Dear Music Today Feedback Department...

August 11, 2008


Music Today
Feedback Department
5391 Three Notched Road
Crozet, VA 22932


Dear Music Today:

I am returning to you this plastic padded mailer in which I received my ticket for the Outside Lands concert. I am trying very hard to reduce my plastic consumption and overall waste, and while I appreciate your wanting to get my ticket to me safely, I do believe that this package is a bit too much protection. My paper ticket is certainly not going to break during shipment.

I feel very strongly that care for our environment depends upon both sellers to reduce the amount of packaging and shipping materials they use and consumers to choose products with the least packaging. While shopping, I bring my own reusable bags to avoid taking disposables. I also carry tap water in a reusable bottle to avoid plastic bottle waste and bring my own containers for take-out food.

Plastic, as I’m sure you know, is made from fossil fuels and is not biodegradable. The manufacture of new plastic is fraught with environmental hazards, as is plastic recycling. Therefore, I urge you to rethink the type of mailers in which you send your tickets. A simple recycled paper envelope would suffice.

Sincerely,


Elizabeth G. Terry
http://www.fakeplasticfish.com

 

Blue Chair Fruit Company: plastic-free at the farmer's market

Our Temescal farmer's market was beautiful this Sunday, all the colors and crowds alive with the joy of summer. So many fruits to sample and enjoy on the spot. And, sadly, still so much plastic in evidence... bags & containers. Last year I wrote about plastic at the farmer's market and the effort to educate vendors and patrons about alternatives. This Sunday, one vendor left me pleasantly surprised.

Blue Chair Fruit Company produces extraordinary jams and preserves that are packaged in glass jars with metal lids. That's fine enough. But what caused me to stop at their table were the tiny metal tasting spoons they were using to give samples. While other vendors of prepared foods (including the women hawking her pesto spreads in the next booth) used disposable plastic spoons or even (to a lesser degree) disposable compostable spoons, Blue Chair used durable spoons that would be washed and reused.

I chatted with Rachel Saunders, the jam-maker herself, about the choice to use metal spoons. Her response was something like, "Plastic spoons turn me off. I don't want to taste anything on a plastic spoon. I don't want it anywhere near my mouth." (Since I didn't take notes, those might not have been her exact words, but pretty close.) I found myself hoping the woman next to her was listening and would catch the hint!

So I bought a jar of the strawberry marsala jam with rosemary and enjoyed some with local Feel Good Bakery bread and Food Mill peanut butter at the conclusion of my vision fast. Wow. Delicious. But really, I think today I need to have some of that jam on plain bread without the peanuts to compete with. Yeah, I need to do that!

Read more about Blue Chair Fruit Company in the SF Chronicle, where you'll also find several jam recipes, if you're inclined to save the whopping $10/jar and make your own. Rachel's got a jam cookbook coming out in 2010. Maybe by then I'll be ready to test those waters myself.

This year, tomatoes. I'm thinking that perhaps they will be my first canning project. We go through soooooo much store-bought tomato/spaghetti sauce. Ideas? Can I do it without investing in a canner?
 

 

Schwag & Twitter at Blogher '08

The Blogher Conference was kinda overwhelming. I feel like I've returned from another planet and need to be quarantined and debriefed. It was refreshing to go out to dinner last night with Michael and his sister and cousin and find out that they had never heard of Twitter. Have you? Because I had heard of it, and even signed up for it months ago, and then never "tweeted" because I didn't understand why I should. But OMG, everyone at Blogher08 was tweeting up a storm. So, never one to resist peer pressure, I started tweeting too. Wanna follow me?

It was fun to hang out with some real live green gals whom I'd only so far met through cyberspace. From left to right: Jenn from The Smart Mama, me, Michelle from Green Bean Dreams and Jenn from Tiny Choices. Mamabird from Surely You Nest preferred to take the picture rather than be in it.


We also met Green L.A. Girl Siel, Have Fun * Do Good's Britt Bravo, and Big Green Purse's Diane MacEachern, as well as several other green and socially conscious bloggers. I'm sorry to have missed Aurora from Foxy Art Studio and Vanessa from Random Ramblings. Next time, we have to make a better plan for meeting up. (Like, we need to make a plan. Period.)

Heading for lunch after the meetup, we saw this...

...and the five of us (Jenn, Jenn, Green Bean, MamaBird, and I) decided to find plastic-free food elsewhere. Great conversation was enjoyed with okay food from the Emporio Rulli il Caffe on Union Square, served up on durable tableware, except for the plastic-packaged breadsticks and salad dressing that I returned to the server.

Later, we found out that the Blogher lunch was actually packaged in compostable PLA containers, not regular plastic, and will be composted in San Francisco's commercial composting facility. Even still, the following day, Jenn, Jenn and I passed up the free lunch and took a stroll to the San Francisco Ferry Building for a nearly waste-free lunch at Mejita Cocina. If only I could remember to bring my own cloth napkin, I'd never have any trash at all!

PLA lunch offering notwithstanding, there was quite a bit of plastic at the Blogher Conference, as GreenBean demonstrates here in her best Vanna White impression. Hmm... we have the glasses. Why fill them with bottled water when I'm pretty sure the hotel has running water available? When I asked a bellhop for the water fountain on that floor, he looked quizzical and said he didn't think there was one. So I filled up with lukewarm water from the bathroom sink, since it had one of those automatic fixtures without hot and cold knobs.

As I mentioned in a previous pre-Blogher post, the conference organizers had the brilliant idea of setting up a recycling room for all the unwanted plastic and other swag attendees didn't want to take home. At the end of the day on Saturday, the Zwaggle recycling room had collected over 900 pounds of the stuff! The Zwaggle crew said they hoped most of it would be picked up by the vendors to reuse. I hope these vendors will also use the information they gain from picking up all their crap and come up with some truly useful schwag (or swag... there are disagreements all over the Net about the correct term) next time. Who really needs a Michelin Man key chain?

(Diane MacEachern returns her unwanted schwag.)

Oh, and see that bottled water? It was included in our Blogher organic cotton tote bags. It's actually Primo water in a bottle made from Ingeo, a corn-based compostable material. I left mine on the recycling table. Why? Because I don't think we need to be drinking any kind of bottled water, compostable or not, when perfectly good tap water is available, and San Francisco has some of the best. See my post, Think Outside The Biota Bottle, for more on this topic.

So, what the heck is Zwaggle? It's actually not a conference schwag recycler at all, although based on the success at Blogher, they may do more schwag recycling. I had a nice conversation with Zwaggle founder Adam Levy, who explained that Zwaggle is on online resource for parents to swap used children's items (clothes, furniture, equipment, toys, etc.) to reduce the need to buy more stuff. Zwaggle is different from Freecycle in that it is nationwide and based on a point system. Members list the items they want to give away on the site and assign a "price" based on points rather than dollars. Other members "buy" items using their points, and only pay for applicable shipping.

How does one get point? Each member gets 50 points for joining and additional points for referring friends and giving away items. Adam plans to add a system for purchasing points with dollars at some point, as well as a gift registry. Imagine asking friends to give used gifts for birthdays and baby showers rather than new. Adam says he got the idea for Zwaggle because, while he himself is not a parent, nearly all of his friends are, and he's seen the massive amounts of new stuff they've purchased when children are born. I think Zwaggle is a great idea that could put Babies R Us out of business if it catches on.

So, while there was certainly a major effort to green the conference (Michelin paying the cost of carbon offsetting for every attendee; GM providing hybrid vehicles for carpooling bloggers; Blogher providing organic cotton totes; the hotel providing lunch in compostable boxes and breakfast on durable tableware; Zwaggle providing schwag recycling) and probably a lot less waste than at most conferences, I wanted more. More!

I wanted more emphasis on environmental issues and environmental blogging during the sessions. But as Green LA Girl Siel said in a comment on her blog, "Beth and other enviros at BlogHer — Part of this is our fault for not volunteering to get more involved in the planning process. We must change that next year –" To which I responded, "Siel, you’re right! One more thing to add to my “To Do” list."

What do you say green bloggers? Should we get more involved in Blogher greening or create our own green bloggers conference?
 

 

Fudge and Styrofoam, a confusing combination

So, you guys know how much I love Fudge is My Life fudge sauce from San Francisco, right? I've gushed over it here and here and here. But I buy it only occasionally, one jar at a time, from the grocery store. (It's pretty pricey.) So it was a huge surprise a few days ago when I opened my front door to find a big cardboard box from the Fudge is My Life company sitting on my porch.

I was pretty sure I hadn't ordered it in my sleep. But I had my suspicions about who did send it, considering the mountain of Divine chocolate I had sent him and mom for Father's Day. And I was right. The card inside read, "Happy Bday, Beth. Now both of our sweet tooths are happy! Ray." Ray is my dad, and he had waited all this time to send a birthday gift (my birthday is in January) because I kept saying I didn't need anything... especially not anything new. But really, who doesn't need a case of fudge sauce?

In addition to the note, the case also came with...


Oy! What's a plastic-free fudge-lovin' fish supposed to do? It was too much packaging to mail back to the company. And besides, this company is in San Francisco. I could return it to them myself! So I called the Fudge is MY Life company, and this is where the story gets funny and the issue confusing. The phone was answered by an older woman's simple, "Hello?"

Me: Um... is this the Fudge Is My Life Company?

She: Oh yes, sorry. I thought you were going to be someone else.

Me: Oh. I'm a customer. Have I reached your home?

She: Yes, in fact my office is in my home. How can I help you?

Me: Is this actually Lillian Maremont [the founder of the company and creator of the original recipe back in 1963]?

She: Yes, that's me! [laughing]

Me: Well! [Beth loses it and starts to gush...] I just have to tell you how awesome your fudge sauce is. It's the best I've ever had. I love it so much. I just received a case in the mail from my dad.

She: Oh, do you live in Oakland? I remember your order. I processed it myself.

Me: [Remembering the original purpose of my call...] I do love the fudge sauce, but it came packaged with all these Styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap, and for environmental reasons I don't want to throw it away, so I was wondering if I could bring it back to you to reuse.

She: Oh, well, I guess you could. But I live out the in avenues in San Francisco... kind of far out for you. Why don't you take it to the warehouse company we use in Emeryville? [She gives me the name and address of the warehouse, as well as directions for how to get there.]

Me: Okay, I'll take it to them. Just wondering... have you considered using biodegradable packaging rather than Styrofoam?

She: We would love to, and we have tried the corn-based peanuts. But they're just too expensive for us right now. And I'm not sure any other type would protect the glass jars enough. I just really want to make sure that my fudge arrives in perfect condition for my customers to enjoy.

Me: Well, I hope the price comes down for you so you can switch away from the Styrofoam, and I'll take this material over to the warehouse.

And then I gushed some more about the fudge sauce and told her the story of Axelle's and my taste test and how hers won hands down over King's Cupboard. And she said I made her day. And we both hung up happy, although I was some somewhat conflicted. What a nice lady! Probably someone's grandma. And living in this world doing what she loves and spreading happiness. And Styrofoam. And plastic bubble wrap. Things aren't always as black and white (or brown and white in this case) as they seem, are they?

So I strapped that big box of plastic onto my bike basket...


Oh yes I did! And rode it out to Emeryville, where the warehouse receptionist very graciously accepted it from me and said they would reuse it.

(I LOVE MY NEW BIKE! I can't wait to find out what else I can strap onto it.)

Final analysis: I had a great conversation with a lovely person and made her day. I returned some plastic and Styrofoam to the company without using any extra petroleum to get it there. I learned how to transport big stuff on my bike. And I got a buttload of chocolate fudge sauce. I think I win!

However... I can't open any of the fudge sauce jars until AFTER my vision quest on the 21st, as I'm preparing to fast. And even after, I do think it's too much for me. I think I'll be giving some away to my fudge-loving friends. If you love chocolate as much as I do and live in the Bay Area (or are planning a trip to the Bay Area soon -- and you know who you are) let me know, and I'll save some for you. Seriously. You'll be doing me a favor. Please don't leave me to eat the whole thing and then hate myself afterwards!
 

 

Dear (Blue Vinyl DVD Distributor) New Video,

New Video
687 Marshall Avenue
Williston, VT 05495

To whom it may concern:

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

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

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

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

Thanks so much,

Beth Terry
 

 

Lush responds, for what it's worth

The letter-writing continues. After mentioning Lush solid shampoo and deodorant bars in my post two weeks ago, I received several comments from readers who had mail ordered Lush products hoping to avoid plastic packaging, only to find that the products that are sold "naked" in the store are packaged in all kinds of plastic when shipped through the mail.

So I wrote to Lush. I'm not going to reprint my actual email because I'm embarrassed to admit that it wasn't very nice. I must have been in a crappy mood when I wrote it, and rereading it tonight, I realize it's pretty confrontational, which is not the best approach when we want someone to make a change for us. Flies and honey and all that. Nevertheless, the response I got back was very polite. And while I still don't agree with all their packaging choices, I'm happy that they've obviously thought about the issue a lot and are working to get better.

Here's the full response from Lush. Take from it what you will. If you want them to make changes faster, email Amanda (adhalla@lush.com) and let her know. And don't forget that packaging is not the only issue with Lush products. Many of them also contain irritating synthetics like SLS. In my letter, I only addressed packaging concerns. Also, please read my note below regarding the "biodegradable plastic" that Amanda mentions.

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 20:11:36 -0700
From: "Amanda Dhalla" (adhalla@lush.com)
To: beth [at] fakeplasticfish [dot] com

Hi Beth,

Thank you so much for your email and for highlighting an issue near and dear to our hearts.

I’m sure you understand that to ensure that our fragile products arrive at customers’ homes in good condition we must use wrapping materials to protect them against damage. Some of our packages travel many miles and must be able to withstand lots of bumps as both Canada and the US are vast countries.

Over the last few years, we have made many positive changes in the types of materials that we use for packaging. For example:

We use cardboard boxes made from recycled materials and wood excelsior (wood shavings) to protect our products during shipment. Wood excelsior is 100% biodegradable and completely safe.

We use TDPA™ biodegradable plastic bags to protect our bath bombs during shipment. Our bags start degrading after 18 months while regular plastic bags take about 25 years to break down.

[Beth's note: TDPA™ biodegradable plastic bags are similar to the D2W bags that I wrote about in January. They are petroleum-based bags with a chemical (heavy metal) additive which helps them break down. They bring with them many of the same problems of conventional plastics. The only difference is that they will break down under the right conditions.

Also, I don't know where she gets the idea that traditional plastic bags take 25 years to break down. As far as we know, they break down into smaller and smaller plastic particles, but the actual polymers don't break down.]

Our packing tape is recyclable, tamperproof, tamper-evident, and is stronger per square inch than polypropylene.

Our gifts are wrapped with recycled paper and protected using biofoam/envirofill packing peanuts, which are 100% biodegradable.

From this month, we’re rolling out a new clear plastic bottle made with 100% post-consumer recycled (PCR) for our shampoos, conditioners and shower gels, and by this fall all of our black pots will be made with 100% post-consumer recycled plastic too.

This is not to say that we don’t have lots of room for improvement as we do still package some of our products in regular plastic before shipping. However, we are continuing to source more environmentally friendly alternatives such as biodegradable bags and containers to replace the plastic. As you can understand, this process does take some time, but we hope to have moved away from regular plastic completely by the end of 2008.

If you have any suggestions for alternative packaging that you feel would help LUSH Direct (online and phones) in our efforts to become more environmentally friendly, we would be extremely interested in hearing more about them.

Thanks once again for your open and honest feedback, and for keeping us honest.

Warm regards,

Amanda

--------------------------------------------------
Amanda Dhalla
Web Operations Manager – LUSH Canada
Tel: 604.638.5612
Cell: 604.603.1239
Fax: 604.638.3649
http://www.lush.ca

I also notice that Amanda works for the Canadian branch of the company, so I don't know if the packaging policies she mentions are the same in the U.S. But really, how environmentally-friendly is it to mail-order personal care products and spend the associated fuel when you can get them locally? Read my March 24 post as well as the comments for alternatives to Lush solid shampoo bars and deodorants. The baking soda is still doing the trick for me!
 

 

Batter Blaster: What's wrong with this picture?

Batter Blaster. It's organic. It's fast and easy. Just squirt into a pan and fry up some pancakes in seconds rather than minutes. What could be better?

I first read about Batter Blaster back in January in CindyW's post on the Organic Picks. She expressed total disdain for the product, as did I in my comment on her blog where I wrote, "That is just wrong on SO MANY LEVELS!" My comment caught the attention of a certain Associated Press reporter who emailed me for a follow up. This weekend, her story, including my comment, was published by news outlets large and small, from Fox News, AOL, and San Francisco Examiner, to Ventura County Star, The Sacramento Bee, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Bakersfield Californian. All I can say is, it must have been a slow news day.

As I stated in my comment, it's not like pancake-making the traditional way is a slow process. In this CNet video comparing canned Batter Blaster with traditional batter-making, mixing up batter the old fashioned way took 3 whole minutes, compared to the 5-second squirt from the can. So we're now creating disposable steel and plastic containers, more physical waste, just to save 3 freakin' minutes? Give me a break!

On the other hand, I've never made a pancake in my life. Ever. What do I know? So I called my friend, Mark, who makes them for himself every morning, and told him about Batter Blaster. His response: What a stupid thing! How lazy are people?

Mark, mind you, is not some radical tree-hugger. He's your average concerned human being. He brings his reusable bags with him shopping, and since he started reading Fake Plastic Fish, he's become more aware of and concerned about excess packaging. He's pretty typical of what Brave New Leaf recently called "The Environmental Pragmatist." He doesn't grind his own wheat or gather his own eggs. But he does get up 3 minutes early to make his own pancakes:

Mark's No Big Deal Pancake Recipe

1) Mix together 1 cup flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 Tbsp. sugar or natural sweetener of your choice (in other words, not aspartame because it doesn't bake well.)

2) Add 1 cup milk, 1 egg, and 1/4 cup oil and mix everything together. Leaving it lumpy is okay.

3) Fry up your pancakes. Now see, to me, this seems like the hardest part. How long do you leave them before flipping? How do you flip without destroying? And these problems are not solved by Batter Blaster at all!

Mark says this recipe makes 4 big pancakes, which he cooks and eats over 2 days. He says that years ago, he might have thought that making pancakes would be a pain in the butt, but now, he can pretty much do it in his sleep. In fact, when I called him at work today, he rattled off the recipe from memory.

So, maybe some people don't have an extra 3 minutes in the morning to make up fresh pancake batter. To them, I say, "Eat cereal! And leave the pancakes for the weekend!"

This has been my rant for the week. Niceness is scheduled for tomorrow.
 

 

Terracycle & Clif Bar: Shades of Green

Michael called me at work tonight to say he'd just heard that Clif Bar has a new program to take back its plastic energy bar wrappers and "upcycle" them in a partnership with Terracycle, the good folks who got sued by Scotts Miracle Grow for selling worm poop compost in recycled soda bottles and claiming it was better. (I'm sure it is better. Sue me.) In a joint effort, which I would have known about last week if monitor problems hadn't kept me from reading all my email, Terracycle will send free prepaid energy bar wrapper collection envelopes to anyone who signs up for the Wrapper Brigade Program and will then manufacture them into "unique accessories and other upcycled products." And Clif Bar will donate .02 per wrapper to the charity of your choice.

Sounds good right? Well, it didn't sound good to me. In fact, I got all huffy about it. "Oh great!" I ranted. "Like anyone needs a tote bag made out of Clif Bar wrappers. This is just a way to allow companies to keep creating disposable plastic wrappers from virgin plastic and let consumers feel morally superior for keeping them out of the landfill a little longer. They're still made out of petroleum. They're still made from nurdles, the plastic pellets that are polluting our oceans, harming wildlife, and concentrating toxins in the food chain. This isn't 'upcycling.' It's the same old 'downcycling' we're always bemoaning because the loop never gets closed when you're talking about plastic!"

And then Michael said, "But what about people like me who aren't ready to give up Clif Bars? Isn't this better than throwing the wrappers away?" And I thought, the man has a point.

I get so worked up about finding the absolute best solution to problems that I forget there are also good solutions that aren't necessarily the best but might head us in the right direction. Various shades of green. Terracycle is definitely doing a service by keeping plastic bottles, juice boxes, yogurt containers, and now wrappers here at home where we can take some responsibility for our own waste instead of shipping it to Asia. And yet even Clif Bar admits that the Wrapper Brigade is not the best solution. In their e-mail newsletter, they write:

We're not psyched about the fact that our wrappers end up in the garbage. We've been working hard to come up with a more sustainable solution; since we haven't found the answer just yet, we've partnered with TerraCycle to launch the Energy Bar Wrapper Brigade. Get this: TerraCycle will convert all of the energy bar wrappers they receive into handy accessories and will donate two cents for every wrapper to the charity of your choice. Sign up for free and become a shepherd for the program.

So what do we do? Nothing, if we're trying to live plastic-free. I've switched from energy bars to granola and other cereal that I buy from bulk bins and store in my own containers, leaving no packaging waste behind. But if we're not quite there yet, we can at least divert a little waste from some landfills by using this program. And let others know about it too.

I'm hoping that Clif Bar means what it says about coming up with a more sustainable solution. I'm glad they speak that language. It's my hope that companies are moving towards waste reduction as preferable to recycling. In the mean time, we have what we have. What do you think?

(BTW, I know I said I'd post a recipe today. But Beth Terry is nothing if not opinionated, and when the opportunity and mood strikes, she'll usually go with some kind of rant and save the nice stuff for another day.)
 

 

Store Report: The Thing About Costco...

In last week's post about tips for shopping at Safeway and other mainstream chain grocery stores, I mentioned that one way to save plastic is to buy large-sized containers. Sunny commented that for that reason, maybe shopping at Costco is not so bad. So tonight, I visited Costco with my camera to see if we really could save plastic by buying large containers there.

What I found is that yes, if you don't have access to a store with bulk bins, you can buy large bags of rice or beans or large containers of laundry detergent or ibuprofen and save some plastic. But the thing about Costco is that most of the merchandise is not packaged in large single containers. In fact, if you're not careful, you could end up with way more plastic from Costco than you would otherwise. For one thing, most "bulk" purchases are actually plastic-wrapped bundles of smaller items:

It doesn't help to buy products in plastic containers that are joined together with plastic wrap or bundled in plastic blister packs. You're still getting the same amount of product as if you bought the individual containers separately. The difference is that you're also getting the extra plastic outerwrap. Inside each jumbo pack of toilet paper or paper towels are several smaller plastic-wrapped packages.

Another thing about Costco are those ubiquitous large blister packs protecting very tiny items. The store's got everything from gift cards and SanDisks to postage stamps and FasTrak bridge passes locked in those things! I figured Costco used them for theft control to keep people from pocketing the smaller merchandise. That reason wouldn't make me any more inclined to buy an item in a huge blister pack, but at least I can understand the logic.

Then I saw what I thought were rows of blister-packed iPods:

But upon closer inspection, I realized that all these plastic packs were actually empty! A little sticker on the package says, "To purchase your iPod, please present this empty package at the register." So why do these empty packages have to be packaged in plastic? A simple cardboard card wouldn't suffice? I should have asked an employee what happens to the empty iPod blister packs after the iPod is purchased. I'm assuming they can't be put out on the shelf again if they're being used for inventory control. Or are they? Anyone know?

Plastic at Costco. Plastic galore. But wait. There's even more! Unlike most regular grocery stores, Costco packages most of its produce in plastic containers, too.


And if you look up and down the overwhelming rows of merchandise, the one thing each aisle has in common is the plastic wrap surrounding every palette of goods:



And here's a photo I thought I'd throw in just because. I felt like a little spy tonight creeping around with my camera and waiting until employees left the areas to snap my pictures. I took this one in the seconds before the guy returned to his cart with more trash.

So what's the moral here? If you are truly disciplined and you really have no way to buy the products that you need plastic-free, you might save some plastic by buying them in large containers at Costco. But even then you need to be careful! If you buy a container that holds more than you can actually eat (or more than you actually should eat) you're still not saving plastic in the long run, are you?

A few years ago I watched a news story describing a study that related the size of the container to the amount a person ate. According to this article from the Bariatric Medical Institute,

The study subjects were simply asked to pour what they would consider to be a reasonable serving size of each onto a standard sized plate. What differed in the experiment was the size of the container holding the food item. What was found was that the larger the container, the more each subject poured what they considered to be a reasonable amount. In fact, those pouring from the largest containers poured 30% more than those pouring from the smallest containers regardless of the type of food studied. This clearly demonstrated that with food containers size matters and that while you might be saving money on the giant Costco-sized items, you.re probably doing so at the expense of extra calories.

And I would add that you're probably also doing so at the expense of extra plastic. So for the most part, I think Costco is a trap. Even I didn't get out tonight without buying a couple of things: 2 bottles of wine and a big hunk of cheese. Oh, and a slice of pizza. I do love that greasy, cheap Costco pizza. Talk about calories! Believe me; I won't be going back again any time soon!
 

 

Target, Multi-Pure, my Cupboards, and the Perils of PVC

By now, many of you have heard that after a national campaign by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ), Target has agreed to systematically reduce its use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic (aka vinyl) in products and packaging it carries in its stores. If you haven't heard this news, you can read the full press release here. Blogger LifeLessPlastic wrote a letter to Target to show her support for this action, and I have done the same. It's always a good idea to let companies know when we appreciate the things they do. Here's a link to Target's online contact form if you'd like to send your own message.

Coincidentally, I had my own little PVC panic this past week when I discovered that the tubing used in my new Multi-Pure counter top water filter system, which I bought in place of the Brita we had been using, is made from virgin PVC.


As I wrote on October 29, I was already somewhat disenchanted with Multi-Pure because of the volume of plastic bubble wrap in which the unit and filter cartridge were wrapped. But it wasn't until the unit was installed and working that I actually read the fine print and discovered the more serious problem of PVC used in the product itself.

When I called Multi-Pure to address this issue, I was told that the tubing had been tested by NSF and found not to leach anything harmful into the water. However, the rep was unable to confirm whether phthalates such as DEHP, the chemicals that are the biggest worry, were included in the list of possible contaminants for which to be tested. But regardless of whether or not this particular tubing is leaching anything harmful into my water, I decided to send the unit back anyway.

So what's the big deal about PVC? And if the tubing's been tested and found not to leach, why send it back? Here's a rundown of the problems of PVC:

1. PVC is the only major plastic that contains chlorine, so it is unique in the hazards it creates. During production, PVC plants can release dioxins which harm workers and community members who live nearby. According to pvcinformation.org, residents of Louisiana, which is home to half the PVC production facilities in the USA, have been shown to have much higher concentrations of dioxins in their blood than the average U.S. citizen.


2. The plasticizers used to make PVC soft contain carcinogenic phthalates which can leach from the plastic, especially when used in children's toys and other products that may find their way into children's mouths. In fact, many hospitals have replaced the PVC tubing and IV and blood bags they use with less toxic alternatives.


3. According to ecocycle.org, because so many different additives are used to make PVC, recycling the plastic is extremely difficult, and any PVC bottles (#3 plastic) that make it into the recycling stream can contaminate and ruin a whole load of #1 bottles.


4. When incinerated, PVC forms dioxins, a highly toxic group of chemicals that build up in the food chain. When landfilled, PVC poses significant long-term environmental threats as chemical additives can leach into groundwater.


5. Greenpeace says that in a house fire, fire-retardant PVC will smolder for long periods of time rather than burn, "giving off hydrogen chloride gas long before visible signs of fire appear. Hydrogen chloride gas is a corrosive, highly toxic gas that can cause skin burns and severe long-term respiratory damage." For this reason, the International Association of Firefighters supports alternative materials to replace PVC.


6. In fact, according to Greenpeace's hierarchy of plastics, PVC is the very worst, even worse than Styrofoam! For a more in-depth analysis of the problems associated with PVC, please read Greenpeace's article, "The Poison Plastic."

Whether or not the tubing in the Multi-Pure system actually leaches pthalates into my water, I don't want to support the production of a material that is so harmful to humans and the environment in general. So this morning, I shipped the Multi-Pure unit back to the company.

And then tonight, after reading that PVC cannot be recycled, and realizing that I had included several #3 Act fluoride rinse bottles in my recycling in the last few months, I went through my cupboards and refrigerator to see if there were any other PVC culprits still lurking in the house. Sure enough, I found four of them:


#3 PVC bottles look very similar to clear #1 PETE bottles. In fact, many manufacturers have switched to #1 plastic as an alternative to PVC. The only way to tell is to look at the number on the bottom of the container. #3 means PVC. Unfortunately, it's not so easy to tell when other, unlabelled products are made from PVC. These can include children's toys, shower curtains, window blinds, flooring, pipes, house siding, insulation, roofing membranes, protective pipes for electricity and telecom cables, casings for electronics, refrigerator gaskets, power cords, carpets, furniture, the inside of screw caps, shoes and boots, purses and luggage, raincoats, T-shirts with plastisole prints, packing tape, vinyl records, the covering on ring binders, strollers, garden furniture, tarps, car interiors, and more.

So, what do we do with PVC that we already have? The National Geographic Green Guide article, "How To Handle Vinyl," recommends either disposing of it at a hazardous waste facility or sending it back to the manufacturer and letting them know that PVC is an unacceptable material for them to be using. For the four items I found tonight, I think I'll go on a research mission and see if these products are still being sold in #3 bottles. (Act fluoride rinse, by the way, is now contained in #1 PETE.) If the bottles are no longer #3 plastic, I'll just toss these current containers into my hazardous waste bag for later. But if the products are still being sold in PVC bottles, I'll send these back to the manufacturers with a nice note.

Now once again, I am without a water filter. What to do? Well, how about something I should have done a long, long time ago: testing the water to see if we even need a water filter in the first place! Last week I purchased a Culligan water test kit at Ace Hardware and did some preliminary home tests. Turns out, our chlorine and chloramine levels are much lower than I expected! I mailed a water sample away this morning to be tested for lead. If that test comes back okay, I think we'll drink our water unfiltered and save a whole lot of money and plastic. Imagine drinking water straight from the faucet again, just like we did as kids. What a nice idea.
 

 

Week 20 Results: 22.1 oz of plastic

No, it's not my Halloween costume. Any guesses? Read on. Here's the weekly tally:

Non-recyclable items used this week but purchased before the plastic project began:

• 5 Refresh Endura single-use eye drop containers (#4 plastic).


• 1 pump sprayer cap from a bottle of Formula 409 all-purpose cleaner. See below.


• 1 cap from a bottle of Act fluoride rinse. See below.


• 1 cap from a bottle of dried onions. See below.


• 5 pieces of plastic from various iPod accessories packages. I'm forever discovering little plastic goodies while cleaning.


• 1 plastic liner from a queen-size mattress cover. This thing had gotten all ripped up, so I just decided it was time to stop sleeping on plastic and removed the lining from the cover. It's a pretty heavy hunk of plastic.

Recyclable items used up this week but bought before the project began:

• 32-oz bottle of Formula 409 all-purpose cleaner (#2 plastic). As I've mentioned before, I've switched to vinegar and water for all-purpose cleaning these days. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.


• 18-oz bottle of Act fluoride rinse (#3 plastic.) This is the last one! As I've mentioned, I've been debating whether to continue to purchase fluoride rinse once these bottles are used up. After checking with several dentists, I've decided to forego the fluoride and see how my teeth fare. I have, however, found a possible alternative for mouth rinse. Will write about it in a future post if it turns out well. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.


• 3-oz bottle of McCormick dried onions (#1 plastic). As I use up bottled spices, I replace them with bulk spices that I'll store in glass jars. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.

And that's all the old stuff. Now for the new plastic waste.

• 1 wrapper from a block of Loleta Cheese Company organic sharp white cheddar.


• A bit of plastic from around a Recycline toothbrush container. The toothbrush and the rest of the container get sent back to Recycline.


• 1 plastic cap from a glass bottle of Straus organic milk.

This week, I also got rid of a bunch of plastic packing materials that I'd been storing. I took the Styrofoam peanuts to The Packaging Store, where they will be reused, and I gave the box of bubble wrap to a Freecycler who wanted it for an art project. These were materials I'd had before beginning this project. As I've written before, nowadays when I get new plastic packaging, I send it back where it came from.
 

 

Hidden Plastic

Confession time again. Well, maybe not a confession, but more of a clarification. There is some plastic that I use that I don't include in my tally. It's plastic that hides in objects that many people don't realize contain plastic. Plastic that coats and lines cartons and cans and caps and lids. Plastic that can't be separated from the material it's attached to, and therefore can't be weighed. I do avoid most of these kinds of plastic, but not all. Here's a rundown of some of them.