PLASTIC NIGHTMARE!

I’m going to make a monumental effort to further reduce the amount of plastic I bring into the home, and as I write this my husband is rolling his eyes, muttering “I told you soooooo” – which makes me furious because I think I’ve made great progress already – but given the Dirt Devil incident on our first date, it’s no wonder! On that ever so romantic date, when reaching into the back of car for my purse, I was confronted with a huge almost vintage looking Dirt Devil vacuum cleaner taking up the entire back seat. This super-cool, guitar-playing, ravishing dude explained that he was taking it in to get it fixed the following day. It turned out he’d had it for years – it had followed him from Atlanta to Florida and finally to Los Angeles and just needed a new motor or screw.

It turns out my husband rarely throws out anything, and he LOVES to remind me that he was really green before I had even thought about it, (hmmm not sure about that!). The truth is he rarely throws anything away and will only buy stuff that is guaranteed to last a very long time. It annoys him beyond belief that most electronics that are sold today, clearly have an purposely short shelf life – a computer, cell phone or iPod is pretty much guaranteed to have problems within a 2 year time frame – and then it’s just thrown on a massive e-waste heap that’s polluting a less regulated country than ours.

Getting back to plastic – after watching a mind-blowing documentary, “Around the World in 90 Minutes,” about what the space shuttle astronauts see (and what happens on our planet), during just one 90 minute orbit of the Earth, I was horrified about the speed with which was are unwittingly destroying/fouling our precious planet. Most of us know about the Pacific Garbage Patch – the giant floating island of plastic trash, which is growing, and is twice the size of Texas – this was just one of the horrors that was highlighted in the documentary, and one that really got to me as I’ve just returned from the pristine Big Island of Hawaii, which is as close to Paradise as you can get – YET only a 3 hour boat ride away, this giant moving trash iceberg (apparently what you see on the surface is just the tip,) kept in place by ocean currents, is the planet’s largest garbage dump. All the plastic from our storm drains, sidewalks, and any plastic that’s not hermetically sealed in a landfill, could become part of this growing monstrosity. We can’t live without plastic anymore, but how on Earth can we stop this dire situation from getting worse?

It got me thinking a bit more about plastic, and how in the past 60 or so years, we’ve created this compound, which doesn’t go anywhere. I’d love to imagine that it just gets spirited away, or that my conscience can be clear by just tossing it in the recycling bin, but it still doesn’t go away. Every bit of plastic that was every created is, in some form, still floating around in our air or water. Unlike wood, cloth, paper and even metal, plastic cannot decompose – instead it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces – eventually filling our oceans with a swirling soup of plankton-like micro-pellets, or our air with dust-like particles.

Even plastic which is ostensibly recyclable, has a finite amount of times it can be re-recycled – so tossing your yogurt pot into your curbside recycle bin is perhaps better than sending it straight to the landfill, but it’s eventually still going to be hanging around where it’s not recognized or wanted by nature. Here’s an interesting article about the complexities involved in plastic recycling. If you can’t be bothered to read it, it can be summarized by saying that the most important thing you can do is to know which #’s (in the chasing arrows on the bottom of the container), your city does or does not accept. If in doubt, go to Earth 911.

Looking around my somewhat eco-friendly kitchen, there’s still plastic everywhere, which will have to be eventually disposed of: blenders, dish washing liquid bottles, recycled plastic bowls – the list goes on and on. Most of the plastic that I toss is food packaging, so that’s the first place where I can make some quite radical changes. Cooking from scratch is by far the most positive step I can take in this direction. To this end, despite being in a terrible hurry, I made my own hummus and guacamole this morning, instead of bringing home the little plastic pots from the Greek stall at my farmer’s market.

I’m on a mission with this food thing now – I only buy cereals for Lola which don’t have an outer cardboard box and I make all our granola with ingredients from the bulk bins at my local Wholefoods (delicious, inexpensive recipe is in Do It Gorgeously). I also make our own yogurt- soooo easy, and when I buy cheese, I try to buy slices from the deli wrapped in paper. If I’m feeling really virtuous and actually remember, I take a reusable container to the deli and get them to plonk the cheese straight in and slap the sticker on the side of the container.

Where else do I spot plastic? The bathroom can become plastic central with mouthwash and shampoo bottles, toothbrushes and more. I haven’t progressed to a wooden toothbrush yet, however, both my husband and I love the recycled Preserve toothbrushes and razors (he says the razors last for a super long time and the key is to dry the blade thoroughly after each use). Lola’s dentist just recommended an electric toothbrush and water pik, as she has braces and great trouble brushing her teeth properly- ugh – so that sadly had me trotting back from the drugstore with a reusable chico bag full of plastic!

Another area that I have been able to considerably reduce my packaging is in the skincare department. When I make my own, after initially investing in a small collection of dark glass bottles and jars, I’m set – they’ll last for years and years (I’ve never broken one, despite quite a few falling on the floor), and when I’m done with the product, I sterilize the container in the dishwasher and it’s ready for round two. Same deal with cleaning products: I find it immensely satisfying to refill (countless times), my sprayer with my all-purpose spray concoction, which cost just a few cents a bottle to make.

My rule of thumb is that I always try to buy an alternative where possible. Instead of a plastic dog food bowl, I’ll by a steel one, instead of a plastic ice cube tray, I’ll buy a steel one too. I highly recommend visiting Life Without Plastic to find some great alternatives.

I still can’t get over the depressing notion that there are clearly quite a few individuals that feel it’s their right to dump their plastic trash on the side of the road/ on the beach. A day doesn’t go past here in LA, that I don’t see the remains of a Burger or KFC meal (styrofoam, plastic, paper and more), sitting on the edge of a sidewalk somewhere. On a brighter note, there are armies of good folks all over the country who volunteer to clean up beaches, rivers and lakes, which are perhaps the most important place to start because of what happens to sea life when they ingest our trash.

As with all green living, the conundrums are enough to give any girl whose just trying her best, a throbbing headache. A great example being a pair of shoes: If you’re after a pair of eco-friendly evening heels, are you better off going for a natural leather pair with a wooden sole, or a plastic/vinyl vegan pair? The former are obviously biodegradable, while the latter might well be found swirling around the pacific in years to come, however, many a green girl eschews leather. The solution would be a material like hemp, but most designer hemp heels are way too pricey for us mere mortals – so a simple shoe issue becomes a little more complicated than I’d like it to be! BTW – a great solution is shoes made out of silicone. The Mary-Jane’s pictured are Melissa’s and you’ll find a great selection at Kaight.

The most useful thing that we can all do is REDUCE the amount of plastic or vinyl we use PERIOD. Remember, the manufacture of many plastics, particularly PVC is horribly toxic, so you’d be wise to eschew this particular plastic completely.

I challenge you to spend the next week being hyper-conscious about the amount of plastic that you both bring into and throw out of your home. If you can come back from just one grocery store trip with a a little less packaging, you’ll be making an important change – while you’re at it, inspire everyone you know to do the same. It’s a great activity to do with your kids. I set it up as a game for Lola and her friends – candy points for whoever comes up with the most creative ideas to reduce packaging (while still getting what we need,) from the store. Children are just genius at this particular challenge – and mercifully there’s great candy in the bulk bins in our local Wholefoods too!