Plastic free: Milk

EnviroWoman was having a MarthaMoment. And the recipe called for milk.

Now, EnviroWoman has never been a big milk drinker. Maybe soy milk on the rare occasion when she’s baking. ‘Cuz drinking milk…well, it’s as natural as morphing into The Incredible Hulk when the sun goes down.

Oh sure, it’s natural while you’re a wee babe still dependent on mumsy ….just like it is for all mammals. But once you’re weaned and noshing on cheerios and strained bananas, Mother Nature intends for you to answer ‘Got Milk?’ with a big fat 'NO' from then on….no matter how good the ad campaign is.

And drinking the milk of another species is…well…a biological abomination. Yeah, yeah, sure, in some artificial situations you’ll find some kind hearted female with heightened maternal instincts willing to nurse a furry little orphan that would never be part of her own litter. But that is so, so rare.

Nope… drinking milk (especially a cow’s) when you’re an adult human is just not natural. Of course, neither is wearing clothes, driving cars, religion, flying in planes, marriage, painting toenails, wearing makeup, pets, cooking and lots of other things…including plastic. And yet we think all these things are as natural as breathing air. Yup, we’re one OuttaTouchWithNature species aren’t we?

Anyhoo, the recipe called for milk.

Now you might be thinking 'EnviroWoman, this one’s a no-brainer. Milk comes in wax cartons’.

Oh my sweets, you should know the drill by now….there’s plastic in them thar’ containers. Yeah, ‘tis true. You think its wax, but it’s really plastic.

And, if milk isn’t in those waxy-plasticy cartons, well it’s in a plastic jug. Or in a tetrapak which also has a layer of plastic deep inside. And even milk in a glass bottle comes with a plastic lid nowadays.

So, EnviroWoman headed to the baking needs aisle to hunt among the cans of evaporated milk for boxes of powdered skim milk. No luck…all packaged in plastic bags. She tried all her usual haunts, including the bulk bins at Dan-d-Mart. Still no luck.

So she donned her ruby red slippers, jumped into MyLittleCar and made the long trek to the land of Super Store.

Now it’s not often her ruby red slippers touch down there, ‘cuz SuperStore is a harsh reminder how decadent our society is. I mean, is all that stuff really necessary? Is all that choice really necessary? Hell no!

But they’ve got bulk food bins coming outta the ying yang.

And when EnviroWoman asked ‘Got Powdered Milk?’ they answered ‘Yes.’

Now, if you’re a regular reader of EnviroWoman you know several weeks ago she commented that she had a ‘there’s hope for the planet afterall’ moment at Safeway when she realized more and more people were starting to shun the plastic grocery bag and bring their own cotton bags.

Well, I gotta say, all hope is now in the crapper.

EnviroWoman was standing there in the checkout lane at SuperStore with her trusty wire basket and reuseable chinese take out boxes filled with bulk bin treasures….looking at the throngs of shoppers around her. And all their stuff. Most of it unnecessary. With all that packaging. Filled with all those animals. From deep in the ocean. From factory farms. Shipped from all around the world. Responsible for all those green house gases. All at the expense of Nature.

All those ignorant people steering our planet to disaster. Even EnviroWoman.

It made me so mad….I almost morphed into a green-eyed monster!!!

Anyway, so here’s how things add up:

Category: Milk
SAINT: Powered skim milk from bulk bins
Price: The same or cheaper
Quality: Hmmm, not as good
SINNER: Island Farms, Naturel, Natura, Valley Pride, Rice Dreams, So Nice, Dairyland, Lucerne, Beatrix, Olympic, Caper's Organic, SoyDream, Vita Soy, So Good, Avalon

Lessons Learned:

• Hope for the best. But prepare for the worst. 6.3 billion people will not be able to wake up and change their ways enough, and in time, to preserve life as we know it. So ditch the beach-front property. Buy heritage seeds. And a little plot of arable land...way inland. Start building the eco-bunker. The times, they are a changing. But people aren't.
• EnviroWoman should stay away from Super Store. And if she needs to go there, to partake of the bulk bin treasures, she should wear loose fitting clothing. Just in case she gets so angry she morphs into The Incredible Eco-Hulk.
  

PROGRESS REPORT: MAY

I’ve finished month #5 living the ‘no-new-plastic’ pledge. And I gotta say….it’s been a bad plastic month.

I’ve almost doubled the size of my plastic shrine and it could have been prevented if I had just avoided two PlasticBlondeMoments.

PlasticBlondeMoment #1 & #2

The first ‘blonde’ moment occurred when I ordered a glass-blown necklace from an artisan shop in Victoria and forgot to tell them ‘Don’t package it in plastic.’ When it arrived in the mail in a foam pack envelope I’m sure the whole neighborhood could hear EnviroWoman barking 'Crap, crap and triple crap.'

And I had no one to blame but myself.

And if that wasn’t bad enough…I had another PlasticBlondeMoment at that very same instant. Because half way through filleting the plastic out of the envelope to add it to the plastic shrine EnviroWoman realized….'I should have just sent it back and told them ‘thanks but no thanks…please reuse this envelope.'

So that’s my strategy going forward…Return to Sender. I've been using it on junk mail (especially those with plastic windows) so why not on other things.

PlasticBlondeMoment #3

There was another PlasticBlondeMoment. It happened when EnviroWoman was distracted at a social engagement and realized she had been drenching her sushi in a plastic dipping sauce cup destined to be thrown away after EnviroWoman finished having her way with it.

But instead, that wee cup has taken up residence in EnviroWoman’s plastic shrine. See how happy it looks with all its plastic buddies!

Do not despair my sweets! Those three PlasticBlondeMoments increased EnviroWoman’s plastic awareness and helped avoid a major disaster.

Averting Disaster

As mentioned in April’s Progress Report, MyLittleCar had been the victim of a ‘hit and leave a note’. When I took it into the body shop for a repair estimate I told them about my No-New-Plastic-Pledge and they said ‘No problemo. The plastic door trim isn’t damaged enough to warrant replacing and we don’t need to use any plastic when fixing and repainting the door.'

Excellent! The Eco-Gods were smiling on EnviroWoman.

But when EnviroWoman finally took MyLittleCar in to get fixed, and had her wits about her enough to ask for a second time ‘Are you sure you guys can honor my No-New-Plastic-Pledge’ she was told…. ‘Sorry, we were wrong, the entire car will be covered with plastic when painted, and this plastic will be thrown out.’

EnviroWoman took a stand ‘Well, in that case MyLittleCar will have to wait until next year to get fixed…’cuz there is no way I am adding a whole car-load of polypropylene to my plastic shrine.’ She turned on her ruby red slippers and high-tailed it out of the body shop.

She was so proud of herself she had to bend over and check between her legs to see if she had grown balls.

But when she jumped into MyLittleCar and glanced in the rear view mirrow, she noticed the words TotalWhackedOutEcoFreak were magically and officially stamped on her forehead.

Please forgive me MyLittleCar.

RudeAwakenings

Let’s see….the inside of Pepsi cans are sprayed with plastic, soda in glass bottles have plastic liners under the caps…beer has the same problems. Metal toothpaste tubes have plastic liners….as do most canned foods.

Ooeee, and even CFL bulbs contain plastic (oh yeah...you're gonna hear about that one, watch for the June post on CFL Light Bulbs #2 coming soon).

And anything in a glass jar also has plastic under the lid to help seal the jar. Yup folks, it’s everywhere.

EnviroWoman has resigned herself to the fact when she buys anything in glass jars (which she’s been limited to) she’ll have commit a MINOR SIN because of the plastic cap seal and sometimes even the cap itself. Bummer, huh?

Sayonara

In January EnviroWoman waved goodbye to meat substitutes, crackers, chips and The Body Shop. In March, it was dishwashing liquid. In April she gave the boot to her beloved Pepsi and ended her affair with Dr. Oetker’s frozen pizza

In May she said goodbye to highlighters and….it really hurts this GirlyGirl to say this next part…EnviroWoman kissed nail polish goodbye. Yuppers, it’s made of plastic. I first weaned the fingernails. Then two weekends ago, I bit the bullet and removed the last red remnants from my toenails. Look at those bland, white freaky little digits staring up at me!! They look totally naked, and ugly and very, very boring. But they ARE plastic-free.

And today, May 31st, EnviroWoman said goodbye to another good friend - Lawry’s Seasoning Salt. Tofu will never be the same again.

Watch for upcoming XtremeMakeovers

In April's Progress Report EnviroWoman reported TheUrgeToPurge was starting to get aggravating. This month she’s turned the problem into a challenge, as she often does. It’s kinda her own version of Flip This House.

Mini NoPlasticMakeovers are happening all over the place. It started with the office desk, then migrated to the pen-stash drawer, then the medicine cabinet and the cutlery drawer, and now the bathroom cupboards. Wait until she hits the closet – it will be What Not To Wear like you’ve never seen it!

Watch for upcoming episodes airing soon on the Living Plastic Free in 2007 channel.

Good Plastic Fortune this month

Anyway, despite all of this here has been some good plastic fortune this month....

• Finding Toilet Paper
• Discovering how great expensive pens are
• Being interviewed on Australia’s ABC radio
• Brain food: Plastic Ocean

The big challenge this month

Kicking the nail polish habit. Plus, I’m still on the hunt for plastic free mascara. Now I’ve added eye shadow, foundation, eyeliner and body lotion to the list. These are my holy grails…because cruelty-free cosmetics that are also plastic free are impossible to find.

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

MINOR SINS for May 2007

• 8 plastic liners from soda pop bottle caps
• Tampon wrappers
• Plastic liner from a foam pack envelope
• 2 mini straws hiding in cardboard packaging from utensils bought at Ikea
• 2 plastic labels

MAJOR SINs for May 2007

• None. But mascara is definitely starting to put a voodoo hex over me, as is nail polish...at least for the toes ('come back to the dark side EnviroWoman')

Challenges Ahead

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

• Mascara & Eyeliner. Potential for a MAJOR SIN
• Body Lotion
• Scotch tape
• Lint rollers
• Eye shadow
• Motor Oil
• Bandaids
• Sunglasses
• Sun tan lotion/Sun Screen
• Thongs/Sandals
• Powdered Milk
• Clothes. I haven’t bought any since January because not buying polyester, nylon, spandex, etc, is gonna be hard.

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

Plastic free: Beer, ya hoser!

Hey hosehead, EnviroWoman is gonna introduce you to some Canadian culture, okay?

So first...turn up your speakers.

Then click on this link, ya hoser,
And then go back to her blog right away, okay, eh.
It's gonna be like a blog in stereo.

And hoser, if you don't have speakers, you're screwed!

This is where EnviroWoman talks. Don’t say anything, okay eh?

Cooo, loo, coo coo coo, coo, coo, coooo!
Ah, Beauty! Go!
Cooo, loo, coo coo coo, coo, coo, coooo!

Okay, Good day. Welcome to my blog
I’m EnviroWoman and…
This is my brother BeerGuy
How’s it going, eh?

Beauty, eh?
Yeah, I like that

Okay

Okay
Okay, everyone. This blog post was my idea
Get out!
It was
You’re lyin’!
He…BeerGuy here just sort of rid on my coat tails
Why are you doing this? It was OUR idea together, eh?

Yeah, Okay
We AGREED to…to say that, but…
Ah, take off!

Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!
Take off! It’s the beauty way to go
Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!

We’ve got good beer, eh?
Yeah
Yeah, Canadian beer is great!

Okay, so good day. Our topic today is beer

That’s right like, ‘Cause my sister and I are now experts in the field
Yeah, right, 'cause we're Canadian...Yeah, well

And ummm...well except for EnviroWoman, she doesn't like beer

Awww, How can you say that? Making me look bad
You’re such a hosehead
Yeah? Well, take off!

Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!
Take off! It’s the beauty way to go
Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!

Hey, hosehead
Yeah, what?
Yeah, listen you can’t find plastic-free beer in Canada
What!
It’s true!
Okay, everyone, like a beer can has a plastic lining like Pepsi
Oh, get out! It does not…You’re full of…
It does so!
Stop lying, will ya?
Take off, eh!

Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!
Take off! It’s the beauty way to go
Take off! To the No-New-Plastic Way!

Take off! It's the beauty way to go

Take off!

Cooo, loo, coo coo coo, coo, coo, coooo!
Cooo, loo, coo coo coo, coo, coo, coooo!

Not so beauty, eh?
Like crap, eh? Beer cans have plastic liners?
Yeah, that's like...

That's like...un-Canadian to not drink beer

Hey, hosehead

Yeah, what?

Guess what?

What

Beer bottles have plastic too

Take off! That can't be

Well, its true. Under the caps!

Why?

To keep the beer from leaking out. Like they...

No way

Yeah, beer caps have plastic too

Okay, So that’s our blog topic for today. So, Good Day!
Good day!

Hey you guys!
What? No

Take off!

Wait....No....

Hey, don't go!

No, come back, eh!

Aww...look what you did!

Everybody's going because of you

You said...

Come back! You can still drink beer

Ya just gotta commit a SIN to do it

You are such a hoser

There's no way I'm gonna drink beer with you again, hoser

Okay that's fine! Go drink beer solo

Fine, then you'll be looking for me...

Yeah? Will not....

.....peeling off my beer label alone

Aww. Now everybody's gone

So?

Good day!

Good day!

Okay you hosers, so this is how things add up:

Category: Beer
SAINT: None of ‘em. But who cares, hoser! Beer’s worth sinning for!
Price: Who cares. It’s beer!
Quality: Canadian beer is awesome, hosehead!
SINNER: Molsom, Canadian, Labatts, Pilsner, Big Rock, Heinekin, Colt 45, Kokanee, Guinness, Budweiser, Whistler, Nelson, Richards, Philips, Old Milwaukee, Alberta Grown, Hey hoser, look at all of this beer. Canucks really do like beer! Sleemans, Miller, Bowen Island, Wildcat, Coors, Ironhorse, Shaftesbury, Granville Island, Braham, Corona, Moosehead, and so on... Hey hoser, why are you still reading. Like we said...All of ‘em are SINNERs. But who cares. Beer's worth sinning for!

Lessons learned:

• A promise is a like promise, eh. When EnviroWoman wrote about lipstick she told all the guys she’d make it up to them and write about a TestosteroneTopic…like hockey pucks. So she wrote about beer! And hosehead….she doesn’t even drink beer! Or watch hockey. So takeoff!
• Hey hoser, some things are worth sinning for. Like beer, and chocolate...and maybe even hockey pucks.

And now here’s a little CanadianCulture chaser for that beer. Bob and Doug Mackenzie, pictured above (aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas) were two fictional beer swilling hosehead brothers who personified the ‘typical Canadian, eh’. Their song The Great White North was popularized on SCTV, a Canuck comedy show that ran in the late 70s and early 80s which also launched the careers of John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy and more…

Plastic free: Toothpaste

Brushing our teeth. We’ve all gotta do it. At least if we want to be part of civilized society. And keep a job. And find a Mr. or Mrs. Right.

Yuppers, the only ones who appreciate DoggyDooDooBreath are TheBeasts, who have a unique appreciation for smelly orifices, especially when greeting new friends. (EnviroWoman’s mind wanders....imagine what our society would be like if we......)

No doubt about it, EnviroWoman is glad to walk upright among civilized society. So it was important she find herself a good toothpaste.

But a completely plastic-free toothpaste seems to be an elusive beast. (As is that other oral hygiene animal…the plastic-free toothbrush).

Oh sure, EnviroWoman could use plain old baking soda and salt. But those are particularly unsatisfying. EnviroWoman likes the minty fresh breath after-effect of the morning ritual. It gives a nice little kick start to the day. Just like a freshly washed face. And, especially important now that she can no longer imbibe in the breakfast of champions.

But she’s noticed, and you may have too, that over the past couple of years there’s been a migration from the metal toothpaste tube to the plastic toothpaste tube. Sigh.

In all her hunting she’s found only 2 brands that still sport the old-fashioned metal tube. And, like all the other toothpastes, they both have a plastic lid. (EnviroWoman has learned that caps and lids for any and all products have an unholy union with plastic and there doesn’t seem to be a way around it). These lids count as MINOR SINs.

On the plus side, both these toothpastes are cruelty-free (no animal ingredients or testing) which is a moral code EnviroWoman steers by, even more so than plastic-free.

Her first choice is Mint-flavoured Desert Essence Natural Tea Tree Oil Toothpaste. But, if EnviroWoman remembers the rest of their flavours have migrated to plastic-tube packaging. If that’s true, the mint-flavored tube probably will too. (So EnviroWoman is putting a big RESERVED sign on the supply at Capers on West 4th. Hands off, it’s mine…get yer own!) Anyhoo, their toothpaste has got a good dose of mint to it. However, EnviroWoman notices its ‘fresh-breath’ effect isn’t as long-lasting as non-cruelty-free brands like Colgate or Crest.

EnviroWoman’s second choice is Tom of Maine’s Natural Fluoride-free Baking Soda Toothpaste. It definitely gives you that immediate ‘fresh-breath’ tang. But the paste is smoother and saltier in your mouth than other toothpastes, and leaves a bit of a day-long salt after-taste which in EnviroWoman’s opinion is almost DoggyDooDooRaunchy. But a small price to pay for cruelty-free. Well, okay, that’s debatable.

EnviroWoman has also looked into toothpowders (the goddess Oprah likes Eco-Dent), but these seem to all be packaged in plastic.

If you've developed your own plastic-free ‘minty-fresh’ homemade recipes, or have discovered any other non-plastic options, I’d love to hear about them. And especially if you’ve found a plastic-free toothbrush (I’m beginning to think this particular oral hygiene beast has already gone extinct).

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Toothpaste
SAINTS: Desert Essence Natural Tea Tree Oil, Tom of Maine’s Natural Fluoride free Baking Soda Toothpaste
Quality: About the same to a little sub-par
Price: Way, way more expensive
SINNERS: Colgate, Crest, Kiss My Face, Sensodyne, Nature's Gate, AquaFresh, Dabar Herbal and probably but not sure about Arm and Hammers, Rembrandt, Fixodent (couldn’t snoop into their boxes)

Lessons Learned:

• Keep yer distance. Sometimes when you start to morph into a hard-core granola, your body hygiene may 'devolve'. You may want to advise your friends and family that while in your eco-holiness presence, that they increase the circumference of their 'personal space' if they notice you have taken on a slight air of DoggyDooDooRaunchy. Hopefully they will continue to love you unconditionally just like TheBeast does. However, if TheBeast really starts to get 'in your face' and greets you in socially unacceptable human-standard ways, you know you have taken your new found granolaness to dangerous levels.

Plastic free: Pens

I don’t remember the last time I bought a pen. I get them for free at professional events. I even inherited a life-time supply from a tech firm that belly-upped during the dot-com-crash.

Pens are prolific in EnviroWoman’s life. I have so many pens I don’t even need to buy refills. When a pen dries up…it’s retired to the pen-stash-drawer, and I move on to the next one. This drawer, I am ashamed to confess holds 89 pens.

Yes, 89. Stupid, isn’t it? My own dirty little secret. I mean really, what family needs that many pens? Not one. It’s a fine example of excess consumption. And what’s even worse, at least ½ are single-use-pens, intended to be thrown out after they dry up and added to the 10 billion non-degradable plastic pens tossed to the landfills each year worldwide.

And of all my 89 pens, only 4 make it through the golden-gates of no-new-plastic land. Yes, only 4. That's less than 5% of my stash. Of these:

• Three are all-metal Cross pens bestowed upon EnviroWoman by appreciative CEOs and TheWorldsBestMom. They’re the pen equivalent of ‘good china’, always stowed away in their posh boxes, never seeing the light of day because they seem ‘too expensive’ for everyday use.
• The fourth, is a completely compostable corn-based pen made of WickedWitchoftheNorthBioplastic… which Vancity gave EnviroWoman when she won the ViaLaResolution contest. This one is intended to be composted after its gone dry.

The rest of my pen horde, all made of plastic…are doomed victims of TheUrgeToPurge – either packed away or given away.

So now EnviroWoman uses her ‘good china’ pens for everyday use. And she’s noticed something. When you use an expensive pen you get a bit paranoid about abusing it. And losing it. You hang onto it as if your nimble digits have morphed into raptor-talons. You treat it differently…because who wants to lose a $70 pen? And you know…that’s probably a really good thing.

Let’s face it….cheapo pens are less precious. We don’t guard them with raptor-talons. No, if they go wayward, no big deal…just dip into the pen-stash drawer for another. Or, throw them away, like we’re supposed to.

EnviroWoman wondered, could she limit herself for the rest of the year, or better yet...for life, to these 4 pens? Well...almost. But the fact is....she needs two for work, two for home, one for the car, and one for the purse.

And so EnviroWoman found herself needing to buy pens, for the first time in a long time.

It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be.

She found only one all-metal pen (including the cartridge)…‘The Space Pen’ favored by astronauts and meat packers (you’re MensaMaterial if you can figure out that last one…go ahead – give it a guess). It writes in zero gravity, underwater, on wet surfaces, in blazing heat and freezing cold and at any angle. Alas, the Space Pen is packaged in plastic, as is the refill.

And that’s the trouble in pen land…almost every pen has a small amount of plastic in the cartridge (even the 3 Cross pens from EnviroWoman’s pen-stash-drawer), or the pen or refill comes packaged in plastic. Other than using a pencil, there doesn’t seem to be a way around it. And you know and I both know, you can’t sign cheques, invoices and contracts with a pencil.

EnviroWoman went a-hunting…in big box stores, in stationery boutiques and art stores, and finally to a specialty pen shop. She settled on:

• a $6 St. Tropez Petites by Marvy…a teeny little pen perfect for the car…no packaging whatsoever and just a small amount of plastic in the cartridge and the stylus
• a zowie yellow $48 Tornado by Retro 1951 (comes in a cardboard box, with an all metal tube case…perfect for stashing the pen in my purse along with my prismacolor pencil crayons and china markers that have replaced my highlighters, yipee)

This means, that although EnviroWoman has to commit a MINOR SIN when buying a pen (‘cuz they have those niggly lit bits of plastic in the cartridge), she’s probably going to have to commit a MAJOR SIN when she has to buy a refill (because they are packaged in plastic). But, she’ll cross that bridge when she needs to.

But the whole exercise of purging the pen stash drawer and using her ‘good china’ pens has made EnviroWoman gain a whole new appreciation for pens. There was even a mind-shift from ‘throwaway’ to ‘use for a lifetime’.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Pens

SAINT: Some, but not all of pens offered by: Cross, Sheaffer, Triad, Olympian, Sigma, Waterman, Blass, Parker

Price: Way more expensive, but hey, you're worth it. So is the planet

Quality: Ink, the same. The pen body, the same to better

SINNER: Any of the cheapos by Bic, Sheaffer, Paper mate, Sanford, Pilot (EnviroWoman used to luv, luv, luv their Precise Rollerballs), Zebras, Pentel, etc. Especially those designed for single-use (can't buy a refill)

Lessons Learned:

• Plastic stuff equals cheap stuff which equals disposable stuff which equals no appreciation for stuff. And voila, we end up with a throw-away society. With too much consumption. And too much garbage. And a disposable mentality. And herein lies one of the big problems with our society. You know if we had to pay more for stuff, we’d be more frugal…and careful. And use less of MotherNature. (There EnviroWoman goes again folks….waxing philosophically from her soapbox)

If you know of any other ‘no-plastic’ pens, especially those that are ‘true-blues’ with ABSOLUTLEY no plastic in the cartridge, the refill or in any packaging, please let EnviroWoman and the rest of us know.

Plastic free: Toilet Paper

Hey, squeeze this Mr. Wimple! EnviroWoman is talking toilet paper.

Admit it…you’ve been waiting for it.

As early as January 1st, when the no-new-plastic pledge was made, EnviroWoman knew finding plastic-free TP was going to be a challenge.

For months people had told EnviroWoman…'You’ll find paper-packaged TP at Capers’ LaLaLand's mecca for all things new-age organic. But everytime she went…there was never any in sight. Maybe they were there and EnviroWoman was blind, or having blonde moments…or maybe those elusive rolls had Frodo’s magic cloak that made them suddenly invisible.

And yet, in the bathroom stalls of CorporateCanada EnviroWoman kept seeing paper covered rolls of TP…so she knew it existed.

Finally, the TP gods smiled down upon EnviroWoman. A visit to Capers proved lucky….a single roll of Seventh Generation (100% recycled, no-chlorine bleach, 1000 sheets/1 ply) packaged in paper. But oooee the stuff was pricey, $1.39 a roll. And right next to it…paper-wrapped Main Street TP (100% recycled, 500 sheets/2 ply). Cheaper at $.89 a roll.

She struck the TP motherlode again at Dan-d-Market. There she found April Soft (100% recycled, chlorine-bleach free, 500 sheets/2 ply, and the only one to carry the Environmental Choice logo) and EcoSoft (100% recycled, 500 sheets/2 ply) both for $.99 a roll.

That was still all pretty pricey compared to the 30-roll plastic-packaged Scott Premium stuff at Costco at only $.56 a roll.

So EnviroWoman started hunting janitorial supply places and finally found one (Amre Supply) that sells to the general public and that carried the same Main Street TP found at Capers but in boxes of 48 rolls, at a cost of just $.63 a roll.

EnviroWoman has to admit. She’s a bit surprised there is this much choice for plastic-free toilet paper. Especially when it seemed to be such an elusive beast for so long. Maybe the no-plastic gods are smiling down upon her. (Hey, could you gods send me some plastic-free mascara….please, oh pretty please).

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Toilet Paper
SAINT: Seventh Generation, April Soft, Main Street, EcoSoft
Quality: Not as plush as Scott Premium from Costco…but hey, you’re only wiping your butt with it…do you really NEED something cushy-plush for that. Is your butt worth cutting down old growth forests for?)
Price: More expensive
SINNERS: Charmin, Cascades, Purex, Safeway Recycled, Safeway Select, Basic Red, Purex, Royale, and even Seventh Generation multi-pack….all packaged in plastic.

Lessons Learned:

• Shop in new places. The supermarket isn’t the only place to shop for everyday things. Sometimes they’re even cheaper in places that cater to businesses rather than the general public.

Brain food:

Okay, usually EnviroWoman ends her posts here. But I know alot of folks care deeply about their toilet paper. And although EnviroWoman has to balance buying plastic-free with other green morals, some of you folks have other 'deciding factors'. So I'm gonna point you in the direction of two good sources to help you make better choices about paper you use in the loo.

• Environmental Choice certified Toilet Paper (which likes April Soft and Main Street [SCA], but doesn't mention Seventh Generation) based on these criteria:

1. Load points assessment for resource consumption, energy consumption, COD, TEF and net sold waste (huh?)
2. Manufacturing effluent content restrictions
3. Use of wood fibres from certified sustainable sources

• Greenpeace's Ancient Forest-Friendly Tissue Products Guide (which likes April Soft and Seventh Generation but doesn't mention Main Street) based on these criteria:

1. Ancient and endangered forest friendly
2. High recycled and/or alternative fibre content
3. Produced without chlorine

Feel free to post a comment of any good sources you have too for brands found in your part of the planet. Especially you Brits and Aussies that read this blog.

Eye Candy: Plastic Pics

EnviroWoman is a visual animal. Sometimes understanding the magnitude of numbers overwhelms her. Just how many is 500 billion plastic bags anyway? (the number consumed worldwide every year)

Well, Chris Jordan has come to the rescue…without even knowing who EnviroWoman is.

His Running the Numbers photographs give EnviroWoman visual understanding of the magnitude of our addiction with not only plastic but also office paper, paper bags, cigarettes, cell phones and more.

Very cool stuff. EnviroWoman hopes you check it out.

Here’s what 60,000 plastic bags looks like, the number used in the US every five seconds. Only 1% of plastic bags get recycled.

Click on the picture to visit Chris’ site and see more detailed pictures.

This next picture depicts 2 million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes. Depending on the statistic you find…between 10-25% get recycled.

EnviroWoman finds these pictures profound. And disturbing. How about you?

Maybe every fast food restaurant and shopping mall should be forced to mount these pictures on their walls…to drive home the message to consumers.

Brain Food: Plastic Ocean

People ask EnviroWoman “What have you got against plastic?”

Well, it bugs me that almost every piece of plastic ever made still exists and will for who knows how long. We assume it just ends up in landfills… ‘so hey, no big deal’. But it doesn’t. Often it ends up in our wild areas….and in our oceans where it can have disastrous effects.

That’s why EnviroWoman recommends you take 20 minutes out of your life and read a pretty fabulous (and scary) article…Plastic Ocean. It’s a great read with sad, sad pictures too.

It starts by introducing you to the North Pacific subtropical gyre, a 10-million-square-mile area 800 miles north of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. It’s very calm water, so garbage that makes it’s way there accumulates. Scientists call it the “Eastern Garbage Patch” and the trail of plastic trash goes on for hundreds of miles covering an area twice the size of Texas.

Minuscule pieces of plastic, some barely visible to the eye, are everywhere and the water contains six times as much plastic (by weight) as it does plankton. Isn’t that super super scary?

The plastic makes its way into the food chain and is consumed by whales to zooplankton where it disrupts gene activity, digestion, and causes cancer. Seabirds wash ashore in startling numbers, their bodies packed with plastic, things like bottle caps, cigarette lighters, tampon applicators. (One animal dissected contained 1,603 pieces of plastic.).

More than a million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, and countless fish die in the North Pacific each year, either from mistakenly eating plastic garbage or from being ensnared in it and drowning.

And it gets worse…

The North Pacific gyre is only one of five such zones in the oceans. Together, they cover 40% of the sea, one-quarter of the earth’s surface…that means 25 percent of our planet is ‘a toilet that never flushes.'

The article then introduces you to the scary world of plastic after-effects from phthaltes, bisphenol A and BPAs and how they affect not just wildlife, and lab rats…but you.

Ya gotta read it sweets…Plastic Ocean.

EnviroWoman recommends you watch this great video too, by Cryptic Moth…on the same subject.

Plastic free: CFL Light Bulbs

I know, I know…you’re thinking…'EnviroWoman this is a no-brainer. Of course you’re buying Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs. They use 60% less energy. They last up to 15 times longer. Every Green Guide on the planet evangelizes them as being an energy saver. And energy saviour. I think they may even be able to walk on water.'

Well, life is full of ironies. And this is one of them.

And we’re not talking an itsy-bitsy paramecium-sized irony. We’re talking a big, honkin’ Godzilla Meets Tyrannosaurus Rex-sized irony.

Yup, get ready for it….you know what’s coming….CFL light bulbs are packaged in plastic.

And not just an innocuous bit of plastic that EnviroWoman could excuse as a MINOR SIN.

But a big, bad wad of plastic. You know the stuff I’m talking about….the hard clear kind that entombs its precious cargo. The kind called ‘blister pak’…oh, so appropriately and ironically named.

The kind that has no customer-friendly ‘tear here’ pull tabs to save your precious digits.

The kind you have to do battle with. That breaks xacto-knife blades and dulls stainless steel scissors.

The kind that puts you in such an instant fit of rage TheBeast goes scrambling for cover.

The kind that if you were into conspiracy theories you would swear was an evil retail plot to prevent you from ever returning another light bulb, printer cartridge, or computer accessory ‘in its original packaging’ as so often is required.

The kind that if you were really really into conspiracy theories you would swear was an evil plot to secretly decrease the human population by making a person’s blood pressure go from 120/80 to 210/120 in sixty seconds…boiling so high they keel over dead right there on the spot.

And it gets worse. The kind of plastic that doesn’t even have a recycling code on it…so it can’t be thrown into our recycling blue boxes.

Yuppers, it’s gotta go in the garbage only to take decades and decades to degrade.

A veritable sheep in wolf’s clothing.

A SAINT dressed as a SINNER.

Ironic isn’t it?

EnviroWoman was so heart-wrenched by this revelation she was moved to wax poetically...

Do not go gentle into that good light,
Eco-agers should rant and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the plastic packaging plight.

Though EnviroWoman in her heart knows CFL is right,
Because her pledge has forced a no-new plastic way
She can not go gentle into that good light.

Rage, rage against the plastic packaging plight.

Well, its not quite as good as Dylan Thomas but ya get my point.

By now you’re probably thinking…'Holy crap, EnviroWoman is gonna have to commit a whole new category of eco-sin and buy the lowly standard light bulb.’

Ah, but you know EnviroWoman is as persistent as the Pope is catholic.

She searched The Bay, and Sears, and London Drugs, and Shoppers Drug Mart...and finally googled and was steered towards Canadian Tire. There she found a cardboard packaged CFL bulb produced my Noma. Gotta love the Noma...they got it right. Gotta love the Canadian Tire....they got it right too.

EnviroWoman can now rid herself of rage, rage...and return to her normal GiddyZen state.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: CFL lightbulbs
SAINT: Noma
Price: The same
Quality: The same
SINNER: Phillips, Duramax, Globe, (well, that's not very green of you guys)

Lessons Learned:

Sometimes the greenies get it wrong. They try to enlighten us, but sometimes we have to enlighten them. Philips, Duramax, Globe…you’re gonna hear from EnviroWoman.

Plastic free: Pop #3

The SodaSaga continues...

It started when EnviroWoman switched from Pepsi in a plastic bottle to Pepsi in a can when she took the no-new-plastic pledge on January 1st. Then Anonymous enlightened EnviroWoman by commenting that Pepsi cans have an inner lining of plastic. So it was back to square one.

Over the last couple of weeks EnviroWoman has been searching for Pepsi replacements.

She tried Henry Weinhard’s Black Cherry Cream, Real Brew Draft Rootbeer, Boylan Bottleworks Root Beer, Koala, Stewart's Root Beer, and Jones Soda.

It looks like a veritable garden of soda options doesn’t it? Soda pop heaven, right?

Alas, not so. None were NirvanaPopPerfect.

Although all were refreshing, in EnviroWoman’s opinion none could beat Pepsi in a TasteTestChallenge. Plus, all were double the price.

Stewart's had a plastic label (buying it was a total brain fart). On the plus side, Boylan’s Root beer didn’t even have a label, just ink right on the bottle, though it did come with a cardboard 4-pack carrier which added to its packaging.

EnviroWoman was really leaning towards Jones Soda, because of their cool marketing featuring customers’ photos on the labels. Plus their bottles had screw on metal lids, rather than caps, which meant EnviroWoman could re-use the bottles for her EarthQuake Preparedness H20 stash.

But it was while EnviroWoman was washing out and refilling one of the Jones Soda bottles, that she discovered to her horror….a little blue plastic liner nestled inside the cap. You know, like the ones that usually say ‘Sorry, Try Again’ but in Jones Soda’s case ironically says ‘Fortune smiles upon you at this time'. (Yeah, it's ironic, but it's still a nice surprise to see such a positive message under a bottle cap...gotta luv the Jone's Soda)

EnviroWoman checked the caps from the other bottles….Koala had the same blue liner…but no feel-good message. Boylan’s and Real Brew didn’t have liners…but did have something that looked suspiciously like plastic fused to its underside.

Crap, crap, crap and triple crap.

Of course, all this makes sense…the plastic liners help seal the liquid in.

EnviroWoman has to admit, although she could legitimately exclaim ‘Who knew!’ about the liner in the Pepsi can…she knew, knew, knew there was plastic under those lids. She’d been told plenty of times ‘Sorry, Try Again’. But that fact had just drifted out of her consciousness each time she made her soda purchase. Proof positive that sometimes EnviroWoman isn’t the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

Now…here’s the kicker…EnviroWoman bets the amount of plastic under the caps is equal in mass/volume/weight to the plastic used in the liner of a Pepsi can. It's the old 'half a dozen of one, six of the other' dilemma.

So here’s how things add up:

Category: Soda Pop (in this part of the SodaSaga, we mean Pepsi alternatives)
SAINT: None. They all use plastic to some extent
Price: Double
Quality: Not as good as Pepsi, but they’d do just fine if you were stranded in the Sahara
SINNER: Alas, all of ‘em

Lessons Learned:

• Fortune Smiles Upon You at This Time. Giving up pop isn’t the end of the world. EnviroWoman’s life, and yours, is still filled with an abundance of good things to be grateful for – like chocolate! 'Tis true....EnviroWoman can give up anything, if she can just keep on eating chocolate.
• Sorry, Try Again. Thomas Edison made 700 failed attempts at the light bulb. And then...magic! EnviroWoman just has to keep on trying to turn the SodaSaga into a SodaSuccess...or I could just go to a restaurant and ask for Pepsi in a glass!