Comments on: Come Out! The Plastic Pollution Coalition Wants You, and So Do I

By: ODog

ODog — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:22:48 +0000

One way to avoid single use plastics that I’ve never seen mentioned is declining straws and lids for drinks. I would estimate 95% of restaurants AUTOMATICALLY give you a straw when you order a drink. Occasionally, the waitress will just put the unopened straw on the table, which makes it easy not to use and for the staff to just–hopefully–use for someone else. But usually they serve you the drink with an unwrapped (or top of the wrapper left on) straw already in your drink. In my experience, ordering a Coke and saying, “I don’t need a straw with that” yields a success-rate of about 45%. That’s how ingrained the “give everyone a straw” mentality is with service-industry personnel in our country. But eliminating straw use 45% of the time is better than 0% and, who knows, perhaps hearing it from enough customers may trigger something in the minds of restaurant workers to keep the straw machine from being on auto-pilot.

As for lids on drinks, fast food joints that have their soft drink machines behind the counter will automatically just lid you right up, regardless of whether you’re dining in. Make it a point to say, “I don’t need a lid with that drink” and you’ll again get my unscientific 45% guesstimate success rate. But hey, give it a shot, and maybe eventually it’ll sink in that plastics like these are rarely necessary. I’m sure most of you already go out of your way to fend off things like straws and lids in day-to-day life, but I thought I’d mention it just in case!

By: celia

celia — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 20:46:39 +0000

I am so impressed with all this anti-plastic brainstorming! Congrats on making yogurt. I must start doing that again. It’s been 30 years!
This morning I paid a visit to UCSD which has been named #15 on the list of green universities in the country by The Sierra Club Magazine. Sorry, I graduated from there, but sadly they are far from the mark. I couldn’t find a drinking fountain anywhere! I walked and walked all over this huge campus. Most of the kids I saw, all these bright kids who are the hope of the future, drinking from PET bottles. I was promoting Jack Johnson’s concert. Very few people even knew who he is! Yikes! I was shocked. Gotta go authentically green and gotta love good music!! Rock on plastic-free!

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 15:48:11 +0000

Went to see JB at the Beacon last week. I got his message about plastic and did my research. I’m all in … we got our stainless steel water bottles and reusable towels that replace 300 rolls of paper towels. We keep 10 reusable shopping bags in the car now.

My big worry is what do I do with all the plastic bowls and restaurant take out containers in our closet … Idon’t want to recycle for fear they will wind up in the ocean

By: claire

claire — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:43:51 +0000

considering I do this already, I took the pledge. do I need a t-shirt? probably not, but I’d be glad to spread awareness about plastic pollution by wearing one. the part of me that examines everything and anything for plastic wants to make note that the silk screen (and probably the tag too) on the t-shirt is likely made of plastic.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 02:02:52 +0000

Ok… so here it is… I’m totally doing it…. I’m nervous… I’m excited… it’s going to be AWESOME!!

http://itstartswithme-danielle.blogspot.com/2010/09/plan.html

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 01:02:59 +0000

Beth… sure thing. :) I was going to do the “Show Your Plastic Challenge” awhile back… but decided against it….only because based on eliminating the majority of our trash I know exactly what I need to change… however, I’m feeling the need to prove (and show) that I DO have unnecessary waste at my house… and that it’s (hopefully) really not that hard to eliminate it. (Our 3 kids will be the true test of this for our family!)

Which by the way, I’ll go ahead and share my first discovery/ victory today at the Farmers Market… I buy feta and chevre at the FM… normally he sells them in plastic containers or wrapped in plastic…. so I told him my plans (and we talked about plastics.. he buys his containers by the 1000′s and they’re wrapped in plastic!!) Then…he told me to bring my own container (glass jar) and to call his wife and let her know what I want!! AND… he said, “I wish more people would do that.” I’m so stoked to do this!!

And on a side note, I had written a local ocean front restaurant about restaurant litter on the beach… I got a call from the general manager this afternoon and after a great conversation she said that if I know of any products that they could switch to (I mentioned that they should get rid of straws and such… esp. on the pier)… that they would definitely be interested… and they want to work together. I LOVE local businesses. Know of any awesome products or companies to recommend??

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 20:53:07 +0000

Regarding the yogurt…

At first I tried putting the jar of yogurt-to-be in a thermos of warm water, but it didn’t keep it warm enough. Now I’m putting the jar in a whole cooler full of warm water and that did the trick. I think there just wasn’t enough thermal mass of water in the small thermos for it to maintain its temperature.

So my process now is: scald the milk in a double boiler (just put the milk in a mason jar and submerge the mason jar in boiling water.) Watch it like a hawk, and stir constantly until it reaches 185F (85C). Then put the jar of milk into a bath of cool water and cool it down to 110-115F. Then add the culture (generally I just use a spoonful or two from the last batch). Then put the jar into a cooler full of warm water (about 115F) and stick the cooler in the closet next to the chimney for the hot water heater (warmest spot in the house). Let it sit for 8-10 hours and voila! The only problem left is remembering that it’s in there! One time I forgot and let it culture for 20 hours. I thought it would have gone bad but it didn’t, it was just a bit more tart than usual. I hate to imagine the science experiment if I forgot it for several days though!

It’s MUCH cheaper than store bought yogurt, tastes better, there’s no plastic, and it lets me use up all of the extra milk! (The dairy milk comes in half gallon glass jars, and it’s only lightly pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized like the stuff you get in the grocery store, so it only lasts for a week, and there’s no way I can drink a half gallon of milk in a week!)

By: Beth Terry

Beth Terry — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:27:54 +0000

Hey Danielle, that’s cool. If you do collect your plastic waste for the week before, would you be up for posting it to the “Show Your Plastic Challenge” page? http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic A before and after would be really inspiring!

Denise, I love that you are doing 2 ideas per month. Are you posting these somewhere?

Debra, hope to see you tomorrow night!

Rebecca, what are you using to keep the temperature steady? The few times I’ve made yogurt, I found that a Thermos worked really well.

Isabel, contact PPC! They aspire to be a worldwide organization. http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/about/contact/

Tracey, you rock.

By: Debra Baida

Debra Baida — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 16:31:45 +0000

I signed, I Facebooked, I’m fully on board. (But you knew that before “the pledge” ; )
If I finish with a client in time, I’ll be sure to swing by the even tomorrow night!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 11:47:11 +0000

I signed the pledge… although that’s already happened… who knew I was on my way to being a superhero!! ;) Following on FB… (don’t tweet)

BUT… here’s what I’m planning… the week of Sept 26… I’m wanting to buy NO foods in plastic…. A couple of years ago, we were able to eliminate our trash service…and the ONLY trash that we do have is mostly plastic packaging from food that can’t even be recycled. I’ve wanted to do this for years…. but somehow there is a “fear”… and it could be that we’re a family of 5… don’t have a Whole Foods and kids can be pretty darn selective in what they eat. BUT… it’s in my brain… it’s festering… so I know that I’m going to do it… AND, I may have my mom talked into doing it with me (however, she does have a Whole Foods… jealous!!)

I’m planning on keeping track of all my plastic waste the week before… and then seeing how much less plastic waste we produce just by avoiding ALL foods in plastic… that even means the little plastic screens in pasta boxes.

I want to do this… and I want to make it lasting…

Any advice would be much appreciated…