Archive for November, 2010

Good-Bye Toshiba Laptop. Hello Secondhand Sony Vaio.

Dear Toshiba Satellite S105 Laptop Computer: I’m sorry I never gave you a better name in the 9 years that we were together. I was so sad last week when I traded you in at CeX in Berkeley for a bigger, faster, more powerful computer. For a second, I thought I might jump across the [...]

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Green Gifts Don’t Have to Suck

I’m starting to feel anxious already. The start of the holiday shopping season is upon us, with the stampedes of Black Friday coming up in just a few days, followed by the Internet shopping frenzy of Cyber Monday. I tend to put on my Grinch Face and hide at home during the holiday shopping season. [...]

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Plastic State of Mind Parody Video is extra fun today

Yesterday, L.A. County voted to ban single-use plastic bags. And this morning, Green Sangha — an organization I’ve been part of since 2007 — released an awesome new video by filmmaker Ben Zolno of New Message Media. Watch, enjoy, and please pass it on to your friends. The message is serious.  The medium is total, [...]

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The Truth About “America Recycles Day”

Today is America Recycles Day, brought to you by The American Chemistry Council, Pepsico, Nestle, and other mega corporations hoping that YOU will take responsibility for the plastic waste THEY produce so they won’t have to. “America Manages To Toss Disposable Packaging Into The Recycling Bin When It’s Convenient” Day When most people tell you [...]

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Show Your Plastic. Make a Quilt.

If you’ve been waiting to join the Show Your Plastic Trash Challenge, this coming week is your chance to not only collect and analyze your personal plastic waste, but also to be a part of a gorgeous traveling exhibit — the International Plastic Quilt Project — which is encouraging people to live plastic-free and to [...]

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The Story of Electronics: Planned Obsolescence Sucks

One of the strategies I use to acquire less new plastic is to fix stuff that breaks instead of replacing it with new gadgets and to use resources like Craigslist, Freecycle, and thrift stores to get it secondhand. So I get really irritated when despite my best efforts, I find that my broken gadgets are [...]

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Plastic is a Social Justice Issue (Van Jones at TEDxGP2)

I’m back from the TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch conference and feeling refreshed.  I’ve got many things to report about plastic toxicity, plastic and animals, plastics legislation, and even a new product that you’ll be excited about.  The videos will be posted on the web in a few days, and I’ll let you know when they’re up so you [...]

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Watch it here: TEDx Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Please join me here on Fake Plastic Fish tomorrow (or today if you’re reading this on Saturday) for an unprecedented worldwide web event on plastic pollution. The TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch conference takes place Saturday, Nov 6 from 8:30am to 6pm Pacific Time. I’ll be joining an incredible lineup of speakers, including Dr. Sylvia Earle, Van Jones, David [...]

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Good News! October 2010 Plastic Waste Tally

3.7 oz Plastic Waste [3.2 oz new/.5 oz acquired prior to June 2007] I’ll get to October’s plastic tally in a minute, but first, a little story… I finally got to deduct some items from my plastic collection! Every couple of months I end up with a plastic bottle of Balance IT cat supplement, which [...]

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Reusable Cloth Sandwich / Snack Bags Review

Disposable plastic sandwich and snack baggies are some of the biggest sources of lunchtime waste. When I was growing up, I brought at least two or three of them to school every day: one covering my sandwich and a couple more protecting my carrots and Cheese Doodles. But we have a ton of reusable cloth [...]

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