PROGRESS REPORT: January

I’ve finished my first month living plastic free in 2007. Wow, what a difference a New Year's resolution can make. Check out this picture of my plastic shrine.

• On the left, is ‘2007’ (new plastic I’ve let into my life in 2007 that’s now ready for recycling/trash). Doesn't include the plastic recyclng bin


• On the right is ‘2006’ (plastic I had in my life as of Dec 31 2006, have finished using, and that’s now ready for recycling/trash. (One of my rules is I can continue to use or re-use any plastic in my possession as of Dec 31 2006 as it would be hugely wasteful to throw all that stuff out.)

Dramatic difference isn’t there?

I started (fanatically) keeping 2006 plastic around January 11th so I could do benchmark comparison to 2007 consumption. I know it's NOT A TRUE REPRESENTATION of 2006 plastic use, because 95% of the plastic bought that year has already been recycled/trashed. But at least it offers some level of comparison.

So here's what I’ve learned so far. Plastic is pretty insidious. Pretty ‘unconscious’ for most of us. It’s everywhere. In clothes. In cleaning supplies. In packaging. In almost all things associated with ‘convenience’. It’s practically impossible to avoid.

I haven't been able to live 100% plastic-free, but all in all – I’m proud of how much of it I’ve avoided, and thereby reduced my non-biodegradable-garbage-footprint on Mother Earth.

There have been also huge differences in how I shop and what I eat.

Less:

• Junk food (well, actually….no junk food. I’m eating nuts now instead of crackers and chips. Be proud Jenny, be very, very proud)
• Pre-packaged convenience foods
• Garbage
• Plastic bags (not one has entered the abode since January. The ‘tribble effect’ has been stopped)
• Clean dishes (I still haven’t found a good substitute for dishwashing liquid)
• Protein (this vegetarian sees ‘protein deficiency’ in her future since discovering all store-bought meat substitutes are packaged in plastic — so are off limits for 2007)
• Frozen food (except for spinach, most use plastic in the packaging)

More:

• Fresh produce (way more)
• Home cooking (be proud Martha, be very, very proud)
• Body odour/sweating (still haven’t found an adequate non-plastic deodorant/anti-perspirant. Who knew this was going to be the biggest plastic-bug-a-boo to date)
• Shopping (I spend Saturday’s SAINT hunting. I sure hope this won’t last long. I hate shopping)
• Supporting smaller, local businesses

No impact:

• Chocolate consumption (Phew), especially since I discovered the Cadbury Fruit ‘n Nut motherlode at a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart. Big 200g bars wrapped in paper rather than plastic (a dying breed of packaging in cocoa-bean-heaven). I've got 2 kilograms stashed in the fridge.

And here, my sweets, just to keep me honest, is an account of my SINs for the month of January.

MINOR SINS for January 2007

See bottom of page for definition of a MINOR SIN.

• 3 labels: 2 on Greens & Black’s chocolate, 3 on LUSH deodorant (its iffy as to if these are paper, or plastic, but just to be safe, I’m calling ‘em plastic
• Attached to clothing (told ya it was insidious)
• 5 small plastic zip bags for extra buttons attached to jackets
• 4 zippers
• 16 buttons
• 14 T-shaped bits of plastic that attach the price tag (what are these little things called anyhoo)
• 1 cello wrap around brown sugar cubes
• 2 tampon wrappers (close your eyes boys. Ladies, I'm talking the ones with minimal plastic wrapping)

MAJOR SINs for January 2007

See bottom of page for definition of a MAJOR SIN.

• Fresh Spring deodorant (A)

Challenges Ahead:

As current supplies are dwindling I’m starting to hunt for the following non-plastic/packaged items:

• Toilet paper (looking for janitorial supply wholesaler willing to sell retail)
• Face/eye cream
• Nylons
• Tylenol
• Toothbrush

If you have any suggestions where I can find these items, please post a comment.

Plastic-free: Airplane Food

I was 35,000 feet above sea level. The flight attendant was wheeling the ‘onboard café’ down the aisle and I was starving. She might as well have been peddling crack cocaine. ‘Cuz this woman was dealing in plastic. And I’ve gone plastic-cold-turkey in 2007.

The little pretzels, the cookies, the sandwiches, even the water. All packaged in plastic. The pizza was a maybe, but I wasn’t going to chance it. If I went all trippy and succumbed to its ‘potential no-plastic’ lure and then discovered it indeed had plastic inside that cardboard box – well I’d fall off my no-plastic bandwagon and have to go into rehab.

Fortunately I had come prepared. Or so I thought. I had packed my own nibblies and a can of Dr. Pepper to keep the in-flight munchies at bay.

The Dr. Pepper proved to be a tactical mistake. Metal+Liquid=Confiscated by Security. Yup, there was a cola intervention. SecurityGuy was nice enough to compromise…‘You can drink it now, or throw it away’. EnviroWoman doesn’t like to waste the earth’s resources, so I guzzle-mainlined it so I could to still make my flight.

That also proved to be a tactical mistake. The flight was 5 hours long. Too long for even EnviroWoman’s patient bladder.

It was a bad-karma day, alrighty. Or perhaps my etch-a-sketch wasn’t operating with all its knobs. Because although I had embodied the boy-scout ‘be prepared’ rule when it came to food, I had totally brain-farted on the toiletries issue. It was during the cab ride to the airport when it drifted into my frontal lobe that I had not brought shampoo, conditioner, or soap. I always use what the hotel supplies. Alas…hotels usually package these wee essentials in the evil plastic.

Not good. Not good at all. Cleanliness is next to godliness. And it’s so not good to upset my morning ritual. Especially when travelling. When I do, it kinda feels like I'm camping. My eyes feel all puffy and weepy. My hair feels all dishevelled and bedeviled. And the day…the day just goes off-kilter.

Who knew you’d have to ‘rough it’ at the Hilton Hotel. (and I won't even talk about the mini-bar)

Okay – this is totally off topic. Well kinda. I had never noticed this before - but the airline I was on appeared to have no recycling program onboard. 200 people locked in a plane for 5 hours, and all that trash they generate (which, whoa! was a lot!) gets chucked out. Why don’t airlines have inflight recycling programs?

Lessons learned:

• Dib Dib Dib. Always Be Prepared if you want to get your No-Plastic Badge
• Having numerous diplomas hanging on the wall doesn’t preclude people from doing something Dr. Pepper-stupid.

MAJOR SIN #1

EnviroWoman has committed her first MAJOR SIN since pledging to live plastic-free in 2007.

A MAJOR SIN is when EnviroWoman falls right offa the bandwagon and buys or uses new plastic, flagrantly throwing her morals to the wind (and kyboshing her 'no-new plastic' New Year’s resolution)...thereby putting the future of Mother Earth in jeopardy.

A MAJOR SIN may occur when a cruelty-free (first priority), non-plastic (second priority) replacement cannot be found in EnviroWoman’s realm. Or it may occur because the allure of the pretty plastic thingy reduces EnviroWoman’s will power to that of a lima bean.

If you've been following her tirades, you know EnviroWoman’s faithful deodorant went all kamikaze on her and met its demise on the bathroom floor in early January. This caused EnviroWoman to begin her first ‘no-plastic’ quest of the year to find an eco-friendly replacement. She scored big time, gleefully discovering a completely plastic free deodorant at LUSH.

Well, the sad news is….the stuff was crap. There were several mornings when, by 11:00 a.m. EnviroWoman was beginning to waft a certain je ne sais quoi. Entirely inappropriate for the hallowed halls of CorporateCanada where body odour equates career suicide.

EnviroWoman took drastic measures. She spent some net-time researching alternatives: home-made concoctions (hmm, same ingredients as LUSH’s, therefore ineffective), earth-friendly/organic/all natural… and even new-age spooky crystals. Alas, all those that held promise dashed her hopes by being packaged in plastic. Even all the ‘never heard of ‘em before’ brands carried at the organic-granola-shopping mecca here in LaLaLand – Capers.

She was nearly zombie-tempted to buy her fav, Dove Clear Essentials, which steadfastly held her pits at bay for all of 2006. But then she came to the horrifying discovery that Dove’s plastic packaging isn’t even recyclable. So, EnviroWoman resorted to purchasing Nature’s Gate Spring Fresh Deodorant. Completely cruelty-free, biodegradable, and supposedly effective (well, she and her fellow CorporateCanadians will see about that).

Alas, her choice is packaged in a big chunk of white plastic – but at least it’s a grade 5 recyclable big chunk of white plastic.

In a true air of superiority that her Cruelty-free Chromosome gives her, EnviroWoman actually thought it would take her months and months before she committed her first major sin. It is nice to know she is mortal like the rest of us.

EnviroWoman, you’re just a jello-spined sanctimonious hypocrite. A legend in your own ego. Just 3 weeks outta the gate and you commit your first MAJOR SIN. What kind of a role model are you, anyhoo?

Your stock is really plummeting, chickie. If I was you, I'd be jumping on the guiltapalooza.

Plastic free: Pasta

There is not a single italian allele in my chromosome map, but still I love pasta. I wish I could say “I’m an athlete and need it to power up”. Alas, the reality is, “I’m an EnviroWoman and just love a good chow down.” Here’s another reality – I’m only 3 weeks into this ‘no plastic’ New Year’s Resolution and I gotta confess — all the plastic in grocery-land is really starting to grate my cheese. Here it is again, rampant in the pasta aisle. The good news — at least I find a few SAINTS. The bad news — there’s something akin to the Madonna/Whore factor goin’ on here.

The SAINTs (Catelli, Splendor, and Safeway house-brand) offer big boxes of plain-jane macaroni and spaghetti with absolutely no ‘hey baby, let me show you what you’re gettin’ plastic packaging. Makes sense — everyone knows what spaghetti and macaroni look like.

But EnviroWoman ain’t lookin’ for plain-jane. No. Nada. Not moi. I want gourmet and specialty BUT plastic-free.

But in the pasta aisle gourmet and specialty have an unholy trinity with plastic. And here’s where the Madonna/Whore factor kicks in — SAINT Catelli and SAINT Safeway are also major SINNERs — using 100% plastic packaging to flagrantly expose their egg noodles, rotini, penne, and other varieties for all the world to see. Yeah, I know, there’s a little SAINT and SINNER in all of us, but folks, ya better get on your knees and say 5 HailMotherEarths to make up for your non-biodegradable transgressions.

Minor kudo-credits to both Primo and Catelli. Though SINNERs, they do minimize the use of plastic to small peek-a-boo windows within their cardboard boxes (just enough to hint and tease, not enough to expose it all). MotherEarth and EnviroWoman thank you — but you could still do better.

I mean, do we really need a window into the soul of a pasta box? In the cracker aisle you’re expected to ‘pick me, pick me’ solely based on a picture on the box. You must have blind faith that ‘what you see on the outside is gonna be what you get on the inside.’ And you know….it works….so, why not on the pasta aisle? YachtingMan and EnviroWoman waxed philosophically about this and concluded that if crackers were 100% packaged in plastic you’d see all the broken cracker bits. We guess blind faith sells more than harsh reality.

Just to punish myself, I head over to the fresh gourmet pasta section (in a former life EnviroWoman must have been an Opus Dei monk). As I expect, all 100% plastic packaging. All 100% off-limits for 2007.

I fight the urge to settle for plain-jane pasta and head on over to my local ‘fresh gourmet pasta’ shop. I drop over $17 for a mere 700g of mezzaluna and agnolotti (that’s $2.55 for just 100g or $11.50 a pound). Mama mia! Those sure are pricey carbs! At least PastaGirl was nice enough to use a cardboard box for packaging.

But does being eco-friendly always have to go hand in hand with eco-expensive? I head on over to the mecca of fresh eating here in LaLaLand — the Granville Island Public Market — and check out Zara’s Deli to test the hypothesis. Let’s see…it’s $1.49 per 100g (~$6.75 a pound). Better, but still way more expensive than the $13 I’d spend at Costco for 1500g of plastic-packaged Olivieri rainbox pasta (about $4/pound, that's cheap, but alas, a SINNER).

Hmmm, plain-jane-pasta isn’t looking so bad after all.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Pasta
SAINT: Any fresh pasta available through your local deli. Catelli, Splendor and Aime’s Home Grown dried macaroni or spaghetti in large 1-2kg sized boxes
Convenience: 5/10 (if you want fancy and fresh you gotta
trek to your local deli)
Price: Cheap like...well spaghetti...for the boxed dried stuff to Mama-Mia-expensive for the local fresh deli varieties
Quality: The same
SINNER: Safeway Select Verdi brand, Olivieri, Nature’s, Organics, Tinkyada, Granoro, Scarpone’s, Mrs. Leepers, Wacky Mac, Duso’s.

Lessons Learned:

• Choosing a plastic-free lifestyle may force you to get in-touch with your ‘inner-plain-jane’.
• Eco-friendly goes hand in hand with eco-expensive. But after all is said and done, eco-warriors must sometimes throw themselves on their eco-sword-wallets for the greater good of the eco-planet. There sure better be an eco-heaven.

Plastic Free: Crackers

You may be thinking ‘Wow, this EnviroWoman is a hardcore GRANOLA-type’. The sad reality is — I’m more of a RiceCakeChick. There’s nothing better to satisfy the munchies (and I mean that so TOTALLY NOT the way you think) then Quaker Butter Popcorn Rice Cakes. But, maybe I’ll have to resort to granola after all, ‘cuz it ain't looking plastic-pretty in the cracker aisle.

Now, I’m not a big cracker consumer. My wee cerebral capillaries take exception to anything laced with MSG and most crackers are smack-full of the stuff. But Breton’s (Originals only), all Stoned Wheat Thins and Quaker’s Butter Popcorn (YUM!)/Caramel Chip/and Chocolate Chip Rice Cakes make it through my internal MSG-screen. So do the rice cakes produced under the Safeway label, but they’re just TOO, TOO boring — even for me.

Stroll down the cracker aisle and things are pretty deceptive. Most crackers look innocent enough in their ‘come-hither’ cardboard boxes. But you can’t fool EnviroWoman, I know there’s plastic packaging lurking deep inside. Now if memory serves me, some (like Triscuits) have more of a waxy paper bag inside — gotta do some research to see if, in fact, it’s plastic coated.

Here’s the grim truth: ALL rice cakes and most crackers don’t make it through my no-new-plastic screen. This means, not a single Butter Popcorn Rice Cake is gonna pass these luscious lips o’ mine in 2007. Poop.

And here’s an even harsher reality — the only plastic-free edible in the cracker aisle are Wasa Crispbreads (Yeah, I know, I’m using the term ‘edible’ REALLY, REALLY loosely here.) You know the ones I’m talking about — looks like a healthy cracker wafer, tastes like cardboard.

Let’s see, today is January the 12th, and I’m on my third package of these little suckers and all I can say is …..I CAN’T GET NO SATISFICATION.

Now, I’m okay with getting all domestic-goddess and making my own tofu burgers, but I bet even Martha doesn’t make her own crackers.

So I’m counting on YOU!

If you know of any munchie-satisfying cracker sans plastic packaging, please post a comment below. Please. I’M BEGGING YOU.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Crackers & Rice Cakes

SAINT: WASA Crispbread

Price: Comparable

Quality: Sub-par

SINNER: CHRISTIE Cheesebits/Premium Plus Crackers/Wheat
Thins/Veggie Thins/Rice Thins/Triscuits (maybe)/Toppables/Ritz/Sociables/Sour Cream & Chives/French Onion/Crispers/Ritz bits, QUAKER Crispy Thins/Crispers/Tortillas/all Rice Cakes, SAFEWAY Rice Chips/Rice Cakes/Select Thin Wheat/Vegetable/Orginal/Salted Crackers/Water Crackers/Salted Crackers/Classic Snack Crackers, RED OVAL Stoned Wheat Thins, BRETON Garden Vegetable/Reduced Fat/Original/Sesame/Petite Minis, DARE Vinta/Grain First, CARRS Poppy & Sesame/Garlic & Herb/Table Wafer, GRISSOL Baguettes/Melba Toast

Lessons Learned:

• Cracker boxes are a lot like people, one must look beyond the outer packaging, because it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Ooo, how zen.
• Sometimes it’s better to just say ‘Nope, I think I’ll pass’ instead of lowering your standards and accepting a sub-par alternative. This is true of crackers…and potential mates.
• Money talks. Chocolate Sings. Wasa sucks.

Plastic free: Meat Substitutes

There I was, standing like a deer staring-into-the-crosshairs, thinking “GO AHEAD, Just PULL THE TRIGGER and PUT ME OUT OF MY MISERY”. At that moment I think I could feel all my B-vitamins bleeding right out onto the floor of Safeway’s produce aisle.

It was my first grocery shopping trip since going ‘plastic-free’ and EnviroWoman was on a primal hunt for protein. As a strict vegetarian that meant the prey were unsuspecting Simulated Chick’n Nuggets and Tofu Dogs. Poor simulated beasts.

The Veggie Patch package was already in the crosshairs of my scope when what to my wondering eyes should appear…could it be…Noooooo!…IT WAS!…plastic. HOLY CRAP. There’s plastic everywhere!

In fact, they are ALL packaged in plastic. They are ALL SINNERs. The whole dang herd. Not a SAINT in sight.

“Stay calm, EnviroWoman. THINK! Hmmmm. AH HA! I can get all Martha Stewart and make my own veggie burgers using tofu!” I set my sights on the forest of soy protein. “SHOOT! Plastic, plastic, everywhere.”

The situation was hopeless.

How could the Powers That Be do this to me! It’s bad enough I have the EnviroWoman curse! It’s bad enough I am the only person I know born with the Cruelty-Free Chromosome. But this…this is just too, too inhumane.

I must choose between killing animals or killing the planet.

Well, I refuse to choose. I recognize this is just the Powers That Be testing me. After all, it was January 7th, and 95% of the population had already broken their New Year’s resolutions. But not Envirowoman.

I spend the next two hours trekking my realm hunting for fresh, unpackaged tofu. Then….victory!

The homemade Tofu burgers are fryin’ up on the grill as I write this. Be proud Martha, be very, very proud.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Meat Substitutes

SAINT: Sunrise Foods (fresh unpackaged tofu sold by the gram at my local organic food store)

Convenience: 3/10 (ya gotta cook plus only available in ‘firm’ texture)

Price: Comparable to packaged tofu, price of homemade vs. conveniently prepacked TBD

Quality: The same

SINNER: Sunrise Foods (all packaged tofu), and all products from the following: Yves Veggie Cuisine, Veggie Patch, SoyOrganic, Pete’s Tofu, Superior, Galaxy Nutritional Foods, Mandarin Soy Foods, and Mountain Foods. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Folks, after all these years of product loyalty, you’ve really let me down.

Lessons Learned:

Like chocolate, MEAT SUBSTITUTES have an unholy union with PLASTIC, mankind’s plague on the planet
• It is rarely possible to achieve the Goldilocks nirvana of ‘just right’.
• In life, it is important to recognize the difference between situations where your resolve is being tested by the Powers That Be (don’t give up), versus situations that are utterly hopeless (give up).
• Choosing a plastic-free lifestyle will force you to get more in-touch with your ‘inner-Martha'.

Plastic free: Shopping Bags

Food reserves were getting perilously low. It was time to embark on my first grocery shopping adventure since pledging to not let any new plastic into my life as of January 1st. But what would I put my groceries in?

Using plastic grocery bags is probably as unconscious to you as blinking.

It used to be to EnviroWoman, too. But no more.

Long ago, I used to often feel overwhelmed by all the plastic bags that would accumulate in my personal recycling bins. I’d take them back to the grocery store for recycling, but they just kept following me home. Plus, they were like Tribbles from the original Star Trek…they appeared to have the capacity to asexually reproduce exponentially.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. So after many months of searching, I happened upon a wire shopping basket at Motiv for $25. I’ve been using it ever since. It’s a bit heavy, and I wish it had foam covering the handles so it didn’t dig into your arm. But those are small prices to pay for reducing non-biodegradable garbage.

For larger shopping trips there’s always paper or cloth bags — more earth-friendly alternatives to plastic.

Right now I’m on the hunt for biodegradable shopping bags so watch for future updates. And if you know of a source, please post a comment.

Here's a GREAT video: PLASTIC PLANET: THE CURSE OF THE CARRIER BAG

And here’s a great blog with news of campaigns around the world to eliminate single use plastic bags.

Plastic-free: Chocolate

Hello my name is EnviroWoman and I’m a chocoholic. Proud of it too. But will my resolution to let no new plastic into my life jettison my cocoa-dependent-endorphins down a deep, dark well of despair? PreggoWoman and I wanted to find out so we took a bevvie-break and headed down to LottoMan’s world to check out his temple of chocolate worship. Oy vay! It doesn’t look good…

Chocolate, chocolate everywhere but look at all of those plastic wrappers!!! Crap. Had I known this I would have never thrown my gauntlet into this plastic challenge. And what about this packaging that looks like foil, but feels like plastic. Kinda like plastic-in-sheep’s-clothing. Hmmm, when in doubt, check it out. Add to the ‘research’ list. (Can you help solve this mystery for me? Is it plastic coated foil, or just plain foil?)

Here’s how things added up. Of 27 varieties of sugary, chocolately, morsels, only THREE (gasp) qualify as SAINTs. The other 24 are SINNERs (including the beloved Cadbury Fruit and Nut, Eatmore, and Big Turk bars).

Envirowoman doesn’t give up that easily. Noooooo. Noooooo. Noooooo. Afterall, if you asked me to choose between air and chocolate…I’d have to think about it.

I head over to London Drugs but am once again downtrodden. Because it’s here I realize that my absolute Fav-Fav-FAVORITE — Cadbury Mint and Cadbury Orange chocolate bars are wrapped in that suspicious foily packaging and will be off-limits for 2007. Crap. Crap. And double crap. (Cadbury used to have a Raspberry bar too, which was super-divine, but they removed it from their product line last year — the EnviroWoman curse strikes again)

I tell ya, I’ve got the luck of a bug heading for the windshield, because it was just months ago that Cadbury changed the packaging from a paper-foil-plus-paper-sleeve wrapper (which would have qualified it as a SAINT) to the plastic-foil hybrid. Probably more tamper-proof, longer lasting. But not earth-friendly at all.

Well, at least I found a few more SAINTs cradled on LD’s altar of chocolate worship.

Now my mission gathers momentum and becomes more of a personal quest for the holy chocolate grail.

So I head for sacred ground. (A bit manic about chocolate, aren’t I? I told you I was a chocoholic). 853 paces later I arrive at the purply gates of Purdy’s. Surely a quality chocolatier will be more earth-friendly. Dang-it! 95% off-limits. Raspberry Jellies — SINNER. Sweet Georgia Brown’s — SINNER. Todd Bars — SINNER. ALL that boxed chocolate with little golden plastic trays that lovingly cradle their heavenly tasty morsels — SINNERs.

The one saving grace (and it’s a big one) — I can buy a whole wonderful assortment of endorphin-spikers individually (let’s be real here, by the half-pound) — without any packaging. This includes my absolute favs — hard cherry caramels. All hope is not lost. Thank you PURDY’S.

Just for confirmation, I head over to Sen5es and Over the Moon Chocolates. And although both have their share of SINs, again, I find a whole assortment of ambrosial morsels, each sold individually. I hear a chorus of angels singing Hallelujah now.

All this is both good and bad:

• GOOD because theoretically I’ll be eating less chocolate and that’s gotta be good for the bod (I estimate about 73 pounds).


• BAD because my chocolate-induced 24/7 euphoria will probably evaporate like the morning dew.


• GOOD because now I have a legit reason to imbibe in expensive chocolate.


• BAD because Cadbury, Nestle and Hershey’s will probably see their revenues plummet to historical lows now that I'm buying less/none of their product.
  

So here’s how things add up:

• Category: Chocolate


• SAINT: PURDY’S, SEN5eS, OVER THE MOON, and any chocolatier who sells by the gram or pound, boxed packages of Smarties/Reese’s Pieces/Glossette Raisins or Peanuts or Almonds, Cadbury Cherries/Caramilk, Lowney’s Cherries, some varieties of LINDT boxed bars, Green & Blacks Organic, Botticelli, Toblerone in a box, Junior Mints


• Convenience: 3/10
  
• Price: Comparable to much more expensive, but well worth it


• Quality: Mediocre to downright heavenly


• SINNER: Cadbury Thins/Mr. Big/Fruit and Nut/Hazelnut Dairy Milk/Burnt Almond/Almond dairy/Dairy Milk/Mr. Big/Premium Dark Burnt Almond/Dairy Milk/Orange Dairy Milk/Mint Milk/Dairy Milk Bubbly/Crunchie/Sweet Marie/Wunderbar/Crispy Crunch/Wunderbar, Nestle Kit Kat/Coffee Crisp/Big Turk/Aero, Hershey’s Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups/Pieces/Smores/Eatmore/Oh Henry, Toberlone, M&Ms, Snickers, Mars, Ferrero Rochet, Rittor Sport, Purdy’s Sweet Georgia Browns/Raspberry Jelly/all packaged individual bars/all boxed candy….and many, many more. How sad.
  

Lessons Learned:

• This gift from the gods, CHOCOLATE has an unholy union with PLASTIC, mankind’s plague on the planet


• To avoid plastic, don’t buy your chocolate at convenience stores, instead support local small quality chocolatiers which allow you to purchase individual nuggets of pleasure by the pound or gram and avoid all packaging.


• The trend in chocolate packaging is headed away from relatively earth-friendly paper/foil wrappers, to more unfriendly plastic/foil hybrid wrappers.


• There’s a lot of excess packaging in chocolate land — especially in brands like Lindt and Ferrero Rochet — even Purdy’s. Buy responsibly.

Plastic free: Deodorant

It’s day 2 of living plastic free and my antiperspirant committed suicide this morning. As it leapt out of my hands and hurled itself towards the linoleum at warp speed I was thinking Where the frell am I gonna find a non-plastic substitute…how absolutely plebeian that anti-perspirant is going to be the first thing I’ll be blogging about…I wonder if there will be any leftover Xmas chocolate at work today….(sometimes my brain travels at warp speed too).

Fortunately, the SharWoman and I were Starbucking this weekend and discussing my imminent adventure into no-plastic land. Shampoo came up in conversation….and the name LUSH as a potential source.

Now I’m a LUSH virgin – always been a BodyShopWoman. Body Shop catered to my cruelty-free lifestyle long before anyone else. They get my loyalty for that. And ya gotta admire the guts, maverick-ness, and vision of Anita Roddick, it’s founder.

The Body Shop had a fabulous antiperspirant which I faithfully purchased (in bulk, as it was often sold out) for many years, until they removed it from their product line in 2006. Go figure. (It’s the EnviroWoman curse, products I LOVE get summarily dumped…Watch out Pepsi, your days could be numbered). Admittedly, even if it were still alive today, Body Shop's antiperspirant would be a SINNER in today's no-plastic land.

So today I ventured into LUSH land. They had 3 types of deodorants (impressive), two which were SAINTS, and one that was a SINNER. All cruelty-free. I tell ya, I nearly yelled BINGO. Containing myself, I chose the paper-wrapped Teo. Alas, looks like the label used for pricing may be plastic-based (a MINOR SIN). I’ll have to do some research on that.

Gotta love the LUSH. Making my first foray into no-plastic land a success. Of course, I have yet to test-drive Teo and see if it’s worth EnviroWoman’s allegiance. But for now here’s how things add up…

Category: Deodorant
SAINT: Teo by LUSH
Convenience: 10/10
Price: $7.95 CAN$
Comparable
Quality: TBD
SINNER:Dove, Ultimate Clear Cool Essentials

Jan 5 07 Followup:

Letter to Dove

To the good folks at Dove. Your Campaign for Real Beauty was great. Good enough, that when The Body Shop stopped producing its awesome deodorant (which I had been loyal to for years) I thought 'here's an opportunity for me to give Dove some of my business'. I tried your Dove Ultimate Clear Cool Essentials Antiperspirant and it definitely did the trick. Smelled good too.

Today, my Dove deodorant decided to commit suicide by leaping out of my hands and hurling itself towards the bathroom linoleum at warp speed. It met its demise.

Normally, I'd buy more of any product I was happy with. But in 2007, to reduce my environmental footprint, I've made a New Year's resolution not to purchase any products that are made of plastic or are packaged in plastic. So, my relationship with Dove deodorant has come to an end.

You've lost me to LUSH, who produces not only a plastic-free deodorant but also one that is cruelty-free with minimal paper packaging.

Today the cause du jour is global warming (as it should be) but it's just one symptom of mankind's disregard for the planet and of our irresponsible consumption and production. We have no right to pollute our planet with garbage that does not biodegrade.

Consumer demand is a powerful force. This consumer demands earth-friendly, cruelty-free products. Please let me know your progress on these fronts.

DOVES Response:

Thanks so much for writing!

We do apologize for your frustration with our packaging. The packaging staff designs the packages and containers to meet needs of both the product and the consumer for safety and convenience. Packages are regularly reevaluated, based on consumer commentary and preferences as well as business considerations.

We will certainly report your comments to the packaging staff. It is possible that the container for that product will change at some time in the future.

Thank you for your interest!

Your friends at Dove