The RULES
I’ve been living the NoNewPlasticPledge for 8 1/2 months now. Some of you wonderful readers were there from the start, and others have discovered EnviroWoman along the way. From the emails I get and the comments you great folks posts, I thought it would be helpful to restate my rules.
Although originally posted way back on New Year’s eve, I was so plastic naive way back then, the rules weren’t that detailed so I’ve provided you with some clarification. And all the amendments to the rules I've invoked as I learn more about plastic.
Okay here we go:
Original Rule #1: I CAN NOT buy or accept products containing or packaged in plastic for the first 90 days of 2007
- Clarification: This INCLUDES recyclable and recycled plastic. Hey, it’s still plastic, so it’s a no no.
- Clarification: This DOES NOT INCLUDE any and all petroleum-based products. The magic word in my pledge is ‘plastic’ not ‘petroleum’. Yes, I know you can’t have plastic without petroleum. (But you can have petroleum without plastic.) Remember, I’ve taken the NoNewPlasticPledge, not the NoNewPetroleumPledge. My beef with plastic is that it’s everywhere, and it doesn’t degrade.
- Clarification: This INCLUDES plastic other people bring into my life. When my female kinfolk sent me a package covered in plastic tape, I had to accept that as my personal consumption and add it to my plastic shrine. If someone brings plastic packaged chocolates to work and offers me one, I have to say no. At restaurants I can't order something I know someone will serve to me in plastic which will be thrown out after I’ve finished with it, like water in a plastic bottle or a plastic glass or with a plastic straw. However, this leads into a gray area….because how far do you really take it…. If I eat at a restaurant or a friend’s place and they serve food that was once packaged in plastic, but not served to me in plastic then that’s okay because it’s their plastic consumption, not mine. Like I said, it’s a gray area…and I’m not always consistent in my logic but hey, they are MY rules, so I can do what I want.
- Clarification: I CAN touch plastic. Some people assume my pledge means I can’t even touch plastic. Now come on folks…let’s GET REAL.
- Clarification: I CANNOT get others to buy plastic for me. Several wonderful souls have offered “I’ll buy this plastic then give it to you, then it won’t count”. It DOES COUNT and it would be cheating. Even if you’rwe're talking chocolate….it’s still cheating. EnviroWoman doesn’t cheat.
- Amendment: The resolution was extended to the entire 2007 year
- Amendment: This INCLUDES not buying or accepting biodegradable plastic (which I didn’t even know existed before Jan 1st)
- Amendment: This INCLUDES anything which qualifies as plastic according to wikipedia like nylon, polyester, Teflon, synthetic rubber, acrylic, styrofoam ad plasticizers (though this last one is a hard one ‘cuz it’s hard to really know what has plasticizers in it). Let’s just say, it blew my mind when I read this wikipedia page back in February, ‘cuz that’s when it really hit me how much stuff I had actually sworn off. Like nail polish. Ignorance is bliss. Reality sucks.
- Amendment: I CAN purchase compostable bioplastic – because it’s not petroleum-based plastic (as with biodegradable plastics, I didn’t even know this existed before Jan 1st). I am well aware that this counters the logic of the second clarification point above. Here’s what I like about compostable plastics – they degrade way faster than petroleum-based plastics and into earth-friendly benign matter. Regular, degradable, and biodegradable plastics don’t.
- Amendment: This INCLUDES papers which obviously have plastic in them, like sticky labels and that foily shiny plasticy stuff all my fav chocolate bars come in. This amendment eventually leads into a gray area…because how can you really tell if some paper has plastic in it…
- Amendment to the amendment: This DOES NOT INCLUDE magazines and books. It did for the first 6 months, but now I just can’t live without them.
- Amendment: I DO NOT have to be uber-extreme at work. Work presents challenges. ButI have to admit I stick to my NoNewPlasticPledge guns about 99% of the time. Here are some examples…
A coworker noticed I didn’t have scissors and took it upon themselves to order me a new pair….which came packaged in plastic and had plastic handles. I graciously thanked my coworker for their thoughtfulness, accepted the scissors, but quietly returned them to the supplies cupboard so another coworker would claim them.At a work sponsored conference I received a plastic binder full of wonderful paper stuff and accepted it graciously. Later, I returned the binder to the conference organizer but kept the wonderful paper stuff.I don’t order office supplies for myself that I know contain plastic.If I must order plastic stuff for others, I delegate it to a team member so I don’t have to break my NoNewPlasticPledge. It’s kinda cheating, but kinda not.Here’s the 1% where I have to ease up on the NoNewPlasticPledge... when I order print materials which contain varnishes (that contain plasticizers).
- Amendment: I CAN purchase plastic on behalf of someone else if it’s for them and I’m reimbursed. DesignGuru at work asked me to stop by the local ArtEmporium and pick him up some art portfolios, which I was reimbursed for. That was okay. But when I needed a white sheet for a backdrop at a work photo shoot I was spearheading, I couldn't buy it because the sheet was packaged in plastic – so we used white paper instead.
- Amendment: I MUST re-gift plastic gifts. When a person gives me something, like a gift, which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic I accept it graciously, then re-gift it to someone else. (Hey, hang with me and you get lots of great plastic cast offs.) In some cases I return it to the giver. For example, the local phone company dropped off a new plastic-packaged phone book (which I didn’t request). By my rules, I have to return it to them, or accept the plastic as a MINOR SIN and add it to my shrine – I chose to return it.
- Amendment: I can only plead ignorance once. If I had been buying something which I honestly didn’t know had plastic in it, then I don’t count those purchases as SINS. But once I realize it contains plastic, I can’t continue to buy it without committing a MINOR or MAJOR SIN. This has occurred with soda pop, and tin cans, for example.
- Amendment: Food for TheBeast is an exception. When I started the no new plastic pledge I didn’t know most tin cans contain plastic. Once I did know, I stopped buying tin cans for myself. But I still buy them for TheBeast. Shes 18, has gum and tooth decay and can’t chew or stomach crunchies. So she’s on a diet of soft canned food. It woudn’t be right for her to suffer because of my pledge.
Original Rule #2: I CAN borrow or rent products that have plastic. So for example, I can rent DVDs, but I can’t buy DVDs.
Original Rule #3: I CAN continue to use or re-use any plastic in my possession as of Dec 31 2006.
- Clarification: When stuff gets used up, that’s when I replace it with non-plastic alternatives. Some people assume on January 1st, I threw out all my plastic stuff, and that I never use plastic. Again, let’s GET REAL. Plastic is everywhere, and in everything – I’d have to throw out most of worldly possessions. That would be totally disrespectful to Mother Earth, and would mean I’d consume a whole pile of new resources replacing stuff unnecessarily.
However, I will admit, moving to a new abode gave me a great opportunity to send alot of plastic to the Thrift Shop, or to storage. And I have given things up, or replaced things, like highlighters, and pens, and kitchen utensils before completely using up my non-plastic supply. All in an attempt to accelerate my transition to a NoPlasticAtAll existence. But, it’s gonna take a couple of years to get there.
In retrospect, this is a smart rule for anyone attempting to make such a big change in their life. It’s made the transition more bearable. If I had had to shop for non-plastic alternatives for ALL MY STUFF during the first couple of weeks, I’d have given up on this resolution way back in January.Most of you are familiar with my plastic shrine which includes ALL the new plastic I’ve let into my life during 2007 which is now ready to be trashed or recycled. But I have a second plastic shrine, which graced these pages for the first time in January’s PROGRESS REPORT and will again in December’s PROGRESS REPORT. It includes all the plastic I had on hand as of Dec 31, 2006 which I have continued to use, and which is now ready to be trashed or recycled. I’m keeping it so at year end we can all get a good comparison of how much I’ve been able to reduce my consumption during 2007, in comparison to 2006. It’s not an exact comparison…but it’s still a good one.
Original Rule #4: CRUELTY-FREE takes precedence over plastic-free. If alternative products contain animal byproducts or have been tested on animals I'll choose the cruelty-free option over plastic-free. For example, since I don't wear leather, I'll always choose plastic 'man-made material' shoes over leather.
- Clarification: Shoes are an exemption. And it’s not because I’m one of those women who lives for shoes, which I’m not. It’s just that I knew I wasn’t going to find plastic-free shoes and I absolutely refuse to wear dead animals.
So I think that pretty much covers it. Let me know if you’ve got any questions and if you think I’m UberExtreme, or UberEasy on myself.
54 comments. Read or write:
I think it's great that you are saving the plastic waste from stuff you bought before January 1 because it's good for us to see not only how much your purchasing has changed but also what you've actually been able to make do with this year.
I do think you're hard on yourself as far as not buying used plastic or recycled plastic. The more plastic you buy that's used or recycled, the more you keep out of the landfill. Although, if your point is to show just how much plastic we rely on, then I guess I understand why you made this rule.
I like that you did not just get rid of your plastic stuff and replace it with non-plastic right away. I'm afraid that if we don't stress the importance of using the plastic we already have, some folks will do just that. What a waste.
I'd like a little clarification about the difference between biodegradable plastic and compostable. When you say you can't buy biodegradable plastic, do you mean petro-plastic that has bio material added so that it will break down into little pieces of petro-plastic? That stuff is evil. Or are you talking about something else?
When this year is over, what plastic do you think you'll allow back into your life? What do you miss the most?
This is very informative and inspirational challenge you have here. I am trying to reduce my plastic. I did buy a reusable plastic water bottle recently to replace buying bottled water. I know there are some all metal bottles but they were quite pricey. I have them on my Christmas list tho. Yesterday I was at a workshop where they used the cardboard 3 ring binder. That was really cool to see! Here is the link for that product.
www.sustainablegroup.net/rebinder.html
Right now I am looking into buying bar shampoo. I am just about out of shampoo and my shower is littered with plastic. I think this one purchase is where I will go plastic free next.
I'm glad you mentioned shoes-I was wondering about that.
Ive only recently found out about you, and Ive read some but not all of your past posts-eventually, I'll be read the whole thing. I think its amazing what you are doing-As well as Beth in the fish tank.
Right now food is my biggest plastic problem-weirdly enough. I live WAAAAAY out in the boonies and don't have access to a Co-op, Whole Foods, etc. I'm a couple of hours from any place that will let you re-use your own packaging. When I do shop I buy LOTS o stuff, (to cut down on car trips) which means refrigeration/freezing which alas, seem to mean plastic. Wondering if anyone has any ideas?
I DO use cloth grocery bags. I try to pick boxed over canned or plastic and I compost the cardboard-another "hardship" no recycling here! I try to buy in bulk ASAP to cut down on packaging. I'd really like to hear more on what y'all are eating, and how your getting around grocery plastic. BTW, I have two teens and a dh, two dogs and a cat at home.
Thanks- Greenmom
hi beth in the fake plastic fish tank
Thanks for the great comment.
Only you, a fellow no-plastic pledger, could appreciate me keeping my plastic trash. I gotta admit, I felt like such a freak when I was moving 2 1/2 boxes of 2006-plastic trash that I didn't even get the movers to move it, I took it in my own car, along with TheBeast. Whacked, aren't I?
Regarding recycled and recylable plastics...I think alot of us lull ourselves into believing the marketers, and think we're making 'good' purchases, when we're not. Eventually ALL plastic ends up the a landfill. (It doesn't just get recycled into oblivion), and when it gets there...how many of hundreds of years will it take to degrade, if ever.
I agree, throwing or donating my current plastic would be a waste, and needless consumption of Mom's Earth resources. Even though I do donate stuff to the Thrift Shop, I wonder if I lull myself into thinking I'm doing a 'good' thing when I'm not. How much of the stuff I donate never gets taken home by someone else? Maybe the Thrift Shop is throwing it all out...so I think I'm doing good, when I'm not.
For clarification on biodegradable plastics versus compostable, see my post PLASTICS 1O1: GOOD WITCH, BAD WITCH
When 2007 ends...I think I'll recommit to the pledge for 2008. It will take a few years to transition to a competely plastic free home, and I'd like to get there. But I may allow myself nail polish (my freaky white toes really don't match my personal style), magazines and books, electrical appliances...oh, maybe paint...I'll have to get the dent in MyLitteCar fixed and I can't imagine not being able to do art for the rest of my life.
We'll just have to see on Dec 31 2007.
Thanks for reading beth! Thanks for commenting. And thanks for reducing plastic in your own life.
EnviroWoman
jane
Buy the bar shampoo and conditioners they have at LUSH. I use them and I really like them. They do the job, though they are really expensive.
Thanks for the tip on the new no-plastic binder. I haven't had to buy binders yet, but will eventually
Cheers, EnviroWoman
anonymous
Here's what I do for grocery shopping:
1. I use a wire shopping basket for small trips
2. I use cloth bags, like you do, for large trips
3. Except for grapes, I don't put produce in smaller plastic bags at all. This is just wasteful, and most stuff comes with its own protective skin, or gets washed when you get home.
4. For grapes and bulk food I reuse my own chinese take out boxes, kraft paper boxes, or even better, the brown paper mushroom bags you'll find in the produce aisle.
I've shopped this way for 9 months now, and have not brought even one plastic bag home when I shop.
I like what Costco does too - provide shoppers with reused cardboard boxes to pack your groceries in from buggy to car and car to door. That's smart. If I was shopping for a big family like yours, I'd probably go that route.
Cheers, EnviroWoman
Re shoes: I have got a pair of these which are made of rubber, hemp, and cotton. Perhaps not suitable for the office, but there are non-leather and non-plastic alternatives out there...
Hi there! This is the first time I've ever commented, but I've been following your travails for a while now and have been quite inspired--I was already cutting plastic out of my grocery shopping, but I hadn't yet spread it to the rest of my life. Well, I'm trying now, but the problem is that I'm traveling at the moment (I'm a student, studying abroad in Europe) and oh my gosh, it is so much harder while traveling! Not to mention being vegan. When you can't read ingredients, but you can recognize rice in a bag, sometimes you just have to buy rice in a bag. Anyway, the point is, I think what you're doing is wonderful and I plan on adopting it full time when I get home. I think your rules are perfect--just what you need. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I think perhaps even worse than plastic, my least favorite thing is waste, and therefore I agree that we cannot simply throw away things just to buy more (even if they're better) things.
some issues i find concerning are the fact that, for instance, if you were trying to avoid plastic bottles and instead got glass, a lot more energy might have gone into getting that glass to you, depending on where it's transporting from. the weight of glass is the problem. this makes me think that we need to just change the way we live--instead of drinking on the go, just sit down and have some tap water in a cup.
I have made some exceptions, not just for traveling, that I was wondering if you had any recommendations for. For one thing, birth control. I wish I didn't have to be on it, but I do. I really hope it wasn't tested on animals, but I think it was. And of course it's packaged a ton. So that's a major sin every single month. Aaaand of course I forget the other ones now, but I'm sure I'll post again with lots of questions, if you don't mind :) .
In conclusion to this novel, you are my hero for inspiring all these other people to do what some of us eco-freaks have been yelling about for a while.
Also, p.s. here's a tip for some readers who have trouble with grocery shopping--I take cloth napkins for the really small stuff that kind of needs a bag, like nuts and small fruit in the bulk section. just tie the tops, works perfectly.
I am surprised you can't find other chocolate not in plastic and am guessing maybe there are big differences in what is available in Canada vs US. At my health/bulk food store they have a huge selection of chocolate bars wrapped in foil and paper. My favorite is Sunspire dark chocolate and mint chip. I think it is even vegan. Do you have a health food store near you and have you checked out their chocolate supplies?
Jessica at Bwlchyrhyd
Cool shoes. I'm always skeptical of the 'rubber' because synthetic rubber is actually plastic. At least according to Wikipedia.
I bet they are great for working in your yard though.
Cheers
EnviroWoman
Hello Hayley
What a wonderful post for a first time commenter. Bravo.
Thanks for the tip on using napkins in the grocery store. One thing I'm discovering with my mushroom bags and my chinese food containers is that it makes it hard on the checkout person, because they have to open and check the contents of your bundles to make sure you're not putting bogus bulk bin numbers on your containers. It's not that EnviroWoman looks like a thief....but I can see if more people followed in EnviroWoman's footsteps the unscrupulous types would use it as a way to rip the stores off. I've been hunting for some gossamer type material I've seen used for tea bags which I thought would be more see-through so store clerks could obviously see EnviroWoman is TrueBlueHonest....but it looks like its made of nylon so its a no go. Although someone did mention silk organza. Uberexpensive I hear.
You are right, travelling plastic-free is really tough. I find it hard to be outside my home range and still be ever vigilant of plastic. For the most part it means you can't eat on planes, or use the toiletries in hotel rooms, or partake of the minibar. But after one trip abroad I got myself down to a system,learned to be better prepared and bring my own food and toiletries.
As for birth control, that is a tough one. I am snipped. I have used IUDs many years back, but they are made of plastic, and after reading about bisphenol A and the like, I don't think I'd want plastic inside my body leeching crap out into my bod anymore. Birth control pills are definitely not cruelty-free and you are right, come with super duper plastic packaging..but it's important to be a responsible breeder. So you get kudos for that.
Feel free to continue to ask questions.
Cheers
EnviroWoman
Hi Cindy in fl
EnviroWoman is not very experimental. So I stick with the chocolate I know I like which comes in paper/foil packaging. I tried a swiss chocolate a couple of months back, which came in a cardboard box, only to discover it had one of those plasticy type paper wrappings inside. Nuts.
So now, I stick with my Cadbury.
Besides, although a chocoholic to the core, I'm picky too. I feel incredibly dissapointed when i shell out for an expensive organic vegan chocolate bar only to find it doesn't taste that great.
Eeeks...it's like EnviroWoman is a chocolate SNOB.
Cheers
EnviroWoman
For a translucent, light-weight, reusable material, you could always use a light cheesecloth, If you felt particularly ambitious you could even sew a string or ribbon around the edge of a piece so that you can cinch it closed. The nice think about it would be that you could still use it for its proper function of straining things and then wash it and continue using it for a bag.
I think I'll have to whip out the sewing kit and experiment at home!
I know this isn't a comment about the blog, but can envirowoman help me pick the most envirofriendly food wrap? I want to replace the use of plastic cling wrap with something else....but isn't aluminum foil bad too? And what's the deal with wax paper? Isn't it unrecyclable? Can anyone help me?
Emily -- my personal rankings:
1st choice: glass "refrigerator ware" with lids or other glass jars with lids
2nd choice: plastic tupperware -- yes it's plastic but you can buy it used at the thrift store and reuse indefinitely
3rd choice: wax paper -- I toss it in the kindling pile when I'm done with it (assuming it is only paper with a wax coating)
Emily, I know they're plastic, but I wrap food in reused plastic grocery bags. I have a ton of them and even wrote about them today. Containers are great for most things, but they don't take the place of plastic wrap in the way that plastic grocery bags can.
Of course, you should not take new plastic grocery bags from the store for this purpose, only bags that you already have at home or bags that you gather from other people. In other words, bags that would otherwise end up in the landfill.
EnviroWoman, I didn't start until June, but I already have a huge bag of plastic saved up. Do you think one day there will be a way to recycle all of it or are we doomed to carry it with us for the rest of our lives? :-)
Beth
Hi, I waitress in a small restaurant, but even in the smallest of restaurants, you would not believe the incredible amounts of wastes by owners and customers. Just wondering if you have any suggestions for me. Thanks amanda
With kids, there seems to be extra challenges (at least that's my excuse). For example, mine love rice cakes. I pack it for them to have for lunch or snack. But rice cakes come in two plastic bags. The outter one is sturdy, so I use it while walking our dog. It's still a plastic bag bought and thrown away. Then there is the inner flimsy one. Sigh, and there is cereal, crackers, etc. Do I have to ditch all ready made food. I am actually considering baking my own crackers as soon as I can find some good recipes.
Hi! I just came to this page by an article in the Magazine from the Swedish Environmental protection Organization (which sends its magazine to me by air mail to Bolivia... not very environmental)
I haven¡t read all comments but I would like to remind you of the possibility to borrow books and read magazines at your local library. I did this for the last five years (thanks to an economic slump after I had my first child and stayed at hom for ten months), also encouraging book swaps and a small library at my office. We are a group of Swedes that share the subscription of a magazine which we circulate.
Good luck and keep up the good work
EnviroWoman, you are a star!
I have been aiming at ridding our lives of plastic since I noticed that everywhere on the frickin' planet there are plastic bags floating in, tangling up, and marring the landscape... and since I saw the documentary Blue Vinyl. We started by buying one box of ziplocs and trying to make them last for one year, and it has been a year and a half. The shoes have been an issue, as I'm more opposed to plastic consumption than animal byproducts... but even leather shoes have rubber soles, etc.
Anyway, the main reason for this post is that I work at a green building supply store, and just wanted to point out (in response to an earlier update) that there are completely natural paints out there that do not have any synthetic materials in them (Aglaia, Bioshield) as well as a clay for your walls (American Clay)... so it doesn't mean an end to your art! (side note: some of the Aglaia products do contain beeswax and/or animal oils, but they have a full ingredient disclosure on each one).
There are other plastic-free building materials out there, and I am happy to help when you start your remodel... I look forward to checking back in on your progress!
I am so inspired by what you are doing - you are really making a difference!
oops - forgot one thing... check this artist's exhibit - a really disturbing but brilliant depiction of the waste we create:
http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7
p.s. I'm with you on the Cadbury - took the factory tour in New Zealand...
Envirowoman,
I was so excited to find a product I think you might be interested in that I came straight here to tell you about it. I was looking for lunch boxes on Reusablebags.com and came across organic cotton net produce sacks. You can see into them and they have no plastic. They also have cotton bags with draw strings to hold bulk grains and beans, but you can't see into them.
If you go to the site, there is a menu on the left. Go down to materials and click on organic cotton. Scroll down till you see the bags.
Hope this was useful to you or someone else reading this.
I can see why you want to reuse plastic that you already have. I guess my question is are you more concerned with waste or possible health effects? Because when I look at the whole situation I am baffled by both the eternity and enormity of plastic waste PLUS the evidence of ALL types of plastics leaching (and as you well know that plastics are EVERYWHERE--food, water, clothes, homes, you name it). With that being said, with all your valient efforts, doesn't some of the plastic you own already piss you off? I know theres no good solution to this...I just wanted to note that the other people who store food in tupperware or plastic bags- I would stick with non-plastic alternatives, especially where food is concerned. This all being said, I need to make some changes in my household! Alas, like hayley, I too am going to be on traveling adventures and it seems as though plastic is following me around the world....
i feel your pain with the shoes. to assuage my plastic/leather guilt, i usually buy gently-used shoes on ebay or in resale stores. you get a few duds with ebay, but you do with new shoes, too.
Envirowoman, thanks so much for your inspirational blog. I've been thinking seriously about reducing the amount of plastic I consume for a long time, but starting really doing it just last week. I've only been to the grocery store once, but even that was daunting. I feel like I either have to buy fresh or not at all. Still, it went okay and I didn't really buy too much plastic and I think I'll be able buy even fewer plastic packaged products next time. I suppose the only thing I won't be able to get rid is the plastic pour spout on the glass bottled milk I buy. Still, I think that's okay for now. Anyways, I started a blog about my anti-plastic mission, which you can view at http://lifelessplastic.blogspot.com. Thanks again for your blog!
Hello! I think what you're doing is great. While I can't go whole-hog the way you have, it has certainly made me look for different options for some of the things we buy. One good source for ideas I found is Eco-Products
(http://www.ecoproducts.com/), which carries biodegradable alternatives for plastic business supplies and food service gear, green building materials and recycled plastic lumber. I ordered little cups with lids from them, to replace the pre-made cups of fruit, pudding and jello that go in my children's lunches. (I can't find little reusable ones that we're happy with.)
Keep it up! We're proud of you!
Just a reminder that real rubber and fake rubber are TOTALLY different things. Real rubber is a sustainable rainforest product... when farmed and harvested in local sustainable ways, it's use is up there with real cork in actually PRESERVING the environment! So buying a shoe made with rubber from the right place can make a positive impact.
Now, of course, fake rubber is just the opposite...
In general, the real stuff says "genuine rubber" or "pure natural rubber" on the soles or in the description. Plus, any good manufacturer or purveyor of such goods should be able to tell you the origin of their rubber, so you can make sure it is not from a huge plantation, and is instead from a small farmer or other group creating a sustainable rain forest harvest!
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I just found your site last night and was telling my DH about it this morning at the breakfast table. My five-year-old overheard and said, "No, Mama, you have to touch plastic! A lot of my toys are plastic." Precisely, dear Watson, that is the problem. I just started blogging last month about organics and healthy living from a Mom's perspective, but I'm touching on the encroachment of Cheap Plastic Crap into playrooms and landfills across the country. I can tell you that having children is sobering...the diaper issue is just the tip of the iceberg. Kids are given so much Cheap Plastic Crap it is mind boggling.
Everything is plastic...and we need more alternatives. My son needs a new lunchbox and I explained that in the "olden days" when I was a kid, we took paper bags to school each day and it was better for Mother Earth. No dice. He wants a SuperHero lunchbox, which (so far) I've been unable to find in an environmentally sustainable format. All the eco-friendly lunchboxes I've found are cute, but they don't appeal to little boys.
Anyway, I'm going to add your great blog to my blogroll and look forward to learning and being inspired by your battles with plastic.
Hi Envirowoman,
I've been reading your blog for quite a while but never posted a comment. Haven't seen any new posts in a while so I figured I'd see how things were going. By the way, I too try to live as plastic free as possible, but not doing as good a job as you! Congrats.
Also... a little note for HAYLEY, who posted here a while ago about birth control. I have definitely thought about family planning methods and how there is so much packaging involved in condoms and birth control, etc. Not to mention, I just feel weird taking hormones. There's another option that not many people do these days... diaphragms and cervical caps. Although its hard to get a diaphragm fitted around here, there are more modern options like Lea's Shield and FemCap. Yeah, they are made out of silicone, but They are washable and reusable for years so it's the best option I've found so far... better than buying individually wrapped, one time use condoms or birth control pills. Anyway, we combine this with natural birth control (watching your cycle for infertile periods), just in case. Hope that gives you some more ideas!
hey,
I have really loved reading your blog, but haven't seen any posts for a long time... Is everything ok? How's living plastic free going? How was Thanksgiving?
Peace.
Wondering if everything is ok? There hasnt been a post in months... does anyone know?
Dear Envirowoman,
I'm hoping you will give a summary of your plastic free year before the year is over.... Look forward to a post, hopefully soon!
Looks like this blog is dead...
R.I.P.
Gostei muito desse post e seu blog é muito interessante, vou passar por aqui sempre =) Depois dá uma passada lá no meu site, que é sobre o CresceNet, espero que goste. O endereço dele é http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . Um abraço.
okay i am quite sad that this hasn't updated.. i'm going through withdrawal! maybe i will turn my unused blog into an EnviroWoman Addicts Recovery blog.. because I still had a lot of questions that maybe other people could help me out with...
Are you still looking for a non-plastic toothbrush? Because I use a wooden one with horsehair bristles at www.fcsutler.com/fchavers.asp. Removing horsehair from a horse is not cruel (they do not have nerves on the ends of their hair like we do) so it is cruelty free. Hope this is helpful!
I just found your blog, it was a great read! On the subject of sticky labels a while back i found a british labels company who printed me some sticky labels for a really low price. If interested then it may be worth taking a look at their website as they did many types of label printing.
I'm intrigued about the binders. As a student, I need to keep those papers organized somehow, and I find that using binder rings allows for a lot of paper crinkling and destruction. Have you found a good alternative?
i realize that this blog here is a little older, and i understand your no plastic pledge, but since you say shoes are exempt from the rules, there are more eco-friendly shoes out there, "adbusters" blackspots for one.. are made "sweat shop free" organic hemp, and refurbished rubber tires and the soles.. the only real plastic in the little end bit on the the shoe laces..
:)
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