by Beth Terry
I need your opinion about whether or not to include a particular item in my tally. But first, here is all the rest of the plastic for this week.
Plastic purchased before the plastic project began:
- Plastic bottle of Dr. Weil’s Balanced Cal/Mag tablets and plastic cap. As bad as I’ve been about flossing, I’ve been worse about taking my vitamins and minerals. And my doctor is insistent that I need to be taking calcium. So I fished out this bottle from the back of the cupboard. Fortunately, it had not yet expired. I finished it this week. I’ll be switching to New Chapter Organics Bone Strength Take Care formula, which is all organic, from plant sources, and comes in a glass bottle. I already take their Every Woman II multi vitamin, which are so mild you can take them on an empty stomach. The glass bottles, of course, do come with a plastic cap. I emailed New Chapter tonight to see if they had any plans to take them back for recycling.
- Plastic dental floss container. See? I’m doing it! Now that this is gone, I’ll be using Eco-Dent which comes in a cardboard box and tastes yummy.
- Mystery plastic tab. Something I found and have no idea what it came from.
And now, the new plastic waste:
- Plastic seal from new Preserve toothbrush. I don’t include any other part of the Preserve toothbrush or packaging in my tally because it’s already made from recycled plastic and I can return the whole thing to Preserve for further recycling. But this tiny plastic seal can’t be recycled.
- Plastic seal and plastic tab from glass bottle of Spectrum canola oil.
- Plastic from the ends of a bunch of organic bananas.
- Plastic seal from around the neck of a glass bottle of Dental Herb Company Tooth & Gums Tonic. This is my new daily mouth rinse, recommended by Dr. Pockrass. It’s alcohol-free and comes in a glass bottle. (Another plastic cap, of course.) I’ll write more about my full low-plastic dental regimen later this week.
- 2 more doses of Frontline flea & tick killer for cats. Despite the initial Frontline treatment and major carpet cleaning, the fleas came back. Probably those that were in the pupa stage the first time around. I’m hoping this will be the last treatment for a while. I really hate using these toxic chemicals.
And now, my question for you. As you may recall, for several weeks I’ve lamented Financial West Group’s incessant blue plastic-covered mailings. Here and here and here and here. I even sent some back to the company with a note.
Well, this week I got another one. But this time it was slightly different from before.
Look closer:
Hmm… that wasn’t there before! I looked up ECM. It, like Symphony, of which I wrote a while back, manufactures an additive that, when added to petroleum-based plastic, causes it to break down fully in both aerobic (compost) and non-aerobic (landfill) conditions. The plastic actually does biodegrade, according to this company, rather than simply breaking down into smaller plastic particles.
So my question is whether or not I should include this new plastic wrapper in my tally. It is, after all, petroleum-based plastic. It still requires virgin plastic to produce, plastic in the form of “nurdles” which pollute our waterways before they are ever made into products. Still, I could just bury it in the front yard and see what happens. What do you think?
