Archive for March, 2008

Rethinking Plastics with Wells Fargo’s Green Team

The photo shows a sample of water from the North Pacific Gyre, specifically Sample #23 taken at latitude 34°30.87North, longitude 158°50.93West by the researchers on the Oceanographic Research Vessel Alguita this winter. And that thumb at the bottom of the photo is mine. Anna Cummins, part of the Alguita crew, sent me the sample to [...]

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Week 41 Results: 3.7 oz of plastic waste.

I am really tired. The Green Sangha Rethinking Plastics presentation, which I co-presented with friend and former chemistry teacher Solvig on Friday, took a lot of work and mental preparation during the last two weeks. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. I think the presentation was a great success, but even though I came [...]

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Guest Recipe: Tanya’s Steamed Salmon with Wild Rice and Sautéed Spinach

I have 516 messages in my email in-box. 127 of them have not been opened yet. I’m giving a Rethinking Plastics presentation on Friday and am down to the wire working on it. And I’m an accountant and this is tax season! So, here is a beautiful recipe that was sent to me by Fake [...]

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Update 3: Soap and Shampoo and Deodorant, oh my!

One of the best ways for us to eliminate unnecessary plastic is to eliminate the water. No water = no plastic bottle. The easiest step in that department is to switch from liquid hand soap and bath gels to solid bar soaps. But there are other products that many folks don’t realize come in solid [...]

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Week 40 Results: .8 oz of plastic waste.

Oh dear. So you know how last week I had zero new plastic waste and only stuff I’d purchased before I started this project? Well, this week, it’s all just new new new stuff. Some unavoidable and some completely and embarassingly avoidable. So here goes. New plastic waste: 1 plastic wrap from a case of [...]

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Update 2: Urban Composting

Inspired by Life Less Plastic’s excellent Step By Step Composting Guide and info about her Compost Tumbler, and also after many questions from readers about my experiences composting with my Urban Compost Tumbler, I thought I’d post a quick update. Back in August I wrote a detailed post about the various composting options for someone [...]

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Update 1: A Rant on Shaving and the Power of Advertising

The next two posts have been inspired by entries on the Life Less Plastic blog. Today’s, by the comments on shaving, and tomorrow’s in response to her post on composting. So here we go. Back in August, I posted Plastic-free Shaving, Part 1, about my solution for plastic-free hair removal: a metal safety razor from [...]

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Happy Birthday Terrible Person!

Michael’s 40 years old today. Whew! Look how mature he’s suddenly become. We celebrated by first attending a seminar on “Greening Your Law Firm” followed by a long walk across San Francisco from the Embarcadero to Ocean Beach and back to the Pacific Cafe. I saw all kinds of plastic stuff to write about, but [...]

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Blue Vinyl: A Toxic Love Story

I was sick as a dog this weekend and spent all day Saturday on the couch watching videos. Many readers, after reading about my purges (here and here and here) of #3 PVC containers and a MultiPure water filter system containing PVC, recommended Blue Vinyl to me. But I just never had time to sit [...]

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Week 39 Results: 4.3 oz of plastic waste.

Another milestone reached. Zero new plastic waste for the week! Everything in the tally was purchased before I started this project. I’m sure there’ll be more new plastic to add to the tally before the year is up, but it’s nice to have a week with no new plastic! So, here’s this week’s tally. Items [...]

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