Clothesnik saves plastic, if only dry cleaners would use it!

Way back in October, my friend Doug from BuyGreen.com, one of the advertisers on this blog, sent me a Clothesnik canvas garment bag to try out. I finally had a chance to use it last week. We haven't taken clothes to the cleaners since July of last year! Unfortunately, it took a while to find a green cleaner that would actually use the bag. More on that later. First, I want to tell you about the Clothesnik.

The Clothesnik is a 100% cotton garment bag and laundry bag in one. Toss dirty clothes into it and tie up the bag using the strings at the bottom. Or use it clean as a garment bag to replace the disposable plastic bags the cleaners give out. If you don't want to pay for the laundry service to clean the Clothesnik bag, wash it at home and return with it to pick up the clean clothes. Or don't use it as a laundry bag. There are just so many options.

Our problem was finding a cleaner to use it correctly in the first place. A while back I wrote about green cleaner Blue Sky, which uses CO2 to clean clothes, one of the most environmentally-friendly methods. They also pick up and drop off clothes at your home or office. I thought surely they'd be excited about the Clothesnik.

I thought wrong.

Blue Sky Cleaners would have nothing to do with it. When I explained that its purpose is to save plastic bag waste, which is another environmental problem, the response was that their system was fixed and would not allow for different treatment for individual customers. I did not let that go. I pressed my argument, even letting them know that I would have to tell my readers on Fake Plastic Fish about this policy. The woman's response was, "Well, you have to do what you have to do." So okay, I just did what I just did.

Looking for another cleaner that does not use toxic chemicals, we came across the French Cleaners up the street from us on Claremont Avenue.


The employee who answered the phone told me that the company uses only water, no chemicals. Great! We took our clothes and our Clothesnik there, hoping for the best. In the shop window, we found the following sign:


Even better! The woman who took our clothes was very excited by the Clothesnik and thought it was a great idea. And we were excited about the French Cleaners. Unfortunately, just before I left the shop, I asked, "You'll use only water, right? Even on these wool pants?" She responded, "Oh, no water on these. We send them out. But no chemicals. No perc, no chemicals."

My heart sank a little bit. Because as I discussed in my previous post, there are several different options which tout themselves as green and are anything but. Since the employee could not tell me exactly which method was being used, I couldn't know for sure if it would be environmentally-friendly or not. We left the clothes anyway and went home.

Returning a few days later to pick up our clean clothes, I received them on hangers, plastic-free, but also Clothesnik-free. "Where's the canvas bag I left to put the clothes in?" "Oh, right!" the employee responded. "I forgot it!" She searched the shelves and found our Clothesnik neatly folded. No big deal. We put the clothes in it for the trip home. But I could see it might take some effort to help clothes cleaners learn to use the Clothesnik.

One last time, I tried to engage the woman about the cleaning method used. She didn't have more information and wouldn't give me any contact information for the owner either. After looking over the comments left on my previous post, I am seriously motivated to try some of the home cleaning methods suggested. Lauri posted a long explanation of how she cleans wool. I may have to try it, of course looking for a non-toxic soap that doesn't come in a plastic bottle!
 

Love the Ocean, Use Less Plastic

My friend Eli Saddler from OceanHealth.org wants you to make this a plastic-free Valentine's Day in 2009. Here are some tips from The FaceBook event he created:

Show your love for that special someone in your life and the ocean on this Valentine's Day.

Love the Ocean, Use Less Plastic:

1. Bring your reusable bag when you go shopping and/or say "no" when offered a plastic bag.

2. Pick a non-plastic gift to show your love. Really, is plastic the way to say, "I love you"?

3. How about wrapping your gift in a reusable shopping bag?

4. If you live near the ocean, take the time to visit and have a romantic walk on the beach, go surfing, go wildlife watching, or just to watch the sun set. Maybe even take a couple of minutes to pick up some marine debris while you're there or to even join a beach cleanup that weekend (check your local Surfrider for info: www.surfrider.org).

5. If you go out to dinner, remember to order only sustainable seafood (if you order it at all) and bring your own container for leftovers.

6. Consider donating on behalf of your love to the ocean charity of your choice.

7. Share this event with your friends all over the world to spread the word.

The ocean thanks you and loves you back. ;-)

Feel free to R.S.V.P. on the FaceBook page to show your support for this event. And then forward the invite.

Oh, and Fake Plastic Fish wants to add one more thing to the Valentine's list: Please use birth control when showing your love. It doesn't help to save a plastic bag and then bring an unwanted child into the world.

Okay, end of lecture.

P.S. The beautiful tattoo flash was designed by Karen Roze at Sacred Rose Tattoo in Berkeley. I'm thinking I might need to take a little trip over there and add some more ink to my own skin. For the ocean, of course!
 

Dec 18: Day Without A (Disposable) Bag

Have you all seen the recent article in the NY Times about the decreased market for recycled materials? Apparently, much of the cardboard, newspaper, metals, and plastic that we toss in our recycling bins is piling up and making its way to landfills, as recycling contractors are unable to find buyers for the stuff.

I've said it before. Recycling is important, but it's not the final answer. Decreasing our dependence on disposables in the first place is more important now than ever. And one of our first steps can be giving up, and encouraging others to give up, disposable bags.

Heal The Bay in Los Angeles County has declared December 18 a Day Without A Bag. Read what they have to say about it, and then continue reading to find out how you can stage your own "Day Without A Bag."

Day Without A Bag, held annually in the month of December, is a public awareness campaign to urge shoppers to give a present to the environment, in the spirit of the holiday season, by foregoing disposable plastic and paper bags in favor of reusable totes.

Single-use plastic bags were first introduced in 1977 and now account for four out of every five grocery bags handed out at grocery stores. Public agencies in California spend more than $300 million annually in litter cleanup. Fewer than 5% of plastic grocery bags are recycled each year, so the remainder clogs precious landfill, litters public spaces and harms animal life when the bags blow into waterways. Paper bags, while biodegradable, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and water pollutants during the production process.

Last year’s Day Without A Bag was successfully launched by a coalition of community groups, environmental organizations and local governments in Los Angeles County. Tens of thousands of reusable bags were handed out at more than a dozen high-profile shopping centers throughout the region and included a diverse mix of retailers including Ralphs, Whole Foods, 99 Cents Only and Bed Bath & Beyond chains.

This inaugural event laid a strong foundation for subsequent campaigns against the proliferation of single-use shopping bags and created momentum at the local and state level for advancing legislation.

In addition to participating in this year's Day Without A Bag in Southern California, why not plan and hold your own? Get your community to participate. Or your school. Hold it whenever it is convenient for you. Why wait until next December?

I met Heal The Bay's Sonia Diaz at the CAPP (Campaign Against the Plastic Plague) Conference in October. During her presentation, she explained the steps for creating a Day Without A Bag, and she was kind enough to forward me materials as well as her contact info for anyone who is interested in making Day Without A Bag happen where you live:

• Day Without A Bag info & materials on Heal The Bay web site


• Steps For Day Without A Bag (PDF file)


• Letter to City Seeking Resolution (editable Word doc)


• Day Without a Bag sample resolution (editable Word doc)

Sonia Diaz
Legislative Associate
Heal the Bay
Ph: (310) 451-1500 x 165
Fax: (310) 496-1902
E-mail: sdiaz[at]healthebay[dot]org

So, if you live in Southern California, please spread the word about December 18. And if you don't, consider creating your own Day Without A Bag wherever you live. And then let us know about it!
 

Report from the North Pacific Gyre. Join the Posse!

Monday night, researchers Dr. Marcus Ericksen and Anna Cummins from the Algalita Marine Research Foundation brought their presentation to the Marin Humane Society to share with us their findings from several trips out to the North Pacific Gyre, aka the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. To the left is a photo of actual objects removed from the carcasses of dead Laysan albatrosses. How a bird eats a toothbrush, I don't know. But it truly saddens me.

Green Sangha's Stuart Moody wrote up a terrific summary of the information presented, which I share with you here:

Waste & Recycling
Half of the plastic made every year goes to landfill. One quarter of it is "unaccounted for" (litter, blow-away, and otherwise lost). What about the 5% that gets recycled ? At Puente Hills, the nation's largest landfill, located in LA County, all of the baled plastic gets sent to China for recycling.

Plastic soup
Algalita estimates 2.5 million tons of plastic are circulating in the North Pacific Gyre. This gyre is one of 9 such systems on the earth's oceans. In 1999, Algalita discovered a ratio of 6:1 plastic to zooplankton in the gyre. This year, they found 46:1. This measure, though, is an imperfect one, as zooplankton populations can vary greatly, with bloom-bust fluctuations. Surface density of plastics is a more accurate count. From 2000 to 2008 the concentration has doubled, from .002 g/m2 to .004.

Not a small matter
Particulate pollution is a special concern because although particles become invisible they still affect the ecosystem. The second most observed form of marine plastic litter is plastic sheeting, from bags or other plastic film. This suggests that plastic bags and wrappers degrading in the ocean could be one of the chief sources of plastic pollution in the food chain, as filter feeders will ingest these particles in their processing of sea water.

Networks of trash
Not all marine debris has been degraded to dust, filament, and fiber. On Hawaii's Kamilo Beach, probably the dirtiest beach in the world, the plastic litter can be waist-high. Out on the ocean, Algalita researchers find "net boluses" -- great tangles of lost or discarded fishing net sometimes as big as a van. These can weigh up to 2 tons, and entrap many creatures (as well as providing a living space!).

Marine impacts
On the Junk's summer voyage to Hawaii, 1/3 of 500 lantern fish sampled had plastic pieces in their bodies, averaging about 13/specimen. The record holder had 84 pieces. The lantern fish is prey for swordfish, salmon, and tuna, meaning that plastics are getting into our food supply. In total, over 267 marine animal species have been documented ingesting or getting entangled in plastic debris.

Making a clean sweep
Can't we just trawl the ocean and pick up all the litter? The affected area, in the No. Pacific Gyre alone, is twice the size of the United States -- the equivalent of about 9 million football fields. How practical can it be to drag nets across such a vast territory? Tankers, for example, get about 60 feet/gallon of fuel. Do we want to burn more fuels trying to make up for the mis-spending of fuels in the production of waste? And what would happen to all the biomass captured in such a massive sweep of the ocean's surface? Clearly other ideas are needed.

I say, how a Plastic-free Posse?

Let's grow a group of bloggers who care about the issue of plastics and are willing to write about it on their blogs. As I said two days ago, we need more plastic-free voices. How about starting with the folks who came to the presentation Monday night?

Katrina from Kale For Sale was there, and she has become the first member of the Plastic-free Posse. (See my right sidebar.)

Ian, aka Nolij was there too, despite a fractured foot, requiring him to get around on this ingenious scooter. What do you say, Nolij? Want to join the Posse?

So this is how it can work. You don't have to blog about plastic all the time. If plastic is simply one part of your blogging universe, then be willing to label or tag your plastic-related posts with one word: Plastic. Check out Kale For Sale to see how it's done. Then, let me know, and I'll link to your plastic-labeled posts on my sidebar. That way, many more voices can be heard from folks who aren't as singly-focused as I am.

Simply creating Plastic labels and tags can create ripples in the blogosphere which, I hope, will then make their way out into the real world. Who's on board?
 

A peek at plastic in Barcelona: guest post by Bibi Rogers

In May, I wrote here about Bibi Rogers, who created the company 4U2ReUSE to try and help reduce plastic bag waste. Bibi just got back from Barcelona, Spain, where she noticed waste reductions efforts as well as areas for improvement. I thought it would be cool to have her share her story here, as she is passionate about finding solutions to the plastic problem. A round of applause, please, for Bibi!

I recently traveled from my current home in Delray Beach, Florida, to my hometown, Barcelona, Spain. It was an important trip: In addition I was going to reveal to my dear mum that after all those years in medical school, surgical college, earning my PhD, I decided to join the anti-plastic campaign. I’d ditched my job as a surgeon and founded a company called 4U2ReUSE to sell plastic bag carriers on the Internet, encouraging people to reuse their existing plastic bags instead of acquiring new ones, and raising awareness about the adverse effects plastic waste has on our environment.

The trip started well. We landed in Madrid and Daniel, my 3-year-old, decided he needed to go to the loo just before we got our passports stamped. To my surprise, the bathroom had glass soap dispensers attached to the wall, as well as non-plastic feminine hygiene products in a metal dispenser (I couldn’t help it—I actually purchased one to check).

I also noticed recycling signed bins all throughout the airport. Nice, I thought. We took another flight and shortly arrived in Barcelona, where my mum, aunt, and brother found us at the airport and welcomed us.

During my stay, I kept an eye on how the Catalan (that’s how you call the people from Catalonia on the North East of Spain) use and reuse plastic. Water: refillable glass containers. Check.

Yogurts: glass containers. Check. Recycling: many recycling containers for glass, paper and plastic and people used them. Check. Food wrap: Not so good—loads of cling filmed chicken, etc. It was similar to the average supermarket in Florida. But by and large, so far so good.

Then the inevitable happened—we had to go shopping for food. And oh my—plastic bags a galore! But even worse? “Expensive” plastic bags galore. You know the ones: the green-colored, so-called “eco-friendly” bags branded with some “eco” name, like “eco-rock,” “eco-flower,” or “eco-safe.” I say, “eco-bunk.” People were paying for these bags, and truly believed they were being environmentally conscious. But as is often the case, they weren’t looking closely at the labels: 100% non-woven polyester. I actually asked a couple of shoppers—to the absolute horror of my mum—if they knew what the bags were really made of. They all thought cotton. I had to sit down to have some xocolata amb ensaïamada, and I was relieved to see that my cutlery was non-plastic and all drinks were poured from glass bottles into glass cups.

Later in my trip, the unavoidable chat with mum eventually happened—at my late father’s studio/office of all places! (Ironically for me, my father worked in plastics throughout his life, he started as an architect but became successful as an industrial engineer designing molds for injection plastic machines.) I tried to convince mum to believe me, explaining to her how important this cause is to me.

As I a talked with her, I looked around my father’s studio and observed a large four-foot spoon and fork set hanging from the wall that looked like wood, a framed bendy striped-straw, a fake wall clock, a fake wall thermometer—all those things were the result of my father’s injection-mold designs. But if he’d known better, I know he would have joined our crusade. She was looking to me all perplexed, with watery eyes and I closed my eyes expecting to hear her yelling “Mare meva” to feel her arms start moving like windmills but no, she hugged me, she hugged me dearly.

My memorable visit to my hometown made it clear that, as is the case in the States, plastic is not completely out of Barcelona. So needless to say, there is a lot of work to be done. And fast! It’s in each and everyone’s home where one has to start their fight.

The photo above shows a sign that translates, "Don’t get the walls dirty. Cleanliness is a great sign of civilization."

Thanks for your story, Bibi. And speaking of cleanliness, this month's Carnival of Trash is up over at Mrs. Green's blog, My Zero Waste. Check it out. The carnival will be hosted here at Fake Plastic Fish next month, so please send your trashy posts via the carnival submission form. The deadline is September 12.
 

Calling Californians: please take a minute to support plastic bag legislation!

Hi all. Last week, I got an email from Californians Against Waste urging me to send a letter in support of AB 2058, the California bill to protect the environment from plastic bag pollution. I wrote and faxed my letter last week and didn't even think of forwarding the request here. Duh! Here's a copy of the letter I sent, which is partially copied from the sample that CAW sent me.

This afternoon, I received an email from my friend Benn at Chicobags urging bloggers to spread the word. So this is me doing just that! Here's the letter from Benn. Please follow the links to either send your own letter or use the form on the Heal The Bay web site provided. It will only take a few minutes. This is important legislation and necessary, since the plastic bag industry has taken legal action against towns like Oakland and Fairfax that have tried to pass their own bag bans.

Action Alert: Please consider sharing this important plastic bag news with others via blogs, email, etc.

Big oil and plastic bag manufacturers are digging into their deep pockets to fund a campaign against AB 2058. They bought radio spots on stations in LA, and probably beyond. They're spreading misleading information about the bill and plastic bags.

We're in the home stretch for AB 2058, a California bill that will protect the environment from paper and plastic bags! Bills must be out of the legislature by August 22. Click here to get your representative's contact info and let them know you support AB 2058. It doesn't take much, just write "I support AB 2058 and urge you to vote yes," and you've done your part for the environment!

Please post and distribute this message on blogs, websites, list serves, etc. We need letters and support to get the bill passed!

It's easy to support AB 2058!

Under AB 2058, large grocery stores and pharmacies would be required to charge a 25 cent fee for paper and plastic grocery bags, the proceeds of which would be used for local litter reduction, cleanup and prevention programs. This fee-based approach has encouraged shoppers to bring their own reusable bags and has reduced plastic bag consumption in Ireland by over 90%.

Can I count on you Californians to do it? Here's an incentive. I've got 3 jars of Fudge Is My Life chocolate sauce (the best fudge sauce in the world) with your names on them. At the end of the week, I will send them to 3 randomly selected readers who leave a comment on this blog stating that they sent the letter to their representative and that they passed along the info to at least 5 other people. Do this bit for the environment and make your mouth really happy at the same time!
 

Blue Sky Cleaners: Non-toxic and Plastic-free?

Nowadays, I stick to buying clothes that can be washed at home rather than dry cleaned. Dry cleaning is expensive and environmentally harmful. But I do still have several items of clothing, as well as some wool blankets, that cannot be machine laundered at home, and for those I need a good outside cleaner.

In the past, I have taken clothes to the dry cleaner down the street, not thinking about much more than the fact that I didn't want any plastic bag covering my clothes. The cleaner would comply with my request, and I'd do an extra bit by returning my used hangers to them. This takes care of the waste problem, but not the more serious problem of the toxic chemicals used in the cleaning process itself.

Thanks to Big Green Purse, I've learned a lot about dry cleaning recently. Which is great because I was almost taken in by the "green cleaner" down the street. Rockridge Royal Cleaners on College Ave has posters in its windows touting the DF-2000 "green" alternative to perchloroethylene ("perc").

Granted perc is nasty stuff which, according to Big Green Purse, has been linked to reproductive problems, disorders of the central nervous system, and has been listed by the EPA as a probably human carcinogen. In fact, the state of California is phasing it out.

But DF-2000 is not the answer. Manufactured by ExxonMobil, it is a petroleum product that "may present a fire hazard and emit volatile organic chemicals that contribute to smog." And another supposedly green method, GreenEarth (siloxane D5) may not be the answer either. The EPA is assessing a possible link to cancer.

The only two processes considered environmentally preferable by the EPA are 1) Wet cleaning, which uses water and biodegradable detergents, and 2) Liquid CO2 cleaning. The problem is that businesses using these methods are currently hard to find. In my neighborhood, there are none at all. But checking out the East Bay Eco Metro Guide, I did find a company, Blue Sky Cleaners, which uses both non-toxic methods and which picks up and drops off clothing at your doorstep. Certainly, walking my clothes down the street would be environmentally preferable than having a van pick up and drop them off. But until more companies switch to less toxic methods, this is what we'll have to do.

So, we've got the toxic chemicals out of the way, but what about the plastic? Blue Sky leaves its customers a reusable bag for their dirty clothes. But the clean clothes are delivered in plastic bags. When signing up for the service, I did request no plastic, but I guess the message wasn't relayed.

So I called Blue Sky and discussed the issue. I wondered why they couldn't skip the hangers and simply fold my clothes and return them to me in the blue bag. But they didn't want to do that since the blue bags have contained soiled clothing. I've suggest they have "clean" reusable bags as well as "dirty" reusable bags. In the meantime, they have promised to deliver my clothes folded in paper bags that I can return to the company for reuse, with no plastic.

I plan to hold onto these particular plastic bags and send them back to the company the next time, which will actually be a very long time from now, we so rarely dry clean.

Have you found non-toxic dry cleaning in your area? Or have you given up all clothes requiring dry cleaning in the first place? I can't bring myself to get rid of perfectly good clothes that I love and that I already own just because of the cleaning method. What do you think?
 

16-year old discovers plastic-eating microbe: Is this the answer to our plastic problem?

Last week, Daniel Burd, a 16-year old Canadian student, won the top prize at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in Ottawa for his discovery of microbes that will break down polyethylene bags. This article in The Record explains his procedure and how he was able to isolate the specific microbes that will break down the plastic. So far, his microbes have achieved a 43% degradation of the plastic after 6 weeks. Burd theorizes that in 6 more weeks, the plastic would be completely gone, although he has yet to prove that.

First, I want to congratulate Daniel for his hard work on behalf of the environment and for possibly achieving what so far adult scientists have not been able to. Amazing. Being able to biodegrade plastics without the use of toxic heavy metal additives (as are used in oxo-degradable plastics) could be a useful tool in cleaning up the plastic mess we have already created.

But does this mean that plastic bags are now off the hook and that plastic packaging has been redeemed? Can we continue to use as much of it as we want guilt-free? Plastic is still made from oil, a non-renewable resource. It's manufacture uses energy and creates pollution in the form of pre-production plastic pellets, aka nurdles, that can escape and cause harm to the marine environment. And unlike paper bags which biodegrade easily and naturally when exposed to the elements, plastic bags will need to be processed in a controlled way at a temperature of 37°C (99°F) because the microbes that break them down don't exist in abundance in the natural world, certainly not in the cold ocean.

Daniel's discovery could be good news for the environment, but only if it's used as a way to break down the plastic waste that already exists and isn't simply used as an excuse to create more. When asked the question, "Paper or plastic?" we're learning to answer, "Neither. I have my own reusable bag." Paper is biodegradable, but we don't use biodegradability as a reason to cut down more trees for bags. Biodegradable plastic, whether made from corn or sugar or now possibly oil, shouldn't be squandered either.
 

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!
 

Environmental Children's Books, Part 2: Teach Them To Recycle and Bring Their Own Bag

Here are the next two environmental kids' books, as promised.

Michael Recycle, by Ellie Bethel, illustrated by Alexandra Colombo. Green Bean may think that my Michael is a super hero for encouraging his firm to stop buying bottled water. But this big picture book is about a new super hero, Michael Recycle, who flies into trashy towns in his green cape and colander hat and, in Suess-like rhyme, teaches everyone to recycle and garden and collect rainwater. Then, when the town is sparkling again, they throw a big old party to celebrate. In fact, instead of buying streamers,

They covered the town
In green toilet paper
Then rolled it back up
To use again later.

You may think that's yucky
But these folks don't agree
In Abberdoo-Rimey
Recycling is key!

While the pictures in this book are fantastic fun and the Go Green Tips at the end are useful, I would have liked to have seen more emphasis on waste reduction and reuse before recycling.

They recycled their paper,
Their plastic and cans,
And even old junk
Like used pots and pans!

I'm not crazy about the word "junk" used to describe stuff that we may not need to keep for ourselves anymore. And recycling pots and pans? Doesn't Michael know about Freecycle? He is, after all, a super hero. But maybe I've become more hardcore than the average bear. And from what I see on the streets of Oakland, it's challenging enough to get kids to put their trash in a garbage can, much less recycle it. This book is a good start for getting the environmental message across.

I'll be donating it to the Oakland library this weekend, per Burbanmom's Giving Challenge.

Oh, and yesterday, when reviewing the two animal books, I forgot to talk about the production of the books themselves. One was printed in Mexico and the other in Singapore. Michael Recycle was printed in Korea. And, for a book about recycling, I was surprised that it's not itself printed on recycled paper. Or if it is, that fact was not mentioned anywhere in the book or press materials I received. Hmm... sort of like the seminar on "greening your law firm" that Michael and I attended where bottled water and plastic-wrapped sandwiches were served while the panelists talked about eliminating plastic bottles from the workplace. There are the ideals that we espouse, but if they don't translate into concrete changes, what good are they?

Okay, enough soap box. Michael Recycle is a really cute book and I think it would be a good addition to any school library.

The next book, which coincidentally organicneedle mentioned in a comment on my post yesterday, is My Bag and Me!, by Karen Farmer, illustrated by Gary Grant. It doesn't say what ages it's geared toward, but the heavy cardboard pages and pictures of the little boy suggest to me (a non-parent) that it's for small children. This book encourages kids not only to recycle, but to refuse disposable bags in the first place:

Let's take a trip
to our favorite store,
where My Bag and Me say,
"Paper and plastic no more!"

The secret to My Bag And Me is the hidden pull-out tray in the back that contains a child-sized resuable bag they can take to the store with them. I love the idea of this, not to mention the cuteness. But I'm less enthusiastic about the materials.

The reusable bag is made of Dupont Tyvek, the type of plastic that many large postal envelopes are made from. The cover of the book states, "This book and the reusable Tyvek bag are 100% recyclable!" What you don't realize until you read the fine print (if you read the fine print) is that Tyvek is only recyclable by mailing it back to Dupont. I devoted a whole post to Tyvek in October of last. It's worthwhile to read if you haven't already.

And notice that the book is advertised as "recyclable" rather than being made from recycled materials. So I contacted the PR rep who sent it to me and asked about the materials used as well as the decision to have it printed in China. These were her responses:

1) On using Tyvek to make the bag: Natural fibers, like cotton or hemp, were too bulky. The book would have been enormous and very heavy, not to mention the extra amount of paper needed to create the tray cavity. There is a marking on the bottom of the bag with an 800 number for recycling Tyvek information. Our hope, however, is that these bags will have a very long life as a shopping bag.

2) On the shiny coating on the cardboard pages: The coating is a plastic film, otherwise known as PP lamination. PP, or Polypropylene lamination is non-toxic and the same goes for the glue, ink and paper used in these books. The paper is made of C1S ( coated paper, one side), and Natura board.

3) On having the book manufactured in China: Cost was the deciding factor for printing in China. We would never have been able to produce this book here, and sell it at the cover price of $10.95. The manufacturer is ICTI audited which gives credibility and they can issue a letter guaranteeing that the materials used are non-toxic and certificates for the materials themselves.

Organicneedle wrote a bit about this book back in March, and then she came up with a list of ways to make your own reusable bags for kids out of reused materials or natural fabrics. Anyway, it's a cute idea, perhaps not executed in the manner hardcore environuts like me would prefer, but useful nonetheless for getting kids accustomed to bringing their own bags.

I offer this book as another freebie to a Fake Plastic Fish reader. It's not really appropriate for donating to the library because of the bag that needs to be removed and used. So please leave a comment and let me know if you'd like it. Or email me directly at beth[at]fakeplasticfish[dot]com and let me know.

And finally, here's an ACTION ALERT for anyone concerned about keeping commercial advertising/product placements out of kids' books. Harper Collins has announced its plans to publish a series of books for young girls called MacKenzie Blue, in which, according to this New York Times article, "...product placement is very much a part of the plan. Tina Wells, chief executive of Buzz Marketing Group, which advises consumer product companies on how to sell to teenagers and preteenagers, will herself be the author of titles in the series filled with references to brands. She plans to offer the companies that make them the chance to sponsor the books."

To read about the campaign and to protest the publication of these books, please visit Commercial Alert and take action.
 

National Geographic: You're green. But could you be a little greener?

National Geographic publishes the Green Guide, a wonderful source for information on environmentally-friendly living. I've consulted the Green Guide often for information from PVC to PFCs. And National Geographic publishes articles on environmental issues, such as "Oceans Awash With Microscopic Plastic, Scientists Say".

So it was particularly disturbing for me to receive an email from Fake Plastic Fish reader Ashley Christenson yesterday telling me about the plastic "polybag" that the National Geographic magazine comes wrapped in. Ashley wrote a letter to National Geographic and gave me permission to reproduce it, as well as National Geographic's response here:

March 17, 2008
Dear National Geographic,

I always enjoy receiving the National Geographic magazine in the mail. I find it informative and it has raised my awareness about many important issues. I was glad to see you report on the mass of high tech waste we produce and its effects on the world. One issue that I think needs more attention is our unending use of disposable plastic. Plastic bags can't be recycled to make new plastic bags. We keep making more and more virgin plastic that eventually pollutes and does not biodegrade. Would you please consider going back to mailing your magazine in the brown paper cover? At least paper can be recycled into new paper and it does biodegrade. Every little bit
helps!

Sincerely,
Ashley Christenson

Here is National Geographic's response:

On Mar 18, 2008, at 4:17 AM, ngsforum@nationalgeographic.com wrote:

Thank you for contacting the National Geographic Society.

We appreciate your concern for the environment and our use of polybags (the plastic magazine wrappers). Because more states are allowing this material to be recycled, and because we have experienced problems with the paper wrappers, the polybags seem to be a possible option. The polyethylene wrappers are not unlike grocery bags in that they are recyclable if there is a local drop-off for doing so.

Our circulation staff is extremely interested in feedback such as yours, which I will pass along to them. Again, we appreciate the concern that prompted your e-mail.

Ashley followed up with a second letter, which has yet to be answered:

April 6, 2008
Dear National Geographic,

Thank you for responding to my email. I realize that recycling is available in some areas but the fact remains that recycling takes energy which creates more pollution. Plastic usually ends up in landfills or the ocean where it leaches chemicals and harms wildlife. I often receive unwrapped mail order catalogs in my mailbox and they are never wrinkled or water damaged so I don't understand the benefit of wrapping your magazine. Please reconsider your options...sometimes less is better!
Sincerely,
Ashley Christenson

Following Ashley's lead, I sent my own letter to National Geographic this afternoon asking why they need any kind of cover to begin with, and noting the inconsistency of writing about the harmfulness of plastic in the environment while at the same time wrapping their magazine in unnecessary plastic.

Please send your own brief letter to National Geographic to ask them to stop wrapping their magazines in plastic. You can email: ngsforum@nationalgeographic.com

Or you can send a letter to one of these two addresses:

Customer Service Office
National Geographic Society
P.O. Box 63002
Tampa, FL 33663-3002

Headquarters
National Geographic Society
P.O. Box 98199
Washington D.C. 20090-8199
fax: 1-202-828-5460

The distribution director is named Michael Swarr.

It warms my fake plastic heart when I hear about folks writing letters, as well as follow-up letters, to companies to ask for the changes that we want to see. In a few days, or maybe next week, I'll have an update on the Brita filter recycling campaign.
 

Bag Monsters afoot...

Have you seen the plastic Bag Monster? I see it all over the place. Blowing down the street, clogging the gutter, floating in Lake Merritt, and even hiding in my own kitchen. I shot this quick footage of a Bag Monster battle taking place on the steps of SF City Hall last November:


But seriously. I've written about plastic bags before, and I think that most folks reading this blog already have strong opinions about them. But recently, I've come across some stories on the web that sum up the problems of plastic bags eloquently and comprehensively, and I'd like to share them with you, as well as a story of a guy who's out busting the bag monster in a way that's humorous and attention-getting.

The first story is Plastic Bags Are Killing Us from Salon.com. It was forwarded to me by Green Mary, a woman I plan to write more about later. This article starts near my home with a description of a group fishing plastic bags out of Lake Merritt and goes on to give a terrific summary of the arguments against plastic bags as well counter-arguments and rebuttals. (Sound like a California election guide?) The video on the second page is worth watching, as a San Francisco recycling expert explains why plastic bags are such a problem in the recycling stream.

The next story is Paper or Plastic, a 5 minute radio piece from KQED, which was forwarded to me by an intern at the station. About the San Francisco plastic bag ban, it covers some of the same territory as the Salon piece with a cool interview a little over halfway through with Professor William Rathje, an archaeologist of garbage (garbologist) discussing what happens to trash in a landfill and why plastic bags are a blessing and a curse.

Benn Davenport is a Bag Monster Buster. On the site, BagMonsterBusters.com, he uses humor to inspire readers to "adopt a healthy reusable bag habit and support sensible bag laws that improve environmental health." In an email to me, he described his hopes and goals: I want people to laugh as we learn how to improve the environment, and most of all, I want people to feel hopeful and empowered! We can make all the change we desire in the world, and we'll be more successful with smiles on our faces."

I appreciate Benn's attitude. He works for ChicoBags, a company that makes reusable nylon tote bags that fold up into a little pouch for easy carrying. Personally, I probably wouldn't buy ChicoBags because I'd rather use bags made from natural fibers. Benn's response is, "I understand and agree with how you feel about ChicoBags but keep in mind the company's goal is to help 'mainstream' people kick the single-use bag habit by providing a bag [they] can bring with them anywhere. A bag that helps to create a consistent reusable bag habit." Another example of the shades of green.

And BagMonsterBusters.com is a great resource for anyone looking for further information on the plastic bag issue. Benn is keeping up with many different bag ban campaigns as well as posting as much info as he can get his hands on about plastic bags. Many cities throughout the world have either taken steps or are considering measures to lessen the impact of plastic bags. Is anything happening in your neck of the woods? And if not, why not? And what can you do about it?

Here are a couple of tools you can use personally from Green Sangha, a group I belong to. The first flyer, Don't Think About A Plastic Bag, is a PDF document that can be printed and given to anyone who has questions about the issue. And for those moments at the cash register when the clerk starts to bag your groceries in a plastic bag, you can kindly refuse the bag and hand him/her this smaller flyer, Why I Don't Use Plastic Bags.

What other ideas do you have about decreasing the presence of plastic bags where you live?
 

A Bittersweet Symphony called D2W

Back in September, I wrote about the plastic AT&T Yellow Pages bag that showed up on my doorstep unsolicited. Here's the update. I called the Yellow Pages, found out to whom I should write, and sent this letter (PDF file).

Not long afterwards, I actually received a telephone call from Jim Troup, the head of environmental issues for AT&T Yellow Pages. We had a long conversation about plastic bags, Yellow Pages recycling, and different types of degradable bags the company has tried. He told me he is researching alternatives to the plastic bags, and that they actually did an experiment up in Redding, California, with a bag made of a plastic called D2W. He called this plastic "chemo-degradable" rather than "bio-degradable" and said that AT&T was still looking for something fully biodegradable and would let me know when they'd made a decision.

Weeks went by, and I forgot about D2W plastic, until I received a comment and email from blogger Jessica at Bwlchyrhyd asking about this very product. So I figured I'd better look into it. D2W is a plastic made by a British company called Symphony Environmental Limited. It breaks down due to additives in the plastic that are added during the "extrusion stage of manufacture, when polymer granules are heated and melted to form packaging films." The web site calls these additives "metal salts." The metal salts cause the plastic polymers to break down to such a degree that eventually, micro-organisms can take over and finish the job biologically. The end product is "some H2O, some CO2, and a small amount of biomass." Here is a more detailed description of the degradation process.

Sounds great, right? Not so fast, pardner. Let's look at all the pieces of this description logically in light of what we know about all the problems of plastic.

First, what exactly are the "metal salts" that are added to the plastic, and can they leach out of the plastic while it's degrading? I contacted Symphony to find out the answer to this question and received this Word Document, Technical Paper “Heavy metals” and essential trace elements, which states that "the commonly used transition metal compounds in commercial oxo-biodegradable plastics are manganese, iron, cobalt and nickel." The paper goes on to explain why we should not be concerned about "heavy metals" being added to the plastic. Not being a chemist myself, I sent the paper to Solvig, a chemistry teacher I know, who wrote me the following:

The metal compounds are used to catalyze the breakdown of the plastic in the presence of light, heat and oxygen. Catalyst tends to be active in trace (extremely low) concentrations, but I don’t know if that is so in this particular product. If on the other hand there is a high concentration of nickel in the product, we will end up with high concentrations of nickel in the compost.

How would the nickel be taken up from the soil? The amount of nickel taken up by plants has little to do with its concentration in the soil. The accumulation of nickel in various parts of the plant remains constant whatever the concentration of nickel of the soil. [However,] the uptake of nickel from the soil by other organisms such as bacteria or other critters is not discussed.

They finish by saying: If you added degradable polyethylene film as mulching to the soil it would take 500 years to increase the nickel content of the soil by 1ppm. However, they don’t explain what they mean by that. How much biodegradable plastic are they talking about??? Just one little container, or a composting plant’s worth.

In an ideal world all the biodegradable plastic would be broken down in a composting plant, and the amount of nickel and cobalt released would depend on the amount of plastic in relation to the amount of other food and garden waste it is mixed with.

My feeling is that there is no danger of poisoning people when this stuff is broken down, but I don’t know since I don’t know what the concentration of metal is. Let’s stick with the precautionary principle and avoid single use items whether biodegradable or not.

So that's question #1: Will the metals present in the plastic prove toxic to us in the long run? At this point, I don't think we know. So many other additives in plastic, like phthalates and Bisphenol-A were once thought safe and are now being found to leach into our water and food.

Second, the web site description says that the metal salts are added during the "extrusion stage of manufacture, when polymer granules are heated and melted to form packaging films." Let's remember that D2W film is still being made from ordinary petroleum-based plastic granules, the same pellets commonly called "nurdles" that are being found in our oceans and taken up into the food chain. These raw plastic pellets do not contain any additive to help them break down. If they blow off a ship into the ocean, which they often do, they will remain there basically forever, attracting pollutants like PCB and DDE and concentrating them even as they enter the bodies of fish and other marine animals.

Any plastic film made from petroleum-based plastic contributes to the pollution of our oceans simply through the transportation of the raw material to the manufacturer. To state my opinion less formally, if we can't find some way to keep these little buggers from blowing about and washing down storm drains, we oughtn't be making things out of them.

Third, it takes energy and materials to create any disposable products, including products that biodegrade. Symphony's answer to the question of reusable bags (PDF) is this:

Long-term re-usable shopping bags are not the answer. They are much thicker and more expensive, and a large number of them would be required for the weekly shopping of an average family. They are not hygienic unless cleaned after each use. Whilst sometimes called “Bags for Life” they have a limited life, depending on the treatment they receive, and become a very durable form of litter when discarded.

Shoppers do not always go to the shop from home, where the re-usable bags would normally be kept, and consumers are unlikely to have a re-usable bag with them when buying on impulse items such as clothing, groceries, CDs, magazines, stationery etc.

However, for those who believe in long-term re-usable bags, they can be made from extended-life oxo-biodegradable plastic and will last for five or more years.

I disagree that long-term use reusable bags are not the answer. And the comment about reusable bags not being hygienic is just plain ridiculous. We are so germ-phobic that we can't have our produce touch material that's been previously used? Do we not realize that fruits and vegetables are plants that grow in dirt fertilized by manure?

I believe that reusable bags should be the number one alternative for carrying home purchases and perhaps some type of degradable bag could be a distant second for those who forget to bring their bags to the store and are willing to pay for a disposable one. I think we ought to be charging fees for one-time use bags and containers in the first place, which would help to remind folks to bring their bags with them.

What do you think?
 

Oakland Bag Ban + Send a note to Zip Car!

Here are my friend Nancy, a poor seagull, and I at the Oakland plastic bag ban press conference on the steps of City Hall this morning. (I've got to do something about my hair soon! I'm starting to look like one of the Partridge Family boys.) It was a beautiful, sunny day: a reprieve from all the rain we've been having.

You can watch ABC 7's disappointing (in my opinion) coverage of the press conference here: http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/media?id=5919632. They really seem to focus on the plastics industry's arguments against the ban rather than on promoters' arguments for it. And reusable bags barely get mentioned at all. Oh well.

On the bright side, businesses such as Whole Foods and City Car Share had representatives who spoke in favor of the ban today. Whole Foods, as you've probably already heard, is set to eliminate plastic bags in all of its stores by Earth Day this year.

And City Car Share has begun including reusable bags in all of its cars as a service to members. What a great idea! Unfortunately, I belong to Zipcar, not City Car Share, so I sent them an email suggesting they also provide bags. Here are my email and their prompt response:

Sent: Jan 26, 2008, at 02:31 AM
To: info@zipcar.com
From: Beth Terry
Subject: Reusable bags in ZipCars?

Dear Zipcar:

I just read that City Car Share is now including reusable shopping bags in each of its cars to encourage members to bring their own bags while shopping rathering than using disposable paper or plastic bags. Here is a link to the article:

http://www.citycarshare.org/newsletters/2007-10/

As a Zipcar member, I would truly appreciate if Zipcar could follow suit and provide a couple of reusable cloth bags in each of its cars.

Reusable bags are not expensive and imprinted with the Zipcar logo, would be a great advertising tool for the company. And providing the bags would be a real service to your members, helping to alleviate the problem of folks forgetting to bring their bags to the store with them.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this suggestion.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Terry
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

---

From: "Zipcar Member Services" info@zipcar.com
Subject: Re: Reusable bags in ZipCars?
Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:43:37 GMT

Dear Elizabeth,

Thanks for writing. That is a great idea Elizabeth. Although we cannot act on every suggestion immediately, perhaps you will see this same feature in our vehicles soon.

As you said, it would be convenient for those members that are doing errands and shopping and it also helps the environment as well. Please let us know if you have any other ideas Elizabeth.

Regards,
Sluaghan
Zipcar Member Services

members visit www.zipcar.com/help
or nonmembers www.zipcar.com/how

PS. Members are also able to submit web inquiries from the "Help" page
via the "Contact Us" screen http://www.zipcar.com/help/contact

---

If you're a Zipcar member, please use the above links to send a quick email requesting they stock reusable bags in their cars for members to use while grocery shopping. And if you're a City Car Share member, why not send City Car Share a letter thanking them for providing the service?
 

Extra! Extra! Locals needed at Oakland City Hall on Monday!

If you live in the SF Bay Area and have some time free Monday morning, your presence is requested on the steps of Oakland City Hall OR Hearing Room 1, on the first floor of City Hall in case of rain.

Please come with your reusable canvas bags in hand to show support for Oakland's plastic bag ban, which is being challenged in court by the plastics industry. I will be there with MY canvas bags in hand. It's great for us as individuals to voluntarily bring our own bags to the store with us. But we also need strong measures from our governments to eliminate the threat to the environment entirely.

PRESS RELEASE FROM:

---

Office of Councilmembers Nancy Nadel, District 3 and Jean Quan, District 4

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 25, 2008

CONTACT:
Marisa Arrona, (510) 238-7031
Policy Aide to Councilmember Nadel
ArronaM@oaklandnet.com

OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL ASSERTS PLASTIC BAG BAN IS RIGHT FOR OAKLAND AND RIGHT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

OAKLAND, CA — City Councilmembers Nancy Nadel (District 3) and Jean Quan (District 4) will hold a press conference Monday, January 28, 2008, at 10 am, at City Hall to affirm the City of Oakland’s commitment to reducing pollution, oil-consumption, blight, and global warming through its ban on single-use plastic bags.

On Tuesday, January 29, 2008, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch will consider the plastic bag industry’s lawsuit to stop the City’s ordinance banning the use of non-biodegradable carryout plastic bags at retail establishments in Oakland.

“The tide is turning internationally against the plastic bag glut in our environment, and Oakland will not be intimidated against doing our part to switch to reusable bags,” said Councilmember Nancy Nadel.

The plastic bag industry’s lawsuit claims that the City did not consider potential environmental impacts of banning plastic bags. However, the City determined that not only will a large scale reduction of plastic bags improve the environment, but there is no evidence that the plastic bag ban will harm the environment – and thus the plastic bag ban is exempt from environmental review.

The plastic bag ban was scheduled to go into effect on January 18, 2008, although the City has delayed enforcement pending a resolution of the lawsuit in the trial court.

“We’re hoping for the best decision from the Court, but regardless of the decision on Tuesday, we pledge to join a quarter of the world’s population that has already banned plastic bags,” said Councilmember Jean Quan, who co-authored the ordinance with Councilmember Nadel.

Oakland’s ordinance, passed on July 17, 2007, contains four elements:

• It bans the use of non-biodegradable plastic carry-out bags provided at the point of sale at retail establishments in Oakland that gross one million dollars or more.


• It encourages affected retail establishments to offer incentives to customers to use reusable bags.


• It allows the use of single-use paper bags, but stipulates that they must contain recycled content.


• Although it does not encourage or discourage their use, the Ordinance allows the use of biodegradable plastic bags.

A growing list of countries and foreign cities from Bangladesh to Zanzibar have already banned plastic bags, including China, Denmark, Ireland, South Africa, Taiwan, Singapore, Melbourne, and a number of East African countries. Recently, San Francisco banned the use of plastic bags and a growing number of other U.S. cities are now considering similar legislation. Just last week, Whole Foods, Inc., announced that it is phasing out the use of plastic bags in all of its stores nationwide by Earth Day, April 22, 2008. City Car Share, which helps reduce air pollution and gasoline consumption by reducing the number of cars on the road through car sharing in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco, now provides reusable bags for grocery shopping in all of its cars.

---

I'd love to see you there!
 

Evert Fresh Update

In my November 7 post about Evert Fresh bags, I expressed my frustration that people seeking to go plastic-free were buying these bags, believing that the bags were not made from petroleum-based plastic. I explained that this mistaken belief came from misleading or missing information on various web sites.

I'm now happy to report that after many emails and phone calls to these companies, at least three web sites have been updated with the correct information. Greenfeet was the first to fix their listing on Amazon.com, rewording the description to state that the "bags are made from a low-density polyethylene plastic (#4) impregnated with a natural clay based mineral that absorbs ethylene." Now, it appears that while Greenfeet still sells the bags on its own site, it is no longer selling them through Amazon.com.

Amazon seller 877MYJUICER also changed the product description to say that the "bags are made from low-density polyethylene plastic materials...."

And after my persistent e-mails and phone calls to Reusablebags.com, they have updated their Evert Fresh description to read, "Evert Fresh bags are made from low density polyethylene that is coated with a fine layer of natural clay containing high levels of a mineral proven to absorb ethylene gas." I am particularly happy about the change to the Reusablebags.com site since it caters to people looking for plastic-free options.

The changes to the Evert Fresh bag descriptions on these sites gives people the information they need to make decisions about whether or not to purchase the bags. So I'm glad for that. I personally won't be buying them, as I stated in my earlier post, because I don't like the idea of using a petroleum-based non-biodegradable plastic bag to keep food fresh a little bit longer.

Wouldn't it be great if someone came up with a compostable bag using the same natural clay technology as Evert Fresh that would keep food fresh until then end of the bag's useful life and then be composted with other green materials? Wouldn't it be great if everyone composted, if even a little bit? Or stopped to think before buying too much food in the first place? These are a few things on my holiday wish list.

So this issue isn't finished for me. There are still a few sites giving somewhat misleading information about the bags. But more importantly, it seems like there is an opportunity here for someone to come up with a truly "green" competing product. I'd love to find the person or company with the knowledge and desire to make something like that happen.
 

I'm tired of all these *$%^# plastic bags!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's confession time again. I am sick and tired of washing out plastic bags. To get them really clean, you have to scrub and rinse all four sides. And then they take forever to dry, even with this handy Bag-e-Wash plastic bag dryer.

The thing is, in my August 28 post, I said one of the Fake Plastic Fish guidelines was to "reuse existing plastic as many times as possible before throwing it away or recycling it."

And to make matters worse, in my September 17 post, I bragged about how "some of my best friends are plastic bags," discussing all the handy things that we can do with them instead of tossing them out for recycling. That was the infamous "tea party" post.

And while I still don't believe that plastic bags are evil, I can't say they're my best friends anymore either. I procrastinate washing them out because it's tedious work (and uses a lot of water, too), and then I end up with a sinkful taunting me every time I come into the kitchen. That's not so friendly, is it?

I'm ready to take all the plastic bags I have left to the Safeway recycling bin and be done with them once and for all. In a comment on the plastic bag tea party post, Rejin asked, "Doesn't it prolong our dependence on plastic (bags) if we get creative about how to use them?" Maybe she's right. Or maybe I'm just lazy. I'm already not the best dish washer in the world. And some people, like another reader, Axelle, are so good about washing out their bags that they actually take the time to dry them with a towel before hanging them neatly in the closet!

So what's my point here? We can't all be saints and preserve every last resource on earth. I'm going to give myself a break; take those bags to be recycled; and get on with using organic cotton eco-bags for everything from produce to dry bulk goods. They are so easy to pop into the washing machine. And I think that tossing a few cotton bags in with the rest of the laundry once a week probably uses a lot less water and energy than hand-washing plastic bags.

So what about keeping bread fresh? That's my main concern. And I may have a solution, although I haven't tried it yet. Greta Christina wrote a post on her blog about keeping artisanal bread fresh. Here are the steps:

1. When you cut the bread, store it cut side down on a wooden cutting board.
2. Cover it snugly with a cotton cloth (a dishtowel is fine).
3. Once a night before you go to bed, sprinkle a few drops of water on the towel.

I'll experiment with this method and see how it goes. Or I may keep just a couple of plastic bags around until I'm comfortable I can keep bread fresh for a few days without them.

I'm really tired and grumpy today. Good thing I'm leaving Thursday night for a weekend meditation retreat. We'll have a special guest-post from Michael, a.k.a. Terrible Person, writing from the husband's perspective, Friday morning. Hope you'll enjoy it. I'll be back again Sunday night to tally the mountains of plastic I dragged out this week. It's going to be a doozy.
 

What's wrong with this picture?

Out for a nice stroll, buying nothing yesterday, Michael and I were dismayed to see Telegraph Avenue lined with plastic bags full of brown leaves. What's wrong with that? Everything!

Our city councilwoman, Jane Brunner, has been working on getting more trees planted along our streets. Do more trees mean more garbage for the landfill? This beautiful compostable material gets sealed up in a plastic bag to mummify with the rest of the garbage instead of being returned to the soil to nourish new trees? If that's the case, someone's not using their noggin.

I'm going to call the city on Monday and get to the bottom of this. Oakland ought to be handing out compostable leaf bags and hauling them to our commercial composter. Well, I rescued one bagful for my personal compost. Any other Oaklanders could do the same. Even if you don't have your own composter, you could free the leaves from the plastic and empty them into your green bin.
 

It's plastic! Evert Fresh is made out of plastic!

Read 12/20/2007 update to this post here.

Sorry to go all Charlton Heston on you. It's just that, based on several blog posts I've read, a lot of people seem to think that Evert Fresh green produce bags are plastic-free, and they are absolutely not. After calling the company several times a week for over a month to try to reach the owner, Lynn Everts, I finally received the information I needed today from his assistant, Tyra. She told me that the bags are indeed made from low density polyethylene (the same type of plastic in disposable grocery bags) combined with a special clay called oya which helps to keep produce fresher longer.

I have no doubt that these bags work. But I find it ironic that we would choose to purchase an ultimately disposable plastic bag (these bags can be reused up to 8 times) made from a material that lasts forever in the environment in order to preserve something that is completely biodegradable. Personally, I'd rather buy my produce more often and be careful to eat it in a timely manner than purchase brand new virgin plastic bags to make it last a little longer. And I'd rather compost the few produce items that do go bad than landfill plastic bags.

Others may feel that saving produce is worth the plastic. And that's their choice. My problem is that folks who believe they are avoiding plastic may be purchasing these bags because of the way they are described on various web sites. On Amazon.com, two sellers, Greenfeet and 877myjuicer, list them as being made from "non-petroleum based materials," while seller, Showcase, claims they are "made from all-natural, environmentally safe materials." These claims are simply not true, and I have e-mailed Amazon to find out how to go about getting the descriptions changed.

It's one thing for Amazon to be selling plastic bags, but it's quite another for Reusablebags.com to promote and sell them. No where in Reusablebags.com's description of these bags is it revealed that the base material is actually plastic. The write-up only states that the "active ingredient is a natural mineral" and further down the page proceeds to describe the mineral as a clay called "oya" which absorbs ethylene gas given off by produce as it matures. Since Reusablebags.com is a site devoted to eliminating plastic bag waste, it would be natural for a customer to assume the Evert Fresh bags were not plastic. So I've also e-mailed Reusablebags.com to request they update their description of this product so that their customers can make informed purchasing decisions.

Representatives from both Reusablebags.com and Evert Fresh have told me that the bags are recyclable. However, reps from neither company could provide the names of recyclers or recycling programs that would accept them. So I checked with three of my recycling insiders, and all three felt that the clay used in the bags to keep the produce fresh actually makes them a contaminant in the waste stream rather than a recoverable material. They would probably be weeded out and landfilled by plastic bag recyclers.

So, how do we keep produce fresh without plastic? It's a good question, and I don't have all the answers. At the farmer's market where I table with Green Sangha, we distribute organic cotton Eco Bags, which can keep many fruits and vegetables fresh in the refrigerator if dampened. However, this past Sunday, a customer told me she'd not had good luck with loose leaf salad greens. The cloth bag couldn't do as good a job as plastic. Any suggestions from plastic-free salad eaters?

Another customer asked me about carrots, and I did have the answer to that one! Carrots last a really, really long time if you keep them immersed in a container of water in the fridge. I like to replace the water every few days. I think this works for celery, too.

We keep apples, pears, and citrus loose in the refrigerator without any bag or container. Tomatoes and avocados stay out on the counter. Bananas stay out on the counter too but tend to turn brown pretty fast. Most other vegetables and fruits are in the dampened cotton bags in the refrigerator.

So, what are your tips for keeping produce fresh? The clay sounds like a good idea. Too bad it's attached to a bunch of plastic.
 

Why I don't talk about global warming

Nearly every "green" blog and web site these days focuses on global warming. And it seems like many of them focus on it to the exclusion of all other environmental issues. In fact, a few days ago, I read something that made me feel really sad. Alan Morton wrote in an article on the blog, Big Green Challenge:

George Marshall of COIN wrote a provocative piece about whether re-using plastic bags and other small actions are helpful when it comes to doing something meaningful about climate change.

See Guardian and his blog.

Now he is right to point out that re-using bags has a very small effect on overall carbon use. He acknowledges that there may be other benefits – a few turtles won’t die as a result of confusing plastic bags in the sea for jellyfish.

So can we consign the idea of re-using bags and similar “simple tips” to the recycling bin? And chastise the Government and anyone else who promote them for diverting us from the serious business of responding effectively to climate change.

Or is there more to it?

Yes, there is more to it. And not only in the way that he thinks (which is that if people get used to doing these "small" gestures, they'll be more likely to step up to the bigger ones eventually.) While that might be true, it makes me sad that for so many people nowadays, the only reason to care about the plastic we consume and the waste we generate is to combat global warming. And that "a few turtles" are not enough reason to give a crap.

Environmentalists have been warning of the dangers of plastics for years, long before Global Warming was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Plastic is made from oil, oil which pollutes and for which we fight wars. It is consumed by millions of marine animals, some of which are turtles. It is entering our food chain at the bottom rung. In fact, an article on the Ethical Corporation web site quotes Neil Seldman, a waste recycling expert and president of the Institute for Local Self Reliance, as saying, "Plastic is a bigger danger than global warming, or at least it is in the immediate sense, considering it is snuffing out the lowest common denominator in the food chain." Plastics contain toxic chemicals that can leach into our food. And yes, plastic in landfills emits greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

I'm not minimizing the problem of global warming. And I guess I'm thankful that something is getting people to evaluate their purchasing and consumption habits. But with so many articles written on the subject, debates about it, and conflicting plans for how to deal with it, I guess I haven't felt like I had much to add. Until this week.

Saturday, November 3rd, is a National Day of Climate Action. Step It Up (www.stepitup2007.org) is organizing rallies all over the country and inviting our elected leaders and presidential candidates to show up and let us know what they plan to do to help reverse the global warming trend. I've decided to attend the rally in Oakland's Jack London Square and I encourage anyone else who has the time to go to the web site and find a rally near you.

Tomorrow, I'll write about a few things we have done in our household to save energy, thereby cutting our personal emissions. At the same time, I want to emphasize that reducing our plastic consumption is about more than a single issue. It's about how we live on this earth and treat the other creatures, human and otherwise, that share it with us. It's about realizing we are all interconnected and that when we pollute the beaches with oil or fill the oceans up with plastic, we not only hurt a few turtles and birds, we hurt ourselves.
 

Recycling Tyvek: Another small way to deal with plastic at work (and home)

Disclaimer: This post is NOT an endorsement of DuPont Tyvek. DuPont Tyvek is plastic. According to DuPont, it is "very fine fibers of 100 percent high-density polyethylene that are randomly distributed and nondirectional. These fibers are first flash spun, then laid as a web on a moving bed before being bonded together by heat and pressure - without the use of binders, sizers or fillers."

All the items down the left side of the page are products in my house made from DuPont Tyvek. I mention Tyvek because many people don't realize it's actually plastic and may try and recycle it with their paper. And for those of us trying to reduce our plastic use, it's important to be aware of anything that is made from plastic.

But what makes Tyvek difficult to avoid is that many Tyvek products come to us unsolicited, especially at work. We might receive Priority Mail and Federal Express deliveries in Tyvek envelopes. CDs might come in Tyvek sleeves. At home, tags and labels are often made of Tyvek. One tag in the photos is attached to a futon. The other was one I removed from a throw rug. And as I've mentioned before, runners' race numbers are nearly always made from Tyvek.

More items to watch out for, according to DuPont's web site: banners and signs, weather-resistant maps and guides, wrist bands, kites, games, children's moisture and rip-resistant books, furniture and automotive protective covers, and home weatherization materials. These can all be made from Tyvek plastic.

So what can you do if you happen to acquire items made from DuPont Tyvek? Well, of course the first thing to do is reuse or Freecycle anything that can be reused. Part of Tyvek's appeal is that it is so durable, making envelopes and sleeves reusable many times. But what if you have too many and for some reason can't give them away? Or you have printed items like labels and tags that can't be reused?

Since they are made from #2 plastic, they can be recycled. However, not in your curbside bin and not in any regular plastic bag recycling program. Instead, DuPont has created a Tyvek take back program.

For small quantities (less than 25), stuff them in an inside-out Tyvek envelope and mail them to:

Tyvek® Recycle
Attn. Shirley B. Wright
2400 Elliham Avenue #A
Richmond, VA 23237

The web page only mentions recycling Tyvek envelopes, as opposed to any other products made from Tyvek. So I called DuPont and was told that we can in fact send other items made from Tyvek, as long as they are free of pins, paperclips, staples, or other contaminants. I would assume that means removing the plastic window from a Tyvek CD sleeve. But why would you need to recycle a CD sleeve when you can just reuse it?

For larger quantities, such as you might collect at work, you can call 1-866-33-Tyvek and ask for a Tyvek recycling pouch:

DuPont does not cover the cost of sending them back, so you do have to pay for postage. I think that if DuPont really cared about recycling, they'd pick up the tab like HP does for returning its printer cartridges. But then, in a perfect world, we wouldn't be worrying about what to do with all this plastic in the first place.

Once again, I'm not endorsing DuPont Tyvek. It's plastic made from petroleum like any other. But it's good to recognize which items are made from it and to be able to reuse and recycle those that come our way.
 

Some of my best friends are plastic bags!

Recently, I've been reading quite a few anti-plastic bag articles that contain statements like, "Plastic bags are evil," and advocate taking all your plastic bags to the local recycler and replacing them immediately with reusable bags.

Now, as you know, I'm all for refusing new plastic bags while shopping and bringing my own reusable bags with me. I don't see any need for the creation of new plastic bags in this world, not with all the environmental problems associated with their manufacture and disposal.

But once a bag has been created, once it's already here in this world, is it really evil? I don't think so. In fact, a few weeks ago I posted an ad to my local Freecycle group requesting used plastic grocery bags from anyone who had a bunch they weren't going to use. Why? Because far from being evil, plastic grocery bags are quite handy.

Look at it this way. If we're all trying to reduce the amount of new plastic we buy, what will we use in place of things like plastic cling wrap, freezer bags, sandwich baggies if we've given away all our plastic grocery bags to the recycler? Sure, we've got our reusable tote. But it doesn't take the place of produce bags for our cherries and grapes and dirty potatoes.

I've already written about the convenience of plastic grocery bags to be reused over and over again as grocery bags. They fold up small, fit in a purse or backpack or even wallet, and can be used in a pinch when we've forgotten to bring our organic cotton tote bag into the store with us.

If we switch from buying bread packaged in plastic bags to fresh-baked bread wrapped in paper (or even bake our own), we can store the loaf in a reused plastic grocery bag to keep it from drying out. (It does dry out mighty fast otherwise.) In fact, we can use plastic grocery bags to store all sorts of food in the cupboard or refrigerator or freezer. For freezer storage, I think it's best to use several layers of bags.

And as I've also mentioned, plastic bags can be washed and reused many times before they are ready for the recycle bin. Just rinse them in the sink and hang to dry. I've even heard of some folks hanging them on the clothes line. Once you get used to it, cleaning a plastic bag is no different than washing the dishes.

I've found quite a few web sites listing alternative uses for plastic grocery bags. And while many of these suggestions are helpful, a few of them seem to miss the point. Plastic grocery bags are too valuable to be used for trashcan liners or for cat litter or dog poop or anything else that will be thrown into the garbage. Let's use old newspaper or other biodegradable alternatives for that. The landfill is not the place for items that last virtually forever.

Instead, let's use old plastic bags to carry wet bathing suits, or to separate clean from dirty clothes in a suitcase, or as makeshift rain hats or covers for wet umbrellas, or as packing material for shipping (you could include a note asking the recipient to further reuse or recycle the bags). Check out the following links, but be careful about whether the recommended use will prolong the life of the bag or doom it to landfill hell:

• Real Simple: 10 Smart Uses For Used Plastic Bags


• Real Simple: 20 More Ways to Reuse Old Plastic (and Paper) Bags


• 63 Uses For Walmart Bags


• The Frugal Life: Uses For Plastic Bags

And these are just a few links. The Net is full of them. Just Google "uses for plastic bags" to find ways to reuse plastic grocery bags in place of new plastic items that you might otherwise buy.

What's that? Oh, Tina wants to chime in about all the crafts we can do with plastic bags, like knitting or crocheting or weaving or even sewing. But I already wrote that post back in July. I'm planning to turn a whole bunch of grocery bags into one knitted reusable tote bag. Soon. When I have nothing else to do.

My point is that in our haste to become "green," we need to keep our common sense and refrain from discarding things, even into the recycling bin, that might not seem eco-friendly on the outside but could actually help us to save precious resources. Reduce, by not taking home any new plastic bags; Reuse, by finding as many extra uses as we can for the bags we have; Recycle, after our bags are thoroughly used up.

After all, most of the plastic that already exists is not going away. We might as well make friends with as much of it as we can.
 

Weekend Discussion Question: How Far Would You Go?

Today (Saturday, 9/8/07) at noon, Egan Sanders, the "Bagonaut," will be lowered by crane into a canvas bag 8' tall by 6' wide outside the Sam’s Club in San Angelo, TX. He will remain there for 24 hours "to raise awareness of the environmental challenges that plastic shopping bags present." Volunteers at the event will hand out free canvas shopping bags in exchange for non-perishable food donations for the local food bank. At 7pm, movies will be projected using the giant canvas bag as a screen.

If you live near San Angelo, TX, please stop by and say hi. I've communicated with Egan, and he seems like a down-to-earth guy with real concern for the environment and a great sense of humor. He also espouses a philosophy which I heartily endorse:

Plastic is not the enemy; it is a useful material that has created many products for our society. Plastic bags are not the problem - it is how we use and dispose of them that is the issue. With our increasing population and worldwide industrialization we need to face the fact that unless we make changes we will create environmental problems. We are the solution.

What I like about his sentiment is that he chooses not to demonize plastic itself, which is an inanimate material, but instead to focus on the choices and actions of the human beings that created the plastic and have the power to change the way it is used and disposed of. This idea has created some controversy for him, which can be a good thing if it gets people thinking!

Which leads me to this week's question. How far have you gone or would you go to bring awareness to an issue that is really important to you? Have you ever been outrageous, ever demonstrated in public, or participated in any kind of consciousness-raising event? If not, what do you secretly dream of doing, even if you might feel you are too shy or not in a position to actually do it?

Just how far would you go?
 

Store Report: Berkeley Bowl (a response to my letter)

If you've been following this blog for a while, you've seen me mention Berkeley Bowl quite a few times. Besides the farmers markets and CSAs, it's the place to go in the East Bay for produce and bulk foods. A huge store, it caters to those looking for organic, local foods, as well those desiring more exotic fare. It also carries products for mainstream shoppers who just want their Lean Cuisine. I think Berkeley Bowl tries to be all things to all people (although, as you'll see below, they deny it), and therefore, it's sometimes great and sometimes falls short.

Berkeley Bowl's produce department is huge. Their web site says that it's the largest in Northern California. Unlike Rainbow Grocery, which has a decent produce department of all-organics but also encourages its customers to shop at the farmer's markets instead, Berkeley Bowl overflows with everything from 30 kinds of locally-grown tomatoes in the summertime to purple potatoes from Hawaii. And the prices are comparatively low.

Berkeley Bowl's bulk section, on the other hand, is a distant second to Rainbow's. Still, they have more bulk food bins than any other grocery I've found besides Rainbow, especially of dry foods like grains (including flours, whole grains, cereals, and pastas), beans, nuts, seeds, and some teas, herbs and spices. Where their bulk section is lacking for anyone trying to avoid plastic packaging is in "wet" foods. In fact, blocks of tofu are the only wet item that is sold in bulk, in the true sense of the word.

What I mean is that when I asked a store clerk where I could find bulk olive oil, he pointed to a shelf containing plastic containers of olive oil that had been pre-filled by the store. In other words, oils, fresh pasta, peanut butter, and any other wet item you might have been able to put in your own container at Rainbow have been packaged in a new container by Berkeley Bowl. So I suppose the idea is that the store buys it in bulk but doesn't offer it to the customer in the same way.

And unlike Rainbow Grocery, Berkeley Bowl offers few if any bulk personal care products. I was able to purchase my gallon container of Dr. Bronner's soap, but I don't think I can go back for refills.

Another issue at Berkeley Bowl is that while I can depend on the store for dry bulk foods and produce when I miss the farmers market, I must never forget to bring my used plastic bags! Berkeley Bowl offers only new plastic bags for these items. Just a few weeks after I began my plastics project, I sent an e-mail to Berkeley Bowl asking why they don't offer an alternative to plastic bags. Nearly a full month after sending that e-mail, I received their reply:

Subject: plastic bags
Date: Sat, 4 Aug 2007 15:06:33 -0700
From: "Evans, Larry" (via an e-mail from David Craib)
To: beth@coloringthevoid.com

Hello,

I received your e-mail regarding plastic bags.

Thank you visiting Berkeley Bowl.

Yes, we [do] sell a wide variety of bulk items, and produce items also. We have been approached by manufacturers of corn based bags on several occasions in the past. At this point in time, corn based bags are 20 or more times as costly as resin based bags. As you may or may not know, our customers come to us for value. We offer a good selection at good prices. We fully want to do our part in helping to create a more “green” environment and economy, but we also need to be what our customers want us to be.

As a company, we would not mind paying more for a green solution to plastic bags. We have already started doing so in our kitchen area by using corn based plastic cups because although the price of them is higher than that of conventional cups, the gap is close enough for us to absorb without raising prices to the consumer. As technology improves, I think we can look forward to prices dropping to a point that we can do the same for plastic produce and grocery bags.

Unfortunately, using paper bags for produce exposes us to a different type of loss, and this exposure is one reason grocers started using plastic bags to begin with. People being people, will put high end items in the bottom of the bag, and inexpensive items in the top of the bag, hoping that the checker will ring the whole bag at the price of the inexpensive item. You may not believe this, but I have been around a long time, and have seen this happen many, many times first hand. It produces an uncomfortable experience for the checker, the front end supervisor, and customers alike. (You simply wouldn’t believe what people will try.)

Places like Whole Foods, Safeway, and Andronico’s have the ability to absorb these losses through their very high prices. We do not. We do not have the buying power of these big players and consequently we pay more for the merchandise, yet we sell it for less. This means we run on a very lean margin.

It is very easy for people to criticize us on all they feel that we do wrong. There is an old saying: “In business you can’t be all things to all people”. We simply try to do the best that we can to please as many as possible.

Regards,

Larry Evans

---------------------------------------------------------

Perhaps that explains why my bottle of Dr. Bronner's was $38.95 at Berkeley Bowl vs. $44.00 at Rainbow. And why a $0.99 roll of Seventh Generation Toilet paper from Berkeley Bowl is a whopping $1.35 at Rainbow. Like Berkeley Bowl, Rainbow is also an independent grocery store and probably can't afford to absorb much loss either. But I guess by raising their prices, they can afford to trust their customers. They allow us to bring in our own containers for wet bulk foods, weigh the containers ourselves, and report the weight so it can be subtracted from the total. And they don't bother to open the container to make sure it really contains what the customer has written on the label.

In fact, although Rainbow does offer free plastic bags for produce and dry bulk items (and I am currently waiting for a response to an e-mail I sent to Rainbow a couple of weeks ago about this very issue), they sell and encourage their customers to purchase and use organic cotton bulk bags, which are completely opaque. And they don't check inside those either.

At Berkeley Bowl, by contrast, customers are required to bring their bulk foods to a central bulk foods counter to be weighed and labeled before checking out. Customers don't write the bin number on the bag; the store clerk determines what's actually in the bag and labels it. And I guess this would explain the wet bulk foods prepackaged in clear plastic containers. Berkeley Bowl chooses loss prevention over ecological sustainability and keeps its prices down. Rainbow is just the opposite. It saddens me that these choices have to be made. But until there is enough demand for alternative packaging, the sustainable option will carry a higher price tag at the checkout, while the true costs of environmentally harmful packaging will remain hidden from most American shoppers.

Still, I'll continue to bring my own reused clear plastic bags to Berkeley Bowl and shop its bulk bins since they are just down the street rather than across the bay. And I may be willing to have a cold beverage from their kitchen, now that I know they use biodegradable cups. But I left my heart in San Francisco at Rainbow Grocery, and I'll stock up there as frequently as I can.
 

Direct Action, Part 2: Temescal Farmer's Market, Revisited

It's me and Tina, the fake plastic fish, after lying awake for hours Saturday night, stumbling out of bed at 6am, and lugging a card table and folding chair on a mini hand truck half a mile down the street to the Temescal Farmer's Market. We are located in a great spot in the "free speech" area where shoppers enter and exit the market. We have our table set up and photos displayed. We are psyched and ready to go! Well, I am. Tina is just hanging out, which isn't much different from what real fish do.

As it turned out, I didn't need the chair. I spent the entire four hours on my feet handing out "Don't Think About A Plastic Bag" flyers as folks passed by, with a friendly, "Can I give you some information about plastic?" As I expected, the reactions were mixed: some took the flyer politely; others outright refused or looked away; a few started to walk away until they heard the word "plastic" and then actually turned around and came back, clearly relieved that I didn't want their money or their immortal souls.

I had a great conversation with Bianca, the farmer's market manager's daughter, who was there selling imprinted canvas bags. She said that they'd already been looking into alternative produce bags and other types of containers for the vendors to use from a company in Palo Alto called World Centric and that my e-mail had spurred them to act a little faster.

And in fact, I did notice that one of the vendors, Milk Bubbles fresh-churned ice cream, was already using biodegradable bowls and spoons that they purchased from Excellent Packaging & Supply, a small Richmond, CA company. The next time I'm at the farmer's market, I'll have to survey the other prepared food vendors and see if anyone else has made the switch to biodegradable.

Anyway, back at the table, I started out my activist day a little bit apprehensive and nervous. See, back in the late 80's, I worked as a door-to-door canvasser for Clean Water Action. In addition to fundraising, my job was supposedly to educate the public and organize letter-writing campaigns. Over time, I became a little disillusioned with the whole canvassing deal, as I realized that while education and activism were important, my ability to fundraise determined whether or not I kept my job.

But this farmer's market action was going to be different. No pressure. I was there voluntarily and could spend as much time talking and really listening to people as I wanted. No one was going to count the number of flyers I gave out. No one was going to judge the effectiveness of my "rap." I was situated in a pleasant, shady spot on a beautiful day, and I was just going to have fun. And as a result, I did have some great interactions with people. Here is a list of some of the more memorable ones:

• One woman stopped when I handed her the flyer to show me her reusable canvas bag she'd brought with her, only to realize with dismay that she'd left her plastic produce bags in the car. "Just because of you, I'm going to go back and get them," she sighed. And she turned around and did just that.


• Another woman welled up with tears as she fumed about how Green Peace had been trying to tell people about the problems with plastic for decades and how no one would listen. She walked away clearly upset, but when she passed me again on her way out, she proudly showed me all her plastic-free purchases and said she was glad to have the reminder.


• An artist was intrigued by Tina and wanted to know exactly how I'd made her. She then went on to tell me about a beautiful wall-hanging made of plastic bags in Berkeley's Downtown Restaurant and also a web site called the Women Environmental Artist Directory.


• A woman with a woven African basket explained why it was far superior to a canvas bag because the produce does not get squashed together in it, creating less need for additional produce bags. I had actually found my own basket at Goodwill the day before and set it on the table, but hers had a much better handle.


• A gorgeously tattooed woman answered my questions about permaculture and recommended that I purchase Jessica Prentice's Local Foods Wheel so that I'd easily know which foods were in season in the Bay Area before shopping.


• A woman whose business is selling and installing solar panels chatted with me for about half an hour about everything from plastic water bottles in India to McMansions in Blackhawk.


• I also met one of the readers of this blog, Aurora, who is a design student and has started making repurposed cloth shopping bags as an alternative to plastic.

To each person who spent time sharing information with me, I gave a card with the URL of this blog and my e-mail address. I was sparing with those, taking care to give them out only to people with whom I'd made a real connection.

Towards the end of the day, I had one ridiculous lapse in judgment that makes me simultaneously laugh and groan each time I think of it. I'd brought back a green plastic strawberry basket to return to the strawberry vendor, and a couple of little kids saw it in my bag. They were very cute as they asked if they could have it. They wanted to play with it, to make it into a boat. "Sure," I said, my head full of visions of children playing and being creative with household objects.

It wasn't until they'd run away down to the creek to play that I realized I'd just given some children plastic to put into our waterway! There I was with a table full of photos of sea birds, turtles, and seals chocking on plastic, and instead of explaining to them why we need to keep plastic out of the water and suggesting they find something more biodegradable for their boat (like the huge piece of eucalyptus bark that fell off the tree while we were standing there), I handed them plastic to put in the creek. So I guess that was a learning experience for me!

Maybe it was low blood sugar. The time was approaching 1pm, and Michael showed up to help me lug everything home, where I ate some food and then collapsed on the couch for a welcome nap. I hadn't needed a big organization behind me. I hadn't even needed a chair. Just myself and the desire to go out and interact with people. And Tina helped just a little bit.
 

Success! My letter to Comcast

Just because I think plastic bags should be re-used multiple times doesn't mean I want new ones literally showing up on my doorknob, but that's just what happened a few days ago. I came home to find this advertising piece from Comcast hanging there in a plastic bag. Talk about instant irritation! "Holy crap!" I shouted to no one in particular. "I go through all this effort to bring my own bags so I don't have to tote new ones home, and then the bags start coming to me!"

Well, I hadn't written one of my busy-body e-mails in a while, so last night I sat down to do just that:

Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:25:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: beth@fakeplasticfish.com
Subject: Consumer complaint regarding Comcast promotional door-hanger
To: tracy_baumgartner@cable.comcast.com, Andrew_C_Johnson@cable.comcast.com, corporate_communications@comcast.com

Hello. I am a Comcast cable television customer.

A few days ago, I was dismayed to come home and find a Comcast advertising piece (Ready. Set... Catch the action on Comcast HDTV) hanging from my doorknob in a plastic bag.

Here in Oakland, CA we have recently passed a plastic bag ban, which bans plastic grocery bags from stores. We have done this because we are concerned about waste from plastic bags polluting our streets and waterways, harming marine life, and using non-renewable petroleum resources.

Many of us carry our own reusable bags when we go shopping so that we can avoid having to carry home any new disposable bags at all -- paper or plastic. So it is extremely frustrating for us to come home and find a plastic bag hanging from the doorknob that is completely unsolicited and unwanted.

There are those of us who, even though we don't want the Comcast bag, will find a way to recycle and reuse it so that it doesn't harm the environment. However, there are unfortunately others who will simply see it as junk and toss it out into the street. We already have enough waste in the streets of Oakland. We don't need more!

Please help us to cut down the amount of plastic waste in our city by putting an end to the practice of leaving promotional literature in plastic bags. I look forward to your response on this matter.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Terry
[address and phone number omitted]
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

-------------------------------------

What do you know? First thing this morning, I got a telephone call from Steve Briones in Comcast Executive Customer Relations. He told me Comcast didn't realize Oakland had passed a plastic bag ban, said that he would forward my message on to the direct sales and marketing departments, and would make sure they didn't leave plastic bag doorknob hangers in Oakland anymore.

This is the first time anyone I've e-mailed has called me the very next day. (The first time anyone has called me at all.) I am encouraged! However, my excitement is tempered with a healthy wait-and-see dose of skepticism. I'm also concerned that Comcast will continue the practice in areas that do not have plastic bag bans in effect.

If you receive one of these advertising pieces on your doorknob, please don't hesitate to contact Comcast. The e-mail address is: corporate_communications@comcast.com.

If you want to hand-write a letter, you could mail it to the following people:

D'Arcy Rudnay
Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications
Comcast Corporation
1500 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19102

Jennifer Khoury
Senior Director of Corporate & Consumer Communications
Comcast Corporation
1500 Market St
Philadelphia, PA 19102

So the moral of the story is, we are not powerless. If a company does something that you feel is not in the best interest of the world, don't be afraid to speak up. Change may be a simple e-mail away. If something pisses you off enough to take action, there are probably hundreds more people who are just as pissed off who won't.
 

BioBags vs. Plastic Bags: A Continuing Debate

In response to yesterday's post on Eco-runners collecting litter in BioBags, an anonymous commenter had this to say:

If you're planning on landfilling non-reusable, non-recyclable materials, there really isn't any point in using compostable bags to do it in. Organic material doesn't compost or properly biodegrade in landfills. It breaks down anaerobically, producing methane.

It would probably better to reuse one of those pernicious plastic shopping bags, which would ensure that its marine-life killing career would be diverted to a landfill and save the biodegradable, compostable bags for an application that will actually result in their decomposition (like collecting compostable waste) instead of just making us feel better.

I responded with a comment of my own, but I'd like to expand on the issue with a few more thoughts on why using biodegradable bags for garbage is preferable to using plastic grocery bags.

Plastic grocery bags are made from polyethylene. As far as I can tell, polyethylene has not been shown to leach toxins like other plastics, but that fact alone does not make it a good candidate for the landfill. Polyethylene is made from ethylene gas derived from nonrenewable natural gas or crude oil. And once made, it doesn't go away. Like all petroleum-based plastics, polyethylene will last many human lifetimes without biodegrading, whether we put it in a landfill or leave it out in the rain.

What is the point of extracting a non-renewable, super long-lasting resource only to use it once and throw it away? Disposable products are a ridulous waste of such a potentially useful material. The commenter suggests that we can divert plastic bags from our waterways by burying them in landfills. I have a better idea.

We should be reusing and recycling the plastic bags that currently exist. And by recycling, I don't mean creating new disposable plastic bags from old ones. While doing so might prolong their life a little bit, it's a short-sighted solution at best. There are currently markets for creating lumber out of the resin derived from plastic bags. Let's take that increasingly scarce material and build things that are meant to last. That's the best way to keep them out of the mouths of sea turtles.

And as for biodegradable bags not composting in a landfill, that may be true. But plastic bags certainly will not. And whereas petroleum-based plastic is a non-renewable resource, organic materials such as corn and sugar are grown and harvested in a season.

Now, I am not suggesting that because we can create bags and other disposables from organic materials, we should continue our mass consumption of disposable products. Growing field crops takes its own toll on the earth. I believe that we still need to reduce our waste as much as possible.

But in terms of eco-running, which is the context in which this discussion began, picking up litter on the street requires some kind of container. And if the street sweeper is not doing it, and if the only people who care about collecting the plastic waste before it enters storm drains and does its damage are a few idealistic runners with bags, then let those bags be made from renewable, biodegradable materials and save the petroleum for the long haul.
 

Be careful on the Reusable Bags Bandwagon

With the recent surge in anti-plastic bag sentiments, a lot of folks are jumping on the reusable bags bandwagon. I think it's great that people are starting to give a thought to the bags that they use to carry their purchases home. But not all bags are created equal, and I wish more people would think about the type of reusable bag they choose, rather than rashly purchasing the cutest thing they see in another expression of thoughtless consumption.

I've been thinking about the issue of reusable bags for some time, but I am moved to sit down and actually write this out tonight after reading a review of Reisenthel's nylon shopping bags on SustainLane.com. The reviewer says that she was glad to find the compact, foldable Reisenthel bags, made by a German company, because she sometimes forgets to take her large Trader Joe's tote bag with her and ends up with a collection of new plastic bags from the store. With the Reisenthel nylon bags in her purse, she is never caught without a container for her groceries and doesn't have to take home new plastic bags.

Sound good? Let me put this a different way. This person said she has a collection of plastic bags. Get it? SHE ALREADY HAS A COLLECTION OF PLASTIC BAGS. Why does she need to spend money on virgin petroleum-based bags shipped from Germany to carry her groceries? She has plastic bags! Plastic bags are easy to fold up and keep in your purse or backpack. They're just not as cute as hip nylon bags and they don't scream "Environmentalist" when you carry your groceries down the street. So you want people to know you reuse your bags? Turn them inside out and write "Reusable Bag" on the outside. You could even make a tally of the number of times the bag has been used just to prove it.

Okay, so plastic grocery bags are not trendy or elegant, and they may even scream "Bag Lady" as you pull them out of your purse. If that's your hang up, there are other options for reusable bags that don't require virgin petroleum to produce. First, as one reader commented, many people have a closet full of bags (promotional tote bags, etc.) that need a home. Try and find a bag on Freecycle or Craigslist or in a thrift store. You can even buy a synthetic bag this way with a clear conscience, knowing that you are both saving this one from a landfill and not causing any new synthetic bags to be born.

But if you're really jonesing for a brand new bag, the site Reusablebags.com carries quite a few of these options, including bags made from recycled plastic as well as renewable natural fibers like hemp and cotton. However, I recommend this site with some reservations.

In addition to bags made from recycled plastic and renewable materials, Reusablebags.com also carries quite a few bags made from new petroleum-based synthetics, including the Reisenthel nylon bags mentioned above. The goal of Reusablebags.com is to reduce the amount of disposable plastic entering the waste stream each day from single-use bags. And all of the bags that they sell will help meet this goal. But I don't think the folks at Reusablebags.com are looking at the bigger picture. All of the bags that they sell have a life-span, whether that life-span is 1 day or a few years. Eventually, they will all wear out. And when that happens, what will happen to the materials of which they are made?

The fabric from cotton and hemp bags will certainly biodegrade. But it could take many human lifetimes for the synthetic bags to break down, if they ever do. There is currently no organism that can break them down. When I wrote to Reusablebags.com questioning their inclusion of certain products on their site, the response was, "When choosing products for our website, there is always a balance between the positives and negatives of a product in our choice to showcase them." It's my opinion that they allow too many of the negatives to slip past the judges. Still, as I said, the site is very useful for finding reusable shopping bags that are made from sustainable materials. You just have to read the descriptions carefully before deciding what to purchase.

Another option besides buying bags is to make your own. For those with the time, skills, and desire, Heather T. at Make-A-Bag-Along is collecting patterns and instructions for sewing, knitting, and crocheting your own reusable shopping bags. There're even instructions for knitting one big new tote out of many used plastic grocery bags that will last much longer than each small one. And no virgin plastic is consumed in the process. Make-A-Bag-Along is a new site, and Heather needs ideas. If you are crafty, I encourage you to visit the site and share any ideas you might have for making your own bags.

Finally, whether we decide to carry our groceries in reused plastic bags, new bags from renewable sources, or homemade bags, the main point of this article is that we all need to stay awake and aware. It's easy to be swayed by "green" marketing language that is really just a masked come-on for mindless consumption. It's not so easy to see past the advertising to the reality that the best way to step lightly on the earth is to stick to the 3 R's: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in that order. Nowhere in that list is Buy More Crap.
 

Plastic Farmer's Market: My letter to Urban Village Farmers' Market Association

So, we're supposed to eat locally, right? To save transportation fuel, to support our local farmers, and to limit our pesticide exposure. And I'm very lucky to have a weekly farmer's market just down the street within walking distance. The irony is that at our small Temescal Farmer's Market, at least half of the vendors are selling prepared foods in plastic wrap or plastic containers. And the other half, the folks selling actual produce, offer only plastic bags to shoppers.


Now, I do bring my own bags with me so that I don't have to use a new one. And I've also been bringing back my green plastic strawberry basket each week and returning it to the strawberry vendor who sells his strawberries al fresco (as opposed to the other strawberry vendor who encases his in clear plastic containers.) But many customers don't come with their own bags and must use the new plastic bags that are offered. And it's disheartening to pass vendor after vendor and be unable to taste their tempting offerings because they are only sold in plastic. Here's what I'm talking about:











These are just a few examples. There's actually more plastic than these photos show! So I've sent an e-mail to Urban Village Farmers' Market Association asking what they can do to reduce the amount of plastic at the farmer's market and to encourage their vendors to reduce their dependence on it. Here is my e-mail. I'll let you know what I hear back from them:

Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:35:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Beth Terry"
Subject: Temescal Farmer's Market
To: urbanvillage@earthlink.net

Hi. I am a resident of the Temescal neighborhood and frequent the farmer's market on Claremont every Sunday. I love having the new farmer's market in the neighborhood and being able to walk down the street to it. It's small, but there's a nice variety of fresh produce.

That said, there is one thing about the farmer's market that is of concern to me, and that is the amount of plastic that is used, from plastic bags to plastic containers of all kinds.

Oakland has banned plastic grocery bags due to the problems that plastics create for our environment. However, they have not banned produce bags or any other type of plastic container. That is up to the grocers to do voluntarily.

I'm wondering if you have considered offering any other types of bags besides the plastic ones. Some of us bring our own bags to the farmer's market, but I see many people who use the new ones, which adds more plastic waste to the environment. Perhaps you would consider biodegradable bags as a first step. Or paper. As far as I know, the mushroom vendor is the only one offering an alternative to plastic.

Additionally, nearly all of the prepared foods sold at the market are contained in plastic. I'm wondering if there's anything we can do to encourage the vendors to use alternative containers and packaging.

Here is a link to information about why plastic is so harmful to our planet:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/07/plastic-is-made-from-oil-you-knew-that.html

That article is on my blog, Fake Plastic Fish, where I write about trying to reduce our plastic waste and alternative options. I have posted photos on my blog of much of the plastic I saw at the market today. Please take a look:

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/07/plastic-farmers-market.html
I and my readers will be looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Beth Terry
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

-------------------------------

Oh, and by the way, it's not just me. Here's another blogger who is frustrated with all the plastic at farmer's markets:

http://greenlagirl.com/2007/07/05/a-plastic-encased-farmers-market/
 

Tina, eat the plastic food!

Another sleepless night. Another wacky "art" project. Meet Tina. Tina's tummy is full of plastic bags. And that's okay, because she's a fake plastic fish. In fact, her whole body is knitted from plastic bags... from the plastic bag "yarn" ball I made the other night. Click on images to see larger.

And remember, plastic bags are not evil. How can they be? They're just plastic bags. It's the overproduction of and disposal of them by humans that causes harm to other living things. So here are a few plastic bags that, for the time being, are just hanging out being a fish called Tina.
 

Has she really started knitting again???

The last time I picked up the needles was March 2006. And I haven't actually picked them up again yet. However, I did stay up all night on July 3, watching movies and making this big "yarn" ball out of plastic grocery bags. (I should categorize this post under "Projects for Obsessive Insomniacs.")

Did you know that crafty people are finding all kinds of uses for plastic bags in order to save them from the landfill? Here are just a few:


Instructions for creating the plastic bag "yarn"

A knitted plastic tote bag (they use a different method for creating the yarn)

Fused plastic bag fabric

Here's an artist who makes jewelry and lighting fixtures from recycled plastic.

Here's an article on TreeHugger about all kinds of plastic bag DIY projects.

And finally, my friend Sharon sent me this info about a class here in the Bay Area at the Richmond Art Center that sounds like fun:

Lost and Found Recycled Basketry

Instructor: Kathleen Hubbard
In every garage lies a wealth of stuff that's been saved for one thing or another. That something is a recycled basket. With a little imagination and a few techniques, the piles of cardboard, plastic bags, and wire can be woven into useful or artful baskets. Bring your boxes of stuff, scissors, wire cutters, a lunch and a friend and we will conquer several projects and leave with many more in mind.

Class: SU5T • Sat, Jul 28, 10 am – 4 pm
RAC Member $65 • Nonmember $75

So what am I going to knit with this ball of nontraditional yarn? Stay tuned...
 

It's official: Oakland bans plastic bags

Good news reported in yesterday's Oakland Tribune:

The Oakland City Council Tuesday banned petroleum-based nonbiodegradable shopping bags in an effort to reduce the amount of waste Oakland sends to landfills and prevent the plastic bags from polluting the environment.

The ban would apply to stores with gross annual sales of more than $1million, which would include all supermarkets and chain drug stores.

However, the measure would not apply to restaurants or fast food eateries.

"It's a good first small step," said Councilmember Patricia Kernighan (Grand Lake-Chinatown). "It's not going to solve all of the problems in the world."

The new law does not apply to the sacks provided by grocery stores to bag fresh fruit and vegetables or meat, only those bags shoppers get at the check stand.

So, this ban does not address the problem of all the plastic bags used for bulk foods at stores like Berkeley Bowl. I'll have a report on Berkeley Bowl soon.
 

Uganda bans plastic bags, promotes banana leaves

Sun 1 Jul 2007, 13:24 GMT

KAMPALA, July 1 (Reuters) - A ban on plastic bags in Uganda took effect on Sunday to cut down the stinking piles of rubbish that litter its dusty capital and other urban areas, breeding germs and poisoning water supplies.

Officials want Ugandans to instead use banana leaves, the traditional material for carrying goods.

Uganda's ban followed a similar one on Tanzania's Zanzibar islands last year. There have also been moves in both Kenya and mainland Tanzania to raise duties on plastic bags, which dot Africa's urban and rural landscapes with depressing regularity.

Ugandan Finance Minister Ezra Suruma announced the ban on "buveera" -- polythene bags in the local Luganda dialect -- during his budget speech last month in the east African nation.

"Due to serious environmental concerns and the difficulties in the disposal of polythene bags and plastic containers, action was required in order to encourage producers and consumers to minimise (their use)," he said.

Environmentalists say discarded bags, which pile up on roadsides and unused land, spread disease and hurt wildlife.

In Uganda, the only exception is the scavenging Marabou storks who thrive on the bags.

Rubbish often ends up in wetlands surrounding Lake Victoria, where it pollutes water supplies. Sometimes it is burnt, releasing toxic chemicals into the air.

Most of Uganda's cities lack the resources to properly dispose of more than 10 percent of the trash they produce.

Under the new rules, companies are forbidden from producing, importing or using plastic bags. But it is unlikely individuals will be punished for using existing ones.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved

Plastic Bag Ban in Oakland? Letter to Jane Brunner

From the San Francisco Chronicle, June 27, 2007:

A measure to ban plastic bags from grocery stores and other large retailers in Oakland was unanimously passed by a key City Council committee Tuesday.

The measure, which is very similar to a ban adopted in San Francisco, will be sent on to the full council next week and if approved will take effect in August.

I'm not just keeping my fingers crossed. Here's my letter to my city councilmember, Jane Brunner today:

Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 14:46:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Beth Terry"
Subject: plastic recycling in Oakland
To: "Jane Brunner"

Dear Councilmember Brunner,

I have 2 reasons for writing:

1) I read in the San Francisco Chronicle that on Tuesday an Oakland City Council committee unanimously passed a measure to ban plastic bags from grocery stores and other large retailers. The article says that the measure will be sent on to the full council next week and if approved will take effect in August.

Please VOTE FOR this measure. I am doing everything I personally can to reduce the amount of plastic waste I generate, but we need more than a few individuals like me bringing their canvas bags to the grocery store. It breaks my heart when I read about the damage that plastic bags are doing to our environment, in the oceans but even here at home in Lake Merritt.

2) I would like to know what Oakland is doing about curbside recycling of plastics other than bottles. Right now, San Francisco has curbside pickup of Plastic tubs and lids - (#2, #4 & #5). When will Oakland residents be able to put these items in our recycling bins?

Thanks in advance for your response. I look forward to hearing from you on these issues. And I look forward to meeting you at your annual Temescal picnic.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth G. Terry
[street address removed]
 

Store Report: Elephant Pharmacy

Just like Whole Foods, this natural pharmacy contains very few items that are not packaged in plastic. Recycled toilet paper in plastic. Recycled napkins in plastic. Natural cellulose sponges in plastic. Natural cleaning products in plastic. Natural cosmetics, drugs, foods, bric-a-brac in plastic. Here are the few plastic-free items that I found and bought:

2 boxes of BioBags, 3 gallon size. BioBags are made from corn and are 100% biodegradable and compostable. We are going to use them in our kitchen garbage can instead of the plastic grocery bags that we have been using. Hopefully, we won't be putting much into them anyway. We put all of our food waste into the green compost bin; we put all of our paper, cans, and curbside-recyclable plastic into the gray recycling bin; and since the beginning of this plastic project, I have been saving all the non-recyclable plastic "for later."

Ever since I heard about Casabella natural cellulose scrubbers, I've been searching for them in area stores. I finally found them at Elephant Pharmacy... in a 3-pack packaged in plastic! Feh! I stood in front of the scrubber display and pondered this dilemma for a full 5 minutes before I noticed the cute Loofah-Art scrubbers above them. (Short people like me often miss things that are over our heads.) Loofah-Art scrubbers are made from organically-grown loofah, and the only bit of plastic in the packaging is the tiny thingy that connects the loofah to the cardboard backing card. (What are those tiny thingies called?) I thought I could deal with a tiny thingy of plastic. So this scrubber is what we will use to clean our dishes from now on.

And finally, I spent way too much ($19.99) for this Bag-E-Wash plastic bag dryer. You put it on the counter or hang it under the cabinet and leave your washed plastic bags on it to dry. It could be useful. Or it could be a good idea that gets pushed to the back of the counter and gathers dust. I'm not much of a dish-washer to begin with. Just ask Michael. Yeah, I do my dishes, half-heartedly, eventually, and this could be just too much for my non-domestic nature to handle. But why think negatively? It could be fun, right? Or it could be that Michael will do it! Now there's a great idea!

And here's an awesome looking product that I didn't buy: Burt's Bees Rosemary Mint shampoo bar. It smells wicked cool, and it comes in a cardboard box with zero plastic. I didn't buy it because I'm already using the Re-Incarnate shampoo bar from Lush (more on that later.) But it's on my list. As soon as the current shampoo bar is gone, that thing is mine!

Eventually, I found myself once again in a toothpaste aisle opening boxes of toothpaste hoping to find something without plastic. No go. I don't think such a thing exists anymore. Not in the U.S., anyway. And no mouthwash that's not in a plastic bottle either. So when I got home, I looked up recipes for homemade tooth powder, and here's one I found on the Yes! Magazine Web site:

Combine equal parts salt and baking soda. Add a tiny bit of stevia for sweetness (1/16th tsp stevia per 2 tablespoons baking soda/salt.) For flavor, add a few drops of peppermint oil or 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon. (I wonder if peppermint extract would work as well as oil.)

So, I'm gonna do it. If I haven't found any other alternative before my current tube of toothpaste runs out, I'm just going to make my own. Martha Stewart will be so proud.