Part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfNSeSPCA8

Part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS5KJgelI_8

Here are some of the main points from the first segment, which for some of you will be review and for others will be revelation:

• The trash in the North Pacific Gyre (Great Pacific Garbage Patch) is not a “floating island” as so many people think but is more dispersed.  It’s more like a soup than an island.
• The trash is 90% plastic.
• The trash has been accumulating ever since the dawn of the disposable plastic age in the 1950’s.
• 25% of the trash is debris from ships, but 75% of it comes from land-based sources.
• After just 3 days of tracking trash down the L.A. and San Gabriel rivers, Captain Moore found 2.3 billion pieces of trash weighing 30 tons on its way to the ocean.
• Plastic in the sea is a source of pollutants as well as a sponge.
• As a source, plastic in the ocean breaks down into smaller pieces via photodegradation, and the sea water leaches softeners (often toxic phthalates) out of it that then pollute the water.
• Like a sponge, plastics soak up other pollutants [like PCB and DDT] from the surrounding sea water which are then ingested by marine animals that mistake it for food.
• Ultimately, we consume these pollutants when we eat fish.
• Plastic bags can smother and bleach coral.
• Plastic has been found throughout the water column, which has an average depth of two miles.
• Plastic in the ocean may interrupt gas transpiration, which is how we sequester CO2.
• There’s a “snowball’s chance in hell” that we can actually clean it up.  It would be like sifting the Sahara Desert.

That’s just segment 1.

Moore: You see it in every vacant lot in the cities; we’re creating this new plastic planet.

Letterman: You want a drink?

Moore: Sure, what you got there?

Segment 2 is more of a show-and-tell.  Moore shows Letterman a bowl of tiny plastic pieces gathered from Camillo Beach in Hawaii:  the new plastic sand, what our beaches are becoming.  He also presents  a collection of plastic objects that have been swallowed by an albatross chick: cigarette lighters, fishing lures, bottle caps, a tooth brush, comb, golf ball, marker, and various other plastic detritus.

Astute Letterman asks:

People may be saying, “I can get through the day without worrying about an albatross,” but this is really the tip of the iceberg, isn’t it?

[...]

Are we just screwed?  There’s no getting around it?

Finally, Moore’s last statement at the tail end of the interview gives a sliver of a solution:

We need to make plastic into stuff we really want to last forever.  Plastic lasts a long, long time. Let’s make stuff out of it that we want to be around, and if we have to have throwaways, let’s make them completely biodegrade so you can throw them into the compost pile and get rid of them.

Big audience applause.  The End.

Whew.  I found the interview powerful and yet depressing, and I wondered if the casual, uninformed viewer would come away with a commitment to make a difference or the feeling that we’re “just screwed” so why try?  I fear the latter.  Which is why I think it’s so important to talk about real world solutions along with such bad news.  What steps can Letterman’s viewers take immediately and in the future?  If we can’t clean up the Garbage Patch, what can we do?

Here are just a few ideas for stemming the tide of new plastic pollution:

1) Commit to reduce our own plastic consumption as much as possible.

2) Talk to our family and friends about the problem and set an example that others can follow.

3) Support measures in our communities to ban plastic bags and other single-use packaging.

4) Support Extended Producer Responsibility legislation which would require manufacturers to provide for the entire life cycle of their products and remove the burden from communities and local governments.  EPR laws in Europe have proven that when companies have to figure out how to recycle their stuff, they end up using fewer, less toxic materials in the first place.

What are some of your ideas? Are there people in your life who are so overwhelmed with the state of the environment that they have thrown up their hands in despair or routinely tune out the bad news? How can we help those in our lives and communities take back their power and actually work for change? How can we encourage others to simply start where they are and take the first step?

These are questions I ask myself every single day, and of course the reason for this blog.  But I’d like to hear your ideas.  What steps do you take to broaden your reach?

Resorting to Kleenex

By Sunday, I had gone through one and a half rolls of Seventh Generation recycled paper. This stuff is great. It’s got 80% recycled content and comes in a cardboard case with zero plastic packaging. (I get the Seventh Generation Bathroom Tissue from Amazon.comand in the interest of full disclosure, I’m even an affiliate I think it’s so great.)

The thing is? After one and a half rolls? Not so great for noses. Now let me say, I did consider cloth. And in normal circumstances or for seasonal allergies, I always use a cloth handkerchief. Several people on Facebook and Twitter recommended cut up baby diapers or old receiving blankets. But there are several reasons why those options wouldn’t work. 1) I don’t have kids, so I have no diapers or receiving blankets in this house. 2) More importantly, with the amount I was blowing and what was coming out (which I’ll refrain from describing), I doubt I’d have had enough diapers or blankets or bandanas or hankies or any of the other cloth options suggested. Seriously. It’s been very, very gross.

So I broke down and bought Kleenex. Soft, luxurious Kleenex. Kleenex that I haven’t bought in nearly three years. Kleenex from virgin trees. And the thing about all facial tissue is that in addition to the paper, they come with some plastic packaging. All of them. Even the groovy crunchy recycled kind.

If you’ve found a plastic-free brand, please let me know. I haven’t.

Neti pot to the rescue

But I have found something else that I think will help me use fewer of those tree-killing Kleenex tissues.  I’m sure I’m the last person on earth to learn the beauty of this simple device: the neti pot. My friend Mark has had one for years. But I have a plastic nasal syringe I got from the doctor years and years ago, and I thought it would work just as well.

But once again, Twitter and Facebook came to the rescue. More people extolled the virtues of the neti pot than thought I should stick with what I already had (because generally the greenest purchase is no new purchase at all.)  Check out the difference.  What would you rather stick in your nose?

So I went to my local holistic pharmacy down the street (yeah, I live in an awesome neighborhood) and bought a ceramic neti pot. Packaging free. The only plastic was a tiny bag holding a sample of special salt you mix into the water so it doesn’t burn your face off when it goes in. (I learned about burning out my sinuses the hard way last time I was sick, shooting plain water up my nose with that plastic syringe. Do. Not. Use. Plain. Water. For the future, I will buy sea salt from the bulk bin at Whole Foods just for this purpose.)

For the last few people in the world who have not tried this device (like me) here are the instructions from SinusSupport.com:

Fill the neti pot just below its lip with warm water. Add heaping ½ teaspoon of sea salt and stir until it is thoroughly dissolved. Bend over the sink and turn your head to one side. Keeping the pot level, place the spout into the top nostril until it has a snug fit. Breathe through your mouth and slowly tip your head downward allowing the warm water to travel up through your sinuses and out the other nostril. You may need to adjust the angle of your head slightly in order to allow the water to flow out the other nostril. Use half the water and repeat on the other side. If you experience an uncomfortable sensation, adjust the level of salt. Sometimes too little salt can be as uncomfortable as too much salt. Once you’ve irrigated your sinuses, it is helpful to bend over at the waist (with the top of your head pointed towards the floor) and exhale out to release any trapped water.

If you’re like me and can’t visualize this procedure, here is a YouTube video demonstrating exactly how to do it. Or just look at this photo of me, red nose and all.  Water goes in one nostril and flows out the other.  You breathe through your mouth only.  That part is important.

I know. I have no dignity whatsoever. But you know what they say a picture is worth. And OMG! The neti pot worked better than I could have imagined. Immediately afterward, I could smell and taste again. Which was lucky because yesterday being Pi Day, Michael had brought home the most delicious chocolate pecan pie ever from the Claremont Diner. And I could taste it!

The verdict on homemade cough syrup

The useful thing about this cold is that it gave me an opportunity to try out the homemade cough syrup recipe I posted in December.

Verdict? Feels good going down, but didn’t really suppress my cough for more than five minutes. I also tried plain honey. Not so effective for me, actually. The good thing about being so congested is that I couldn’t taste the stuff. Michael said it smelled awful. Next time, I think I’ll try some of the other remedies that readers left in comments on the cough syrup post. Slippery elm, for example. I can get herbs packaging-free in various places around here, like Lhasa Karnak herb shop in Berkeley.

Over all, not so much plastic used during this illness. Or crazy chemical-laden over the counter cold medicines. I feel a lot better today. Thanks to everyone on Twitter and Facebook who chimed in with advice. Love you guys!

Last week, the Carnival of the Green was hosted by Ethical Superstore. Next week’s is scheduled to be hosted by Love Eco.

These posts cover a broad assortment of topics, including my favorites: plastic and waste. So please grab a cup of whatever you think appropriate, sit back, and enjoy!

Plastic in the Bathroom

This week, Crunchy Chicken gets in the shower, presenting her post Body Wash Fascination. “Look at your man. Now look at me. I’m using an unnecessary product in a plastic bottle. And I’m on a horse.” I believe this article is just Crunchy’s excuse for posting one of the funniest commercials EVER. And who can blame her? I’ve embedded it too, at the end of this post.

Linda Anderson from Citizen Green presents March’s Stupid Plastic Crap. Each month, Linda Anderson, another plastic-free advocate, nominates one product as her “Stupid Plastic Crap” of the month. March finds her in the shower, not far from Crunchy Chicken.

Pure Natural Diva offers a Foaming Hand Soap Recipe. If you love foaming hand soap, here is a recipe for making your own so you don’t have to constantly buy new plastic containers.

And Leslie from Recycle Your Day gives us an update on her No ‘Poo plastic-free “shampoo” experiment. Think it’s weird to wash your hair with baking soda? It’s not. We are gaining converts every day, and I’m happy to see it’s working out for Leslie. Look at the photos of her pretty hair.

Glass Lovers Unite

The Non-Consumer Advocate Katy Wolk-Stanley shares with us A Love Letter to Pyrex. Why store our food in toxic plastic containers?

And Tiffany from Nature Moms agrees. In her post, 10 More Ways to Reuse Glass Jars, which follows up on her previous post, “10 Ways to Reuse Glass Jars,” Tiffany gives us 10 more. Some might surprise you.

Reduce! Reuse!

And it’s not just about reusing glass. David from The Good Human brings us 17 Easy Eco-Alternatives To Everyday Disposables.

From across the pond, Mrs. Green from My Zero Wastepresents Ditch the Disposables. She says, “Recycling is great, but reducing the amount of disposable items we buy is even better!” Mrs. Green also wonders about the Pros and Cons of Paperless Billing. “If every household in the US switched to paperless billing, we could save 16.5 million trees per year, but paperless billing is not without its problems.”

RecycleCindy from My Recycled Bags.com presents an idea for creative reuse in her post Thrift Store Sweater Upcycled.

And Micaela Preston from Mindful Momma suggests Shopping in the Basement instead of buying new stuff. Micaela discovers forgotten treasures by “shopping” her own basement. In the Bay Area where I live, shopping the attic would be more likely. Which is scarier?

What are we eating and breathing?

Green is not just about reducing waste. Several bloggers submitted posts this week about chemicals in our environment.

Marie Snyder from Project Earth insists that Everything Does NOT Cause Cancer. Marie says that instead of throwing up our hands and sighing, “Oh everything causes cancer these days,” we should find healthier alternatives. They do exist.

Karen Hanrahan from Best of Mother Earth is alarmed by an event that happened in her area. In her post Phenol Spill Causes Evacuation, Karen questions the need for phenol after a spill in a local health center leads to an evacuation.

Lisa from Condo Blues has a question. Are Low VOC Paints Long Lasting? She wants to avoid the chemicals from paint, but she wonders if low VOC (volatile organic compound) paints last as long as the toxic variety. Please weigh in and leave your thoughts in her comments.

And Diane MacEachern from Big Green Purse asks What Does Natural Mean? There’s no standard for the word “natural” so it can mean anything a company wants it to mean. The Natural Products Association, an industry group, wants to clarify the meaning of the word. But Diane questions whether their standard goes far enough.

Loving animals

Sally Kneidel, PhD from Veggie Revolution presents Recovery of Endangered Fox a Model for Conservationists. She tells us that in a chain reaction caused by ocean dumping of DDT, red foxes on the US West Coast had become endangered. But in a model partnership, organizations have found creative ways to save them.

And Beata Antoszek from Mom and Dad Camping offers Best Ways to Watch Wildlife at Night. Tips on watching wildlife with your kids while camping. She says, “This must be an ultimate family- and eco-friendly activity.”

Gree Design

Jennae from Green Your Decor loves furniture. In My Search for the Perfect, Affordable Green Desk, she compares 7 different desks made from sustainable/recycled materials.

And Marianne from Shoulderache & The Closet presents Interview: Deborah Lindquist. Marianne interviews fashion designer Deborah Lindquist, who creates her looks from organic and recycled materials.

Green Without Guilt

And finally in one of my favorite posts, David from The Good Human confesses his eco-sins in the post, Please Forgive Me, For I Am An Eco-Sinner. But then goes on to say, “The only way for this environmental movement to move forward is through encouragement and understanding – not guilt.” I love this post because it follows on the heals of my interview with Annie Leonard who also urges us to let go of guilt as an unproductive emotion.

And now, please forgive me. Some of my friends think this is the stupidest thing ever. But like I said on Monday, I’m a Philistine. On a horse.

About the carnival: For the next 10 weeks, each of the bloggers hosting the carnival (listed below) will take a turn presenting a different theme and linking to participants’ posts on that theme.  There will also be a way for you to link to relevant posts on the same theme, whether posts by you if you have a blog or by someone else whose writing you would like to share.

The carnival is the brain child of blogger and Fake Plastic Fish reader Katie from Kitchen Stewardship, and each week, she will post information about the topic and host a give-away related to the theme.  So please get out your calendars and mark down the dates for the various carnival topics.  It will be fun.   Hopefully each participant will try and come up with a post from their own unique perspective.

Of course, no matter what the topic, my posts will always relate to plastic in some way.

Here’s what Katie has to say about the carnival:

We’re going to spring clean here at Kitchen Stewardship in a unique way. Instead of focusing on your physical space, we’ll look at a myriad of issues that you may want to get out of their diets, cleaning cupboards, bad habit collections or mental baggage. Each week, a different blog will host a theme that fits their mission and a linky for YOU to link up any pertinent posts.

Related posts for the linky might include a tips post, a recipe, a personal story of getting that issue “out”, or even questions you have about the issue.

Here’s the list of hosts and weekly themes so you can plan to participate.

1. 3/23 Katie @ Kitchen Stewardship: antibacterial soap/bleach
2. 3/30 Amy @ Simply Sugar and Gluten Free: gluten
3. 4/6 Beth @ Fake Plastic Fish: plastic food containers
4. 4/13 Donielle @ Naturally Knocked Up: refined sugar
5. 4/20 Micaela @ Mindful Momma: parabens
6. 4/27 Lenetta @ Nettacow: food additives
7. 5/4 Kelly the Kitchen Kop: CAFOs
8. 5/11 Laura @ Heavenly Homemakers: pesticides
9. 5/18 Mandi @ Organizing Your Way: clutter
10. 5/25 Claire @ Saving Money Plan: debt

Each week, you’ll find information at the Kitchen Stewardship blog about WHY you might want to “get out” a certain topic…then head on over to the hostess blog every Tuesday for multi-level options to help you make a change. You’ll get ideas to take Baby Steps, Making Strides, or a Leap of Faith to get it all out.

Take a look at the themes: What do you have questions about? What will be the hardest topic for you to tackle?

If you’re in whole hog, feel free to grab a button for your sidebar that will direct your readers back to this post, where the carnivals will remain updated as they happen.

<center><a href=”http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/10/announcing-the-spring-cleaning-get-the-junk-out-carnival/” mce_href=”http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2010/03/10/announcing-the-spring-cleaning-get-the-junk-out-carnival/”><img border=”0″ src=”http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SQUAREBUTTON.png” mce_src=”http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/SQUAREBUTTON.png”/></a></center>

I’m looking at this carnival as a way for me to learn about topics that I may not normally dive into because of my emphasis on learning as much as I can about plastic and alternatives to plastic.  And I also see it as a great way to understand how all the topics are related.  One change we make in our lives inevitably leads to other changes.  For example, when I realized that all frozen convenience foods came packaged in plastic, I had to learn to eat whole foods.   When I learned about the toxic chemicals that can leach out of plastic from food and personal care containers, I began wondering what other chemicals had been added to the foods I eat and products I use.

So I hope you will join me in the next 10 weeks.  And if you have experience or ideas for me about any of the topic items, please share your thoughts in a comment below.  A few of them have me a little stumped at this point.

I sat down with Annie in her office in Berkeley two weeks ago, just before the launch of her new book, appropriately titled, The Story of Stuff,for a conversation with the woman who has inspired millions around the globe.  If you happen not to be one of those millions because you haven’t yet seen the video, please take twenty minutes out of your day to watch it.   Annie is intense, engaging, and explains where all our “stuff” comes from and how it affects us in a way that powerful in its simplicity.

Some analysts say we have less leisure time than any time since feudal society. And do you know what the two main activities are that we do with the scant leisure time we have? Watch TV and shop. In the U.S. we spend three to four times as many hours shopping as our counterparts in Europe do. So we’re in this ridiculous situation where we go to work, work two jobs even, and we come home and we’re exhausted. So we plop down on our new couch and watch TV. And the commercials tell us, “You suck!” So we gotta go to the mall to buy something to feel better. And then you gotta go to work more to pay for the stuff you just bought, so you come home and you’re more tired, so you sit down and you watch more TV, and then you go to mall again, and we’re on this crazy work watch spend treadmil. And we could just stop.

It’s simple. We have too much stuff, it’s trashing the planet and making us unhappy. What if we just said no?

Some viewers have criticized The Story of Stuff video for being too simplistic. So, to flesh out her ideas, Annie has written The Story of Stuff,book, just released yesterday. Following the path our stuff travels: Extraction, Production, Distribution, Consumption, and Disposal, Annie explains that the one-way system in place now is not sustainable. The planet simply doesn’t have the resources to support the creation of new stuff each year that will simply end up in the landfill at the end of its life. From oil to minerals to trees, we are running out, and our earth and its people and animals are suffering in the process.

Sound heavy? Chatting with Annie is anything but. Preparing for her book tour and nervous about her upcoming appearance on The Colbert Report (She needn’t have worried. She did a great job, answering questions like, “Are you saying my bean bag chair is gay?” and “Have you thought about putting out plastic action figures?”), Annie nevertheless took some time to rap about plastic rain coats, glowing neon body wash, and the kampung in which she lives. But first, I asked her about “stuff” and the criticism that she is anti-business.

Annie: I’m not anti business, but I’m anti Schmucky Business. Not all businesses are schmucks, but some of them are, and there’s just no need to be.

Sending Stuff Back

Beth: In your book, you tell a story about a rain coat that you ordered for your daughter. When it arrived, you realized it was made from PVC [polyvinyl chloride, aka vinyl, one of the most toxic plastics] and how you returned it and demanded a refund. What was that like?

Annie: Yeah, I went back and forth on the phone with them until they finally gave me credit.

Beth: And you also sent back an extension cord after realizing it too was made from PVC?

Annie: No I didn’t send that one back yet.  I have to send that one back.

Beth: Are there any cords that are not PVC?

Annie: One reason I haven’t sent it back yet is that I have an electric car, and I bought this really long extension cord just to have in the car because when you run out of charge, you can’t just walk and get a tank of gas and come back to it.  So I’m like, “What am I gonna do?”  Because it didn’t occur to me that it was PVC until I opened it.  Some stuff it’s hard to find not PVC.  What I feel is that we should not beat ourselves up about the few things that are hard to get because I feel like the energy we spend beating ourselves up, like the energy I spent on that stupid coat,  I could have spent lobbying for change.

Beth: You could.  Or you could take that energy that you put into it and publish your story,  and then you’re at least being an example showing people what’s possible.

Annie: Yeah, that’s so true. Because taking it out of the individual and to the community is so important.

Blogging is Powerful

Annie: For example, after The Story of Stuff came out,  I was reading the New York Times, and there was this article about this shower gel that has in the base of the bottle batteries and a computer chip… I don’t know for what… and an LED light, and it shines this blue light up through the shower gel so that it makes some weird patterns and glows light blue.

Beth: [Cracking up]  And the purpose of that is just to look cool?

Annie: Well, I read it in the Business section of the NY Times, and it was being heralded as this innovative product because it said they will need to spend nothing on advertising because the blue will attract us.  And so it was an entirely complimentary article about how innovative this is that they’re doing this and have no advertising budget.

So then I Googled and starting searching, and there were all these articles about how innovative it is.  And the only innovation is that they don’t have to invest in advertising.  I was stunned.  So I looked up their web site.  Oh my god, it was so sick.  It said, “One bottle is an innovation but many is an experience.”  And there were comments on the blog.  Most of the comments were about where to find it cheap. One guy said he lined his whole bathroom with them, so when he has to pee at night it’s like an airplane landing on the runway.  But there was nothing critical!

So I called them up, and I talked to them about what’s it made of, and they said it’s recyclable, and I said, “What resin is it?”  I asked them all these questions, and the woman had no clue.  She just had no clue about any of this stuff.  So then, out of curiosity, I put up a blog post about it.  And all I said was check out their blog. The next day there were dozens of comments on their blog saying how stupid this is.  The next day they contacted me and said they meant it could be used as a flashlight or a toy.

Beth: And then you’re gonna end up with all these flashlights because you have to keep buying shower gel, right?

Annie: Right. And then finally, I looked at it again and their web site was down.  And I thought wow, that’s such an example of how powerful it is putting it on a blog!

I’m Not Against Stuff

Beth: You tell another story in the book about being in the hospital after having your baby and being presented with a PVC baby bag full of coupons for unnecessary stuff.  What about all the stuff you get at conferences, for example?  The conference has to be funded by sponsors, so there is inevitably a lot of stuff given way.  And it’s really hard for people to say no to it, since it’s free.

Annie: Well, I’m not against stuff.  One of the things I say in the book is I’m not against stuff… I’m for safe, well made, durable stuff…  If they wanna give something, they could give some useful stuff.  They could give a cup like this [holds up travel mug] with their logo on it.

I was at a conference recently where they gave… it was so nice… instead of giving all this material, they gave a pen, and it opened up and was a hard drive and all the materials from the conference were on there, and you could use the hard drive over and over.  So that’s all that you got was a pen, and it had all the presentations, all the participants lists, all this stuff on it.  I thought that was nice.

Also,  I think people are getting less attracted to all the free stuff because you have to figure out where to put it when you get home.  You know, and we all have these drawers full of this junk that’s spilling out…

Beth: It’s overwhelming…

Annie: Yeah, I think people are burdened by their stuff.  The other day I was complaining about my car and my roommate said, “The more shoes you have, the more shoelaces you have to tie.”

Beth: [Once again, Annie makes me laugh out loud.] Not at the same time!

Sharing a Bundt Pan

Beth: So I was really intrigued by your description in the book of your living situation and your community.   I would love to hear more about that and how it works.

Annie: It’s really great.  Sometimes for shorthand I tell people it’s co-housing, but it’s not really.  We’re really good friends who live next door to each other in North Berkeley.  W e all used to live in a big house in Washington DC and we all worked for different environmental groups 15 years ago.  When the first one moved out and got a house, and we were all like, “Oh we miss you.”  And while they were there, because they were in the Ph.D. program at Berkeley, the house next door came up for sale, so the next person moved out.  So it’s been about 18 years that we’ve been slowly getting houses next door to each other.

We have 6 houses in a row, and we’re really good friends, and then other folks have bought houses within a couple of blocks.  We have other really good friends who have come to be near it.  We call it the Kampung because that’s an Indonesian term for a small village.  One of the guys who lives there has spent a lot of time in Indonesia so he just started calling it that and then we all started calling it that.

On the main Kampung, there are 6 families, and we just share everything.  And it is so great.  Like we share a pickup truck, a barbecue, we share a hot tub, we share a swing set.  And the cool thing about it is that since there are 6 families sharing stuff, I only have to be responsible for 1/6^th of the stuff.  We don’t all need to have a Bundt pan and a turkey roasting pan and a lawn mower.  It’s just so much lighter.

For example, my daughter  wanted to try skiing.  I don’t know anything about skiing.  But someone offered us to go up to Tahoe, and so I sent an email asking what do I take? And I came home from work and there were two grocery sacks full of kids’ ski clothes on my front porch.   When her bike got too small, I sent an email out, “Anyone got a bike?”  By default, when we need something we first turn to the community as opposed to the market.  And so we’re taking more from the area of comodification back into community the way it used to be.

And we do things for each other that increasingly people can’t do like bring in our mail when we’re on a trip or watch our kids when we’re late.  I’m often late.  I’m a single mom so I’m constantly leaning on them.  Like I don’t know how some moms can do it without that.  It’s an unbelievable level of support.

Beth: And so do you eat together a lot?

Annie: It’s informal.  There are some meals we always have together a few times a year.  We have set things.  But it’s more like, “What are you having for dinner tonight?  Can I come over?”  You know, that kind of stuff.  And also people have gotten a little more independent as our kids have gotten older because everyone’s kids doing their own thing.  When the kids were littler, the parents got to decide.

Death Dates

Beth: On my blog Fake Plastic Fish, I emphasize not buying new plastic, which forces you not to consume so much because plastic is in everything, right?  But there are some things that are made out of plastic that we need to have, like computers or cell phones, and so I recognize that and use Freecycle and Craigslist to try and find things secondhand instead of new.

But there are some things, like printer cartridges, that are not made to be reused.  For example, in my HP printer, the cartridges have an expiration date on them, so they stop working even if there’s still ink inside.

Annie: [gasps loudly]  Are you kidding?!?

Beth: No.

Annie: That’s so interesting. Have you read the book The Waste Makers?

Beth: No.

Annie: Okay, you have to read this book.  It was written in the late 50’s… early 60’s… when “planned obsolescence” was just coming in.   Sort of explains the history of planned obsolescence.  He was anticipating what companies were going to do, and the thing is it’s so old that’s it’s so fresh.  It shows us how far we’ve sunk because of his level of outrage about stuff that’s so normal now.  He’s totally furious.  He says one company’s even started making disposable razors.  He’s outraged.

He talks about this guy who wanted to end the depression by introducing death dates in products, like your printer thing, and he was arguing that people should have to turn in their products even if they’re still working by a certain date as a way to keep the economy stimulated.  But that’s fascinating.  I had not heard of this.

Beth: Well supposedly, HP doesn’t do it anymore.  I had this long conversation with this guy from HP, and he said the printers that they’re putting out now, because they’re getting more concerned about environmental issues or whatever, they won’t do that.  Or they have a way for you to override the expiration date or something like that.

Annie: Why is the onus on you?

Beth: Exactly.

Annie: I take my cartridges up to that Cartridge World and get them refilled.

Beth: Yeah, that’s what I do too.  When you return cartridges to HP, they crush them up and make new HP equipment with them.  But wouldn’t it be more efficient to just offer their own refill program?

Annie: It’s so infuriating.  There’s a guy named Michael Manning, and he’s done great work on this, and he’s arguing for renting instead of owning… like he said why can’t Starbucks give you a cup like that [points to travel mug] and you rent it.  And when people complain about it, he says, “Well, the video store does it.”  It’s true.  The video store does it.

Beth: Or like the Straus milk bottles, you know, the things that you use and then you bring back…

Annie: Well, we’re gonna have to move towards that because we’re running out of resources, so…

Changing the Menu

Beth: Sometimes when we’re asked to choose between two things, it’s the wrong question.

Annie: I always says it’s like do you want your right arm or your left arm cut off?

Beth: So the plastics manufacturers will say that putting things in glass is bad because glass is heavier and creates more emissions during shipping, and then the glass manufacturers will say that putting things in plastic is bad because plastic is toxic and it’s like… why do you have to buy a new glass container every time anyway?

Annie: See that limits the discussion.  And I say the real power is not choosing between these choices that are presented to us but choosing which choices are presented to us.  And the glass thing… it wouldn’t be such a big deal if our economy was more decentralized so we’re buying more stuff locally.  It you’re shipping glass from Italy to have a drink of water, then it is very heavy.  It is bad.  But if you had a more decentralized economy…

Beth: Right.  It’s like the question of paper or plastic bags.

Annie: I reject the parameters.  I want a different menu.

Do Our Personal Actions Matter?

Beth: What do you think about extreme projects… you mentioned No Impact Man a couple times in the book.  Colin Beavan is a friend of mine.

Annie: Mine too..

Beth: He actually was the person who inspired me in the first place…

Annie: That’s cool.  Well that right there shows you one of the values of extreme projects.

Beth: Yeah, I definitely think it’s worth it.  But then the question is does this just make it look like it’s too hard to people?  Do they think that all environmentalists are extremists…

Annie: I think it depends on how it’s done and what the point of it is.  Like with Colin’s experiment, my understanding is not that he’s saying that this is how we’re going to save the world, for everyone to live like this, and I think some people have missed the subtleties in what he’s trying to say. What I think is that that experiment changed him more than it changed the world.

A lot of people ask what can I do to make a difference?  And I ask them what can you think of to do?  And it’s amazing to me how often people will go to the individual almost always, they go to the individual thing.  I can recycle, I can drive less, I can buy less, I can whatever, as opposed to the collective let’s change the structure of the system.

And so, on the individual stuff, I think that of course we should do those things.  Of course when we do shop we should buy the least toxic, least exploitive product available.  Of course we should try to lessen our impact.  But the bulk of those things, to me, fit in the sort of personal hygiene/home maintenance. It’s like flossing and washing your hands after you go to the bathroom.  You recycle; you compost; you do those things.

The danger is when people think those individual actions are going to change the systemic causes.  But Colin’s not saying that.  If he said that that was the answer and that that was where people should put their attention, I would say he’s hurting the cause because even if everybody in this country did all those things he said, it would be nowhere near enough to make a difference.

But what I saw is that it changed him.  And to me one of the biggest values of the individual lifestyle stuff is it brings into more integrity your values and your lifestyle, and with integrity you can enter the world to make deeper political change.

Scolding and Guilt

Annie: I also think it’s important that people like Colin don’t imply that the people who do that are better than others. Scolding and guilt is just not a useful tool.  And too much environmentalism has relied on scolding and guilt.  You know, when you start to talk about consumption, a lot of people just shut down and go oh, I’m going to get corrected and scolded and guilt, and it’s just like I don’t think that guilt is a good place to hang out.  It’s not a powerful emotion. So I think it’s important that those are like a celebration, and experiment, hey look at this, as opposed to…

Choice Editing: Trayless Tuesday

Beth: One part I really liked in your book is part of your list of why individual actions matter.

Individual actions we take to reduce our impact help us find the flaws in our system that need to be changed.

That’s one of the things that I always encourage people to do, is to actually try to reduce your plastic consumption as much as you can, and then get to a point where you go, oh I can’t go any further because the system won’t let me.

Annie: Exactly!

Beth: This is one of the things that I think is important about personal action is that if you don’t try, how do you know where to focus your attention?

Annie: I totally agree.  We were just this morning talking about this with my daughter about the difference between a structural change to make doing the right thing the default option vs a place where the onus is on you.  Because we have this problem with her where she wastes so much food.  It just drove me nuts.  The big issue in the morning is that she puts cereal in her bowl, she pours milk in it, and then she doesn’t finish it.  And she does this every single day. Every day I’m pouring out milk.

I would ask her, “Can you pour in half a bowl?”  So we talked about how we needed a structural change.  So we decided to switch to  smaller cereal bowls,  and the problem is solved.  That is a structural change where the onus not on you. There is a structural limit, and that that’s what we need to do as a society because otherwise, it’s like nagging and complaining and remembering and burden.

Paul Hawken told me the other day, he said solutions have to pass the “Duh” test.  So that even someone who’s like “duh…” will do it.  We have to make doing the right thing the new default option.  I’m into what some people call “choice editing”.  Just take the bad options off the menu.

I’ll tell you another example I think is so interesting.  A lot of the environmental groups at colleges are doing this thing called “Trayless Tuesday.”  This is a huge issue on campuses. In the cafeteria, they do not have trays on Tuesdays.  They have figured out how much less food is wasted when there are no trays because trays encourage people to take more and more.  Getting rid of trays reduces food waste.  It increases people’s movement because they have to go back up and forth, and they don’t have to run the washer so they save energy and water for Trayless Tuesday.

But Trayless Tuesday is universally hated at every college I’ve seen.  People gripe about it.  It makes them not like the environmental group on campus; it marginalizes them.  It’s a drag.  And so some colleges have just banned trays altogether, and there’s no more  complaining.  People complain for two weeks and then they get over it.  And the administration says, “You don’t have a tray at your home.  Do you manage?”

If it’s not an option, people won’t complain.  We have to think bigger.

Do You Know Your Neighbors?

Beth: So what advice would you have for people who don’t live in an area like we do where things are so… you know, this area is walkable, bikeable, great public transportation, we have year-round farmers markets, we have stores that sell all this stuff in bulk.  But people in other areas of the country, especially those spread out in the suburbs, might find making changes more difficult.

Annie: Well I definitely think hooking up with other people and building community is so important.  Because there’s not that much we can do as an individual.  As more than one person, we can do so many more things.  And so one thing I say is, if you don’t know your neighbors, start inviting them over.  Have a Sunday brunch at your house.  Get to know your neighbors so you can rebuild community.  It sounds corny but it is so true, that rebuilding community is a key to reducing our impact on the planet and reinvigorating our democracy so we can solve these problems at the root.

When people ask me what they should buy at the grocery store, I say the most effective thing you can do is turn to the person next to you and start talking to them.  Because the choices at the grocery store have already been limited by some forces out there that are not necessarily on your side.  So you’re choosing, you know paper or plastic, from this flawed menu.  We need to change who’s deciding what goes on the menu.  And to do that, we need power.  And to do that we need engaged, informed people.  So talk to people.  Organize.  And it’s also more fun.

I love that the things we need to do to take back our country are also the things that provide the most happiness. You know when you look at those happiness studies, the things that they say provide happiness are quality of our social relations, coming together with others towards a shared goal, a sense of meaning beyond yourself, and you get all those things from joining together with others to make change.  I’m so glad that what we have to do is not ask people to have a worse time but to have a better time!

Do What You Love

Annie: The other thing is I like people to think about what they’re most interested in and pick what they are most interested in as opposed to what’s the most strategic thing to move forward.  To inventory their passions and skills and look out there in the world and see where they can plug in.  Because it’s gonna take a lot of work to turn this economy around.  It’s going to take decades.  So we should be doing something we like.

You know, if it’s children, you can go around and visit schools and do environmental education programs and teachers love that.  If it’s food, start a CSA or get your schools to serve organic food.  Whatever it is.  There is so much to do.  One of the good things about having such a gigantic problem is that there are so many places to get involved that we don’t have to do something boring.  And I think that’s important.

Like for me, it’s garbage.  And I get that it’s not garbage for everybody.  But one of the things I talk about in the booke is that I used to work in Ralph Nader’s office with brilliant strategic people who would try to get me to work on the WTO or some other thing that was strategically important.  And I’d say, yes, but I’m not interested in that.  I’m interested in garbage.  You’ve gotta work on what turns you on so that it’s fun.

Influence of The Story of Stuff

Beth: So what kinds of changes have the video inspired already in terms of actions people have told you they have taken or things that they’ve organized?

Annie: The film purposely didn’t give any instructions of what people should do because what I really want to do is get people thinking more critically.  And I am so happy.  We’ve gotten tens of thousands of emails from people who said, “I never thought where my stuff came from or where it goes,” which is stunning in itself, but people have said I never would have watched your movie if I’d known what it was about, and it made me see the entire world differently.

So, the number one thing is think differently.  And from that, people have organized community stuff swaps.  People have started organizations to work on different issues.   A street puppet theater group in South Africa created a show based on The Story of Stuff.  Destiny, this group in Oakland, do this great program for youth that’s part martial arts, part self-esteem, girls empowerment, this really fabulous organization… they did a whole theatrical production based on it.  People have told me they have decided to not give gifts for Christmas anymore or to limit the kinds of gifts they give.  Just different ways to rethink their relationship to stuff.

More Stories to Come

Next up: More videos.  On March 22, Annie will release The Story of Bottled Water.  Those who read my blog know that’s an issue that is dear to my heart.  Here’s a little preview:

Check out StoryofStuff.org for updates on even more Story videos and appearances by Annie Leonard.

Here are a few related links:

Grist’s Umbra Fisk interviews Annie Leonard and asks more in depth questions about the ideas in the video itself, as well as how Annie reacts to her detractors.

On The Huffington Post, Linda Buzzell extolls the beauty of Simplicity Circles, groups of people who come together to focus on shared experiences community rather than accumulating more stuff:

One thing we learned was that the accumulation of “stuff” has become a huge burden on all of our lives (and on the planet too, of course.) Annie Leonard’s wonderful video “The Story of Stuff” came out after we had started meeting, and it perfectly captures the rat race of consumerism. We find ourselves frantically working harder and harder in order to buy more and more stuff.

Last year, Leslie Kaufman wrote an article in the NY Times about how The Story of Stuff video has been embraced or rejected in the schools and its effect on children.

Cheryl Mahoney from PhilanthroPost looks at The Story of Stuff from a historical perspective:

Thomas Jefferson enshrined certain inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. He was inspired in part by John Locke, who wrote about the rights of life, liberty and property. That’s an interesting switch: from property to the pursuit of happiness. In some ways, I think we’ve gotten those two mixed up, and the pursuit of happiness has become a pursuit of property.

So what do you think about The Story of Stuff? Do you agree with its premises? Has it changed the way you think about and relate to the stuff in your life?  And what do you think about the idea that to create structural change in our society, we should have fewer choices rather than more?

Disclosure: If you use the Amazon link in this post to buy The Story of Stuff, Fake Plastic Fish earns a small commission. But try to borrow, find it used, or buy it locally from an independent book seller before going the Amazon.com route. For an explanation, read my full advertising/review policyhere.

Last night was the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony. In the past, Michael and I spread out a red carpet of our own for the annual Oscar bash. Of course, our red carpet was a long red plastic tablecloth. Treacherous in the rain. And equally as treacherous for the environment afterwards. We didn’t know any better.

This year, Rachel McAdams’s dress blew me away. It’s an Elie Saab made from organza and chiffon. Real silk or synthetic? I have no idea.

But these days, plastic and even the suggestion of plastic jumps out at me at every turn. I’m saddened when I see plastic revered by some of my favorite groups and shows. Here’s a small sample:

Mary Louise Parker from the show Weeds has an iced coffee in a plastic cup with plastic straw attached to her lips in almost every episode.

One of the most creative dresses on Project Runway was made from blue plastic cups. Brand new ones purchased during the “grocery store” challenge.

Speaking of plastic cups, the judges on American Idol drink from red plastic Coke cups during every show. Coke, of course, is a sponsor.

During their concerts, the Black-Eyed Peas dance around huge inflated plastic robot guy things (whatever they are).

So I started wondering… is it pop culture? Is pop culture addicted to plastic? Or is American pop culture simply a reflection of American culture in general? I really don’t know. And am I just a Philistine for liking this stuff?  What do you think?

Antimony Found In 16 Popular Brands of Fruit Juice

According to a statement released on March 1 from the Royal Society of Chemistry,  42 different juices were tested across 16 brands, and found concentrations of antimony up to a factor of 2.7 above the EU limit for drinking water.  Scientist Claus Hansen speculates that the citric acid in these drinks could act as an extractant, causing more leaching from fruit juice bottles than water bottles.

But let me be clear.  While researchers have measured the levels of this chemical in drinks and suspect that antimony, which is used as a catalyst to create PET plastic, is leaching into the beverages from the bottles, they suggest that further studies are needed to prove such a conclusion.

We have measured antimony in juices with up to 17-fold higher concentrations compared to previous reports on beverages in PET-bottles. Trends in the data material indicate that the antimony has leached from the packing material; however, it cannot be excluded that the antimony was present prior to packing. Thus, further studies are warranted.

Does Antimony Cause Cancer?

That question is also the subject of debate.  According the the press release:

Antimony has no known biological function and the effects of long term human exposure are unknown. Antimony trioxide, a suspected carcinogen and listed as a priority pollutant by the US Environmental Protection Agency, is used as a catalyst in the production of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used to package foodstuffs.

I checked several sites to for information on the carcinogenic potential of antimony.  The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has this to say:

Breathing antimony can irritate your eyes, skin, and lungs and at higher concentrations for a longer time can cause problems with the lungs and heart.

We do not know if antimony can cause cancer or birth defects, or affect reproduction in humans.

Animals that breathe high levels of antimony have died and those that have breathed low levels over a long period of time have had heart and lung problems.  Some rats were found to develop lung cancer.

So can drinking small amounts of antimony in water or juice cause cancer?  The answer is that we really don’t know. Alarmist articles like those published in Britain’s Daily Mail this past week would have you believe that it does.  But the researchers themselves believe their findings indicate further research is needed.

According to Hansen,

we cannot be sure that the antimony levels found are harmless. The human exposure to antimony is increasing and since antimony has no known biological function, there is concern about its long term effects.

And Agneta Oskarsson, an expert in food toxicology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, said:

This work emphasises the need to follow up exposure and health risks due to increased usage of such elements as knowledge on antimony exposure and toxicity is scarce, therefore more data on the antimony speciation is required.

Precautionary Principle

The fact is, we are exposed to thousands of chemicals every day that have never been tested for safety in humans.  We need better laws, like the Kid Safe Chemicals Act, to require testing of chemicals before they are placed on the market.  In the mean time, we ourselves can follow the Precautionary Principle which states:

Where an activity raises threats of harm to the environment or human health, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.

In our home, we don’t drink any bottled beverages. At all. When it comes to juice, we usually skip it, opting for whole fruit. In the rare instances we do want juice, we make it ourselves. And honestly, I stopped drinking juice a long time ago when I realized it’s basically just concentrated sugar without the benefits of fiber from the whole fruit. In the rare case I need juice for some kind of medicinal purpose (cranberry juice?) I can find it in glass. Knudson bottles mostly in glass, for instance.

But however you feel about the juice itself, consider the plastic bottle. Perhaps it leaches chemicals into your drink. Or doesn’t. We do know that plastic bottle will last a very, very long time in the environment with the potential to harm wildlife along the way. Why use something we don’t need?

TaterWare

Take, for example, TaterWare, made from potato starch, of course. Many of the eateries in San Francisco provide this brand of take-out cutlery and feel good about it because with San Francisco’s new composting law, these things have the best shot at actually being composted. Trouble is, even if the utensils make it to the compost facility, there is little chance they will truly break down all the way.

A program manager from Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling sent me the following photos of TaterWare that had been through the city’s commercial compost operation (60-90 days):

Let me reiterate: These photos were taken AFTER commercial composting at high heat. We know these things won’t break down in a backyard compost. Turns out they won’t break down in a commercial compost either.  As Chris from Golden Gate Disposal wrote me, “Above is the purported ‘biodegradable’ taterware.   I guess it may be in geologic time frames, (millennia) although not demonstrably in a composting operation.”

WheatWare

Last fall, at the SF Green Festival, I met a couple of vendors selling a different product: WheatWare.

I mentioned what I had learned about TaterWare, and they assured me that WheatWare was different.  In fact, they claimed, before deciding to carry the product in their eco store, they themselves had tested it out  by simply burying it in their backyard.  So, I  should be able to duplicate their results, right?

I buried the comb in my front yard (deeper than what you see in the photo) and covered it up with a brick.

This morning (approximately 90 days later) I dug it up.

Not much difference. It still looks and feels like a comb. It might be a tiny bit softer. If I squint. To be fair, I don’t know what would happen to the WheatWare at a commercial compost facility. But also to be fair, how many people in the U.S. have access to a commercial compost facility in the first place???

So what happens when this stuff gets loose in the environment? Specifically what happens if it makes its way to the ocean like any other type of plastic? If it doesn’t break down in the ground or in the high heat of a compost operation, it’s sure not going to break down in cold sea water.  It’ll photodegrade into smaller pieces, for sure. Pieces that sea animals can swallow.

And why are we investing materials and energy into creating single-use disposable items in the first place?  I’ve got more to say about biodegradable/compostable bio-plastics in a future post. But for right now — what’s the alternative to disposable utensils of any type? Bring our own Reusables!

For some reason, February felt like a very, very long month. Gray drizzly days.  And we don’t even get snow here.

Welcome to those who are discovering this blog after watching the segment on ABC7 morning news today.  Every month I collect and tally my plastic waste to see how far I’ve come and what still needs to be done. As I mentioned in my post “8 Reasons Why Personal Changes Matter,” it’s only after looking at our own waste and trying very hard to find alternatives that we can see clearly where the limits are and what companies we need to target or civil actions to engage in. So, here’s February’s tally:

Plastic purchased before June 15 2007 and used up in the last month (1.9 oz):

• 1 container Mexican chili powder plus sprinkle lid & cap. As I’ve mentioned before, as I use up spices, I replace them from the bulk jars at Whole Foods where I bring my own container.
• 4 dried up pens. I went through my pen holder and added the used up ones to my collection.  These days, I mostly use pencils and a refillable fountain pen with cartridge converter that lets me refill from a bottle of ink.
• 1 piece of tape from picture I removed from wall.
• 2 blister packs from pkgs of buttons. I found these in my sewing supplies box while looking for a button for my new knitted iPod case.  I have a huge bag of buttons. So big, I’ll probably donate many of them to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse.  I certainly will never sew enough to need all of them.  Want some?
• 1 window from a box of candles. Still finding random plastic things in drawers.
• 1 plastic baggie. Also found in a drawer.
• Wrappers from 5 chewable Pepto Bismol tablets. Have had these things for years.  I’m sure they must have expired by now.  But they still work.

New plastic waste (5 oz):

• 1 BalanceIt bottle, cap, insert, & scoops. This is the supplement we add to our homemade cat food.  We have reduced out cat food waste down to this one bottle every couple of months.  Still, I have written to the company to request that they don’t include brand new scoops in each bottle.  Repeat users can just reuse the scoops we already have.  Haven’t heard back yet.  Need to contact the company again it seems.  See Less Impact Cats Eat Homemade Food for more information.
• 2 prescription bottles plus caps. Precription bottles are not refillable in California.
  
• 2 lenghs of packing tape. From a review copy of a book and a box of vegan chocolates.  Mmmm…
• Foam insert from a bottle of vitamins. The bottle was glass.  But there was a protective insert under the cap.
• 2 doses of Frontline flea treatment. This stuff is the bane of my existence.  It’s totally toxic, I’m sure.  But nothing else we have tried works.  And our cats don’t even go outside!  They are picking up fleas we bring into the house despite our non-negotiable no shoes rule.  If we weren’t renters, I would rip up the wall-to-wall carpet in a second.
• Key card from Disneyland hotel. I should have included this card in my tally last year when my boss took us to Disneyland.  And hotels should collect the cards and reuse them!
• Expired SF Film Society membership card. I have not renewed.  Rarely have time for movies these days.
• Plastic juror badge. I intended to return this badge to the court for reuse at the end of my jury service.  However, the night before my second day of service, the clerk called to say I wasn’t needed.  So now I’m stuck with this plastic badge.  Should have left it at the court house after the first day.  I knew they wouldn’t want me after finding out I’m a green blogger.  It was an asbestos case, of all things!
• 8 plastic envelope windows. Insurance company, financial company, Kaiser Permanente, one tax-related form, and a notice from GE about my dishwasher.   Learn more about plastic window envelopes here.

Last week was Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in NY City. I know this because I watch Project Runway, the only reality show I can admit to watching without embarrassment because it’s all about talent and creativity. And in fact, last summer, I got to have lunch with Tim Gunn, who is as nice in person as he appears on the show.

So it was with disappointment I learned that a couple of contestants from the show have been co-opted by the plastics industry.  (Thanks, Brande, for sending me the link.)  Winners of the 2009 Plastics Make It Possible Design Competition sponsored by the American Chemistry Council (the mouthpiece of the plastics industry), designers Daniel Feld and Wesley Nault created a gorgeous collection of looks called WesFeld, inspired by ocean life.  The dresses really are breathtakingly beautiful as well as sadly ironic.

As Wes explains in an interview on the Luxury Fashion blog,

[Our] inspiration is from things that wash up upon shore, like seashells, exoskeletons, starfish, sea glass. We are working with corals, opaque, and neutral colors.

Conspicuously omitted from the list of objects that wash up on shore: plastic trash.

I’ll give the designers the benefit of the doubt.  They may not know about the problem of ocean plastic pollution or understand the irony of their designs.  But the American Chemistry Council does.  In fact, I believe that the ACC is so aware of the irony that it edited out any mention of the ocean or sea that had originally appeared in their article about WesFeld!  They may not have counted on the fact that other bloggers had already quoted the original piece.

Check this out.  The blog Project RunGay quotes the Plastics Make It Possible Web Site:

Though competition was fierce, WesFeld rose to the top with their use of plastics in creating two looks they titled, “Oceanic Structures.” These wave-like dresses feature materials, such as poly-organza and poly-taffeta, while plastic woven interfacing and plastic boning structure each panel. Even the piping, which gives the dress a satin-like luxury shimmer, is poly. From fiber to fit, these seashell inspired gowns truly are made possible by plastics.”

Now, check out the ”original” paragraph on the Plastics Make It Possible web site:

Though competition was fierce, WesFeld rose to the top with their use of plastics in creating the two looks they titled.  These wave-like dresses feature materials, such as poly-organza and poly-taffeta, while plastic woven interfacing and plastic boning structure each panel. Even the piping, which gives the dress a satin-like luxury shimmer, is poly. From fiber to fit, these shell inspired gowns truly are made possible by plastics.

The words in purple, “Oceanic Structures” and ”sea”  are gone entirely from the Plastics Make It Possible site.  The first sentence doesn’t even make sense.  And yeah, I am the type of person who notices details like this.  I’m also the kind of obsessive person who would save a screen shot of the PMIP web site in case they decide to edit that article yet again.

In addition, the Project RunGay site quotes the designers explaining in more detail the oceanic theme of the collection:

The inspiration for this set is inspired by oceanic structures that wash up on shore and slowly bleach out in color by the sun… Emulating the armorial like panels found in nature was not an easy task.. Thankfully after long periods of experimenting we discovered that the plastic woven interfacing and plastic boning would give us the ability to morph our opaque fabrications into something that came to life…

Life from plastic.  Plastic imitating nature.  I don’t know for sure that the above quote is from the Plastics Make It Possible site, but if it is, it’s not there anymore.

So why would the American Chemistry Council remove references to the ocean from their web site? What is it that they don’t want you to think about?

Plastics Make Ocean Pollution Possible

Plastic pollution is a terrible problem in the world’s oceans.  Not only is there a swirling plastic soup in the North Pacific Gyre, discovered 10 years ago by Captain Charles Moore, but a current research team have discovered plastic pollution in the North Atlantic gyre as well.  In fact, according to the web site 5 Gyres,

…there are 5 major oceanic gyres worldwide, with several smaller gyres in Alaska and Antarctica. Marine researchers don’t yet know the extent to which plastic pollution exists in the world’s oceans.

Plastic has been found inside the bodies of food fish, making its way up the food chain.  And plastics in the ocean attract and accumulate oil-based pollutants like PCBs, so the plastic particles making their way into our food stream are exceptionally toxic.

Plastic litters the word’s beaches, turning them into plastic trash dumps.

Plastic in the ocean harms albatrosses that eat it thinking it’s food and sea turtles that mistake plastic bags for jellyfish.  And lest you think that this problem is the fault of consumers and their litter, plastics manufacturers contribute to the problem in a massive way.  ”Nurdles,” those preproduction plastic pellets from which all plastic products are produced, make their way to the ocean in huge quantities, collecting in and polluting the zooplankton, the very bottom of the food chain.

Perhaps the American Chemistry Council wishes they had awarded their prize to a less ironic design.  On the other hand, perhaps they are counting on the public not to notice.  The dresses are mesmerizing, aren’t they?