Comments on: Susan, Week 1 in Plastic http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2009/06/susan-week-1-in-plastic/ Take the challenge. Collect your plastic waste (both recyclable and non) for one week or more. Then photograph, tally, and post it here. What can we learn about our habits and lifestyles by examining our waste? And what changes can each of us make to leave the planet a little less trashy? Sun, 12 May 2013 02:50:10 +0000 hourly 1 By: Fake Plastic Fish http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2009/06/susan-week-1-in-plastic/comment-page-1/#comment-19 Fake Plastic Fish Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:24:11 +0000 http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/?p=13#comment-19 So interesting. I love learning tidbits like this.

We collect our rubber bands for reuse and when I get too many, I donate them to The East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse here in Oakland where teachers and artists come to buy used cheap supplies.

And definitely, they will harm wildlife if not managed properly! Even semi-wildlife like my kitties, who insist that they are food. We have to be so, so careful with rubber bands because they can cause serious damage inside pets if ingested.

]]> By: SusanB http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2009/06/susan-week-1-in-plastic/comment-page-1/#comment-15 SusanB Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:39:07 +0000 http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/?p=13#comment-15 I didn’t do any independent research re rubber bands (or smell them) — just assumed. Here’s a link from a manufacturer:
http://www.cec.com.my/faq.htm
“Main material is “rubber”, usually natural rubber, but some types of synthetic rubber are also used to obtain certain specific quality depending on the application. Besides, fillers such as calcium carbonate, carbon black, clay and additives like sulfur, stearic acid, zinc oxide, wax, oil, accelerators are mixed into rubber as ingredients.”
Anyway, from a trash perscpective, I’m putting them with plastic, because even if natural rubber, they don’t degrade right away, have a lot of stuff in them at a minimum to make those purty colors, and could end up damaging wildlife somehow.

]]> By: Fake Plastic Fish http://myplasticfreelife.com/showyourplastic/2009/06/susan-week-1-in-plastic/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Fake Plastic Fish Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:37:16 +0000 http://fakeplasticfish.com/showyourplastic/?p=13#comment-12 Interesting, I thought rubber bands were made from rubber. And the jury is still out. Check out this Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_band) with completely conflicting information. In one section, it says, “While other rubber products may use synthetic rubber, rubber bands are still primarily manufactured using natural rubber because of its superior elasticity.” In the following section, we read, “Most rubber bands today are produced from synthetic rubber but rubber originated from the sap of the rubber tree.”

Rubber bands do smell like rubber. I’ll have to look into this. I have not been including rubber bands in my tally.

I’m looking forward to seeing your next tally. Just please don’t get “divorced” over it. :-)

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