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Here’s an ingenious way to turn trash into something useful. Guess where this beautiful pond is located?
Yup … this beautiful pond is in the trunk of an old car.
Last year this same neighbour grew a productive garden in the back of an old truck.
Happy Friday!
The 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day has come and gone and I’ve heard some great stories from friends and family about how their plastic awareness was ignited.
The best story comes from someone I won’t name … She tells me she was having lunch with a coworker at a food court and enthusiastically talking about it being the 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day. As she was speaking she suddenly noticed that her food court food had been served in Styrofoam containers … oops …
When she sheepishly told me the story I cheered! Hooray! That tells me that the 1st Annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic Day succeeded in raising both her and her coworker’s plastic-awareness. Plastic is so integrated into daily life that we hardly even notice.
They then discussed how they could have easily brought down reusable plates and cutlery from the office kitchen.
Maybe next week they will.
It doesn’t matter if you succeeded in going 24 hours without purchasing plastic or not. What matters is that you became a little more plastic-aware.
Congratulations!
Today is my birthday and you can wish me well by participating in the first annual Buy-No-Food-In-Plastic day. All you have to do is pay attention to how the food you purchase is packaged. And when you have a choice, choose food products that are self-packaged or in non-plastic containers.
Before a problem can be solved, we must first be aware that there is a problem. Do you remember when Big Mac’s and Quarter Pounders were served up in cancer-causing polystyrene aka Styrofoam?
More than 20 years ago McDonald’s assistant vice president was quoted in the New York Times: ”We use foam packaging for the same reasons that schools, hospitals and other restaurants do. It keeps our products hot, it keeps them fresh, its portable and it’s a safe and sanitary way to serve our product.” (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/11/11/nyregion/mcdonald-s-is-urged-to-alter-packaging.html Accessed: July 16, 2009).
Today, McDonald’s no longer uses foam packaging for its sandwiches and the change in packaging hasn’t seemed to hurt their business. Their sandwiches are still delivered hot, fresh, safe and sanitary … in benign paper-based wrapping.
Change can happen. It starts with awareness.
Its fairly rare to see food in Styrofoam packaging these days. But the packaging of choice is still predominately other types of plastic. Plastic keeps food fresh. Its portable. Its sanitary. It’s a wonder product. But is it safe? The evidence is mounting that it is not; not for lab rats, not for babies, not for adults, not for fish; not for water, not for landfills.
Today is the day to raise your plastic awareness. Can you go the whole day without purchasing food wrapped in plastic?
It’s a difficult challenge, but its not impossible.
Well here I am, half way through my PFF experiment. (PFF = Plastic-Free-Food … way easier to type than “30-Day-No-Food-Purchased-In-Plastic”.)
Eating PFF is not easy and as I reflect on the past 15 days I realize that I have had some wins and some slip ups.
For instance, I didn’t think I had to give up my daily whole milk latte habit. After all I was bringing my own cup to the coffee shop. But today I watched as the barista poured the milk for my latte out of a plastic jug. Crap! Ok technically I didn’t purchase the milk in the plastic jug … or did I?
Then there are the herbs I bought in China town yesterday that were all sealed in plastic bags. I was buying the herbs for my business, so I didn’t think I was compromising the experiment. And I wasn’t … well not until I tore into the bag of Goji berries for a snack. I was well into my third fist full of the berries before I noticed the plastic bag in my hand.
One day on the weekend I was at the big box grocery deli and wanted a quick, high protein snack. I scanned the deli case and spied unwrapped sausage rolls. I told the clerk I wanted one, but I didn’t want the plastic take out tub that they use. I suggested that she simply wrap it in a paper towel. She said she could put it in a plastic bag instead. I told her “No! I don’t want plastic!”
I didn’t mean to yell … I apologized and tried to explain about my PFF experiment … but I’m pretty sure she rolled her eyes at me as she handed me the paper wrapped roll. I shrugged my shoulders and proceeded to pull off all the crappy white flour pastry and then ate just the meat part. It wasn’t very good.
So I stopped at the organic store on the way home and picked up a few handfuls of fresh cherries, using one of my cloth bags instead of a plastic bag. The clerk in that store gave me a 5 cent bag discount. The cherries were delicious.
This Friday, July 17th is your turn to experiment with PFF purchases. Write in and let me know your experiences.
Did you know that:
- plastic is collecting in the ocean
- the plastic in the ocean breaks down into tiny colourful bits
- fish and birds eat those colourful bits thinking they are eating food
- you can be part of the solution.
Raise your “plastic-awareness”. On Friday July 17 purchase only plastic-free-food.
Click here for a poster that you can forward to your friends.
A marketing guru blogger guy named Seth came onto my radar a few months ago when I was setting up Low Crap Diet.
Recently Seth wrote about his birthday wish, asking people to “… start a project, launch an idea …” … create a “Make a difference day.”
Today Seth’s post challenged me to go farther: “Go ahead, do something impossible.”
I like challenges.
I am in the midst of an impossible challenge.
I have a birthday coming up.
I want to make a difference.
In fact, I know you want to make a difference too, so I’m answering Seth’s birthday wish with a birthday wish of my own.
On Friday July 17, my birthday, I invite you to take part in the first annual No-Food-Purchased-In-Plastic Day
The purpose of No-Food-Purchased-In-Plastic Day is to raise our ‘plastic-awareness’, especially in the area of food packaging.
Did you know that:
- plastic never goes away.
- not all plastic is recyclable.
- not all recyclable plastic is recycled.
- plastic leaches toxins into our bodies, our water, our air, and our earth creating havoc in ways we are only just beginning to understand.
My 30 day experiment is teaching me that it is difficult to avoid food with plastic packaging. But I am learning that it is possible to drastically cut down on how much plastic garbage I generate.
Here’s just a few ideas of how you can participate:
1. Pay attention to how your favourite foods are packaged. (Do you really need your sandwich wrapped if you are going to eat it right away?)
2. When you do purchase food wrapped in plastic, be sure to reuse or recycle the packaging.
3. Bring your own knife, fork and coffee cup (BYOKFCC)
4. Bring your own reusable bags (BYORB)
5. Whenever possible purchase plastic-free-food (PFF)
Can you go 24 hours purchasing only plastic-free-food? Leave a comment and let me know your ideas and thoughts.
Stay tuned for more details … and Happy Birthday Seth!
1. It is 100% non-biodegradable.
2. Once created, plastic will never go away.
3. It leaches toxins into food, water and air.
4. It is collecting in our oceans and on our shores.
5. It breaks down into tiny bits that get eaten by fish. If you eat fish you may be eating tiny bits of plastic.
6. Not all plastic is recyclable and not all recyclable plastic is recycled.
7. Chemicals used in plastic disrupt hormones.
8. Chemicals used in plastic cause cancer.
9. It interferes with physical development in babies and children.
10. It is everywhere.
Its crazy that we spend thousands of dollars to eradicate dandelions from our parks, yet simply accept that plastic is a necessary evil.
Last night I decided to take some r&r time and started reading my latest book purchase: Slow Death by Rubber Duck, How the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie.
There I was soaking in my acrylic tub, leaning against my plastic pillow, within sniffing distance of my vinyl shower curtain, when I came to the section called “Plastic Free” beginning on page 49. As part of the experiment, Rick was trying to go for two days straight without eating anything that had come in contact with plastic in an effort to detox his body of phthalates and bisphenal A. These two chemicals are ubiquitous in everyday products, including food and the environment, and are thought to, and in some cases proven to be detrimental to our health (most notably crazy mutations in the development of male genitalia … read the book…)
As it turns out, I have also been thinking about doing an experiment where I didn’t purchase any food wrapped in plastic packaging. In fact I had already started to research the subject to see if it was actually possible.
After a restless sleep and crazy dreams about digging in a ploughed field wondering why the seeds had not sprouted, I woke up this morning and decided today was the day! From June 30, 2009 through July 29, 2009 I am going to conduct my own experiment: No food purchased that has plastic packaging.
Looking at the month ahead, there is at least one road trip in my plans, my birthday is in the middle of the month, several potluck gatherings are on my calendar, and its festival time in Calgary. I know I will be doing a lot of eating out.
Now I am unwilling to be a party pooper or hermit for the month, so the rules of my plastic-free-food experiment will have to take into account the fact that I cannot control what other people purchase and serve. For instance, I know that a meal prepared in a restaurant will use produce and other ingredients that are purchased in plastic bags and bottles.
With that in mind I will have only one rule for my experiment. I will not personally purchase any food item that has plastic as part of its packaging. The key word here is “purchase”, which means I am allowing myself to eat any food that is currently in my kitchen that has plastic packaging, as well as food that other people have purchased and prepared.
While technically I will not be eating plastic-free, what I hope to achieve is an awareness of just how much we rely on plastic for packaging.
Should be interesting month!
I’ve had more than one person tell me that they don’t use reusable cloth bags for their groceries because they like to receive the ‘free’ plastic grocery bags to line their kitchen garbage can.
They say it saves them having to purchase plastic garbage bags.
I used to do the same thing, and when I started using reusable cloth bags regularly, I had a supply of plastic grocery bags for my garbage that lasted me for almost a year.
At first when I realized I was running out of the bags I was perplexed. How was I going to take out my garbage? Those plastic grocery bags were perfect for the kitchen garbage because they are just the right size, and you can tie the handles neatly together to make a tidy little bundle that gets thrown into the bigger garbage bin that the big noisy truck conveniently takes away for me every week.
Out of sight … out of … hmmmm
So I set about rethinking this age old habit. And let me tell you it was a bit of a challenge. Finding a new way to deal with the garbage was easy. Establishing a new habit took a bit more work.
I started by examining what I wasn’t throwing away … anything reusable, recyclable, or returnable.
Then I examined what I was throwing away: all those little bits of plastic food wrapping that are virtually impossible to avoid; the plastic strip security thingys that wrap around bottle and jar lids; the odd miscellaneous wrapper; meat wrappers and trays; food gone bad that is non-compostable and too big to flush; used tissue and paper towels (these would be composted if I had a bigger composting system); other ubiquitous bits and pieces of single use stuff.
Those things add up to about the equivalent of one plastic grocery bag full every week. Not much in the grand scheme of things, but still I am just one person on a planet of almost 7 billion who are also throwing away a bag or two each week.
Most of what I am throwing out is dry, so why do I need the plastic bag to hold it all? The bag does make it more convenient, but its really not necessary. So I bravely tried my first week with no plastic garbage bag liner.
The first hurdle came after I had finished washing the dishes. I drained the sink and automatically scooped the yucky stuff out of the sink drain and almost put it into the unlined garbage basket. I stopped myself in time, thinking what a mess that would have made.
Then I stood there with the guck in my hand wondering what to do now? I decided to throw it into the composter. Hopefully a little environmentally safe dish soap won’t harm the worms.
Phew … that’s one habit confronted.
The next challenge came after I purchased chicken breasts sold on a Styrofoam tray, with a plastic absorbent pad. (I know … that was breaking my own rule about packaging, and one of these days I’m going to confront the meat manager at my local supermarket.) But … back to my garbage story … I knew that if the raw chicken juice/blood soaked packaging sat unwrapped under my sink for more than a few hours the smell would be impossible to live with. So as soon as I had the chicken safely sizzling away on the bbq, I ran the container straight outside to the big giant garbage bin.
Inconvenient? Yes. But then change always is.
I pressed on.
I was now in the habit of running out to the bin and upturning the wicker basket every two or three days, usually as part of my cleaning up the dishes chore.
But there inevitably came the day when I was in a hurry and I was confronted with rethinking the “taking out the garbage on my way to work” habit. What was I to do with the empty wicker basket? I didn’t have time to run it back up stairs. I was walking to work and didn’t want to carry the basket with me all over town. So out of desperation I put the empty basket in my car and retrieved it when I got home. That worked perfectly and it has become a new habit.
Its been over a month since I stopped lining my kitchen garbage basket with plastic and so far it has been working very well.
Perhaps one day the kitchen garbage can itself will be ancient history.
A new website called “What’s On My Food” www.whatsonmyfood.org has been launched. Its purpose is “… to loosen the pesticide industry’s control over global agriculture …” by making information available to the public through the power of computing.
Created by PAN (Pesticide Action Network) North America, What’s On My Food cross-references toxicology data from the US Environmental Protection Agency with the US Department of Agriculture’s Pesticide Data Program.
Brilliant!
One of the things that makes this website particularly exciting is it lists the pesticide residues found on both conventionally grown and organically grown food.
Featured are some 49 different foods in various preparation methods. For each of the 89 food entries you can discover if they contain residues which are:
1. Known or Probable Carcinogens
2. Suspected Hormone Disruptors
3. Neurotoxins
4. Developmental or Reproductive Toxicants
Yes … you read that right. Carcinogens, hormone disruptors, neurotoxins and toxins that disrupt human reproduction are all legally used to grow our food.
That pisses me off!
Some of these chemicals are also finding their way into food grown using organic methods … we live in a closed system … everything affects everything else …
Let’s take a look at what this website says about one of my favourite foods, the Sweet Potato.
- 13 pesticide residues were found on the non-organic Sweet Potatoes; 4 of these same residues were present in the organic Sweet Potatoes grown in the USA; none of the residues were found in the imported organic Sweet Potatoes (there is no mention of what country this product was imported from.)
- The 13 pesticides included: 1 known carcinogen; 2 probable carcinogens; 1 possible carcinogen; 7 suspected hormone disruptors; 6 neurotoxins and 2 reproductive toxins.
Now I’m really pissed!
Eat organic. Grow organically. Hug organic farmers.
Let’s get real about what we eat.
