Untapped Resources

Also, I am trying a new ceramic cup out. It looks like the usual disposable coffee cup but is ceramic with a washable silicone top and hand protector. (I know the silicone is plastic – but only one versus the many disposables!). It was only about $5 at Walgreen’s.

Re-Usable Take-Out Cup

I am carrying this cup in my car. Now I just have to remember to bring it with me when I go to the store and want to buy a cup of Chai.

I was a bit nervous about watching it – fearing Vinnie would be inspired to embark on an even more extreme deprivation lifestyle but to my amazement, we were pretty much already there!

With the exception of the no electricity and no car parts – we are already doing the organic, local food, farmer’s market thing; the worm bin, compost, grow-a-garden part; and last summer when our washer broke down and we awaited the new one, we even enlisted our granddaughters to help us wash clothes by stomping them in large buckets in the backyard. (The truth is – it was a hot day, and much more fun to slosh around in wet laundry outside than sit and watch dryers spin at the local Laundromat, inside!)

I wouldn’t mind trying a few evenings by candlelight, though. When our kids were younger, we would occasionally eat dinner by the light of an old kerosene lantern  – just for fun.

I heard back from someone! Here is the email response to my letter to Golden Glen Creamery (aka Jensen Family Dairy and Creamery, LLC) suggesting non-plastic tops for their glass milk bottles.

Brandy Jensen brandy@goldenglencreamery.com

May 11, 2010

Roslyn –

Thank you for your letter that you sent to Char regarding plastic caps.  We have, in fact, looked in to foil and wax caps because of our concern for plastic, but found that they are outdated and no longer meet food safety requirements, so they are not an option for us at this time.

We will keep your letter and suggestions on file, and if we come up with a satisfactory resolution for this problem, we will let you know.

Regards,

Brandy K. Jensen

Managing Member

Jensen Family Dairy & Creamery, LLC

d.b.a. Golden Glen Creamery

15098 Field Road Bow, WA 98232

(360) 766-6455 (office)

(360) 661-3490 (cell)

Dear Brandy and Char,

Thank you for your response.

The issue of plastic pollution is so important that I hope you will continue to explore non-plastic options for your bottles. I am confident that safe alternatives can be found once we all see this as important enough issue and continue to innovate and seek solutions.

Every step toward a sustainable future requires brave pioneers. Please know that your courage and efforts will be supported and are appreciated.

Thank You,

Roslyn Duffy

There are drying plastic bags hanging from the kitchen curtain rod above the sink; more bags are draped over the blender and Cuisenart (sp?) on the countertop; and another pile awaits filing away into the organizer bins they sit atop.

Pile 'O Bags

To the right of the sink is a black tub of food scraps for the worm bin; an empty plastic yogurt container filled with clean eggshells awaiting crushing and transport to the garden; and a third plastic container of ‘yard waste’ such as paper towels, butter wrappers or non-compostable food scraps – like bits of cheese. Oh yes, and on top of that container are pieces of bread to feed to the crows and a cantaloupe rind destined for Jeffrey, the turtle’s, dining pleasure.

All I wanted to do was make cherry muffins for breakfast – but there is no place to even set down a bowl. My oh-so-sensitive and perceptive spouse sensed my less-than-cheery mood and said, ‘Maybe I should stop my morning stretches and take some of that outside.’

‘GOOD IDEA!’

Kitchen Window Drying Rack

To Be Filed Bags

No matter how committed I want to be to living an earth-friendly, sustainable and largely plastic-free life – sometimes I just wish I had a nice, pristine 1950’s kitchen, all shiny and tricked out in lovely appliances without a single shred of rewashed, drying and meant-to-be reused Saran Wrap in sight.

Even without bringing in new ‘stuff’ we are being overrun with  ‘STUFF’! The commitment to reusing instead of tossing or recycling means there is a never-ending stream of new items to process and store – until we get around to reusing them.

So, just for the record, to those of you who say it is too hard to recycle and reuse and generally reduce the plastic in your lives – you are absolutely right. It is hard – but most of the time – not ‘too’ hard. Although, there are definitely meltdown days! I’ll get over it. Just had to vent.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention the lineup of former pickle jars, empty yogurt and deli containers, and plastic or glass bottles – all washed and awaiting transport to the already overflowing re-usable container storage cabinet. ARGH!

Got Jars?

What have we just done in our lives and why?

Now that the daily living experiences of our plastic-free-life are past, it gets harder to sit down and write or to follow through on plans. But I have been thinking about it!

This, and the posts that follow have all been incubating to some degree, over the last weeks. So, stay tuned and – read on.

Roslyn,

I wanted to thank you for your letters. I shared your story about the tortillas with the bakery department and commended them on meeting your request to bag them in your own bag. I was so happy to hear the story. I shared part of your letter at our quarterly department meeting as the topic on the table was sustainability and living up to our Core Value of Environmental Stewardship.

Thank you so much for the feedback.

Joel Larway

Store Director

Shoreline Central Market

Joel Larway <jlarway@tc-markets.com>

Hooray! Let’s hope this plants some seeds and reverberates.

I also sent the blog info to Danny Westneat (dwestneat@seattletimes.com) (206-464-2086) telling him about our experience and this blog plasticfreelife.wordpress.com). If you want to recommend he look into what we have done / are doing, feel free to email or call him, too.

Several hours later, I had some unexpected information. It turns out I HAD sent my letters into a REALLY BIG VOID, after all.

The sweet website of laughing children for Horizon products – is actually not the Horizon company, but a company owned by WhiteWave Foods, based in Colorado. WhiteWave also owns: Land O’ Lakes; Silk and International Delights.

The down-home story of Annie’s Naturals beginnings on its website, though charming, fails to mention that Annie sold the company to Homegrown Naturals (not a homegrown little guy, despite its name) a few years back.

So much for naiveté! As of today, Homegrown Naturals Consumer Relations Manager, Sherrie Crespin, will be getting a letter asking that packaging no longer include plastic film over its labels. Her address is: 564 Gateway Dr.; Napa, CA 94558.

Also, WhiteWave’s packaging person, Susan King, will be asked to consider not using plastic nozzles or plastic straws with a letter to her at: WhiteWave Foods; 12002 Airport Way; Broomfield, CO 80021.

More later (I hope).

Bar Shampoo

I was fully prepared to report it was awful – but I used it this morning and it was great. Lots of lather and my hair feels good.

The dental floss in the cardboard package works just fine, too.

Dental Floss

Which reminds me, that string pot scrubber is sort of buried under the plastic scrubbies (I think this speaks to whether we are using it or not –i.e. NOT.)

The other thing worth noting is how many containers, bags and plastic holders we seem swamped with – in spite of bringing in virtually no new ones for over two months.

By treating what we have as non-renewable resources (I am actually rinsing and reusing plastic wrap!!!) we have more than enough to meet our needs.

Now when I wrap a sandwich, I have a stack of empty cereal box liners to choose from (instead of the supply of plastic sandwich bags I used to keep on hand).

Reusable Containers

If something needs to be frozen, there are cereal liner bags, reusable plastic bags or even aluminum foil pouches from some products, handy and available to use. The point is – there are plenty – and then some, without needing to add to our supply. What comes our way, when treated as resources, make our needs and the available supply totally sustainable.

That is shocking (to me, at least) and exciting, too!!!

Our ‘plastic free’ experience has forced me to recognize that not much is clearly ‘black or white’.  Plastic isn’t ‘all bad’ though certainly it isn’t ‘all good’. This moderation thinking is resonating in other ways.

I stopped off at Northgate Mall yesterday (malls are places I generally think of as being pretty much – all bad) and a blind woman was having trouble navigating through Penny’s. I offered to help her and she asked me to guide her to the mall walkway, toward the store she wanted. After I had done so – I looked around and noticed other people at the mall: a man with stunted legs maneuvering his wheelchair; another man, slightly disheveled, resting on a chair in the walkway, and of course, my lady friend tapping her way along to her destination. What a great place a mall is for giving each of these folks an accessible, safe and warm place to come to.  Definitely, not ‘all bad’.

Maybe in modern parlance, this is what the Buddha meant by the ‘middle way’.

On the Vinnie product front – we now have dental floss in a cardboard carton.

Cardboard Carton Floss

On the Roslyn product front – we now have razor replacement cartridges. Do they still make the kind of razor with the loose blades, where you twist the metal bottom of the razor stem to loosen up the top to insert the blade? I remember getting an impressive gash with one of those blades as a curious 4-year-old while exploring my neighbor’s bathroom. Another not so ‘black or white’ change.

A baby grey whale died on a Washington State beach last week. This type of whale is a bottom feeder, sifting mud, looking for tiny crustaceans. An autopsy showed that the whale’s stomach contained (among lots of other gunk) twenty plastic bags. Yummers!

As the flames raged, all of the animals of the forest gathered and stared in dismay. They felt helpless and overwhelmed. All, except the hummingbird, that is.

She saw those huge flames and flew with all her speed to the river, gathered a droplet of water into her beak, and flew back to drizzle it onto the roaring fire. She did this again and again.

After awhile, one of the other animals (an elephant perhaps?) approached her and asked why she was doing it? What difference could she make? ‘Well,’ she said.

“I’m doing the best I can.”

I like that hummingbird’s attitude. It gave be a boost of encouragement. So far I have written 4 letters, and not even the one thanking Central Market for some of their practices has been acknowledged. It does feel futile – but

‘I’m doing the best I can.’

Today I read about a woman (88 years old) who went from restaurant to restaurant in her home community of Vashon Island, slowly persuading owners to stop using Styrofoam take-out containers.  Not only did many of them change practices voluntarily, the Island’s governing council has now passed a law limiting Styrofoam use.

(In the children’s book, Global Citizenship: Living Sustainably, Susan Watson says the length of time it takes for Styrofoam to decompose is: NEVER!

(On page 15 she gives the decomposition time of lots of things: an orange peel – 6 months; plastic drink bottles – 450 years!!!))

So, as of today – I am starting the

‘Hummingbird Heroes Hall of Fame’.

To get on it – you only have to

‘do the best you can.’

Please join.

Let me know what your tiny droplet is so we can all celebrate with you!

Hurrah for Hummingbirds!