevented me from going out on the road. But then I crashed my road bike two years ago, and broke my collarbone, and though I had healed within a few months, I just have not felt like taking the risk again. But I still pretend that I'm going to ride again, and so I need to keep in practice. On the trainer, I'm not using electricity, unlike on the stair climber, except to run the fan that I need to keep me cool (since there's no actual wind to do that, since I'm not going anywhere.) But what I really should do is figure out a way to hook up the bike to a generator, and make electricity, instead of just friction dissipated as heat. There must be something online somewhere about how to do this. Or I'll ask my friend the engineer for PG&E.

But back to running: the Bay to Breakers, a seven-and-a-half mile run across San Francisco, is in two weeks. Last year, my first time running it seriously, I did much better than I expected; this year, I have a goal, but I'm not sure I'll reach it. But what I am sure of about the B2B is that there will be huge numbers of plastic bottles of water given out during and after the race, most of which will end up lying on the ground or tossed in the trash. True, people -- heroes of mine, actually, more power to them -- will go along, gathering up the bottles for the deposits. But I really think that in a city whose mayor banned bottled water from government offices, and has taken other measures to switch back to the excellent local tap water, it's terrible that a race which is such a public event (the mayor and about a hundred thousand others will run it) is going to generate such a Calvary of waste. We should bother Mayor Newsom to pressure the B2B organizers and sponsors, or pressure the sponsors to bother the organizers, or something. It's probably too late for this year, but there's always next year.

Which brings me to the subject of collecting bottles. I generally pick up bottles and cans off the street. Yeah, like a homeless person. I wash my hands when I get home. See, there's a recycling center not far away, and it's free money. Well, considering how long it takes to carry them over, etc., it's not such a good deal. The question is, if I left them on the street, would they 9 -- come on, Soots, I'm almost done -- be picked up by someone who needs the money more than I? Or should I pick them up, but then leave them out on the street in my recycling bin, where a collector will take them at night, as my contribution to help the homeless?

OK, on that note, I'm going to make some lunch and give my attention to the kittens so they don't rip me to shreds with their claws. Let's all send positive vibes out to Beth as she meditates, hoping her retreat doesn't turn into a rout. I always worry about that term -- it makes me think of Napoleon from Moscow. As opposed to Napoleon from Preston, Idaho. (Huh?) To all of you, as always, it's been an honor and a pleasure, and until next time, I remain,

Yr ob't,

terrible person