Dare me to dress like a BRITA filter and walk across SF?

This could be me at this Sunday's SF Bay to Breakers because, you know, I have a Barbie Doll body and a giant BRITA filter cartridge in my living room. It could be me if I can get at least one volunteer to walk the 12K (7.65 miles) with me, hold my water bottle, and pass out flyers to the cheering crowds. I'd love to have a whole team of people walking with us and wearing signs that say "www.takebackthefilter.org." But it will only take one confirmed volunteer to get me to actually do it.

Why can't Terrible Person walk with me? Why, because he is running the Bay to Breakers, attempting to break his personal awesome record time of 56 minutes last year. Michael trained. Beth did not. Michael will be finished in under an hour. Beth will be sweating in a cardboard costume for over two, probably. But there's karaoke at The Mint afterwards. And if that's not incentive enough, I just don't know what is!

Don't everyone offer at once!

Have you all signed the petition? We've got over 4,200 signatures at this point, and people have been mailing us used filter cartridges from all over the country. Organic Consumers Association wrote a great blurb about the campaign in their latest newsletter and another well-known environmental organization is preparing to send a letter to Clorox.

For more updates on the campaign, please check out our news section: http://www.takebackthefilter.org/search/label/news, where you can find out more about the call we got from Clorox shortly after the campaign began.

So can I get a volunteer?

BANANA UPDATE: It's looking like Sunny is probably going to be the winner of the contest to find out the reason for the sticky plastic on the stems of organic bananas. She found a link that says the plastic is there to prevent black mold. Regular bananas are dipped in a fungicide which kills mold, but organic bananas are not. Hence, the plastic. Before I declare her the official winner, though, I'd like some confirmation. So I sent an email to Dole tonight to find out about the plastic on their bananas. We'll see if they confirm what she found out.

(I know a lot of people have said it's so checkers can tell the difference between organic and non, but that just doesn't sound right to me. The organic bananas all have stickers on them that say they're organic.)

Okay, gotta get back to working on my costume!
 

 

Have Fun * Do Good: An interview with Britt Bravo

Britt Bravo is a fellow Oaklander (what's the feminine version of "fellow"?) who's been blogging since 2005. But unlike most bloggers who write mainly about themselves, Britt's blog focuses on other people who are making change in the world. She spends a lot of time interviewing people, so I thought it would be fun to interview her. Enjoy.

1) Please describe Have Fun * Do Good a little bit and explain the name.

Have Fun * Do Good (http://havefundogood.blogspot.com) is my personal blog that I started on my 35th birthday in August 2005. I named it Have Fun * Do Good because I wanted it to include stories that made people (including myself!) feel hopeful, and inspire them to take action.

2) What was the initial inspiration for starting your blog?

My neighbor, Jory Des Jardins, is one of the Founders of BlogHer. Her blog, Pause (http://www.jorydesjardins.com), was the first blog I’d ever read. Before that, I’d only heard about blogs on the news in relation to what happened to Dan Rather, but after I read Jory’s blog, I realized that blogs could be a fun means of self-expression. It’s also a great medium for me because I like sharing resources with people, and linking makes it so easy to share articles, web sites, etc.

3) What motivates you to interview other people rather than writing about yourself?

Once in a while I write about my own experience, but overall, I find it much more interesting and inspiring to meet and write about other people. Also, most of the interviews I put on my blog are transcripts of my podcast, the Big Vision Podcast (http://bigvisionpodcast.libsyn.com). I enjoy sharing interviews in both mediums. Audio interviews allow you to get a better feeling for the person’s personality and energy, while written interviews allow you to (a) pause, reread and absorb what they are saying, and (b) share it with others more easily. I love podcasts, but I don’t think anyone has ever forwarded me a link to a podcast, but they do forward blog posts.

4) What do you hope readers will take with them after reading your blog?

I hope that they will feel like they have the power to make the world a better place, and be encouraged by the positive change others have been able to make.

5) What's your business? How difficult do you think it is for people to find work in environmentally-friendly or socially-responsible fields?

I do a variety of things. I write for my own blog Have Fun * Do Good
(http://havefundogood.blogspot.com), BlogHer
(http://www.blogher.com/blog/britt-bravo), and the NetSquared Blog
(http://www.netsquared.org/blog/britt-bravo.) I also produce my own podcast, The Big Vision Podcast (http://bigvisionpodcast.libsyn.com/), the Arts and Healing Podcast (http://artheals.libsyn.com), and the NetSquared Podcast (http://netsquared.libsyn.com). I am also NetSquared’s Community Builder.

In addition, I provide consulting for organizations, and career counseling for individuals to help them fulfill their “Big Vision.” I also speak and do trainings about how nonprofits and activists can use use Web 2.0 tools for their work, and about how to figure out and do work that fulfills your Big Vision.

I don’t think it is any harder to find work in environmentally friendly, or socially responsible fields than in other areas. I find that most people have more trouble with fear about changing careers, than they do about finding the work they want once they’ve decide to take the leap.

6) What signs do you see that give you optimism for the future of our world?

I have a lot of hope in Generation Y. I recently facilitated a career counseling session for a group of Stanford students who were spending their "alternative spring break" meeting with social entrepreneurs in the Bay Area
(http://soceasb.blogspot.com). I was really inspired by them, and by people like Jon Warnow, who recently spoke at the San Francisco Net Tuesday about how he and a group of friends created the Step It Up campaign during college.

7) Is there an interview with any particular person that changed your life personally?

I suppose the first person I interviewed for the Big Vision Podcast, Alli Chagi-Starr, the co-founder of Art in Action (http://artinactioncamp.org), changed my life because she agreed to be my first interview, when I was just learning how to produce a podcast. I really appreciated that she believed in my Big Vision, even though I didn’t entirely know what I was doing at the time!

 

 

Dear (Blue Vinyl DVD Distributor) New Video,

New Video
687 Marshall Avenue
Williston, VT 05495

To whom it may concern:

Thank you so much for the Blue Vinyl DVD. I am looking forward to sharing it with my friends and helping them to become aware of the problems created by PVC production, use, and disposal.

As you can see, I am returning these packaging materials to you. I appreciate the effort to protect the DVD during shipment. However, it has been my experience that DVDs travel very well in only a simple case without an extra box or plastic packaging material.

In my efforts to tread lightly on the earth, I am seeking to reduce the amount of waste I produce considerably. I find extra packaging of this kind to be unnecessary and, in this case, kind of ironic considering the subject matter of the DVD. And while I realize that the plastic air cushions in the box are made from LDPE rather than PVC, nevertheless, they are plastic, which is not biodegradable and will last in the environment forever, whether it is recycled or not.

I urge you to rethink the amount of packaging used to ship DVDs in the future.

Thanks so much,

Beth Terry
 

 

Week 47 Results: .05 oz of plastic waste and A CONTEST

So the million dollar question is: Why do organic bananas come with a little bit of plastic around the stems when regular bananas do not? Inquiring minds want to know. There's plenty of speculation, but I haven't heard the definitive answer from an expert. So here's the contest: Since I don't actually have a million dollars to spend, I'll give away your choice of Sierra Club's Hey Mr. Green, which I reviewed last week, or the Ridley plastic bag carrier, also reviewed last week, to the first person who can find the answer to the banana question. It must be an answer from an actual expert. A produce clerk might be okay if they really seem like they know the answer and are not just speculating out of thin air. But I'd really like the answer to come from someone in the banana industry, and I just don't have the time to find out for myself. I'm sure the rest of FPF readers will thank you for your efforts. Oh, and Terrible Person, I think you are automatically disqualified because you live with me, so while I welcome your research skills, you can't win the prize.

All right, here's last week's tally. It's all new plastic.

• 2 pieces of plastic from a couple bunches of organic bananas


• 1 strip of tape from a package that was sent to me (But at this point I can't remember which package it was.)


• 1 plastic wrap from the opening of a Preserve toothbrush container


• 1 bandaid and 1 piece of medical tape from donating blood last Monday. There is soooo much plastic involved in giving blood, but this is the only type I brought home with me. In fact, I plan to write more about plastic tubing and medical bags later this week because some of the plastic issues are quite troublesome.

That's it for last week. I'm 5 weeks away from the 1-year anniversary of FPF! What should we do to celebrate? Let's start planning the party now!
 

 

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!