Jumping on the (throwaway) BAN wagon?

San Francisco's decision to bag the plastic bag continues generating ripples near and far, which is great in many ways....mostly in that its got other cities thinking. Including close to home....

My one concern (granted, its easy to criticize, and I know these things are monumentally complicated to pass) HOWEVER:

Replacing plastic bags with paper and compostable does little to address the root of the issue: our disposable mentality. Yes, its potentially preventing plastic bags from winding up in the ocean, to be chomped by poor unwitting sea turtles.....but at the end of the day, a tremendous opportunity to educate is missed. We gotta start valuing our resources! Bring your own damn bag, use it over an over, take some responsibility for your crap!

The much cited ban in Ireland was effective because it charged people, by placing a 15 cent fee on bags. People no longer looked at the nasty little suckers as expendable, valueless items, to be tossed unthinkingly.

We HATE having to pay for things we think should be free.....and when we have to PAY, even a paltry sum of 10-15 cents, we immediately attach some value.

So as other municipalities and communities discuss how to deal with the synthetic scourge, I'll keep repeating my mantra: Bring Your Own, and quit throwing it all away.

(Image from Graphic Witness)

Sign the petition, Ditty please?

"Go ahead, touch if you want, they're real....petroleum".

This outstanding image shows The Ditty Bops clad in sexy night attire - made entirely from plastic bags. That's creative reuse, will certainly make more of an impact than, say, a pamphlet.

In addition to touring by bike, riding an Xtracycle, creating a 2007 "vegetable bikini calendar", and championing sane living, these two started an online petition to encourage personal responsibility for reducing disposable plastic bag waste.

They're shooting for 5,000 sigs....go ahead, add yours.

SIGGnificantly better.....

Than plastic.

I've long admired SIGG's sleek reusable bottles, lost my water bottle a while back (fell outta my bike) and been meaning to replace it.

Then Meredith from Truth Be Told called - she'd caught sight of BYO, and wanted to connect on the reusables tip - SIGG is one of their clients.




I mentioned I'd been eying a SIGG at REI, and a few days later received this awesome assortment of styley bottles to share with friends! Very cool of her.







A swiss company, SIGG has been making these since 1908. They've got the funky, hip look down, the "bottle as fashion accessory" appeal nailed, and best of all, they help reduce untold quantities of plastic water bottles from landfills and oceans.



Oh, and if you don't see any SIGG styles that match your color pallet, create your own on their new MySIGG space.

BYO makes Treehugger!

Once I got over the childish thrill of seeing BYO on Treehugger, my favorite blog and daily read, I thought about the increasing numbers of people I've met, articles read, bloggers...blogged with, all fired up on the disposables/pollution issue......

Granted, I seek out these folks, so no great surprise - travel to less aware areas makes me wanna throw in the towel. Still, maybe what were seeing here is the beginnings of a new attitude towards our "stuff", the stuff we plough through and toss every....single....day.







Am I deluding myself, or is it possible, are we ready to take the plunge and committ to our future, or are we still a buncha mindless product players?
















Check out the curvaceous form on this red-hot commuter, no wonder he's on his knees....love your cup.

BYO breakdown explained

For all who read last post about my BYO breakdown at WF, and are curious about the resolution of their sticky-note communication crisis, I stopped in today to get an espresso......

No luck. It appears that the issue has more to do with honesty than logistics: too many people get espresso drinks, then tell cashier at the main register to ring them up for a drip coffee.

So really, not much to do with the post-it sitch at all. Granted, I may get a new answer next week. Asked if they'd thought about having a separate reg at the coffee bar in the interest of promoting reuse, a "Whole Foodsy" value.....

"No, we don't really have plans to remodel anytime soon, so this isn't going to happen in the near future." Does it really require a remodel to stick a little cash box in?

In the vein of picking and choosing ones battles, prolly best to just move on from this one.

BYO breakdown at WF

In all my BYO years, I've never had the issues many friends have with someone refusing the cup, not being sure what to do with it, claiming they couldn't use it for hygenic reasons....

Till this morning at Whole Foods! The exchange was pretty absurd actually:

Barista: I'm sorry, we can't put any espresso drinks in your personal cup, only drip coffee, until we figure out a system for writing down your order to give to the cashier.

(uncaffeinated) Me: Couldn't you just write it down on a little sticky note to attach to my cup?

B: Yeah, so that's what were looking into, my manager is researching all the sticker options, but we want to make sure we don't leave sticky residue on your cup.

Me: (respectfully) How about just a little post-it note, I'm sure you guys have a thousand of them in your office, or even a piece of scrap paper?

B: Like I said, my manager is looking into all the different possibilities and trying to come up with the best system, in the meantime, we can't serve anything but drip coffee in your own cup.

Are you KIDDING me? Is this what happens when bureacracies gets over inflated, a total breakdown in reason? I wonder how long this "research" into the latest in sticky-technology will take......

"Mermaid Tears"

Mermaid tears.

Has a sort of tragically beautiful, poetic ring to it, much nicer than, say, "potentially poisonous plastic particles phouling up the ocean"

Phew, that was a wee bit too much on the alliteration, got carried away....

These so called tears, or plastic pellets, seem to be taking over our marine environment.

So this is not news to us who obsess about disposable plastics and their cursed longevity, but seems to finally be catching fire in the media.

To recap: petroleum plastics last a gazillion years, they wind up in the ocean by the boatload, where they attract toxic chemicals (PCBs, DDTs, etc.), and pose a sinister synthetic threat to our seas. Read more about it here.......

For the ladies in the house.....

Men, warning you outright that this is a very femme-specific post. And a slight departure from my usual "kill plastic bags" tirade, but really, my vision is to address our disposables mania in general.....

Which includes tampons.

Check out the following stats on the eco-impacts of these disposable "feminine hygenic products":

"*Over 12 BILLION pads and tampons are USED ONCE and disposed of annually.

*According to the Center for Marine Conservation, over 170,000 tampon applicators were collected along U.S. coastal areas between 1998 and 1999.

*6.5 billion tampons and 13.5 billion sanitary pads, PLUS their packaging, ended up in landfills or sewer systems in 1998."

So what's a green girl to do?

Enter The Keeper, an "innovative feminine hygiene product worn internally, freeing women from dependency on cumbersome, uncomfortable, expensive, paper-based products."

I admit I've known about the keeper for some time, just haven't motivated to order one....yet. Its time though, if I'm going to take this anti-disposable thing to heart, gotta...make it close and personal?

Gettin' (e)wasted on "toxic hand me downs".

Just after my last Mirror column on E-waste, read about this major UN conference this week. 120 countries meeting for 5 days in Kenya to troubleshoot re: the copious amounts of highly toxic electronic garbage flooding into developing countries.

Often well-intentioned "donations" of old computers etc. to poor nations can end up being more hazard than help. According to this article, last year about 500 containers of old electronics arrive in Lagos every month.

Where then we can imagine they land in scenarios similar to the above.....

I especially love the e-ad here, perfect.

Speakin' Sunday at the Speakeasy!

I'll be airing my plastic obsession aloud next Sunday eve at a Speakeasy in Los Feliz, joining speakers from the LA County Bike Coalition, Treepeople, The Coffee Cellar, and others in panel for Sustainable LA - What Can I Do Today for a Green LA?"


Events being put on by Smargals Productions, a "non-profit arts organization dedicated to creating intriguing happenings and original theater in unlikely places throughout Los Angeles."

Event info here in case you're inclined to work off some tofurkey and ride on over -- bikers get a two for one entry! Tix are $7 general, $5 members.

More on the oceanic garbage dump

The "texas sized garbage patch" in our oceans, that haunting image of a waterlogged landfill, is all over the news these days. And its only growing, in direct proportion to our appetite for plastics.

Last week, a new report from Greenpeace, and yesterday an excellent news clip on on KTVU San Francisco, on the increasing strain plastic waste places on our oceans.

The quantity of garbage out there is truly astounding. And though it may well be "out of sight, out of mind" for us landlubbers, it is definitely not out of our lives.....

Petroleum plastics are built to last, forEVER. And as plastics continue spilling from our hands into the ocean, the sea life casualties continue piling up. Plastic packaging is designed to attract us with its shiny, alluring colors. This deadly appeal extends to sea life as well as our pocketbooks - millions of birds, fish, and marine mammals die every year, mistaking bright, colorful plastic bits for food.

As J. Nichols, senior scientist at The Ocean Conservancy and Ocean Revolutionary extraordinaire notes, "We live and die by the ocean. If the oceans in trouble, WE are in trouble."

Perhaps with our recent shift in political momentum, we might finally hope for a bit of leadership. Hold our breath and wait we must NOT do however, we'll need all the grassroots, business, and innovative local leadership we can get to tackle this one.

In the meantime, its up to each and every one of us to keep kickin' plASStic.

Introducing: Zero Waste Girl!

I've written a few posts about the zero emissions traveler - now I introduce another new hero, zero waste girl!

She has a name (Yolanda) and wears a few other capes besides waste crusader, (biker babe, graphic design guru) but for now, we're going to get close and personal with her garbage.

Yolanda is on a quest to produce as little trash as possible, and share her results with the world on film - the good, the bad, and the downright stinky. Her vision: to show people how they too can travel down the trash-lite path.....


She started this past Sunday at the farmers market - perfect location, as the market went "zero waste" this year. Participating food vendors have switched from sinister sytrofoam and plastic to biodegradable plates and utensils. Which is a tremendous start, now we just need to work on the copious quantities of plastic bags being used at the market - beautiful organic produce and petroleum plastics are NOT a good mix.

Well be checking in with Yolanda periodically, to hear how her experiment is progressing, what's inspiring her desire to purchase pet worms and carry her garbage around, and pick up some practical tips on low-waste living.

Like Orikaso, a reusable, foldable picnic set she used (below) to grab tamales at the market, eliminating the need for the (disposable) biodegradables altogether.

Haunted by ghost nets

Long before learning about plastics in the ocean, what first inspired an interest in marine issues was reading Song for the Blue Ocean by Carl Safina. An absolutely beautiful, poetic epic that illustrates just how much were losing from our seas.

Founder of the Blue Ocean Institute Safina recently wrote another oceanic hymn, Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur. And is currently at sea, studying leatherbacks and loggerheads, and preparing for an upcoming west coast book tour.

I've been reading Safina's voyage accounts, and recently asked if he'd been seeing much evidence of plastic waste at sea. A rhetorical question really, as we know its out there.....

"Lots of plastics evident in plankton tows near coasts, less farther offshore. This varies according to where current and convergences pile up the plastics. Laysan Island for instance, absolute mid-Pacific, is loaded w/ plastics."

Photos from his recent trip show a ghost net with billfish bones hundreds of miles from land. Ghost nets - fishing line "abandonded" at sea - can float for months, entangling and strangling all sorts of marine life. Gives me an idea for a very scary halloween costume.

Carl Safina will be speaking here in LA on November 7th, at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach! Details and RSVP info on the website, wanna join me?

Plastics and the small penis effect

Apologies for the shock value, but talk about an issue hitting where it hurts.....



Yet another reason to eschew plastic products: they just might damage your child's potential manhood.

Exposure to phthalates, an additive used in many plastics and personal care products, has been linked to abnormalities in childrens' reproductive development, including smaller penis size.

Granted, the world is overpopulated - we certainly don't need more casanovas, BUT.......

Good news: there are safer alternatives, you just need to know what to look for. Start with avoiding the # 3 or letter V on the so-called recycling symbol on the bottom of plastic products.

And check out this entertaining little short, "Sam Suds the case of PVC - The Poison Plastic". Even phlalates can be phunny.

Plastic Bags in Outer Space

Really, its true. This happened a while back, caught my interest again.....Plastic waste has now been spotted floating in space.

Astronauts on Space Shuttle Atlantis spotted a "mystery object" lurking near the ship, raising alarm that it might interfere with a safe return. And delayed their earth-coming a couple days to conduct thorough investigations of said object.

Which was likely a small piece of plastic, and "deemed non-threatening". THEN, a second object was spotted - you guessed it, the ubiquitous plastic bag.

On another, even more concerning note, studies by the US space agency showed that Earth's rapid warming has pushed temperatures to their hottest level in nearly 12,000 years and within a hairbreadth of a million years. Smokin'.

AB 2449 hijacked, call Arnold today!

Arnold has until Saturday to yeay or nay AB 2449. The bill, formerly-known-as-green, was "HIJACKED" by pro-plastic interests! I posted about this recently - the bill is now just days away from signage.

Which means you should call now, today, pronto. Phone: 916-445-2841

Don't take my word for it, read more about the implications this bill will have. The Earth Resource Foundation has been working hard to stay on top of this, and mobilize efforts to oppose the bill.

In a nutshell:

"The bill is unacceptable for 2 main reasons:
1. It inhibits the rights of local counties, cities and districts to make the best decisions for their own local area and for themselves. The amended bill now prohibits localities from imposing fees, bans, levies, and restrictions on plastic carryout bags. Local actions have often driven large, even global recycling improvements and innovations in the past, and it is critical to retain local power and flexibility so communities can control their own resource flows.

2. This bill, as written, will have very little discernable effect on the amount of plastic going onto the streets, into the oceans or into landfills. As stated above, stores already collect bags, but the vast majority (80%) is thrown away. The language of this bill is defeating environmental steps taken now and in the past to reduce, reuse, and recycle. The bill is now crafted to allow plastic bag manufacturers to continue to sell their polluting product without restraint or any form of responsibility for the environmental consequences."

Its 12:00 - do you know where your recycling is?

Trash here, recyclables here, end of story.

Wait, what REALLY happens to our urban waste once after the city carts it away? Do we recycle it here, or offshore? Who ends up using these recyclables once they're processed?

"Point of Return", a 17 minute video documentary, illustrates what happens to recyclables after they leave the curb and explores sustainable choices with regard to local, regional, and international consequences. Using Oakland, Northern California, and the Pacific Rim as a case study, Point of Return looks at economic policy and land use planning."

As this doc focuses on Oakland, I have no idea how applicable it is to our local Santa Monica recycling scene - something to look into. I'm guessing its pretty relevant.

And as the garbage gurus in the film suggest at the conclusion, recyling aside, we just gotta use less stuff, period......before the Texas-sized garbage patch in the ocean gets super-sized.

Oceans = Plastic Soup

Not sure how I missed this documentary - Alphabet Soup....documents a voyage with Captain Charles Moore to an area of the ocean so filled with plastic crap that its known as the "Eastern Garbage Patch". And in so doing, sheds some disturbing light on just how far reaching the impacts of our throwaway lifestyles are.....

As I've mentioned in previous posts, Captain Moore was my motivation to pursue the plastics crusade.

Much has been said about why plastics don't belong in the ocean - amongst other places. To reiterate:

*They attract toxic chemicals - PCBs, DDTs - at concentrations FAR greater than the seawater around them;

*Animals mistake plastic particles for food, filling their bellies with nutritionless nasties;

*Thousands upon thousands of marine creatures die from entanglement in plastic garbage/netting/etc.,

*Plastics LAST FOREVER.

Even if you're convinced, check out the film, and do your tiny but noble part by kickin' plASStic - just don't use the stuff whenever you can avoid it.

URGENT: Ask Governor to Veto AB2449

Forgive my long gap in BYO blogging - a time consuming business keeping two blogs active....

Apologies aside, there's some fairly urgent business in the recycling policy world: YOUR HELP IS NEEDED.

A while back, the “Plastic Bag Litter and Waste Reduction Bill” (AB2449) passed the California State Assembly. The bill requires larger grocery stores in the state to provide visible and accessible recycling bins for plastic bags, makes bag manufacturers work with stores to ensure that plastic bags are properly collected, transported and recycled, and requires grocery stores to offer reusable bags for purchase to their customers.

All of which sounds great, BUT, as often happens, some disturbing language was added, which would essentially prohibit any local county, city, or township from imposing any fee, ban, levy, or restriction on plastic bags. See new language here.

The Earth Resource Foundation (ERF) has been working actively with other groups to give some teeth to the bill, and find this new turn devastating. In addition to the ban restriction part, there are other problems with the amendments, full list following.

Read on, and take action: ASK THE GOVERNOR TO VETO AB2449. It is important to let the Governor know the environmentally community and recyclers do not support AB2449, particularly its pre-emption of local government authority to impose any fee, ban, levy, or restrictions on plastic bags.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: 916-445-2841
Fax: 916-445-4633
Or send an Email

Why recycling advocates/environmentalists/concerned citizens oppose AB2449:

1) Opening paragraph suggests there will be some type of recycled content in the plastic bags comparing it to the trash bag bill. Yet this is just about collecting bags;

2) This requires only plastic carryout bags, yet most stores collect carryout, dry cleaning, produce, newspapers, etc.

3) There is no requirement for plastic bags to be made out of recycled content;

4) There is no requirement for the store to reduce their plastic bag usage as was done in San Francisco;

5) There is no requirement to provide incentives for people who use
reusable bags or any requirement that so many consumers use reusable bags;

6) There is no money for enforcement, education, etc.;

7) The "store" requirement is for very large stores and doesn't even use the CIWMB definition for stores based on revenues, which would include more stores (we would like to include malls, 7-11, 99cent stores, etc.);

8) States that the manufacturer must develop educational materials and make available stores yet, doesn't require that stores put up the materials;

9) Doesn't include any education of clerks, managers and other staff on the harms of plastic, bag packing, or the economic/ecological benefits of using reusable bags.

Hope thats convincing enough......

Save the oceans, use less plastic.

Last weeks LA Times series" on the sad state of our oceans was pretty grim. So what to do about it all?

Check out David Helvarg's response, "How You Can Turn The Tide" for some everyday tips on preserving our seas.

No need to become the next Cousteau to make waves - turns out just about everything we do affects the ocean. From the foods we choose - local organic vs. petroleum-intensive conventional, to our transportation choices - it's all connected....

#3 on Helvarg's list: Use less plastic:

"Plastic objects make up about 60% of the trash found on the beaches and about 90% of the debris found floating in the oceans worldwide. If you take plastic to the beach, take it home with you. Buy from bulk bins and reuse containers. Use canvas tote bags instead of shopping bags."

Right on.