Archive for December, 2009

My Cat Eats Plastic

Many of you have seen Chris Jordan’s recent heartbreaking photos of dead albatross chicks on Midway Atoll with bellies full of plastic. And perhaps you have seen, or at least heard how sea turtles eat plastic (PDF), mistaking it for the jelly fish upon which they usually dine.  (Photo courtesy of Seaturtle.org.) Most recently, beached whales [...]

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Can a “Buy Nothing New” Pledge Help Reduce Plastic Consumption?

The following is a guest post from Katy Wolk-Stanley, author of The Non-Consumer Advocate blog. In keeping with last week’s posts about clutter and stuff, Katy’s post illustrates the relationship between plastic consumption and consumerism. Enjoy! My name is Katy Wolk-Stanley and I am a die-hard member of The Compact, (a worldwide buy nothing new [...]

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Homemade Cough Syrup & Other Meds

Do you have a cough right now or know someone who does? Then I want to talk to you. Earlier this month, I caught a cold and towards the end of it was hacking pretty badly. Now, I realize that you don’t want to suppress a productive cough. But this cough was bad enough to [...]

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Learning How to Love Christmas

What I Used to Love When I was a child, Christmas really was the best time of the year.  It meant four kinds of treats from Mom Mom:  sand tarts, Mexican tea cookies, seven layer cookies, and chocolate fudge with walnuts.  It meant driving around to see the colored lights.  Singing holiday songs at school [...]

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What’s Clogging Up Your Life? A Story of Unwatched Videos & Other Stuff

The Hours is one of my favorite movies of all time. My first time seeing it in the theater created such a profound reaction in me that I wept uncontrollably through the entire film. I was still so emotional afterwards, I had to hide in the bathroom stall before facing the world. When people asked [...]

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Year 3, Month 6 Results: 6.9 oz of Plastic Waste

I’m so happy to be writing this post!  Even with all the plastic in the photo above (ugh!) I am thrilled to be typing these words and seeing them appear on the screen. See, I got hacked this weekend, and Fake Plastic Fish went down.  Let this be a lesson to any WordPress bloggers out [...]

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PACT: Changing the World through Changing my Underwear

This is what happened. I generally hate shopping for clothes. And I really hate shopping for underwear, which you often can’t try on. (How can I know how it’s going to fit and feel if I can’t try it on first?) And now, with the added conviction that my undies have to not only feel [...]

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No Impact Man Ch 6 – 8: Plastic-Free Cheese, Saving Money, Living in the Dark

As always, the questions raised in my No Impact Man book posts are relevant to everyone whether they have read the book or not. Please join the discussion. Two days ago I asked: Why are that the majority of Fake Plastic Fish readers female (according to Quantcast)? Reader “underbelly” responded with a theory of gender [...]

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Is Recycling the Answer to Holiday Waste?

A version of this post appears on BlogHer.com today. Actually, no. Recycling is certainly important. We do it in our home. But it’s not enough, and here are a few reasons why. Recycling is a business. Like any business, recycling relies on markets to survive. Do you know what happens to the metal, glass, paper [...]

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Recycle vs. Refill: Conversations with HP, Cartridge World, & Silo Ink

Ah, plastic ink jet cartridges. It’s an ongoing dilemma for someone trying to live with less plastic. My strategy: keep printing to a minimum to save ink and make the cartridges last longer. But after that… I used to have to buy new ones. New plastic. At $40 a pop. (I bought a monster of [...]

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