by Beth Terry
7.4oz of Plastic Waste
2009 is over. Another year of collecting and tallying my own plastic waste. Turns out, my total 2009 plastic collection adds up to roughly 4% of the national average. Really. But I’ll have much more on that in a special post on Monday. This post represents the last bit of plastic waste generated in 2009. It will be short because today finds me in this condition:
Just trying to clear my sinuses with eucalyptus steam and get rid of the blinding headache I’ve been carrying around for the last four days. Are you tired of hearing me kvetch yet?
Alright, here’s the plastic tally from 12/16 to 12/31/09:
Plastic purchased before June 15 2007 and used up in the last half month:
- One bottle of Nyquil plus cap. One of the cough medications I wrote about this week, and for which I have found several homemade alternatives. (See link at bottom of this post.)
- Duct tape. Removed from under the sink during bathroom plumbing surgery.
- Plastic wrapper from The Hours DVD. Purchased long before the project began and finally opened this year. All those other DVDs and CDs I wrote about last week? Sold, baby! Sold to Amoeba Music. I got rid of so many, I was also able to sell my CD tower via Craigslist. And the culling has just begun!
New plastic waste:
- Scotch tape from a Christmas gift received. Mostly, I didn’t receive presents this year (as requested), or givers were conscientious about skipping the plastic for me, or I regifted the rest.
- One plastic seal from around a carton of Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch. Um… I know I said last time that I wouldn’t succumb to this stuff anymore. I guess I lied. I went a little nutty on Christmas. I guess it was one little way to celebrate.
- One plastic seal and plastic ring from a carton of Häagen-Dazs Dulce de Leche. Another Christmas Day indulgence.
- Bottle of Prometh Cough Syrup with codeine, plus cap and plastic cup. The other cough medicine I wrote about this week. See below.
- Bottle of Rolaids plus cap. Once again, see link below.
- Two prescription bottles & caps. Prescription bottles are not refillable by pharmacies where we live. But #5 Rx bottles can be dropped off to Preserve through their Gimme 5 program.
- Plastic window from Greenlite CFL light bulb package. Replaced a burned out incandescent light bulb.
- One plastic Straus milk cap. Straus milk comes in returnable glass bottles, but the caps are still plastic. Read about Straus milk below.
- One plastic-lined Yogi tea packet. From a friend’s house. It looked like paper on the outside. You can’t tell until you open these things.
- Three plastic envelope windows. Two from Safeco Insurance and one from Sierra Club. See post about envelope windows below. (Our local Sierra Club uses glassine, but this one came from the national org.)
- One plastic bag World’s Best Cat Litter. While I’m not ready to completely give up this brand of cat litter, I am planning to cut down in 2010 by combining it with Swheat Scoop wheat litter, which comes in a paper bag. Swheat Scoop is not as effective at odor control or clumping as World’s Best, but mixing them together seems to work okay. See post about cat litter saga below.
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