Monday, June 25, 2007

Deplasticize Your Life


Greetings. I've had to take a hiatus from this blog due to a lot of demanding projects. I'm not sure how often I will be able to post for the next 6 months but I'll try to find something interesting at least once a month. The war against plastic bags has gotten to a whole new level in the last year and I just can't keep up with all the articles and activity. But this is a good thing!

Here's something from my favorite blogger, Sharon Astyk, on deplasticizing your life. I'm including more of the article than I usually do, and I really encourge you to go direct to her site and read the whole thing, plus her other posts. She and Miranda from Simple Living have got a really cool project going called "90% Emissions Reduction" or "The Riot for Austerity". You can read more about my participation in it on my Truffula Tuft Blog



If you didn't see the article on plastic oceans (the one with the horrible turtle pictures), you should definitely read it here - this is really important.

Because we all knew that plastic never breaks down entirely, but I don't think everyone realized that what happens is that plastic fragments and mixes in with your water, your soil, your food, and the food and water of plants and animals, and then it makes its way into our bodies. How is a really troubling and scary story. Definitely read the article.

Now this is stuff never, ever meant to be ingested - full of endocrine disrupters (messes with your hormones), carcinogens (warm plastic mixed with liquid creates dioxin among other things), traces benzene (liver cancer) and all sorts of things that no one ever meant for us to eat, breathe and bathe in. Now this plastic warms the planet a couple of times - when it is manufactured from oil, when it is recycled (if it is, most isn't - more on this in a minute), and when it goes into a landfill and helps mix with organic garbage to produce methane. And since cancer treatment isn't exactly low input, you could argue that it warms the planet again - when we have our surgeries and other treatments from the illnesses caused by becoming a plastic world.

The plastics industry has spent a long time convincing us that plastics are recyclable - they have those nice arrows, so they must be ok, right? But in fact only a few varieties of plastic are recyclable, plastic recycling is quite energy intensive, and after you recycle that plastic container into a bumper or recycled plastic lumber, that's it - next stop is the landfill or your water table.

So what do we do about this? The first thing is to buy no new plastic, or as little as humanly possible. Don't take that plastic bag at the grocery store - when you do so, you are saying "make another." Don't buy things packaged in plastic if you can avoid it - and tell your store manager "I'd really like to purchase that - but not with all that plastic packaging." Whenever possible, buy things with no or minimal packaging, or that uses recycled glass, metal or paper only. The only way to stop the plastic plague is stop making a market for it....


photo from Mindfully.org The remains of adult albatross with a gut full of plastic

39 comments:

Unknown said...

Your blog mentioned on my blog:

http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/timewasters/

NHB said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
NHB said...

For those of us in LA, the Board of Supervisors has a great staff report recommendation on plastic bags, but they are delaying any public comment/hearings.

If you want to urge them to review this great report, go here for details and a petition:

Ban Plastic Bags

Blog dog said...

i just started reading up on evil plastic and i'm trying to deplasticize...thanks for getting the word out.

J-Tay said...

This is great information. I look forward to readin future posts. Thank you.

Chris Pham said...

Hey guys!!

I have acknowledged some of the fatalities that the plastic bags can cause to the environment, but did you know that the average Australian, uses about three-million plastic bags every year. So, statistically speaking, the entire population of Australia, uses about sixty million bags all up!!

That's just some really scary numbers, isn't it?

But hey, I'm only a 16-year-old kid with a lot to say, but not a lot to do...
Eheh...
But hey, keep spreading the word, guys, and we will get there!!!!

See ya guys around!!!

herbalgerm said...

The link to the article didn't work. Can you send it to me? thanks, -dania

p.s. I've stopped consuming plastic bags completely, but some of the food I buy comes wrapped in plastic (ie: vaccuum-sealed, snack bags, containers etc.). It's so difficult to avoid plastic!

greenpal said...

Just want to share a website, so that more people can take an active role in saving earth.
The website is:
http://www.ReusableBagsGiveaway.com

You might be thinking about getting some reusable bags for awhile, but the fact that the convenience of free plastic bags really builds up a habit of hard to kick. Well, now you have no more reason to keep you from using reusable bags. As the website name said, you can get free reusable bags from them, the bags are not your normal boring looking reusable bags, they're like designer bags, very stylish and functional. I was kind of skeptical at first, but after I received my bags in less than week, I'm now a big believer, and happy to be playing my role in saving planet earth.

Unknown said...

Why did the bird not have any plastic bags in it? Is it possible that we are getting what is the "convenient truth" and not "the truth"? I saw this kind of data at www.thetruthaboutplasticbags.com

Marina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Marina said...

Your blog is soooo relevant and useful!! I also have a blog, but since I am Brazilian it is in Portuguese (sorry!), and I will post a new text about the UK awareness about the problem of using plastic bags! Of course, I will insert a link to your blog!

I hope that innitiatives such as blogs, help making people more aware of the problems plastic brings to the enviroment!
Congrats!

Recyclers said...

Please take a look at our blog, it is related to your blog to! bagwithcare.blogspot.com

Recyclers said...

Please take a look at our blog, it is related to your blog to! bagwithcare.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Awesome! Check out my video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NVFBi0r8Ho&feature=channel_page

Healthcare and IT Professionals said...

Hi,

I appreciate the time you spent sharing your skills.
I look forward to reading your future posts.Your blog have a nice topic and article so for on Deplasticize Your Life.
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dolly said...

Thanks for the article. We all surely need to Deplasticize our life and realise why we should not use plastic bags?I was shocked to know that these plastic bags kill more than 100,000 sea animals every year. That's really sad and there is a great need to make people aware of this fact.

Unknown said...

I've also managed to fantastically reduce plastic in my life-Thanks for the informative post! Good work!!

Promise
http://mylittlepail.com/lets-talk-plastic-bags-and-something-for-free/

anthony said...

Yeah I agree that we should stop using plastic bag and start using an eco friendly bags just like in Smartbags

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Anonymous said...

thanks for getting the word out :)

http://www.goecostore.co.uk/recycled-bags-5758-0.html

mikesac said...

It is a need of the day and we have to say NO to plastic to have a healthy life where we are closer to nature and the good earth.

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heals77 said...

Plastic bags are for lazy people. Use less by reusing more!

http://tinyurl.com/3abopkh

mappear said...

Good Work so for. I think this is hard working when you include water reducing admixtures.
Plastic Card.

ADMIN said...

Thanks for blogging about this issue. Something else that I found on the internet that deals with replacing plastic bags with eco-friendly ones is this video from the GreenopolisTV YouTube channel. Check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PNKD2dnmkk

Jogesh said...

Thanks for such informative blog,it really helpful to the society to keep away from the plastic
.Thanks Again !!.. Keep Posting

Regards

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max said...

It is very sad that the nature that we so much need is completely polluted with plastics and other chemical toxins.It is blogs like this which has to make the coming generations aware of the situation.Good job indeed.
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Jogesh said...

Thanks for such nice Article About the Hazard of the usage of Plastic Bag.We should keep away the Plastics bag from our house belongings and also from our Offices.

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Local SEO said...

This is a very nice blog of the stoppage of the usage of the plastics. The AC also makes the use of plastics.
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ADMIN said...

It's really great that Los Angeles county just banned plastic bags. BTW, I also found something related to your cause from this channel on YouTube. http://youtu.be/mokcx-fNohg

Toorgy said...

Its good to stop the usage of Plastic bags.It's our responsibility towards the Society.

Regards
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Unknown said...

hey. thanks for bringing into light such important matters. thanks for sharing the blog. will beloking up for new posts.

Recycling Plastic Containers

Unknown said...

Save environment

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Al said...

This is a great way to lessen adidtional waste! We should have more acts on how to save the planet. I'm currently hooked to this environmentally themed social networking site. It allows me to track my eco firnedly acts and share it with others!

Unknown said...

Say No to plastic bags and use cotton and plastic bags to save the environment from Plastic.

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Ravi singh said...

Wow wonderful post good imfromation. Thanku share this post.

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Anonymous said...

Great work, I had also written an article on the subject of plastic bags on my blog, good by cons my blog and French, but I think that the problem of plastic bags is a global issue.

All you need to know about plastic bags - Blog français

see you soon on my blog

Nappilla "Zero Waste"

Modwrap said...

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