Everything we consume has a climate impact, but manufacturing and trucking water
bottles to homes with clean tap water seems particularly wasteful. The Beverage
Marketing Corporation reports that Americans consumed 31.2 billion liters of
water in 2006 – nearly 9 liters per month for every man, woman, and child.
Manufacturing all those bottles requires 900,000 tons of plastic, the
equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, and emit more than 2.5
million tons of carbon dioxide. Trucking around all those heavy bottles emits
even more greenhouse gases. Beyond the climate impact there’s the massive waste
– 86% of water bottles aren't recycled -- and water bottling is also,
ironically, a very water-intensive endeavor. The Pacific Institute tells us that
it takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water!
My name is Rob, and I am a plasti-holic. I recently did FPF's Plastic Gauntlet challenge,
and feel I failed miserably. I am no Fake Plastic Fish.
So here I am trying to write a post on responsible re-use of plastic waste. Some
of these are easy- I almost always have "Muggsly" (what? You don't name
your coffee mug?) in hand so coffee is not a problem- no paper cups with
plastic lids for me! I re-use plastic pop bottles for upside down
planters, and for bel cloches to protect plants from the cold. I have
started saving dog food cans- Yes they have BPA in their plastic
linings- I freeze water in them to make luminarias. I save ziplock bags and
wash them out (not as gross as it sounds) when I wash dishes in the
dishwasher. Just turn them inside out and stick them in- this was handy
when I was feeding Romeo natural pet food stew from the pet food pantry.
But I have since quit doing that since they won't come up with a
reasonable way to allow customers to bring in their own containers. That
and the last few times I was there they were out of the ziplock bags and
I just don't do deli plastic clamshells. So I returned to canned dog
food. I still make Romeo's ice cream treats, which he loves. And there
is plastic involved with that as well- I use plastic ice trays, which
make cylindrical shaped ice cubes, and I store them in a ziplock- one of
Romi's old dog food ones as a matter of fact.
I have quit feeling guilty about plastic vegetable bags so much as I
reuse them over and over, until they finally come to the end of their
life as Romeo's poop bags. I know not perfect but better. I reuse breads
bags over and over again as bags to put produce in, store things in,
etc. etc. They end their life in the same way as the produce bags.
Of course it wouldn't bother me if no bags were involved with buying
produce- Sometimes I get away with it- for examples when at Trader
Joe's, that bastion of plastic wrapping, I buy organic bananas or
potatoes singular. That way no plastic bag gets involved- and their
checkers are more than happy to just place them in the bag! Nothing
makes me angrier than a checker assumes I forgot the plastic wrap and
puts the item in a plastic bag for me! BTW anyone notice the plastic is gone from the
tips of the organic bananas at Trader Joe's?
I know there is room for improvement; I do recycle all my #1 AND #2 pete
containers. #5 would be nice if we had a Whole Foods store in the area
that 1- Was local and 2- Participated in the Preserve "Gimme Five"
program. But it doesn't appear that will happen soon. I would buy in
bulk but there again no stores in the area to do that- except for the
local health food store. I would buy milk in glass bottles but the only
store that offered it closed. And I just don't know what's better:
plastic milk jugs or paper-board boxes?
That brings me to pop- I don't drink a great deal of pop- not a Coke
addict. But I prefer bottles over cans. But cans don't bother me much as
they are recyclable. In fact it is cheaper for the soda companies to
make cans from recycled aluminum than new aluminum. Apparently the BPA
in the can is not a problem either. Who the hell knows where it goes? It
would be nice to have one of those new-fangled soda machines that Beth
uses, but I don't drink enough pop to warrant it. Dry Cleaning is not
much of an issue with me since I don't own much that needs dry cleaning.
And most of what I do own is okay to hand wash.
Yes I know recycling and re-using aren't perfect answers- but for now,
they work for me. And so does washing bags, reusing soda bottles,
Re-using dog food and tomato cans for luminarias.
You'll notice I don't mention Plastic shopping bags- I don't use them much. I
use reusable shopping bags or try to make an effort to use them - I do pretty well. Those I do get occasionally usually go back to the store for recycling.
SOME OF THEY WAYS I REUSE PLASTIC:
1- Make bell cloches and planters out of plastic bottles.
2- Make Luminas out of cans and "solig lanterns" out of Crystal Light
containers
3- Save plastic planters to use for next year. OR donate them to
something like Sustainable Burien to pot strawberry plants in them to
give them away! (I had wished they at least used Tully's coffee cups or
something similar but hey I am shy and didn't scream Bloody murder).
4-Sell and buy used- That way no new plastic is made for the item,
including packaging.
5. I do a lot of dehydrating. To keep from using plastic bags (for my
vacuum sealer the bags come on a roll, so even if I used them I only use
what is needed) I us mason jars and my vacuum sealer has an attachment to
vacuum pack the jars. Thanks to Chile for turning me on to the
Mason Jar attachment for my food sealer!
6- Buy products that are sent responsibly- I have bought a number of
products that are sent with packaging in mind- Thanks to Beth, I have
Skoy clothes, which are fantastic and Lunchbots and Tiffens for lunches.
All these products came sent very smart with little or no plastic
involved. The Skoy clothes are fantastic! They dry well and never get
moldy which is one of the things I have against sponges! And the
lunchbots and tiffens are great to they allow me to bring food to work
for lunches with no baggies. Even my lawnmower ( a Nueton Rechargeable)
was sent with impressive packaging- No Styrofoam, minimal use of plastic
bags (for small parts etc- and then they combine the parts in one bag
rather than a bag for each part) In place of styrofoam they used cardboard.
7- Never stop trying new ideas- whether it is something simple as using
toilet paper tubes and six pack holders for starting pots, or making
cloth out of shopping bags. I am open to trying new things.
So what say you? What hints do you have for reducing plastic waste?
That Fake Plastic Fish woman introduced me and the rest of the world to a great find! LunchBots- a stainless steel alternative to plastic in your lunch bag. I ordered them and I love them- The lunchbot uno is the perfect size to pack a sandwich or burrito in. The Lynchbots Duo is great for taking some salad and/or chips or a little dessert in. And after going through Crunchy's Food waste reduction challenge and taking more leftovers in my lunch these are great. Stainless steel tins and powdered coated tops make these the best thing for taking lunch in. I highly reccomend them. And I know Beth does too- she is giving away her Lunchbots Duo . So i would head over there and sign up if I were you. Also, she has a coupon code for free shipping! (Code is FREESHIP09 -No secrets here!)And as you can see in the pics above I was able to get two sloppy Jose's in my lunchbot uno!
