by Beth Terry
I’ve got a bunch of random housekeeping items to share (in no particular order) and then I’m off with Michael to get away from the computer for a few days and enjoy trees, fresh air, ocean waves, and perhaps a terrifying roller coaster ride or two. Can anyone guess where we’re going?
Item #1: “Show Us Your (Plastic) Trash Challenge” update: Your plastic tallies have been flying in this week. Hurrah! I haven’t had time to look at all of them yet, but I’ve got them and will start posting them next week. I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys have come up with and what ideas you have about the plastic in your lives. (If for some reason you don’t want your tally posted here publicly, please be sure and let me know!) And if you haven’t taken the challenge, there’s still plenty of time to join up. Read the original post for the rules.
Item #2: I’ve been getting lots of offers for guest posts here, and I’m really grateful for those as well. I’ll probably post one per week, so if you have sent me a guest post and don’t see it here right away, please know that I have it and will let you know before it goes up. I’m happy to make Fake Plastic Fish less about Beth Terry in Oakland and more about a community of people attempting to live responsibly and sharing ideas about how to do it.
Item #3: Regarding yesterday’s Bulk Bins post, many people have asked how I avoid paying for the weight of the container when I bring my own jars and cloth bags to the stores to fill from the bulk bins. Here’s the answer. In the stores where I shop, the cashiers are able to deduct the weight of the bag or container (aka tare weight) from the total weight of the item. Different stores handle this in different ways.
At Rainbow Grocery, customers weigh their own empty containers at a station in the store and write the weight on a sticker on their container before they fill it with food. At Whole Foods, the staff at the customer service desk weigh customers’ empty containers. At Berkeley Bowl, the employee at the bulk counter can weigh your empty container. At my butcher shop, the scale has a tare feature for deducting the weight of the pot. Basically, the butcher puts the pot on the scale, then zeros it out, and then fills it with chicken, and the scale only registers the weight of the chicken. Oh, and my cloth Ecobags have the tare weight printed right on the label, so I can just show it to the cashier when checking out.
The point is that many stores that sell food in bulk bins have ways to deduct the weight of the container. You just have to find out what method they use before you buy.
Item #4: Last week, I was happy to be interviewed for a cool project that my friend Manuel is working on to find out what happens to Bay Area recycling. You can listen to the Interview here on BlogTalk Radio or read a condensed version of the interview on the Spot.us web site.
Item #5: Oh, nevermind. This one had to do with Adam Lambert, “Beth I Hear You Calling,” and how to get Michael to wear guyliner. Not really appropriate for Fake Plastic Fish, so forget I mentioned it. (But seriously, you should have seen me spastically flapping my arms in the air Wednesday night as Adam sang to me.)
Have a great weekend. See you on Tuesday with a double plastic tally.
