I’m not avoiding all plastic either — I just pay a lot more attention now to the plastics piling up around me.

Keep up the great blogging!

You probably knew this, but those plastic air pillow thingies are highly reusable and, without overthinking things, I would guess they are better for the environment than standard packing peanuts or solid styrofoam.

I think they put them in packages that have solid, non-breakable items, because if the items are loose, the weight tends to shift in the box during transport, which could damage other packages nearby.

Not that they are great or anything. There are better choices like biodegradable cornstarch packing peanuts – I love those things!

I do read EnviroWoman. In fact, it was her blog that got me started doing this in the first place. And I have a link to it on my sidebar. highly recommended.

However, my blog is different from hers. First of all, she is only listing the new plastic she buys this year. We don’t get to see all the plastic she’s using up that she purchased prior to 2007. I think it’s useful to list all of it, just to get an idea of how easy it is to accumulate when you’re not being mindful. Also, I think it’s more realistic.

Second, in making my decisions about what to purchase, I’m being a little less strict about plastic and trying to weigh other environmental issues. For example, I would purchase a CFL over an incandescent bulb, even though the CFL contains some plastic, because I think that overall it’s the more responsible decision. And then I would list it on my tally and explain my choice. EnviroWoman, on the other hand, is sticking to incandescents in order to stay plastic-free.

And finally, I don’t really believe in sin, major or minor. That’s her schtick and it works for her. But it would ring false coming from me.

Anyway, I think all the different “plastic-awareness” blogs, (EnviroWoman, Plasticless, Conserve Plastic Bags, Fake Plastic Fish, etc.) each has a different tone and voice. We may appeal to different audiences. And that’s good because the more folks read at least one of our blogs, the better chances for change in this world.

I don’t see how you could possible tally that, but it’s a point well taken in terms of consciousness raising. I hadn’t even considered that almost everything in a restaurant kitchen probably was wrapped in plastic. Arrgh! another toxic stew for me to fret about my involvement in!

Something to consider is the model that EnviroWoman uses on her blog. She is trying to go plastic free all year and categorizes her failures and compromises in terms of Major Sins and Minor Sins. (If you’re not reading her yet, check it out at http://plasticfree.blogspot.com/)

Here’s an awful somebody-else’s-plastic problem I had on Friday:

I went to a lovely outdoor bar to hear my friends’ band play after work. Beer comes out of the tap and into a #2 plastic cup (which are NOT recyclable here — any number bottle is fine, but no cups at all; not that the venue even had a recycling bin available anyway). I was considering switching to a different kind of libation, since they seemed to take hurricane glasses and tumblers. While I was trying to figure out what kind of drink I would like that would guarantee my getting glass, I walked past the refuse bin and saw that all of those “glasses” were actually hard, non-recyclable PLASTIC.

I settled for making the bartender refill my perfectly good plastic pint every time I wanted more beer. And for a brief, desperate moment, I even considered rooting through their trash and bringing home, washing and reusing as many wine, hurricane and old fashioned glasses as I could carry. Naturally, I didn’t have my canvas tote shopping bag with me, so I assuaged my guilt by convincing me friends to re-use their perfectly good plastic cups too.

Sigh.