Gotta pay your (water bottle) antimony??

Yet another reason to avoid plastics. The chemical antimony present in possibly “unhealthy levels” in PET water and beverage bottles.

It's that confounded “possibly” part that continues to creep me out. I remember learning about the “precautionary principle” back in grad school, fancy way of saying, “if you’re not sure that it’ll harm you, assume it will till proven otherwise.”

While we're talking fair trade.....

My most recent column in the Santa Monica Mirror, on Fair Trade issues. This will be the first of two in the series, the next will feature some local Fair Trade activism - like the Starbucks Challenge, spearheaded by Green LA Girl and City Hippy.

Parlez vous?

Ah, the wonders of the cyber world…..

Check out the campaign Maya is kick starting in Antibes, France.

Through her lovely chalk written sign, I learned the French for “Fair Trade” :
Produits de commerce equitable.

Shows yet again that the disposables issue is universal....

Take one down, stitch it around, 120 plastic bags on the wall..

Melissa’s recent post on her LA Green Living blog about the # of plastic bags in her closet (43) reminded me of the scary, mounting pile I have in my own.

I’ve been saving them since I moved to L.A. last December (’04) with the intention of knitting them into a cool tote - one of those back burner projects. Maybe its time, given I have 140 of them...Majority of them in photo above. Spring cleaning?

Tried this once in Santa Cruz, went through laborious collecting, sorting, cutting, making into yarn process, got a ways in, and...it was awful - I'm not much of a knitter, so working w/ plastic yarn was tough. The result: super awkward shape, just off. So I abandoned the project.

Time to try again, and this time get some tips, maybe from someone with knitting skills. How cute is that knit cell phone case?

(anti) disposable divas unite!

Through the blog world, I'm meeting more and more people who share my anti-disposables mania.

Just yesterday discovered Melissa, of LA Green Living, exploring green lifestyles in Los Angeles. No, this is not an oxymoron.....In addition to her blog, Melissa started a guide for how to live without plastic bags, a wealth of information on the whys and hows of avoiding this ubiquitous offender.

Mentioned on Melissa's blog is fellow anti-waste champion Stephanie Bernstein, founder of To-Go Ware - an awesome, styley line of reusable lunch kits and wooden utensils.

And then last night found another kindrid spirit in Jasmin, who expresses how pissed off she is watching rampant negligence turn our urban environs into a dumping grounds....she has a few other things to be pissed off about here. And I couldn't agree more, time for a little outrage. Time to get riled up a bit! Too many of us are sleepwalking.

A few other environmensters who share my waste woes: Maya, Siel, Lauren.......looks like I need to meet some more (anti) disposable dudes to join the diva posse. Hombres, come forward!