Archive for November, 2009
See Jane Do: Elisa Parker & Jesse Locks, Week 1
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009See Jane Do is a multimedia program capturing the stories of everyday women doing extraordinary things for the planet. The project is based in Nevada City, CA. After interviewing me for their radio program about plastic, See Jane Do’s Elisa Parker and Jesse Locks, along with Elisa’s family took the trash challenge for one week. Elisa writes:
It was a humbling experience to say the least as my daughters and I counted almost sixty pieces of disposable, single use plastic. Jesse collected twenty-seven pieces. The plastic didn’t last long in our house but it will definitely last forever on the planet.
Read more about Elisa’s experience on the See Jane Do blog.
Name: Team See Jane Do with Elisa Parker and Jesse Locks
Total number of items: 58 in the Parker Household (family of four) and 27 in Jesse’s houshold (1 person)
Analysis:
What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?
cups and veggie/fruit bags.
What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn’t exist?
Bottled water and to go plastic cup tops.
How many of these items are from “convenience” foods that could be made from scratch with less packaging but might take more time to prepare?
hummus, shampoo,
What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
supplements and makeup
What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
Bring my own cup and containers for food. Silverware.
What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
Plastic veggie bags in the produce section and canvas bags for shopping (not just at the market).
What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
An eye opening experience! Everything at Costco and Trade Joe’s is packaged in plastic.
Karey Harris, Week 1
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
Week #: 1
Name: Karey Harris
I’m a female living in a single family home in Maryland. I have one roommate, and work about 3 miles from my home. I have no children, and as of yet, there are no options at my job to telecommute.
List of Recyclable Items
My county, in an effort to make their website more user-friendly, makes finding the numbers accepted rather difficult… they do however list the TYPES of plastics recyclable (Plastic bags & shrink wrap, cups, plates, utensils, etc)
* Bottle of Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil- number 1
* Two plastic cups- number 6
* Two plastic grocery bags- number 4 (The county might take them, but I usually save them and take them to the store later)
* One plastic Gordon’s Jewelery bag- number 2 (The County says they take it, but I did not know that!!)
List of Non-recyclable Items
* Two contact lens cases
* One plastic container of dressing from Chick-fil-a
* Two black plastic dressing containers from a restaurant (only one is pictured)
* Four plastic envelope windows
* One bag of cat food
* Some plastic that flowers came in
* Two twizzler wrappers
* One string cheese wrapper
* Three straws (only two are pictured)
* Three drink lids (only one is pictured)
Total number of items: 26! 
Tally analysis
What items could I easily replace with plastic-free or less plastic alternatives?
I saw the link to glass straws, so if I was carrying that around, I could eliminate the plastic there.
The candy and cheese were all 100% impulse. The candy could be bought in bulk instead of individually wrapped (thank you, vending machines.) The cheese could be bought in a different form, like sliced from the deli.
I’m usually pretty good about grocery shopping with my cloth bags, but I forget about them in convenience stores and the like. Those could easily be replaced.
Plastic cups/lids are easily replaced if I could remember to bring my reusable bottle everywhere. Like the grocery bags, I have one, and I’m USUALLY pretty good, but not always…
There might be a paper cat food bag out there… but I’m really hesitant to switch foods for her, since she does so well on it!
All of my bills are paperless; I don’t know how to get people to stop sending me mail that I don’t want! There must be a way…
It would be easy to ask for no plastic at dinner, if I could remember.
What items would I be willing to give up if a plastic-free alternative doesn’t exist?
Drink lids and straws would be easy on most days.
I really should give up on candy.
The dressing when I’m out is usually unnecessary
I don’t need flowers (these were a gift…)
How many of these items are from “convenience” foods that could be made from scratch with less packaging but might take more time to prepare?
Three- the two Twizzlers, and the string cheese
What items are essential and seem to have no plastic-free alternative?
Possibly the cat food bag, depending on my willingness to experiment, and the bottle of Vegetable Oil.
What lifestyle change(s) might be necessary to reduce my plastic consumption?
I would have to be better at remembering to bring my reusable containers around with me, and asking for no plastic at restaurants.
What one plastic item am I willing to give up or replace this week?
Food wrappers!
What other conclusions, if any, can I draw?
I’m amazed — I feel like I ate out a lot more than usual this week, but this was a lot more plastic than I was expecting. And I’m pretty good about packing lunches in reusable containers, grocery shopping with cloth bags, etc. What does this look like for people who don’t do that?
Green_grrl – Plastic Challenge (week 4)
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
This whole cutting down on plastic is harder than I thought it would be. First I’m finding that there is a lot of existing plastic in the house. And second, it is taking me (us) ages to change our habits.
Take the steak package above. We could have bought the steak from a butcher in paper and put it in the freezer. But on a weeknight when we are rushing, haven’t planned ahead, and need dinner *now*, we often end up at our local health food store 3 blocks from the house buying dinner on the way home. And their meat is all in plastic.
I’m confident we’ll get there. I think I need to allow us the time it takes to change our habits and ease up a bit on the guilt. It’s hard though!
Good steps this week – instead of buying the baking powder I normally get (includes plastic), I bought it in bulk.
Recyclable plastic:
- milk carton – recycled in our curbside pickup
Non-recyclable plastic:
- cheese curd package
- candy wrapper (found in purse)
- 2 cans tomato paste (can recyclable but plastic liner not)
- 2 cheese wrappers
- 1 spice package (months ago let my cayenne run out and then needed to replace it asap – no time to go to the bulk store. )
- top from baking soda
- plastic from needle cases (replaced these with this)
- plastic from new tv antenna (bought by hubby but will be enjoyed by me as well). The whole dang thing is plastic though. Sigh. Hopefully it lasts a long time.
- 1 misc wrapper
- 1 eye dropper
- 1 vitamin bottle security seal (glass bottle, plastic top)
- 1 vanilla bottle security seal (glass bottle, metal top)
- 1 package – steak
- 1 take away container
- 1 tie from a stack of paper yard waste bags
Number of plastic items: 21
Weight: 7.75oz
Changes I will make starting this week to avoid plastic:
- Don’t let bulk and plastic free stuff run out – keep extras on hand if required