I would walk 500 miles: A guest post by Sunny Yukon

The following is a guest post from Fake Plastic Fish reader Sunny Yukon. All I can say is that I wish I were this funny!


Coincidentally I was listening to this song by The Proclaimers yesterday.

By the end of the day I fell down at my door. I was exhausted!

I helped my son with a fundraising activity his scout troup was doing yesterday evening. Roadside clean-up. We were assigned a 3+ kilometre stretch of highway, given orange vests and garbage bags, and told it should be about three hours of work for our group to earn $500. And off we went!

Three hours later, we were a little over 1/2 done. The full-sized pickup we had was filled with bags of trash. The leader said it was the most trash he'd ever seen doing this fundraiser.

There was
a bike with a trashed seat.
fast food wrappers
newspapers
paper cups
Styrofoam
hubcaps
blown tires
gas caps
gas cans
plastic wrapping
bungee cords
wire
plastic lids from paper cups
straws
underwear
pop cans
beer bottles
flyers
plastic bags
Broken windshield glass from at least two different accidents, amongst several other plastic car parts

I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

I do want to say though:

Mr. X: I found page two of your tax assessment form. I know your full name, address, birth date, and SIN (SSN). It wouldn't take much effort for me to assume your identity and wreak havoc to your credit report. Lucky for you, I'm not like that. But we never found page one...

XYZ Auto Parts: I haven't seen your delivery truck with the lit-up plastic yellow ball cap decorating the roof of the cab roaring past my workplace lately. Now I know why - apparently your driver rolled it sometime this winter. I picked up the pieces of that plastic ball cap. And your product catalog. And some bumper, and headlights, and windshield glass. I guess being an auto parts store you knew you could get it all replaced and had no need to clean up after yourself.

And finally, to the guy walking around without your ginch... seriously, you had to remove your undies and toss them in the tree? Oh, wait, you were the driver of the auto parts delivery truck? Wet your pants and didn't want to be embarrassed when you were picked up huh. Oh, well, that's sooo okay then.

Pardon me, I didn't mean to drool my sarcasm on your monitor.

The clean up is done, and a little stretch of the highway that I go by daily is a little greener. More importantly, my resolve to continue reducing and eliminating my plastic is stronger. In my little corner of the world I am finding it to be a huge challenge, but everyday I'm doing something different.

Even more importantly, there is a group of 11-14 year olds who also got quite an impression of the waste in our area. There were several comments of disgust coming from all of them. Who knew an 11 year old boy could get disgusted? I didn't; I still live with a daily barrage of burps and farts!

So, I didn't walk 500 miles yesterday, but I got a start. This weekend I'm joining the same scout troop for an overnight hike. We practice "Leave-no-trace" camping. At my side will be another garbage bag. You never know where you'll find more trash, even if it feels like you're out in the middle of the nowhere.

What about you? Why not grab a small bag and just make a five minute stop on the roadside. Every little bit helps! Teach your kids that just like at home, we can all pitch in to help tidy. Many hands make light work!

I think if we all took a few extra steps, it wouldn't be long for that 500 miles to add up.

Sunny lives in Northern Canada where she and her husband raise two boys and try to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible. She runs a retail lumber yard where you can find her doing everything from the bookkeeping, forklift operating, equipment maintenance, to scrubbing the toilet. You name it; it's probably on her to do list. Trying to lead by example, at home she has greatly reduced her plastic and cleaning chemical consumption and is enjoying the benefits of less recycling and trash to have to haul away. At work she has reduced and reused many items while still maintaining a professional polish that many customers have shown appreciation for. With so many items being shipped north from other climates, plastic is very prevalent because it reduces the packaging weight. Costs for recycling any materials are also much greater. She has found plastic reduction to be very daunting but is babystepping her way through the challenge.
 

Berkeley's Green 4th of July

I love living in the Bay Area. Especially after reading Life Less Plastic's post about all the plastic and Styrofoam at her city's Taste of Chicago festival.

Here are some images from Berkeley's Independence Day celebration at the Marina:








I especially love that the garbage containers are labeled "Landfill" and explain what goes to the landfill and why it's important to choose recyclable or compostable alternatives. All the disposable dishware at the event were compostable. And there were water stations for filling up reusable bottles.

The "greening" of this event was the doing of my friend Mary Munat, aka Green Mary. In February, I wrote about Janice Sitton, my event greener friend in San Francisco. Mary is my other event greening friend, and she's been doing it since 2000. Here's how she got inspired to do this work, excerpted from her web site:

Mary's epiphany came in 2000, while listening to Julia Butterfly-Hill at the annual Health and Harmony Festival, in Santa Rosa, California.

As Butterfly-Hill recounted the tale of her attempt to save her beloved Luna, a heroic mission during which she lived hundreds of feet off the ground for nearly two years--all to save a tree, the audience wiped their tears with virgin paper napkins and relieved their thirst from single-use plastic water bottles. They quieted their hunger with non-organic foods, enjoyed while served ironically on the tree-destroying paper plates which may have killed Luna, and walked away from her talk, perhaps talking her talk, likely not walking it.

This was Mary's opening, a green rebirth.

Deeply affected, Mary entered the zero-waste arena on that moment. She has walked her talk through festivals around the state ever since.

By 2005 her experience included several years of festival volunteer coordination. She has since focused on people and resource management, with a keen eye for waste reduction at San Francisco Bay Area events, coordinated with local municipalities, attended meetings and affected gatherings large and small.

2005's Harmony Festival also succeeded in diverting approximately 85% of the "trash" from the landfill. Five tons of compost was separated from the waste stream.

Additionally, free water refill stations placed throughout the festival grounds helped to divert upwards of 30,000 single-use water bottles from the "recycling" stream. Even the sale of single-use water bottles was banned. "They ask at the table, 'Do you have a glass?' In the new ethic of re-usability, they must bring their own--then also carry it home. Or we provide biodegradable cups."

Mary wrote to me:

My primary filter through which I view the world is trashy. I see plastic bags blowing where others see the wildflowers beyond the barbed wire fence; I think of the Himalayas and the oxygen tanks littering the majestic mountains; I see the ocean and think of floating pellets; I go grocery shopping and try to get local cheese in a dairy state and cry over the selections from New Zealand, the Midwest and Ireland. I teared up when a woman in front of me in line said she didn't care whether her groceries were bagged in paper or plastic and cried when I left the store.

Mary's an energetic inspiration for me, and I was thrilled to run into her at the Berkeley festival on Friday and to realize that she was responsible for making the event as trash-free as possible. While the food may not have been as great as Chicago's Taste (my grilled chicken kebab was so smoky, I felt like I'd just had a cigarette) at least there was less trash left behind.

Once darkness started to descend, Michael and I left the festival grounds and headed towards the Bay to stake out our spot for watching the fireworks. Our friends joined us on the cold, hard rocks to wait.








While we were waiting, I entertained myself taking artsy fartsy pictures of the moon,


and once they finally started, artsy fartsy pictures of the fireworks








until the fog rolled in...


and we couldn't see anything but foggy light in the sky. At the very end, I figured out how to keep my camera shutter open longer.


Kinda cool but also kinda scary, huh? How's that for your rockets' red glare? A sobering thought at the end of a pretty fun day.
 

Plastic in Paradise

Paradise...


Plastic...


Paradise...


Plastic...


Paradise...


Plastic...




Paradise...


Plastic...




Paradise...


Plastic...


Yep, even I ended up using plastic in paradise. I tried so hard all day to avoid it. My folks are fast food people, and on a road trip, McDonald's is the "restaurant" of choice. I filled up my Klean Kanteen with water all day. I avoided plastic straws and cups and wrappers at every stop. Finally towards the end of a day of beautiful views and picking up garbage, I caved in and ordered a sundae at McDonald's. I thought I was safe. After all, I had my reusable travel utensils, so I wouldn't need a plastic spoon.

Duh! McDonald's sundaes come in a plastic cup with a plastic lid. And it's not like this is a new phenomenom. They've been sold this way from the very beginning, late 70's? Early 80's? Certainly since I had my very first job at McDonald's in 1982. This is called a brain freeze, and it sometimes occurs after a long day of dealing with contradictions. My dad took the photo. I think he might have actually been a little sympathetic.

More on the trip and the weekly tally in a few days. I meant to bring my week's plastic with me but forgot it at the last minute. Gotta go now. The beach is calling.
 

Two very different Hawaii trips

This weekend, Anna C. of the blog BYOTalk and I will both be in Hawaii. I'll be in Waikiki kicking back for a few days visiting my parents and getting my blowdryer fixed. No big deal. I'll continue to blog while I'm away, and I'll be back on Tuesday.

Anna, on the other hand, will be joining the crew of the Alguita oceanographic research vessel in Hilo for a month-long trip to the North Pacific Gyre to study marine debris concentrations. This is the area of the "Pacific Garbage Patch," which I'm sure most of you have heard about by now. (If not, please read the article, Plastic Ocean.)

This will be the 8th voyage for the Alguita, and this time the crew plans to "venture further west than ever before, investigating possible concentrations North of Hawaii, and just East of the International Date Line. It may be that the areas of the North Pacific Gyre with the highest concentrations of marine debris have yet to be seen or studied."

That quote was taken from the expedition's blog, http://orvalguita.blogspot.com, which will be updated with posts and images during the coming month. I've posted a link to it on my sidebar, and I encourage those who are interested to track the progress of this voyage to find out just what plastic is doing to our oceans.

I have to admit, I'm really envious of Anna and the crew. I'd love to be going out there to see for myself. But in a phone conversation a few days ago, Anna told me that the seas are predicted to be very rough and the trip challenging. I'll look forward to experiencing the journey vicariously through the blog, and I hope you will too.
 

Weekend Challenge: Pick Up Some Plastic

As I walked around my neighborhood today doing errands (I don't go to work most Fridays), I noticed a lot of trash, mostly plastic, along the sidewalks and in the gutters. And with that photo of the dead albatross whose stomach is full of plastic pieces burned into my brain these days, it's physically hard for me not to reach down and start picking it up.

I wrote about "eco-running" in the beginning of August, where runners carry bags and pick up trash on the route. And Scott from Least Footprint set up a Google Group called PUP (Pick Up Plastic) Brigade to organize folks to pick up plastic in their neighborhoods.

I picked up a lot of plastic today (bottle caps, plastic bags, drink lids, straws, snack bags, even the face plate from a cell phone and a toothbrush) and used one of the dirty plastic bags I picked up to carry it all and dump it in the trash. And yes, I washed my hands afterwards! I know I've said I don't like to throw away plastic bags, but these were already garbage in the street. The landfill is better than the storm drains leading to the bay.

I also scored a bag of sunflower seed shells for my compost!

So instead of a discussion question, I have a challenge. Go out and pick up some plastic in your neighborhood this weekend. If you live in a fairly urban place like I do, it won't take long to gather a bagful. Spend as much or as little time on this as you want. It doesn't have to take up much of your weekend.

And you're allowed to wear gloves if you feel you need to. I did the first time I went eco-running, but on today's walk the dirt didn't bother me as much. Maybe because I'd been listening to Barbara Kingsolver talk about dirt in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Hands are washable.

When you're done, come back and report what you found. If you are able to upload pictures, even better!

And here's today's update on the Trash Challenge.

P.S. I'm so excited. I think it's started to rain finally!

P.P.S. I almost forgot. I and a member from Green Sangha will be tabling at the Temescal Farmer's Market this Sunday with a big display called "Rethinking Plastics." This display usually lives in Marin, but the Marin chapter has been kind enough to lend it to us for this weekend. If you live anywhere near Oakland, CA, please come out and visit us. The Temescal farmer's market is at the bottom of Claremont Avenue near Telegraph in the DMV parking lot. The hours are 9am - 1pm. Hope to see you.
 

Eco-Running: leaving the route better than you found it.

26-year old Samuel Huber started what he calls "eco-running" as a way to help the world while out doing his favorite thing, running. On his eco-runs, he carries a few small garbage bags and picks up litter all along the route. Recently, he has made the switch to biodegradable, compostable BioBags. Check out his web site and mention of BioBags and this blog, Fake Plastic Fish, at http://eco-runner.blogspot.com. I want to not only commend him for his efforts but join in the eco-running movement he's trying to start.

So, this morning, BioBag in hand and latex gloved, I did a 30-minute eco-run towards Berkeley and back. My bag was full within the first 12 minutes, and I found I needed to stop picking up big things and concentrate on the items that, if washed down a storm drain, could end up inside the bellies of marine animals: bottle caps, small toys, a comb, a pacifier, plastic bags, even a rubber glove.

Stopping to pick up garbage slowed me down a bit (my average pace was 11:20/mile) and actually got me out of competition mode, the mode I tend to be in while recording my stats with the Nike+ iPod. You know, I'll bet running would be a lot more fun if I gave up the Nike+. But I don't know. The accountant in me wants all numbers all the time! (What, you couldn't tell that from my weekly plastic tally?) Chi Running's Danny Dreyer recommends leaving the watch at home. Maybe I'll try it once a week on my eco-runs.

And yes, if you're wondering, it was a little weird passing people as I ran carrying a garbage bag and wearing a latex glove. But at this point in life, I'm pretty much over caring about how I seem to other people. (Actually, I think I stopped caring by the end of high school, but that's a story for another day and another blog.)

Speaking of latex gloves, does anyone know whether modern latex gloves are made from natural rubber or some kind of petroleum-based synthetic? According to this web site, they are made from rubber. But are all of them? (Here's a cool video about how latex is made.)

So, what to do with all the trash I collected? My plan is to retrieve the hard plastic bottle caps and other pieces of plastic, wash them off, and add them to my collection. I have this idea that I'll use them in some kind of weird art creature thing some day. Then, any recyclable items will go in their proper recycling bins, and I'll tie up the bag around the rest and put it in the garbage can. I may be saving 100% of my own plastic waste, but I'm not about to start hording other people's.