Oakland Earth Expo: Went to Teach & Learned a Few Hard Lessons

I would love to show you the photo of a plastic-bedecked Beth flanked by a class of enthusiastic middle schoolers during Oakland's Earth Expo on Wednesday. I'd also love to show you the photos I captured of an ironic stray plastic bag in flight over the Expo grounds. Unfortunately, I can't show you these images because I carelessly left my camera unattended on the display table for a few minutes, and it got bored and ran away.

If you are the person who helped liberate my camera, can you please at least send back the memory card? It's not worth much, but I'd sure like to have those photos. I've already replaced the camera with a much smaller model, one which I'll keep securely in my pocket next time. (More plastic waste for the tally this week. Another of my less than mindful moments. *Sigh*)

I'm very grateful to the helpful folk who took pictures and sent them to me: Oakland Zero Waste Initiative Team Leader, Mark Gagliardi; Oakland Environmental Services Assistant, David Finacom; and Oakland Tribune photographer, Laura Oda. I gave them my sob story, and they came through for Fake Plastic Fish! So, here are a few views of the day. Click images to see larger versions.


The costume was effective, but I wish I'd had a mirror to put it on. I didn't realize most of the plastic hanging from my belt was twisted around to the back until I saw these photos. I plan to add more plastic pieces and make sure they are better distributed next time. (The base is made from two black plastic garbage bags.)


I had fun hunting for fake plastic fish to put on the hat. Thrift stores... Freecycle... nothing new here! Notice the plastic in the mouth of the poor sea turtle.


The display was divided into two sections: one illustrating the problems with plastic and the other reusable less-plastic alternatives. The fakeplasticfish.com banner is a piece of old sheet and Magic Marker. I'm kind of proud of myself because I wrote it freehand at about 3am the night before the event. Um... not proud that I stayed up until 3am. Just that I didn't screw it up!


On the problem side, I included photos and info about litter, harm to wildlife, non-biodegradability, chemicals, and the fact that plastic is made from non-renewable fossil sources. I also had my sample of water from the Pacific Garbage Patch to share.


The right side was a revelation. I had originally planned to either post pictures of disposable plastic items and their reusable alternatives or figure out a way to attach the actual items to the board. But honestly, I ran out of time.

As I walked home from BART Tuesday night after work, fretting about how I was going to be able to get all this work done in a few hours, I had a eureka moment. I already planned to ask attendees to fill out pledge cards committing to give up some plastic from their lives. Instead of my ideas, I'd fill up the board with theirs! The green pieces of paper are all ideas from attendees on how to live with less plastic.

My own ideas were represented by actual reusable items (bags, containers, utensils, etc.) on the table and in the give-away basket. (Items in the basket were generously donated by Whole Foods Oakland, Green Sangha, LunchBots, GlassDharma, LaundryTree, & the Ecology Center.)


Here's Fake Plastic Fish chatting with Oakland Recycling Program Specialist Peter Slote and a festival attendee, examining the Garbage Patch sample.


I also met one of my heros, Councilwoman Jean Quan, who co-authored Oakland's Plastic Bag Ban ordinance. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize her at first in her summery dress and big straw hat, and since she was taking pictures with a huge, professional-looking camera, I asked what media organization she was with. Oops. I hope that if by some remote chance she reads this, she'll know how grateful I am for what she's trying to do for our city.

And I finally got to meet Eli Saddler of Oceanhealth.org who wants to join me at the Bay to Breakers in a sea turtle costume.


This photo is the artistic creation of David Finacom, expo organizer and apparently great photographer. It was a beautiful day.


I had information on the table for attendees to take with them as well. Green Sangha flyers, Meditation on Plastic, & Don't Think of a Plastic Bag flyer, and IATP's Smart Plastics Guide. I completely ran out of my own Fake Plastic Fish business cards. Maybe next time I should bring the whole box.

Next time, also, I will try harder to get at least one volunteer to help me. I would have liked to have visited other tables at the event, but without help, I was pretty much confined to my station.

Two more things about the day... one fantastic and one not so...

A Fake Plastic Fish reader who works for the City of Oakland approached me. We'd never met. I don't think she's ever commented here. But she told me her daughter had forwarded my blog to her after reading about it on Fark.com and that Fake Plastic Fish had become her daily read. I really almost cried. Just the idea that something positive had emerged from that stupid Fark incident.

And then, at the end of the day, another one of my friends came to lend support and offered to take pictures with her cell phone after hearing about the camera incident. She set her purse down on the ground for a few minutes to take the photo, and while she wasn't looking, it got up and followed my camera! Holy crap! Cameras are easily replaceable. Wallet and car and condo keys, much more of a hassle. Sheesh.

No, we were not in a "bad" neighborhood. We were right in the shadow of City Hall. And these things happen anywhere there is a big crowd of people and enough inattention for quick, practiced hands to do their work. My friend got her purse and keys back eventually. They were found in some bushes. She'll simply have to deal with replacing credit cards.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. I bring up the two thefts not to bum you out and not merely as cautionary tales for your benefit (Be Aware!) but to leave you with this question:

What is the connection plastic pollution and petty larceny? Who is the victim and who is the thief? The answer might be more complicated than it seems.
 

Year 2, Week 43 Results: .05 oz of plastic waste... Again!

Just so you know, my scale will only weigh in increments of .1 oz. For the past two weeks, it has measured my plastic waste at 0.00, so I am guessing at .05 because I know that reality is somewhere between 0.00 and .1.

The full tally for last week:

• Plastic baggies of nuts and bolts for my Fake Plastic Fish display. I've spent all weekend getting ready to table at Oakland's Earth Expo this Wednesday. Normally, I would use Green Sangha's Rethinking Plastics display. But this week, it's not available. So I made my own!

Saturday, I created a 4-panel display board using the front of an old door that Michael found, hinges from Ohmega Salvage (after spending an unsuccessful hour searching through bins of hinges at Urban Ore), and non-toxic zero-VOC stain from Eco Home Improvement. The only new parts were the nuts and bolts which came in little plastic baggies.


Then, I spent yesterday creating my Fake Plastic Sea Monster costume:


Okay, gotta get back to work! I can't do much with a blank display board. Today, I'm creating the pictures and text that will go on the display and picking up donated items for the giveaway basket.

Oh, yeah. There's a drawing for a plastic-free alternatives kit. So if you are available on Wednesday between 10am and 2pm, come down to Oakland's City Hall and visit me!
 

New FPF Video & Volunteers needed for Bay to Breakers!

Remember last year when I dressed as a Brita filter for the Bay to Breakers to promote the Take Back The Filter Campaign? And remember how I said I wouldn't do it without at least one volunteer? Tanya and Christa accepted the challenge and were awesome!


This year, I would love to find more volunteers to help me bring the North Pacific Gyre (aka Pacific Garbage Patch) to San Francisco to let people know about the problem with plastic.

As you know, for almost two years now I have been hoarding my own plastic waste. In fact, I've amassed quite a collection, as you'll see in the most recent Fake Plastic Fish video:


(If you're viewing this post via email or reader, you'll probably need to click onto the blog to see the video.)

My idea: I envision us in beautiful plastic costumes, created from as much of this plastic collection as possible, twirling together across San Francisco, imitating the motion of the Gyre. (I'm inspired by all the episodes of Project Runway I've watched recently.) I see some fish and birds and sea turtles caught up in the mass of plastic somehow. We're handing out small fliers printed on recycled paper, providing facts and resource information. And we're probably wearing signs, either in our hands or attached to our bodies in some way.

Each year, Bay to Breakers holds a costume contest. Last year, they had a green category. I don't know what the categories will be this year, but I'm hoping for another green one. I believe that in order to participate in the costume contest, you must be a registered participant. This means paying the entry fee of $44 ($48 after April 30.)

Anyone know of an organization that would sponsor us?

We'll need not only volunteers to show up on that day (Sunday, May 17, 2009) but also smart, creative people to offer advice, suggestions, crafty ideas. In other words, you don't have to live in the Bay Area to help out.

I'm going to start on costume design this weekend. Anyone else in?
 

Plastic Gift Cards: Re-use, Recycle, Speak Out!

I've been carrying around two plastic movie theater gift cards for over a year. Gifts from co-workers, they are much-appreciated because they represent gifts of experiences (movies) rather than more stuff. The fact that I still have them simply means I need to get out more. But the cards themselves, of course, are made from plastic. And what happens to that plastic at the end of its life? Unlike credit cards which must be destroyed for security reasons, some gift cards can keep on giving.

The Problem

Gift cards are made from PVC, one of the most toxic plastics from cradle to grave. Each year, according to Plenty Magazine, "a whopping 75 million pounds of polyvinyl chloride material from plastic cards enters America’s waste stream."

Reduce, Re-use

Several companies (Target, Borders, REI, Wal-Mart) offer biodegradable gift cards made from corn, while others provide reloadable cards, also decreasing the need for new plastic if consumers will take the time to save and reload them. Turns out that my two movie cards -- AMC Theatres and Cinemark -- are both reloadable. This is a relief because once they are used up, I'll keep them and add funds when I need a gift to give someone else.

Why buy a new card when these can spread joy and cinema magic indefinitely?

But I also have a third card, one which actually ended up in my possession just yesteraday. Hanging out in a cafe between work and an evening event, I decided to check my email. After pre-paying for time on the computer, I was handed a plastic Internet access card with unique login and password codes. This card, unfortunately, is not reloadable, I discovered today after calling the company. Not sure what material it's made from, I sent an email to the owner to ask about recycling and whether sustainability crossed their minds when developing this method of Internet payment.

Speak up

Honestly, I probably would not have thought much about this small plasticky card if it were not for the dedication of one Fake Plastic Fish reader, Sari, who emailed me several weeks ago with a dilemma which became an amazing inspirational story!

The Save-On Pharmacy where she lives had a nifty promotion. They'd give a $10 reward each time customers spent a certain amount in the store. The $10 was added to a reloadable gift card that each customer kept and used continually. But recently, the company switched to disposable gift cards. Now customers are rewarded with a brand new $10 gift card each time they spend the required amount. The old gift cards are tossed out after they are used up instead of reloaded.

Sari was incensed at this blatant waste and contacted the store manager, who told her that the company had crunched the numbers and determined that disposable gift cards were less expensive. It seems counterintuitive, but that is what she was told. So Sari emailed the store's headquarters and received similarly discouraging response. At that point, she emailed me. A quick Google Search turned up the aforementioned Plenty article, which also describes a way to recycle used gift cards.

Recycle

Earthworks System collects and recycles used disposable PVC gift cards. What's more, they recycle the cards into sheets which can be used to manufacture new gift cards. It's true recycling, rather than downcycling. While I'm not a fan of PVC, I do appreciate that Earthworks System is helping to curb the need for new PVC to be produced.

Both individuals and businesses can send in used gift cards for recycling. While the company would prefer to receive the cards in large batches (why not set up a collection at your office or school?) they will also accept cards from individuals. Mail them to:

Earthworks c/o Halprin Ind.
25840 Miles Rd.
Bedford, Oh 44146

(Note: this updated address is different from that in the Plenty article, and is based on information provided to Sari last month.)

Sari was excited about the recycling information and presented her findings to Save-On. Within a week, she emailed me again with exciting news: the store manager had contacted her back. Headquarters had decided to conduct a pilot program in her local store. The store manager wanted to meet with her to discuss the details. Since the meeting, he has offered to put a box out in the lobby area of the store as a way for local consumers to drop of any type of gift card for recycling.

This all happened within a couple of weeks because one concerned customer spoke up! Could you be the next one to inspire change?

Sari is now working on getting Starbucks and Barnes & Noble involved in the program, and she has set up a campaign on The Point to encourage others to join. Click the badge to show your support. Or simply speak up like she has. The program is already in place. All stores have to do is set up a collection bin and mail in the used cards.

To continue following Sari's efforts to get businesses to recycle gift cards, check out her blog, theviewfromsarisworld.blogspot.com.

But remember, no plastic is better than plastic recycling. Think before you purchase that plastic gift card. Save the old ones you have and reload them if possible. Look for gift cards made from biodegradable or recycled materials. Speak out against disposable gift cards. And finally, ask businesses to collect and recycle those that unfortunately are no longer usable.

What have we got to lose?
 

Gimme5, Brita, Preserve, and You!

Can you believe that the day this photo was taken I was so sick I could barely stand up?

I wrote all about the culmination of the Take Back The Filter campaign in a post on the Take Back The Filter web site, but I forgot to write about it here... until today. Michael woke me up from a sound sleep this morning with the news that I and the campaign had made the front page of a very important newspaper. Better than the NY Times, I made our local East Bay Express.

Seriously, the article "The Blogger and the Bleach Company" is very well-written and balanced, describing the reasons behind the campaign as well as its results. And reading it, I realize how important it is now that the recycling program has been created that we support it and make sure Brita users know it exists. If no one actually returns their filters for recycling, the program could fail and be discontinued.

Here's the deal: Preserve has created a recycling program called Gimme5, collecting not only Brita pitcher filters but all #5 plastic containers (like yogurt containers and prescription bottles) as well as all Preserve products. Preserve is a U.S. company that manufactures toothbrushes, razors, and housewares from #5 (polypropylene) recycled plastic. The recycling happens here in the U.S., creating much-needed jobs domestically rather than exporting the plastic overseas, as is the case with most of our plastic recycling.

There are two ways to return #5 plastics to Preserve. Drop items into Gimme5 bins at select Whole Foods Markets or ship them back via U.S. mail to:

Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045

The Gimme5 web site has complete instructions for how items should be packaged. And here is the official Brita recycling web page.

I've been collecting my used Preserve toothbrushes to mail back en masse, saving postage and fuel. I'm happy that I can instead drop them off in the Gimme5 bin at Whole Foods (using my feet or bike pedals for transit.)

So what about recycling #5 plastic? Haven't I been arguing that we should find alternatives to plastic rather than relying on recycling as the answer? I sure have. And I still feel that way. But I also feel that this program provides a way to deal responsibly with certain plastics that might be unavoidable for many people.

I personally don't use any water filter these days. We had our water tested and found it to be perfectly fine as is. But unfortunately there are people whose tap water is not great or who have lead pipes or who just don't like the taste and would otherwise purchase bottled water. For these people, filters like Brita are a fact of life, and having a way to recycle them is important.

While I may not use Brita filters anymore, I do end up with the ocassional prescription bottle. In California, they cannot be refilled by the pharmacy. Knowing that they will be recycled responsibly by Preserve, a company that happens to be a member of Co-op America's Green Business Network, rather than shipped to China is reassuring.

The Gimme5 program is not a free pass to go crazy buying disposable #5 plastics. But it is an important player in the field of Extended Producer Responsibility, the philosophy that companies that release their products into the world should provide for the full life-cycle of those products, providing cradle to cradle systems for extending the useful life of the materials, reducing waste, and conserving energy and resources.

Here in Oakland, we've just been informed that we can now drop wide-mouthed containers into our curbside recycling bins. Previously, we could only recycle narrow-necked bottles. So we have a choice. We can recycle #5 containers at the curb or take them to Whole Foods. Which method is better?

Right now, I'm thinking Gimme5 beats the curb because we know where the materials are going and who is responsible for them. The plastic left in our curbside bins will most likely be shipped to various companies in Asia. We don't know what products will be created from the materials, what safeguards will be used in the process, what toxins will be released, or even if the plastic will be recycled at all.

Finally, AND MOST IMPORTANT, if we want the Gimme5 program to succeed, it's up to us to promote it. Let your friends and family know. If you have a blog, let your readers know. And the idea that came to me this morning as I read about the campaign in my local paper: write a letter to the editor!

How about this for a sample?

Editor:

Plastic waste is a serious environmental problem. It is made from fossil fuels and does not biodegrade, lasting virtually forever and wreaking havoc in the natural world.

Fortunately, a new program called Gimme5 is attempting to deal responsibly with some of our plastic waste. Customers can return used #5 (polypropylene) plastic containers as well as Brita pitcher water filters and used Preserve products to select Whole Foods markets or mail them back to Preserve for recycling. Full details of the program are at http://www.preserveproducts.com/gimme5/.

I am not personally associated with Preserve, Whole Foods, or Brita, but as an individual attempting to live responsibly on the planet, I highly recommend this program.

Sincerely,

YOU!

I came up with that letter off the top of my head. I'm sure you could do even better. Or just copy mine. Most newspapers these days have ways to send letters to the editor through their web site. You don't even need a stamp! Whatever you do, please come back here and leave a comment. Let us know what paper(s) you contacted and what you wrote.

Yes, I know Preserve is a for-profit company, and this is like free advertising for them. So?
 

Ticked off Women with Bones to Pick

Ever since I started the Take Back The Filter Campaign, and especially since it's ended, I've been getting emails from folks with ideas for additional campaigns for me to start. And what I say to them is, "Hey, that's a great idea! Go for it!" I'm just one person who had a bone to pick with my water filter company. You guys may find other issues that particularly stick in your craw. (Okay, what's all this picking and sticking? I don't even know what these expressions mean.)

Don't wait for someone else to start a movement. Start one yourselves. The Internet makes it possible for regular folks like you and me to reach the world and get heard. At some point, I plan to write a book report on "What I learned from starting a campaign." But not tonight. It's late, and I've got to get up early and carol tomorrow with a bunch of pre-schoolers at a senior center. (Part of my intention to enjoy the season this year rather than avoiding it.)

Instead, I want to talk up a couple of campaigns begun by some other regular women who saw something that ticked them off and decided to do something about it.

1) Disposable Timing Chips: Robbie from Going Green Mama is irritated that the 2009 OneAmerica 500 Festival Mini-Marathon in Indianapolis, Indiana will be switching from reusable timing chips to disposable ones. For anyone who has no idea what any of those words meant, I will explain.

Participants in running races wear little devices on their shoes which are encoded with their racer ID number and record what time they step on special mats placed at the starting line, finish line, and sometimes other spots along the route. This allows the runners to receive an accurate running time and finishing place and also ensures that they run the specified route and don't take short cuts. I know this because I used to run races. Ah, maybe someday I will again...

Anyway, in the past, the timing chips have been little hard plastic thingies that you pick up before the race, attach to your shoe laces, wear during the race, and then return to the race organizers at the end. Yes, they are plastic, but they are used over and over again.

But now, some organizations are switching to disposable chips in order to avoid the hassle of having to collect the reusables. And this move has Robbie up in arms. It doesn't take that long to collect the reusable chips. And disposables will just add more waste to an event that's already full of waste to begin with (disposable water cups, energy bar wrappers, etc.) So she's started a campaign and would like you to join her.

Please read Robbie's post and then send an email to the race organizers letting them know what you think about disposable plastic. And while you're at it, let them know Aquafina bottled water is also not eco-friendly, no matter how many recycling stations they set up. (You can read about that issue in Robbie's post, too.)

2) Plastic at Costco: Last holiday season, I wrote a post about all the unnecessary plastic at Costco. A few days ago, I received an email from Ursula Myers who was also ticked off by it and wanted to know if she could use my image of apples encased in plastic for a petition she was creating in response.

My reply, "Of course you can!" I can't think of a better use for it.

Ursula's Costco petition is hosted on the Care2 web site here. Please sign it and pass it on. (E-mail, blog, tweet, you know.) And while you're at it, how about calling or writing Costco and letting them know what you think directly?

Are there any plastic issues that are particularly maddening to you? Anything you've been wishing someone would do something about? Why not jump in and start your own ruckous this holiday season? It's good clean fun for kids of all ages!
 

Farewell to Del Martin, SF activist for whom the personal and political were no different.

This post has nothing to do with plastic but everything to do with personal activism and the power of each individual to make change in the world, if she or he simply tries.

When I first moved to San Francisco in 1989, I struggled to get by financially and relied on the services of the Lyon & Martin women's clinic for my healthcare. It was a place that operated on a sliding scale and made all women feel safe, regardless of issues of income, race, size, sexuality or gender issues. You know what? They put cute little oven mitts over the metal stirrups to keep our feet from getting cold during those less than pleasant female medical exams.

Eventually, I learned that the clinic was named after two San Francisco pioneers of the gay and lesbian movement, Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin, who had fought all their lives for the rights of women, lesbians, and later seniors. Lyon and Martin were together for nearly 60 years and were the very first gay couple to get married this past June in SF after the California Supreme Court found the state ban on same-sex marriage to be illegal. And it was fitting that they should be first, as they had been part of the legal case that brought about the landmark ruling.

Del Martin passed away today. My friend Red called to tell me the news this morning, and we both cried on the phone. Not so much because of the death. Del was, after all, 87 years old and her health had been failing for some time, but because of the enormity of the impact that she had during her stay on this earth. For Lyon and Martin, there was no difference between what they worked for in the outer world and the personal lives they led. And for me, Del Martin represents the best that each of us can achieve if we believe in the power of our individual daily acts.

In a statement to the press, Phyllis Lyon says:

Ever since I met Del 55 years ago, I could never imagine a day would come when she wouldn't be by my side.... I am so lucky to have known her, loved her and been her partner in all things. I also never imagined there would be a day that we would actually be able to get married.... I am devastated, but I take some solace in knowing we were able to enjoy the ultimate rite of love and commitment before she passed.

You don't have to be a member of the gay/lesbian/bi/trans community to feel the beauty of these words and to be inspired by the perseverance of these remarkable women. Whatever your cause, whatever motivates you to act, whatever is important to you in this world, don't be afraid to let your light shine. Each of our actions does matter. Each of us can make a difference. And now, more than ever, we are needed.

Read the full Obituary here for this inspiring woman.
 

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!
 

Junk floating in the ocean

By now, most readers of this blog have read about the swirling plastic soup in the North Pacific Gyre and learned about the harm to marine life as well as the bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals that are attracted to these tiny plastic pieces. This coming Sunday, June 1, a couple of intrepid adventurers will sail their own Junk out into the Pacific carrying a large plastic bottle filled with messages from students and individuals across the nation. The bottle of messages will eventually be delivered to state and federal legislators.

The Junk is actually a raft made with 15,000 plastic bottles. The journey is part of an educational effort called Message in a Bottle, and the adventurers are some of the same members of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF) who made the trip out to the North Pacific Gyre this past winter and brought back samples of the plastic foating out there.

If you enjoyed following the blog of the Alguita on its voyage this winter, you might want to subscribe to the Junk's blog this time around. And also consider making a donation to support the work of the AMRF and including your own message in the bottle.

I feel very privileged this week to be able to support the campaigns of No Impact Man yesterday and AMRF today because it was through information from these two sources that my own awareness of the problems of plastic came into being and Fake Plastic Fish was born nearly a year ago. We've come so far, and yet there is still so far to go.
 

Check out my fancy new "business" card holder (and cards!)

Isn't this just the coolest idea ever? I wish I could take credit for this recycled business card holder, but the kudos go to the geniuses at Acorn Studios, where they have full instructions for making your own! (Can you tell what it is?)

So I displayed my new Fake Plastic Fish cards in their spiffy recycled plastic holder at the monthly gathering of East Bay Green Drinks tonight, where I was invited to come and present the Take Back The Filter campaign. The cards were designed by Ed Colmar of Green Graphics, a green printing and design firm here in Oakland. He's probably going to help me clean up this web site too, maybe in time for its one-year anniversary. Right Ed?

For those who don't know, Green Drinks is a monthly gathering of "people interested in sustainability, including green business, architecture, design, organics, clean energy and other topics." The crowd includes folks involved in green businesses but also representatives of environmental organizations and locals interested in hanging out with other greenies for food and fun. Our monthly Green Drinks happy hour is held at Bobby G's Pizzeria, a certified green restaurant in Berkeley, CA. But there are local Green Drinks groups meeting in cities all over the world. Visit the official Green Drinks web site to find a group near you. It's just fun to hang out for a few hours with other people who share your values.

So yeah, I presented the campaign tonight and met some great people, including at least one reader of this blog! I brought my laptop so people could sign the petition online. And one woman even rode home to get her used water filter and bring it back to me!

Okay, gotta find out who won American Idol tonight and then go to bed. Night night.

P.S. I almost forgot! Are any of you female bloggers planning to attend the 2008 Blogher Conference in San Francisco this July? I'm signed up for all three days, and I really, really hope to meet some of you with whom I've only interacted online. How about it, Organic Green locals? (You know who you are.)
 

"Take Back The Filter" takes on "Bay to Breakers"!

(Click photo to see larger view.)

Well, I put out the call, and Tanya and Christa volunteered to help me, dressed as a BRITA filter, get across San Francisco. They came over Saturday night, along with my friend Mark who pretty much majored in costumes and makeup in college, to work on costumes and signs and eat pizza. (BTW, we ordered pizza from Rustica on College Ave and requested it be delivered without that little plastic thing in the middle that keeps the lid from sticking to the cheese. And you know what? The lid and cheese did just fine without that little plastic thing.)

Here's a link to the full article on the Take Back The Filter site.

And here's a link to more photos from the day.

Along the way, dese frat guys with some kine beer machine begged me to be da first water filter to do a "full extension." Wow. That sure was tempting. But I was on a mission and politely declined their generous offer.

Gotta run. Gotta finish up my work and get home so Mark and I can put the finishing touches on our Amazing Race application video. Life in the Fake Plastic Fish tank is never boring.
 

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

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

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

Don't everyone offer at once!

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

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

So can I get a volunteer?

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

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

Okay, gotta get back to working on my costume!
 

Stories@deadgadgets.com wants your dead gadget stories!

Remember this picture of my plastic waste from Week 35? Remember my rant about the HP monitor that couldn't be fixed and how HP makes products that have to be replaced rather than repaired? I ranted here. I ranted on the Californians Against Waste site. I ranted in emails to HP. And then I found out about The Electronics Take Back Coalition (http://www.computertakeback.com).

The Electronics Take Back Coalition is a national coalition of environmental and consumer groups who promote green design and responsible recycling in the consumer electronics industry. They have several strategies, including:

• Promoting legislation to require manufacturers to take back and recycle our old electronics


• Using direct public pressure on manufacturers to offer responsible recycling programs to their customers, and to adopt green design principles.


• Working with institutional purchasers to amplify the demand for green products.


• Promoting recyclers who adhere to responsible electronics recycling practices and exposing the impacts of low-road recycling, including the exporting of e-waste to poor countries around the world.


• They are currently campaigning to get TV companies (www.takebackmytv.com) to offer free TV recycling, as many TVs will become obsolete when HD becomes the standard.

All this is great. It's a good step. But I didn't want to recycle my monitor. I wanted to be able to fix it and keep using it. So I wrote to the Coalition to ask if they are addressing the issue of planned obsolescence of electronics and the inability to repair them rather than recycling, and I got a reponse back from Barbara Kyle, the National Coordinator:

We have focused on the recycling end of the e-waste problem. But we want to do more on promoting reuse, and green design concepts that allow us to hang on to our electronic products longer, and to upgrade them to keep up with advances in technology. So far, the industry has focused on energy as the primary criteria for “green design.” While we don’t disagree that energy use by the product is important, the energy used to create new products is even more significant, and could be reduced if our products simply lasted longer.

We want dead gadget stories!

We would love to receive stories just like the one you documented on your blog, showing clearly how products simply can’t be fixed or upgraded, because of clear choices made by the product designers.

Please send your stories to Stories@deadgadgets.com and include the following information:

1. Make and model


2. Year they bought it. Is it under warranty?


3. Why it’s dead. (Doesn’t turn on, won’t reboot, can’t upgrade it to run certain software, etc)


4. Steps taken to try to fix it, or cost to fix it. (Here’s where your story was incredibly compelling. You didn’t just say your monitor died – you found someone who tried to fix it, identified the part needed, made the call, and then was rebuffed. So asking your readers to fill in this part would be great. Making the call to get an estimate on what it would cost to fix it (vs replace it) is good. But actually getting the company to say they WON'T sell you a replacement part gets to the heart of the issue. So that’s an extra step, but if you could ask them to document this, it will help us tell this story. Feel free to include whom they spoke with at the companies, so there can be no question of misunderstanding.)


5. Picture of the dead gadget. (Be sure we can see the manufacturer name or logo!) For our dead gadget gallery (soon to come).

This request includes broken TELEVISIONS, not just computer-type devices.

Barbara also added that if there are any serious reuse and upgrade geeks out here, she'd love to talk to them in more detail about how they could do a more thorough “study” of this issue, trends they see with different companies, etc.

So if you've suffered similar frustrations to what I have, please, please, please take a minute to send your story to Stories@deadgadgets.com and help persuade companies to take responsbility for the products they release into the world.

OH! And if you're a blogger, please post this request on your blog! Let's make it viral!
 

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!
 

Take back the Brita filter campaign?

04/14/2008 Update: If you've reached this page because you want to know how to recycle Brita filter cartridges in North America, please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information about the campaign to urge Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) to develop a take-back recycling program for these cartridges!

I use Google Analytics to show me where Fake Plastic Fish's traffic comes from, and sometimes it's fun to look at the Search terms people have used to find this blog. Going through the list tonight, I found these 81 different related combinations. It's a long list. Feel free to scroll down fast.

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Wow. These are all actual queries typed by people into a Search Engine. Many of them were used by multiple people. But they don't represent all the people in North America trying to find out if their water filter cartridges can be recycled. No. These are ONLY the people who also happened to click on the Fake Plastic Fish link that came up on the search list. How many other people are out there trying to find out how to recycle their water filter cartridges and coming up empty-handed?

The point of this exercise is that I'm trying to gauge how much interest there would be in a campaign to urge Clorox, the company that owns the North American division (including Canada) of Brita, to develop a recycling program for the cartridges.

First, a few facts for those unfamiliar with this issue:

• The Brita company was founded in Germany in 1966.


• In 1992, Brita introduced the first recycling program for filter cartridges. The cartridges are processed at Brita's plant in Germany, where the components are dismantled and reused. Read more about the Brita recycling process here.


• In 2000, the entire North American division of the company was sold to the Clorox Corporation, headquartered in Oakland, CA. (FYI: I incorrectly stated in a previous post that this sale took place in 1988 based on an entry in Wikipedia. Won't be getting info from that source again.)


• Now, while the cartridges from the European company are still collected and recycled, the Brita cartridges from the U.S. and Canada are not. In June of 2007, I sent an email to Brita customer service asking why the American cartridges are not recycled when they are in Europe, and I received an unsatisfactory reply. So I wrote a follow-up email, and received another unsatisfactory reply, stating that the filter cartridges in the U.S. use a different technology than the European ones, but giving no other details.


• In December of 2007, Clorox purchased Burt's Bees in an attempt to enter the "green" market. In a press release in October 2007, Clorox Chairman and CEO Donald R. Knauss states, "With this transaction, we're entering into a new strategic phase for our company, enabling us to expand further into the natural/sustainable business platform. The Burt's Bees® brand is well-anchored in sustainability and health and wellness, and we believe it will benefit from natural and "green" tailwinds. It's in an economically attractive category with a margin structure that will be highly accretive to Clorox. Combined with our new Green Works™ line of natural cleaning products, and Brita® water-filtration products, we can leverage Burt's Bees' extensive capabilities and credibility to build a robust, higher-growth platform for Clorox."

My plea to Clorox is this: If you'd truly like to help the planet by entering the "green" marketplace, you could first begin by "greening" the products you already produce. Providing a take-back recycling program for your water filter cartridges would be a great step, especially considering that the model technology already exisits!

So why am I focusing on Brita rather than other water filter companies? First of all Brita has the #1 market share of pour-through filter cartridges in the U.S. and Canada. It's the #1 faucet-mount filter in Canada and the #2 faucet-mount filter in the U.S. (I don't know who is #1. This information comes from page 14 of Clorox's 2007 Annual Report.)

Second, the recycling infrastructure exists within the European branch of the company already.

And third, Clorox is obviously making a bid to appeal to environmentally-conscious consumers at this time. It would be nice for them to put their money where their mouth is.

So, with this information, I'd like to take a little poll here to find out how much interest there would be in putting energy into such a campaign.

RESIDENTS OF NORTH AMERICA ONLY PLEASE.

Tales of an on-again off-again activist

Last month, in my Green Sangha meeting, we were discussing how hard it can be to have compassion for people who just don't seem to care about the planet and how easy it can be to feel self-righteous. I piped up and said that I don't really understand how people change, how they go from not noticing or caring about waste and environmental degradation to waking up and realizing what effect their actions have. I don't understand because up until June of this year, I myself was one of those people who bought and threw away hundreds of plastic water bottles, chose plastic bags over paper (and doubled them on purpose), and stocked up on frozen foods in their cute little plastic containers. And then something happened, I had a realization, and suddenly I couldn't go back.

The thing is, I'm not really sure just what that something was. I've tried to remember my first "aha!" moment, what it felt like, where I was. I think I may have been in the shower when it happened, but I'm not even sure about that. All I can come up with are a series of fortunate events that happened to coincide. Still, I do want to try to figure it out because I believe that if we can each remember how it felt before we gained our own awareness of nature and our connection to the earth, we can find a way to approach other people from a place of common understanding rather than confrontation.

So here goes. First, let me backtrack a bit. I grew up in a liberal Democratic Mormon family. Sound like a contradiction? It kind of is. My dad was probably one of the very few Democrats in our church, one of the only members who voted for Jimmy Carter, and who in his youth had bucked the conservative views of his own family in favor of labor unions and civil rights. Still, the Mormon church did instill certain conservative values in my parents, standards I chafed at as a teenager. Once I was out of college and on my own, I yearned to do something radical, become an activist, fight the power!

I scanned the Washington Post classifieds for jobs under "Activist." I really didn't care what kind of activist job I got, as long as it was left-leaning and would piss some people off. So in the summer of 1987, I got a job as a canvasser (read "fundraiser") for Clean Water Action, only because it was the first interview I went on and they offered me a job on the spot. (I didn't realize then that pretty much everyone who interviewed for a job as a canvasser got hired on the spot!) I could have just as easily worked for Sane Freeze (now known as Peace Action) or Public Citizen or Greenpeace or MaryPIRG. The issue was not as important as the identity I had chosen for myself.

Still, I did learn a lot about environmental issues that year. I remember trying to get my parents to recycle and to eat tofu (something my dad never lets me live down) even then. I even remember becoming infuriated when Tampax came out with plastic applicators as an alternative to cardboard and urging others in my organization to write letters of protest. I remember hearing about PVC and Styrofoam and Dioxins and incinerator emissions. That was 20 years ago, and we're still dealing with these issues!

My stint as a cavasser for Clean Water Action lasted a whole year and a half. That's ages in canvassing organizations where the turnover is fast and furious. Knocking on doors and asking for money is hard work, especially when most of those doors get slammed in your face. Maybe it was actually the Mormon culture of missionary work in which I was raised that kept me going as long as I did. Finally, after meeting a few people from San Francisco and visiting The City a couple of times, I decided I'd had enough of DC canvassing and moved to California. I canvassed for The California League of Conservation Voters for a few months before giving up and moving on to more exciting things.

So how did I lose my budding awareness of environmental issues? Why did I stop caring? For one thing, I got caught up in a whole host of other issues: feminism, gender politics, GLBT rights, AIDS activism (which was the hot topic in SF at that time.) I tried on all kinds of hats and identities, as most of us do in our twenties, and somehow, after being poor and idealistic for too long, I got burned out and took a job as an accountant for a wine company. I went to accounting school. I moved to the suburbs for a year and learned that shopping malls were fun. When I moved back to The City, I'd pretty much forgotten about environmental issues altogether.

And what I'm realizing as I write this is that our environment, our world, our planet, was just an issue to me at that time. It was a cause. A fight. An identity to wear until something more intriguing came along. And canvassing for an organization, I have to say, can suck the spirit right out of you. In fact, as I was browsing the web tonight, I came across a review of a book entitled, Activism, Inc.: How the Outsourcing of Grassroots Campaigns Is Strangling Progressive Politics in America, by Dana R. Fisher, which is pretty damning of the whole canvassing model. And I have to admit that some of the statements in the article really resonate with me. The scripts; the dollar quotas; the pressure to "get the money and move on" when you'd rather have a genuine conversation with someone; and the disillusionment of discovering that while part of your job description is public education and activism, fundraising is the only part that determines whether or not you get to keep your job. Perhaps the burnout I suffered from canvassing contributed to my lack of enthusiasm for environmental concerns. I kind of stopped giving a crap.

Okay, so fast forward twenty years. I'm married, no children (by choice), working only three days per week. I've got a lot of extra time on my hands and nothing to do with it. I've tried to fill it with one obsession after another: gardening, knitting, movies, books, web design and flash animation, music, and the last one was running. I kept up the running for about a year, completing a marathon on my birthday this past January and continuing to run after that.

And then in June, I had a hysterectomy.

Somehow, I attribute my sudden awakening to that operation. For one thing, I was stuck in the house recuperating for a few weeks and couldn't run or do much of anything besides listen and think. Here I was, 42-years old, and while I'd decided years ago that I wasn't going to have children, that decision was suddenly a fact. This body never will produce a child. I'm not going to commit the one creative act that women have done worldwide for millenia. So, if not a child, what will I create instead?

It was during this time that I heard an interview with Colin Beavan, the No Impact Man, on NPR. He and his family are striving to live for one year with zero negative environmental impact. His story intrigued me, so I visited his site, where I was led to that of EnviroWoman, a Canadian woman who'd decided to live plastic-free for a year. And it was from her site that I stumbled upon the article, "Plastic Ocean," and its devastating photo of a dead albatross filled with pieces of plastic. That image is now burned into my brain. I can't pass by plastic bottle caps on the street without thinking about it and picking them up. A few days later, Fake Plastic Fish was born.

And because of the effect that photo had on me, I can't understand how anyone can view it without being permanently affected.

And yet I can.

Because until that particular day, I must have seen hundreds of terrible environmental images and simply ignored them or chose not to see. I watched An Inconvenient Truth and was moved by the cartoons of polar bears swimming to death but not enough to do anything about it except change a few lightbulbs and e-mail my city councilwoman. Blame it on hormones or existential angst or random chance; factors came together the day that I saw that photo, such that its power touched me on a profound level. In a way that I believe (I hope) will never go away.

So, that's my story. I'm not saying that we have to wait for each person to have their personal epiphany in order to change the world. The environmental mess we're in won't wait that long. We need to take action sooner than later. And we do need environmental organizations working on the big political and legal issues in order for change to occur fast enough for our planet to continue to be friendly to humans and other living creatures. But having compassion, being able to see bits of ourselves in others' reluctance to act, might help us to communicate with each other in ways that are productive rather than antagonistic. And whether or not we solve all of our environmental problems before it's too late, we ourselves will be able to live in a more peaceful world while we still have it.

So what are your stories of ecological enlightenment? Clif shared his in a beautiful and thoughtful comment on the post, Rethinking Plastics, last week. I encourage you to read it and then to share your story here. We can all use some inspiration!
 

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.
 

Still thinking outside the bottle...

I was there outside Oakland City Hall Wednesday morning to kick off the nationwide "Think Outside The Bottle" campaign. Similar press conferences were being held in other cities around the U.S. at the same time. Here are excerpts from the San Francisco Chronicle article that appeared today, supplemented with photos from my camera:

Bay Area water fight: bottled vs. tap
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bottled water, bad. Tap water, good.

That was the message that tap-water advocates delivered on the steps of Oakland City Hall on Wednesday as part of a nationwide campaign to persuade cities, consumers and restaurants to dump bottled water in favor of old-fashioned municipal water.

Not only is bottled water more expensive, said a group of local government leaders and officials for Corporate Accountability International, the nonprofit sponsoring the campaign, but it often comes from the same sources as tap water and most of the bottles end up in landfills despite consumer efforts to recycle them.


And it tastes no different, they say.

In an attempt to prove that point, East Bay Municipal Utility District Board member Andy Katz donned a blindfold and tried to discern the difference between two bottled waters and tap water from Oakland and Berkeley that his district supplies.


"It's hard to tell," Katz said....

Tap-water lovers hope Oakland, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities will join San Francisco, Emeryville, Santa Clara, San Leandro and Los Angeles in dumping bottled water contracts....

The tap-water advocates have yet to get Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums to respond to their request that the city dump its contract with Alhambra water. In a strange coincidence during Wednesday's news conference, a member of Dellums' security detail walked by on his way to City Hall carrying a tray with three coffee drinks - and a bottle of water.

"On its merits, this is something the mayor would agree with, but we have to look at the infrastructure in our older buildings, the pipes and how they're operating," Dellums' spokesman Paul Rose said Wednesday....

And here I am with other like-minded, plastic bottle-shunning activists hoping to make a difference.


The last time I wrote about the Think Outside The Bottle campaign, there wasn't much reader response. But I think it's really important for those of us who care about reducing plastic waste to sign the pledge to let our leaders know that we want them to support good, clean local tap water instead of turning the responsibility over to private bottled water companies that are not accountable to us and whose sole motivation is corporate profits.

If you haven't already, please click this link to sign the "Think Outside The Bottle" pledge. This is a nationwide campaign. Currently, the focus is on 7 cities. But Corporate Accountability International hopes to have commitments from mayors throughout the U.S. before they are through. And I'll be writing more about it as the campaign progresses.

If we are going to get people to stop buying water in plastic bottles, we need to make sure they feel secure with drinking tap water. And in order for that to happen, our cities need to support the local infrastructure to make sure that the water that comes out of the tap is actually safe to drink. Otherwise, folks may continue to believe the hype from Coke and Pepsi and Nestle that bottled water is the safer alternative.

It's not.
 
 

Of Water and Weirdness

I tabled at Temescal again on Sunday, this time wearing a different shirt. A "Think Outside The Bottle" shirt, to be exact. And instead of tabling as me, an Oakland resident who simply wanted to encourage other Oakland residents to give up plastic bags, I represented an organization. Wow, was that a different experience. It kind of reminded me of my early days canvassing for Clean Water Action. We had an agenda, and a quota, and a "script." Except this time, we were looking for volunteers rather than monetary contributions.

And while I totally support The World Water Challenge's goals (encouraging mayors in 7 cities to cancel bottled water contracts and support local tap water), I think that at 42 I'm a little too independent-minded to fit into the organizational mold. So I'll be going to the "kick-off meeting" on Wednesday. But I'm not sure I'll table for this group again.

On my way home, I passed along College Avenue where the Rockridge Street Fair was in full-swing. And I happened upon the booth of my city council-person, Jane Brunner, "manned" by her assistant, Maria. What an opportunity! I spoke to Maria about recycling in Oakland, asking why Oakland can't recycle wide-mouthed containers, like San Francisco does. And she said, "I thought we did! I always put my yogurt containers in the recycling."

This is what I'm talking about! How can anyone be expected to get it right when even our city representatives don't know what the rules are?!?! So I explained to her the ins and outs of Oakland recycling (which she confirmed with her friend who was walking by), gave her my card, and asked her to please get back to me. I'm not going to give up until I get a good explanation. If San Francisco can recycle their yogurt and cottage cheese and pudding containers, why can't Oakland?

As the day drew to a close, Michael and I BARTed into San Francisco to see his favorite band, They Might Be Giants, at the historic Fillmore Auditorium. Hungry from all my morning and afternoon activism, I looked at the menu in the Fillmore's upstairs cafe and attempted a plastic-free meal. How could you go wrong with a garden burger? The only plastic-free beverage was bottled beer. I ordered a Guinness.

The garden burger arrived with 3 plastic condiment packets, which I handed back, and an unexpected plastic cup of salsa to go with a handful of unexpected tortilla chips. See, this is what happens when you assume instead of asking ahead of time what comes with a meal. Fortunately, our server was happy to take back the salsa cup, confirming that she would reuse it, and even said, "I love that you're like this." An unexpected weird little compliment. I'll take it!

There were recycling bins throughout the Fillmore for cans and bottles. Unfortunately, most of the drinks come in big plastic cups, which are not accepted in the recycle bins. It boggles the mind to think of just how many plastic cups are tossed out every night. But once the music started, my mind let go of plastic and garbage and recycling issues for a few hours. It was a relief to just be. And fun to see how happy this nerdy band can make people. How often in this crazy world do you find people rocking out to songs about famous painters and historical figures and physics?

I think every crusade needs a little levity. Don't you agree?
 

Think Outside The Bottle: The World Water Challenge

Pretend you're walking down a street in Oakland, and I just handed you a flyer. This is what it says:

Corporate Accountability International's
Think Outside The Bottle Campaign
The World Water Challenge

Do you care about your right to water?

Join us in our campaign to ask mayor Dellums of Oakland to take a public stand in favor of our municipal water systems and to cancel all of his bottled water contracts by December 2007.

Wednesday, October 3rd
7:30pm
Malonga Casquelord Center for the Arts (Formerly Alice Arts Center)
1428 Alice Street, Oakland, CA 94612
Refreshments Provided.

Please RSVP Rachael rgooyder@greencorps.org or call (510) 809-7353

So will you come?

Here's the background. At the end of Loni Hancock's Forum On The Health Of San Francisco Bay last Thursday, I met Rachael Goodyer of Corporate Accountability International, a group organizing citizens to press mayors across the country to cancel their cities' bottled water contracts. A few months ago, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco did just that.

In Executive Directive 07-05 on June 21, 2007, Mayor Newsom wrote:

Data suggests that the environmental impact of the bottled water industry has been profound.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, supplying the plastic water bottles that American consumers purchase in one year requires more than 47 million gallons of oil, the equivalent of one billion pounds of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere.

More than one billion plastic water bottles end up in California’s landfills each year, taking 1000 years to biodegrade and leaking toxic additives such as phthalates into the groundwater.

Additionally, water diverted from local aquifers for the bottled water industry can strain surrounding ecosystems.

Furthermore, transporting bottled water by boat, truck and train involves burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

All of this waste and pollution is generated by a product that by objective standards is often inferior to the quality of San Francisco’s pristine tap water.

In addition to its concern about the environmental impact of water bottles, Corporate Accountability International looks at bottled water vs. tap water as a human rights issue. Money is diverted to bottled water corporations such as Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle, that should be spent on the public water infrastructures to ensure that all citizens have the benefits of free, clean drinking water.

I have joined this campaign here in Oakland, and urge any other Oakland readers to join up as well. If you have some time to volunteer, great! Please contact me or Rachael to find out what you can do to help. And if you only have enough time to sign the pledge, that's great too. We need your voices to be heard.

If you don't live in Oakland, you might still be able to participate! This campaign is being waged in 7 major cities at the same time:

Austin * Baltimore * Boston * Chicago * Minneapolis * Oakland * Portland

If you live in any of those areas and would like to find out what you can do to help, please let me know. I have contact information for the organizers in those cities.

Our own personal actions are a great start. But getting the support of our leaders on these issues is the only way we can ultimately change the system. Please help.

Don't make me bribe you with chocolate!

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And now for today's update on the Trash Challenge.

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Misc: Temescal Tabling, Environmental Ethics, & Plastic Pick Up

Yesterday morning, Terry from Green Sangha joined me at the Temescal Farmer's Market to educate the public about plastic. This time, the information was supplemented by a beautiful display, courtesy of the Marin Chapter of Green Sangha. Please click the top image to see the details of the display. We only had it for this weekend, and now it will have to go back to Marin where it normally lives.

We also handed out resusable cloth produce bags, asking a $2 donation to reimburse Green Sangha's cost for purchasing the bags. These bags are great for produce because they are thin and lightweight and when dampened, will keep produce fresh in the refrigerator. It was interesting to see how many people who initially refused the bags, saying that they had their own totes, changed their minds when we explained that the totes are great but we're concerned about the plastic produce bags that fill up the totes.

It was nice to see that some people brought their used plastic bags back to the market to fill up again. Maybe we should have a container of used plastic grocery bags to give out for people who don't want the cloth bags. That's what they do at the Berkeley Farmer's Market. I think some folks don't want to pay for bags, but they also feel guilty about taking them for free. At least if we could encourage them to take used grocery bags, we could prevent new plastic bags from being wasted. I'll bring up this idea with the group and see what they think.

If you live in the Bay Area and would like Green Sangha to bring their traveling display and powerpoint presentation to your organization or business, contact them and see if something can be arranged. Here is a link to Green Sangha's materials related to plastic: http://www.greensangha.org/plastic.html

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A blogger who goes by the nickname of Crunchy Chicken and writes about her family's efforts to live sustainably recently found out that her husband has a very serious form of blood cancer. Today, she wrote her thoughts about all the plastic the hospital uses to treat her husband and how she feels that right now, after all their family has done to reduce their ecological footprint, they've "earned a little extra plastic consumption for a while."

Who would disagree with plastic being used in this way to keep people alive? Plastic being used for necessities rather than frivolities? What's really touching is not only Crunchy's post itself but all the comments from her readers, many of whom are pledging to reduce their waste even more in order to offset the necessary waste generated by her sick husband.

Please read Crunchy Chicken's post, Personal ethics and environmentalism. Then see what plastic waste you can eliminate in your own life in order to make up for the plastic use of those who really need it.

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Here's a guy who went to town on the weekend pick up plastic challenge. Scott from Least Footprint sent me the following e-mail and photo:

OK, I took your weekend challenge and have attached a picture. The picture shows as much as I gathered in just half an hour. I did this sort of as an experiment to measure exactly how much plastic trash is in just one large block right in my neighborhood. It is a lot.... I have been picking stuff up one at a time... and then dumping it one at a time at the next available receptacle or bringing it home to recycle depending on the ick factor but this is the first time I actually went out with a bag to fill and measured how much there is to pick up. I know, I'm the PUP guy but I've been in the middle of moving and taking on tons of other projects as well.

Anyhow, I think you may have gotten me kick started on this. If I can pick up that much plastic in half an hour, imagine how much I could pick up in a week with very little expenditure of time. Although I think I may get one of those claw things they use. It's a challenge. I'll keep you informed how it goes. Pushing and prodding always welcome.

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And finally, today's update on the Trash Challenge.
 
 

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.
 

Direct Action, Part 1: Green Sangha

Sunday morning, a week ago, I'm sitting in a cottage in Berkeley with nine other people, eyes closed, watching my breath as thoughts come and go. It's a meditation retreat, yes, but it's more than that, and I'm attempting to let go of the agenda I arrived with and relax into the moment. Twenty minutes later, the bell rings, and it is time to introduce ourselves, share food, and plan environmental actions, from a place of centered compassion rather agitation or anger.

The group is the East Bay chapter of Green Sangha, and this is my first time attending their monthly meeting. It's one of the first moments of real calm I have experienced since I began my plastics project, and I can tell that this communion of like-minded, open-hearted people is what I need.

Green Sangha was founded in 2000 by Jonathan Gustin, who was "concerned about the subtle hostility he found in many peace groups and the ensuing burnout that activism based in anger produces, with the intention of having a group of people perform activism not as a reaction to what they oppose in the world, but rather from their love of the world." (From Green Sangha's web site.)

The web site goes on to explain, "Green Sangha chapters meet once a month to meditate, educate, and support each other, and to plan and perform direct environmental actions. Our time together is designed to help develop the qualities of calmness, lucidity, and awareness which we believe are vital to our work as spiritually-based environmental activists. We are non-denominational and find inspiration from the lives of non-violent leaders such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., The Dalai Lama, and Julia Butterfly Hill.

"It is important to speak out against that which threatens our planet. We can add to the violence by attacking those we perceive as the "enemy." Alternatively, we can embody the love and respect we want others to show the earth. It can be challenging to practice equanimity and love while the planet is being poisoned, yet it is vital to do so."

During this August 12 meeting, Green Sangha is planning an upcoming beach cleanup action and also discussing their experiences while tabling at the Berkeley Farmers Market. A couple of members had given out cloth bags to shoppers with information encouraging them to bring reusable cloth bags back to the market instead of taking new plastic. I had come to the meeting hoping to organize a similar action at the plastic-laden Temescal Farmer's Market, which I'd blogged about two weeks before.

The members are very open to the idea of broadening out their action to other farmer's markets, and I am assigned the task of contacting the Temescal Farmer's Market manager to get permission to come and table there.

In fact, I had already been contacted by Ron Pardini, the manager of Urban Village Farmers Market Association, in response to the e-mail I sent two weeks ago about all the plastic at the market. This was Ron's reply:

"I’ve been increasingly aware of the amounts of plastic bags (and other containers/packaging) that are being distributed during each of our farmers’ markets we operate. We’ve recently printed the logos of each market on organic cotton totes, & are selling them for less than we purchased them for, to encourage purchases. I know this is just a start, now I need help to find a source so we can offer the vendors an alternative (& cheap) bag to use when selling their products. Can you help?"

What a great match! I left a message for Ron as soon as the meeting ended, and waited breathlessly to hear back from him. Unfortunately, my excitement and drive to get things moving doesn't always match other people's time tables. Ron is a very busy man, juggling many different tasks in keeping the Farmer's Market organized. After playing a little phone and e-mail tag, we finally spoke to each other the following Saturday, and Ron gave permission for us to come and give out information about plastic bags the very next day.

Wow! Mad scramble! I had less than 24 hours to get a table together and see if I could also get some other Green Sangha members to join me. The information sheet, Don't Think About A Plastic Bag (PDF file), is downloadable from the Green Sangha web site. I printed the flyer and made 2-sided copies on green paper at Copy Central. Because of the time factor, I was not able to find paper with the highest recycled content I would have liked. I'll be better prepared the next time.

Additionally, Green Sangha has a downloadable Power Point presentation, Rethinking Plastics, which I also printed out at Copy Central. I made one black and white copy to put in a binder, which I planned to make available at the table for folks who wanted additional information about the issue of plastic in the environment. I also made 10 color copies of some of the more powerful photos in the document to display: a turtle with a plastic bag in his mouth, a dead Laysan albatross full of plastic, a plastic-strewn beach, etc.

I went to bed Saturday night with my head full of ideas about what I would do the next day, and wondering if I would have anyone to join me. As it turned out, it was too late to find anyone else able to come, so I was on my own. Tune in tomorrow for details of my day at the Farmer's Market, my first direct action since the plastic project began.