This is a pretty desperate invocation, but these are desperate times. Save the Plastic Bag in an alleged effort to “save high wage manufacturing jobs,” is asking all cities in the U.S. to suspend all anti-plastic bag ordinances and programs “…for the duration of the economic crisis.” That means you San Francisco. That is one, big, misguided ask.
Kasey Goltra
These wonderfully tapped-in, talented, earth/life conscientious and hip people have highlighted our work in a few of their blogs.
They publish twice yearly print publications with nifty covers. Have a look at their daily Earth blog, which chronicles how East London is doing its part to raise awareness and change their own lives for the better of them all!
A link to the blog is on our “blogroll” on the right column. Yes, that one, there!
Thanks for being our “in” to Europe, Amelia and Co.!
I’m going to turn this one in to the authorities for the time being. Feedback still wanted:
The World is Full of Waste.
It is necessary to work toward achieving a world without destructive waste.
In order to do this the world must REDUCE, REUSE and:
Redefine recycling, convenience, and waste and show how a misconception of these concepts leads to slowed progress.
Reframe recycling as an act that precedes meaningful solutions to pollution and only achievable through the use of inefficient methods. These include: widespread transport of recyclable materials, energy intensive recycling processes, involving new or virgin additives, and use of expensive and inefficient machinery.
Reveal the existing gap between a general disdain for waste and a continued habit of using things possessing perceived convenience rather than earth-based convenience.
Recognize that waste can be both productive and destructive. It is productive when it is part of a closed loop cycle of use and reuse, much like how compost contributes to growth. It is destructive when it is land- or ocean-filled. It is destructive when it is recycled.
Renew interest in making time for developing self-sufficient local communities, beginning with freedom from the waste of packaged and single-use products.
Realize we are, often against our will, part of a wasteful infrastructure - wasteful of energy, time and creativity.
Re-educate consumers about the decades long intellectual training that says consumers, rather than manufacturers, are responsible for the end-life of products. Manufacturers must no longer consider the end-life of their products as externalities for which someone or someplace else must suffer.
Reinforce the “Reduce” and “Reuse” principles as the most effective means of achieving ecological balance for generations to come.
Rebuild systems that consider and encourage human creative potential as key to a collective high quality of life for all living things.
I’m a coffee lid who can act. Looking for work to fill in the gaps between gigs. I can be your lid. I’ll try my best not to crack.
…but then I remembered that I always really benefit from any down time I can get.
I was frustrated about yet another article about the woes of plastic. Lots of news, so little action. WHAT ARE PEOPLE GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS? More on this tomorrow as it’s late and I still have to give my plastic report and write a letter.
My guess is that Vitamin Water will be the repeat plastic waste offender during my bike commutes. I picked up three bottles yesterday, saved the lids and will “recycle” the bottles-a.k.a send them to Taiwan or China. I saw three more today. I also saw RealLemon plastic shaped like a real lemon, but it’s plastic and has a lid. I don’t know of any real lemons with lids and I sure as heck don’t need them since I’m not in outer space where there are no lemons. And it sure is impractical to go to all the trouble making a lemon out of plastic and filling it with lemon juice when in just as much time or less I could squeeze a really real lemon. The lemon peel would go in my compost and feed a worm who would help to feed you if you’d let it.
I also saw A WHOLE LOT OF STRAWS and many lid/straw duos or the tragic scene of lid separated from straw, crushed by a car reaching, reaching as hard as an impassioned straw may, toward the cup which sits in pristine condition awaiting the hope of a second life. Alas it is most likely to be crushed, too, and end up in the food chain eventually.
A little history for you before I get to my letter. Keep America Beautiful (with a name like that they seem like the good guys…don’t be fooled) invented the term “litterbug” so you and I would think it’s our job to keep the planet clean. I actually agree, in way. It is our job to keep the planet clean by telling companies to think of a new way to get their tap water and corn syrup sodas to us. Oh yes. But not by putting “litter in its place”. If we are the litterbugs, there are whole bunch of Queen Litterbugs out there telling us to go ahead and litter plastic hither and thither forever and forever so that they could enjoy the fruits of our routine - loving busy minds - so vulnerable to the taunting of a sexy and smart label.
And by the way, this plastic litter on the sides of the roads, in the gutters. Imagine them as little world travelers getting ready for an eternal cruise to the North Pacific Garbage Patch. That’s where they’re headed.
Dear Vitamin Water,
Your “water” smells like Jolly Ranchers. Is that the goal? A memory of childhood that you can drink! What can be better than that.
I once had some of your water, about 5 years ago. I only bought it if it was on sale. Your marketing campaign is splendid. I see trucks around town with your logo. You ask people, in a hip and fresh way, to please recycle your bottles. BUT THEY’RE YOUR BOTTLES! YOU “RECYCLE” THEM!
Your bottles are everywhere in the green city of Portland, Oregon. What are you going to do about it? If they are in the street, they are in rivers and oceans, photo-degrading, entering the food chain and therefore humans, causing gene mutations which lead to cancer and infertility. Your Vitamin Water is delicious and perhaps healthy. Your bottles have no vitamins, they are toxic, and you don’t mention that anywhere on the packages. They also use “precious” natural resources. What will you do that addresses this issue and solves the problem aside from a cleverly worded plea to recycle.
Your logo is burned on my brain and I hope you are happy,
Polly Streen
Plastic is magic. Magic backfires. Think about King Midas.
Recycling does not warrant feeling less guilty about using plastic. In order of importance to the earth: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In order of importance to business as usual: Recycle, Reuse, Reduce.
It is simply not enough to Recycle. In fact, do anything but—when it comes to plastic. Reduce, Reuse, Precycle. Reduce, Reuse, Rethink. Reduce, Reuse, Repeat. Reduce, Reuse, Reconsider. Reduce, Reuse, Redefine. Reduce, Reuse, Revive. Reduce, Reuse, Remember. Reduce, Reuse, Reconfigure. Reduce, Reuse, Relate. Reduce, Reuse, Reinvent. Reduce, Reuse, Relish. Reduce, Reuse, Reconcile. Reduce, Reuse, Regenerate. Reduce, Reuse, Rediscover. Reduce, Reuse, Recalculate….(others)?
Question the recycling of plastic. Look beyond your penitence on the curb or at the drop off center. Reconsider the ritual. If it’s out of sight, do not allow it to go out of mind. To give the earth its life back, put plastic back on the shelf. That company’s business is not done yet. They have not considered the impact of their products, and the habits they create, beyond attracting you to them. Find alternatives and find community once again. Share your skills, learn from others.
A DISCERNING LOOK AT RECYCLING
Leave No Plastic Behind reduces and reuses. We phase the material out of our lives and prevent it from being “conveniently” taken “away” out of sight towards a dubiously positive, infinite life as waste. We promote all that can be revived and by a collective rejection of perceived convenience. Here’s why (coming soon)…
Also coming soon…
WHY PLASTIC
-The Gyre
-Human Communities, Health, Knowledge & Self-Sufficiency.
A DISCERNING LOOK AT THE CONCEPT OF CONVENIENCE
It’s difficult to live without plastic from the perspective of one person’s day to day routines.
Take into consideration the amount of energy required to get that product created, shipped and recycled (and maybe shipped again) and it’s quite inconvenient to be inundated with so many single-use packages and waste.
We are warring with perceived, not real, convenience. Who is it convenient for? The consumer for a fleeting moment. The corporation, for a short fast profit. The health of the earth and its relatively voiceless inhabitants, most humans included, is compromised and pay the true costs. Many “convenience” items are relatively cheap compared to the actual costs they incur. The proliferation of perceived convenience creates a debt that no one can pay with money. Real convenience considers all cycles of the life of a product and all forms of life. It helps enhance rather than inhibit life.
Exercise #4
Take a walk or a slow bike ride, noticing the waste you see near the gutters. Note which brands you see most often. Think about whether the company is interested in the health of its customers and the environment. If the customers had more time, money and/or education would they still consume that product? Do you consume that product? Do these products satisfy fear, laziness or both?
Exercise #3
Make this wave of massive public awareness about environmental distress and economic uncertainty lead to meaningful progress. One very helpful tool is knowing how to spot greenwashing. It’s quite easy. A company/organization may be greenwashing when it:
1-boasts being green with a multi-million dollar ad campaign.
2-uses carbon offset credits but still creates plastic bottles for their expensive tap water.
3-helps with cancer research without addressing environmental causes of cancer.
4-produces an organic product but packages it in plastic.
5-uses corn-based plastics. Corn is not sustainable as all of the following: food for cattle, high fructose corn syrup based products, ethanol, not to mention ears of corn for summer’s day.
6-it has the recycling symbol on its products with the words “please recycle”.
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE PLASTIC PROBLEM
The United States is in its second or third wave of massive public awareness about the problems caused by consumerism and the industries that have created it. So far these awakenings, which come about every thirty years or so, have been softened by folks with so much money it bottlenecks and explodes in the form of advertising and the manufacture of more of what they think you want. Their only focus is on numbers and how they can be increased. It’s a fantastical game played in the manner of a video game, as if natural resources can be earned or created infinitely and out of nothing. This fantasy is grounded in and preys upon human laziness and fear.
FEAR: Some of us are afraid of what the very near future holds. We are afraid that we can’t afford the price of gas and food, etc. Life is pretty scary.
LAZINESS: We’re so busy that we’re lazy.
Translate busy as working so hard at jobs that do not address the human need for participation, connection and creating tangible progress that is considerate of life.
Translate lazy as using the excuse of being too busy (before you get offended, see below).
Exercise #1.
Watch TV or look at a magazine. Identify whether the product addresses fear or laziness.
Exercise #2.
Make a list of things that make you feel busy and the things that make you feel a sense of accomplishment. Are they the same things?