Plastic avoidance & alternatives

[rainbowgardener]

The ocean and all the life of the ocean is in crisis due to massive accumulation of plastics. But most of it does not come from cruise ships. It comes from all the plastic that does not get recycled. I'm guilty too, because even though I take everything I can to recycle center (our un-incorporated area does not have curbside recycling), the center only takes plastics labelled 1 or 2. So 3, 4, 5, and 6 go in the trash. So plastics go in landfills from where they can get washed out in storms. Or it lies on the side of the road and gets washed into a storm drain. Or it goes into a river. Or factories dump plastic wastes into rivers. Most of the plastic in our oceans doesn't get dumped there directly, rivers carry it to the sea. http://www.dw.com/en/almost-all-plastic ... a-41581484

If cruise ships were the problem, it would be much easier to fix, just mandate that they not dump anything in the ocean and bring it back to landfills. But not that simple.

[DarrenP]

Plastic bags and water bottles are by far the worst two culprits, both in our waterways and oceans, and in general. The so-called biodegradable bags simply break down to tiny pieces, small enough for sea life to ingest. So how much plastic are we ingesting when we eat seafood? Plastic has even washed up in Antarctica.
Rainbowgardener, that's our motto too. The three R's. A lot of people make the mistake of thinking recycling will save the world, but the first two are far more important. Luckily for us, recycling is quite a big thing here in Australia, although it does vary from state to state, sometimes even between council areas, what you can recycle.
We have a recycling bin that gets emptied fortnightly (the alternate week is green waste). Our local council has collection points for used batteries and light globes, and scrap metal can be taken to a depot. Our state also has a 10 cent container deposit for drinks. E-waste (TV's, computers, mobile phones, etc.) can also be taken to the local dump for free, where it is put aside for recycling.
We have an op shop in our town, run by a different community group each month. Instead of throwing things out, if we can't think of how to reuse something it goes to the shop.

[rainbowgardener]

op shop? is that like a thrift store/ second hand store?

[DarrenP]

Sorry, yes. I should stop and consider the language differences, shouldn't I? It's a charity shop, run by volunteers from a different community group each month. Kindergarten, school, churches, sporting groups, and other community groups. They have everything from secondhand clothes to books to homemade produce, and all other kinds of stuff. When we moved, my wife and I donated clothes and books as part of our downsizing.

[Vanisle_BC]

Lots of good suggestions here.

It's a tiny gesture, maybe even futile, but I'm going to take paper lunch bags to the grocery store and use them for as many items as possible, instead of the filmy plastic bags the stores provide. The paper ones could even be labelled & re-used until they're only good for compost.

Remember when Moms (Grans?) had their own leather or canvas shopping bags? Often home-made too, by Dad or Gramps.

Golly I'm old.

[Vanisle_BC]

An open letter to my favourite provider of garden & woodwork tools
(and any other company's official that cares to read):

I'm certainly not one of your bigger customers but I greatly appreciate
your unusually high, quite amazing level of customer service, as well as
the quality of many of the unique & innovative items you sell. (Not
always your prices, but I trumpet my admiration to anyone who'll
listen.)

Now here's a very serious suggestion I want to make: At a time when our
planet and its oceans are being choked & potentially destroyed by
discarded plastic, how about becoming a leader in minimizing, virtually
eliminating, all types of non-renewable or non-recyclable materials in
your business? I see that much of what you sell, even when made of
'eco-friendly' wood, metal, natural fibres etc, has connections,
accessories, 'bits' and features that are made of plastic; not only
environmentally undesirable but often a weak link in terms of
reliability & longevity.

I could go on & on but I'm sure your company's people have enough
imagination to outstrip mine. I do think the time is ripe for companies
to declare war on plastics and other undesirable substances; eliminate
them from their product lines. How about setting out to lead the field
and be able to brag about it?

And oh dear, did I forget to mention packaging???

[DarrenP]

Well said, Vanisle_BC.
Regarding the shopping bags, here in Australia there is a big push on phasing out what they call single use plastic bags. Instead the grocery stores all use thicker plastic bags, that they say can be reused. I'd like to see all plastic bags gone. You can buy reusable bags from the grocery stores, but most of them have some form of plastic component in them. As ours wear out, we plan to go to fully sustainable jute or hessian bags that can be composted at the end of their (hopefully) long life.
On the plus side, our supermarkets do provide bins for soft plastic recycling (bags, packaging, etc.). However one of the bigger ones was caught out dumping the recycled plastic; needless to say we use the other one's bins.