My name is Beth Terry, and I live in Oakland, CA. In June of 2007, while recovering from surgery, I read the article and saw the photo that changed my life. The article was entitled, “Our Oceans Are Turning Into Plastic… Are We?” and the photo showed the carcass of a dead sea bird, its belly full of plastic pieces: bottle caps, cigarette lighters, even a toothbrush. I looked at my own life and realized that through my unconscious overconsumption, I was personally contributing the the suffering of creatures I hadn’t even known existed.
That week, I committed to stop buying new plastic, and a passion and blog were born: My Plastic-free Life (known originally as Fake Plastic Fish.)
Finding Alternatives
I’ve been blogging away here ever since, collecting and tallying my own plastic waste (in 2011, my plastic waste was 2% of the U.S. average) and researching plastic-free alternatives (see my ongoing Plastic-Free Guide). I enjoy reviewing alternative products from ethical companies. Please see my Advertising/Review/PR policy for more information.
Targeting Companies
Personal responsibility is crucial, and I don’t believe we can solve our plastic problem without it. But even greater results are achieved when consumers come together to demand change from the corporations that produce the stuff. From the beginning, I took the time to write and call companies asking for less plastic packaging. And in 2008, I spearheaded a massive campaign, Take Back The Filter, to ask Clorox to take back its plastic Brita water filter cartridges for recycling, as was already being done by the Brita company in Europe. The campaign was a success for all involved, and Brita filters can now be recycled in the U.S. and Canada.
Collecting Plastic
Living with less plastic is really not as hard as it seems, but our awareness of disposable plastic in our lives can be transformative. To that end, I threw down the gauntlet and invited readers to collect and tally their own plastic waste for a week and upload the results to a new Show Your Plastic Trash web site. How can we know where we need to go if we don’t know where we are to begin with? Solving the plastic pollution problem will require more than individual personal actions. But individual actions and personal awareness are essential for creating the kind of world in which we want to live and the impetus to spark bigger actions.
Presentations
I enjoy giving presentations on living with less plastic and why, despite what critics sometimes say, our personal actions do make a difference.
Plastic Free Book
June 2012 saw the release of my first book, Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too (Skyhorse), a practical guide to ridding your life of plastic. The book was so successful that the publisher released an updated version in 2015 with a brand new chapter and foreword by the musician Jack Johnson. Read more about the book and order your copy here.
Other places you’ll find me ranting about plastic around the web:
Twitter: @PlasticfreeBeth
FaceBook: beth.terry1
YouTube: Bethfly
Flickr: FakePlasticFish
Sometimes I succeed. Sometimes I fail. Sometimes I’m a lot preachier than I mean to be, and afterwards I feel like a jerk. Really, I’m no different from anyone else who cares about the planet.
Feel free to contact me directly.
I just read your 100 steps to becoming plastic free and am excited to incorporate some of them into my own life! However, I don’t see how I will ever find the time to make my own condiments, plant milks, etc while juggling full time work + study. Just curious if you have a job outside of your blog/book and how you manage to earn a living while also living plastic free. Any advice on how to manage a career while living sustainably?
Unrelated question: what do you do in social situations/events when there is no plastic free options? E.g I compete in running events where one has to wear a plastic race number, and I often go out with friends to the movies (plastic tickets) or to eat (plastic containers). How do you not socially isolate yourself with a plastic free life?
Hi, Holly. Sorry for the delay. I do have an accounting job outside of keeping up this website, which is why I haven’t updated it in a very long time. Please don’t be overwhelmed by this list. It is merely a resource for people who want plastic-free options, but by no means do I think everyone should try to do them all. If we’re going to solve this problem, we need change on a systemic level. So choose whatever steps feel right for you, and then call on businesses and legislators to make the bugger changes we need. If you’re in the United States, this page has a list of actions you can take. Once again, don’t feel overwhelmed. Read through and choose the one or ones that speak to you.
As far as social situations, I take them on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes I bring my own dishes, containers, etc. Sometimes it’s not possible. Once again, do what feels right to you. But also, challenge yourself a little bit.
My aunt is also trying to reduce plastic use to. You can look her up on the internet. Plastic-free Marissa’s
I am a student at UCLA researching who we can reduce plastics in personal care products. I would love to get all your feedback on the waste you produce at home. Please help us by taking this 3 minute survey: http://ucla.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7aeek6vFoIjzMVv
Your site is an inspiration and I had read about you in Susan Freinkel’s book, “Plastic, A Toxic Love Story”! I’ve recently started a blog after many years of leading a community environmental group and hope I can spread the message beyond my town’s borders: https://greenthatlife.com/
We are a sustainable startup providing alternatives to single-use plastic bags by making bags made of natural, eco-friendly fibers like cotton, jute, juton and recycled cotton. We are very impressed with your initiative and it is a matter of great pleasure that you are with us on this agenda to save our planet from plastic abuse.
Can you please take out some of your precious time and check out our eco-friendly bags? We need your support in the cause we are spreading.
Thank you so much!! 🙂
Much love,
https://www.ecorightbags.com/
just impressd with your work..would love to know more and read more about the actions you have taken..
truely inspiring
I came across your website and so happy I did! Looking forward to more.
Hello Beth.
What a pleasure to come across your website, specifically the post about toothbrushes. I am so interested in the boar’s hair brush. Reading down the page, I was baffled to read that you only eat sustainable pork from Marin or Sonoma Counties. Sonoma County is my home. It is lovely to read about others being thoughtful about their consumption and so close to home.
Thank you for your inspiration.
Just found your site by chance browsing,……power to you! We are pretty much on the same thought level when it comes to plastic (see here: https://thesolidbarcompany.com/ ), so go girl!
Kudos to you. Thank you for being a voice in this frustrating, nonsensical phenomenon that is our unconscious addiction to plastic. Looking forward to reading your blog and receiving updates.
Dear Beth. Thank you so much for your article and your website. I don’t feel lonely anymore. When I speak about the damages that plastic make around the world and show the same pictures that you have, people look at me like if I was crazy ! But I am willing to pursue my mission, which is to help protect this wonderful planet and make sure that our children and their kids will enjoy it as we did when we were kids.
Beth Terry fritzlinda CRESBI crates are made of virgin polypropylene. I initially looked at using recycled plastic but the strength of that material cannot always be consistent and I wanted CRESBI crates to be the last piece of plastic you’d ever need to buy and also one that was appropriate for food products. Would love to try making them out of something non-fossil fuel (aluminium? wood?) but they’d need to be something people could afford, that could handle temperature extremes (like being dishwasher safe), and would last forever.
fritzlinda What are the crates made out of?
Thanks for the great tips, I’ll be following you on twitter, Beth! As a farmer of fresh edamame I’d purchased some collapsible bins to deliver produce in to avoid soggy boxes and ended up coming up with a system for carrying groceries I call CRESBI crates. It replaces plastic bags and cheap reusable ones (we offer a 10 cent credit towards a CRESBI crate because most reusable bags can’t be recycled and end up in landfills, we weave them into pet rugs or use as “packaging”). Since most people don’t examine things as deeply as you’ve done the CRESBI crates appeal to them because they avoid the hassle of too many plastic bags plus they can save time, their products and even their health. The strap is made in America so we can brand it and so I do a lot of cold-calling on businesses. I’ve got a new competitor since this spring with deep pockets and a long retail history who’s hussling an inferior crate just to reap profits, I can’t even get my product on QVC Sprouts and they’ve been on QVC twice; they got into Home Depot but many of their crates were returned because they broke so easily and were so flimsy. Any ideas for me to win out and get more people aware of a company who cares more about the planet and not about the profits? Amazed at what you did with the filters! (I did almost make it onto Shark Tank!). Thanks, Beth!
I am a professor in China, it is welknown that it is getting more and more serious here using plastic. Driving along any way in my living place, plastic bags are lying in the field, and the wind could blow them flying in the air which is not a pleasure.
I like your move and want to do something like you.
Su Bing
Oh My Goodness!! BETH TERRY THANKYOU!! I have just discovered you now.
I, too, was deeply impacted and somewhat transformed when, in about 2010, I learnt about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
I’d long been a waste reduction person at heart since my high school days in the 1990s when I learnt about the rapidly shrinking spaces we have left for dumping rubbish. I was one of those kids who picked up rubbish on the street just to make sure it got to a recycle bin.
However my passion for the subject escalated when, while working as a radio producer for a talk show, (in Sydney Australia) I heard about the GPGB , saw the photos of the plastic-choked bird carcasses, and we in fact got hold of Charles Moore to do a phone interview with him.
His discoveries blew my mind.
Then and there, I wanted to become an emissary for plastic-free-living.
I was single at the time and so it wasn’t too hard.
I started writing with only pencils because they were made of natural substances and I couldn’t find a pen that didn’t have plastic.
I started getting rid of all the plastic containers in the house and researching things like metal / wooden lunch boxes.
I started wrapping my sandwiches in paper and stopped buying gladwrap.
I had a growing list of tasks in my head for slowly replace all the plastic in my life with natural substances.
However, not long after, I got married, and then adjusting to life with a new hubby and step children became my priority.
The idea of organic sugar-free food and chemical-free cleaning products were enough to send my new family into a panic alone… But eschewing glad wrap, plastic lunchboxes, plastic toys, textas & pens? They would have thought me mad. I could see that my idea of being a Plastic Free Prophet wasn’t going to work, at least, not then and there.
So the whole idea went on the shelf and here I am , three years later, still buying plastic things.
Beth, I am so excited to have discovered your blog today. You’ve reminded me how important this cause is, and I think I’m going to start again, finding ways to slowly shift over to a lifestyle that cares for our planet.
Thankyou again.
Your latest new fan! 🙂
Clare
@Stevi Thank you!
I am in awe of your site and your amazing list that you generously compiled and shared. I am excited to begin this lifestyle for our planet and hope to help my daughter understand now at an early age (she will be 4 in December) that we need to stop consuming plastic. Thanks.
Very cool! you are inspiring towards ….. well, everyone. Please check out my environmental website: stegirls.wordpress.com
Thanks!
I also recycle my clothing by re-fashioning, as I call it. Followed Marissa Lynch’s New Dress a Day website years ago and started doing the very same thing shortly thereafter. Not being a very good seamstress, I can still alter my own clothing to make it wearable, and have found some great finds at garage sales and thrift stores. About 70% of my wardrobe is “reused”. I get bored with things easily, so this is a way to feed my addiction without breaking the bank, or the planet.
@Stevi Would love to see some pics of your re-fashioned clothing. I too enjoy buying my clothes from thrift stores, it’s a lot of fun!
If you want all the information you can possibly absorb on this subject, get on your local library’s website, do a search (which is very easy to do), have your library card ready, and start reading and learning. I have read hundreds of books on this subject. As they say, “knowledge is power”. You will find many similarities between books, which in my opinion, means the facts are true and the research is solid. Good luck on the road to sustainability!
Good for you! Me too. Doing what I can, and “badmouthing” the plastics industry. I agree with you about the bottled water thing. Suggest you read “Bottlemania” by Elizabeth Royte (author of Garbage Land…also another good book.) Lots of eye-opening information to share with others.
@Stevi Love Garbage Land!
I just finished reading “Plastic: A Toxic Love Story” by Susan Freinkel, and she referenced your story and website in her book. I think what you’re doing is wonderful, and you have my full support. Over the last few years, being unemployed, I have resorted to reading (from the library of course), anything I can get my hands on related to ecology, simplicity, recycling, politics, and living lightly on the earth. Over 200 books later, I’ve learned one major thing…our country runs on greed; not on the good of the people or of the planet. God won’t have to intervene. We will destroy this planet on our own if something isn’t done to stop the mass destruction of our planet. It isn’t an easy road to start on, but a road we must take, and I am personally doing everything I can to live lightly and conscientiously on our beautiful planet. Good luck to you in getting the “word out”. My prayers are with you.
I became aware of the ocean pollution problem when viewing videos on youtube of Capt. Moore. Another one who had my mellow harshed. I have been uncomfortable for years by the prevalent amount of packaging in stores but didn’t quite make the connection to the ocean. I always thought plastc bags were a bad idea as well as plastic bottles for drinks. We are so awashed with it it’s almost unavoidable. Recently I began shopping at Whole Foods where I can buy milk in glass returnable bottles and meat packaged in butcher paper. These are the small but steady changes we need to make. We need to urge manufacturers that we buy from to make all possible changes to packaging. Bottled water needs to fade into history, a highly profiting & polluting idea that should be killed off. So many people are ignorant of what is happening. I am starting to write articles on sustainability and wildlife conservation.
It’s awesome what you’re doing, congratulations!
The picture you show is quite unbelievable. It shows a bird skeleton packed full of plastic, so full in fact that there would no longer be any place for the other internal organs. The only plausible explanation is that the plastic were placed there by somebody before taking the picture. The cause to eliminate plastic is good but to make fraudulent photos to prove it is very evil indeed.
@KLIZF Unfortunately, this is absolutely true and has been documented by many different researchers. Midway Island is strewn with similar carcasses. The stomachs are full of plastic. You can watch an actual dissection of one of these birds here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bRZm9AYSuU Where are the internal organs? They have decomposed. All that is left is the plastic.
Hi! I just had a quick question– in the short guide to plastic living on your home page, you mentioned using a bin for your compost that was made of RECYCLED plastic. Do recycled plastics still contain Bisphenol A? I use bags made from recycled plastic bottles to carry groceries; should I start avoiding those too? Thanks!
Hi Kristen. I just depends on what kind of plastic it’s made out of. Polypropylene doesn’t contain BPA, whether it’s recycled or not. I wouldn’t avoid recycled reusable bags either. PET #1 plastic, which disposable water bottles are made out of, doesn’t contain PET. That said, I’m not encouraging you to go out and buy new bags made from plastic, but using what you already have is fine.
HI. I would love to learn more about your project. Please email me at beth [at] myplasticfreelife [dot] com!
I used to think that all plastic could be recycled so I put it all in the recycle box, but, then I found out they only accept some things and the rest is to be put in the garbage, it makes me feel sick, it’s wrong, so I have been trying to come up with ideas to reuse the plastic and find ways to use less. I have been reusing plastic boxs and other things for about 20 years, I buy lot’s of second hand things for my home and business, I reuse as much as possible to create my jewellery, but I need to do more and Im always looking for new ideas. Your website is great and now I have so many new ideas to change the way I live. Thank you so much for doing this! God bless you!
Jacqueline Neves
@JacquelineNeves Thank you!
Dear Beth,
Only thing that comes to mind bout your site is to paraphrase the song and say “I been waiting for a site like this”
While in the past couple of years I have made strides in my lifestyle by reducing my direct and indirect carbon and plastic footprint, i sure needed a site like yours, motivate me to fine-tune some plastic aspects of my life.
I sure will make sure to send you site info to as many ppl in my circle as they would listen.
Thank you again.
NIck
You have inspired me to collaborate with the people in my community and start a new environmental drive out here! Thank you so much, Beth!
@LiveGreen Agree with you! Thanks Beth!
Here is the response I recieved from Highwood Crossing.
>>>Thank you very much for your email and for your on-going support of our organic products. We appreciate hearing about how our customers use the items we make and how we can improve our products and service to you.
The packaging issue that you raise, is something that we also struggle with on a regular basis…
The challenge that we face is trying to find an environmentally friendly container that is reasonably priced, will keep our products fresh, transports well and looks good on the store shelf. While plain paper bags are environmentally friendly and inexpensive, they offer a poor barrier to oxygen and moisture and as a result, the quality and shelf-life of our products is greatly reduced. Plain paper bags also tend to look very “shop worn” after shipping and being handled a few times on the store shelf.
Our decision to use the deli tubs is based on the fact that the product can be easily seen, the container can be opened and re-sealed many times, it provides an excellent oxygen and moisture barrier to keep product fresh, reasonable cost, and they can be easily re-used and/or recycled.
Because of the same concerns that you raise, we do offer both the Power Grains and Steel Cut Oats in a 1kg kraft paper bag with an OPP film liner. While this is technically not a “plain” paper bag, it does offer an excellent barrier to oxygen and moisture and keeps our products fresh for much longer than just plain paper. (The downside to this bag is that because it has a laminated liner, it is not accepted at all recycling programs.) Not all stores carry our products in this type of packaging, but it is available and might be something that you would like to bring to the attention of your local grocer.
We are also looking at a kraft cardboard tube container with a metallic-foil liner to replace the deli tubs. Unfortunately, with this type of package you cannot see the product, they are a lot most expensive and like the laminated paper bags, they are not able to be recycled at all locations.
Again, I really appreciate you taking the time to write us about our products. As a small company with limited resources, this type of feed-back helps us when we are making decisions concerning packaging and other factors. If you have any other observations or suggestions, I would certainly welcome your comments.
Best regards,
Tony
Tony Marshall
Highwood Crossing Foods Ltd.
<<<
Now I’ve done it and it is all your fault.
Before I read your book, it always annoyed me that a company selling organic products would have the nerve to use plastic packaging. After reading your book, I e-mailed Highwood Crossing, https://www.highwoodcrossing.com/ and using your example, complemented them on their great cereals and then said I wonder why a company who makes a fantastic organic product would even think about packaging in plastic and that my experience with their product would be even better if the plastic packaging was replaced with plain paper packaging.
This is so easy to do. I don’t know why I never thought of it before. Hopefully I am not the only one who has contacted Highwood Crossing about it.
Thanks, Beth.
@plimages Great! Let us know what response you get.
I really enjoyed your book–totally inspirational. I was at a grocery store cafe for lunch today and later at an outdoor restaurant for dinner. This evening I emailed both about their use of disposable plastic cups. For the cafe I used your section on bioplastics to discuss how the “compostable” label is misleading, and for the restaurant I requested in a nice way that they consider nondisposable cups for their very yummy drinks. And I mentioned your book to both. Thank you, now I am obsessed. 😉
Fantastic! What was the response from the restaurants?
@Beth Terry The manager of the outdoor restaurant was great. At first she said their team was discussing compostable cups; I mentioned the challenges, citing the pages in your book. In the meantime, her boss emailed her that they had tried compostable but they literally melted in the sun. He told her that given the unique setup of this place, with no dishwasher, it would not work, but that in the future (next summer) they should consider a dish station.
This manager was excited about your book on a personal level as well and is going to buy it. 🙂
I haven’t heard back from the grocery store people. :0
Wow. I have just found your blog today. What an amazing journey you are on. I have found this very inspirational. I am always striving to use less myself. Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I will be reading your blog and book from now on.
LOVE YOU!!!
Beth,
Just listened to your “Living On Earth” interview, and I’d say you are right on target. What an insightful and meaningful action to take in reducing your plastic consumption. And by making the additional effort to go public through talks and your book, I believe you display considerable courage in our wasteful society. You are certainly swimming upstream, against the current, so to speak. Brava! Let’s hope that many others take notice of your example and decide to follow suit.
Best wishes for success wrought by your efforts,
Susan Bernat
NYC
Thanks, Susan! It does feel like swimming upstream, but the truth is that there are a lot of other people… like you… who are swimming along with me. Hoping to reach even more. 🙂
You’re obsessed. But you’re also great. Well done!
@lepage1 I’m definitely obsessed and don’t expect others to be as extreme as I am, but I use myself as an example to see what’s possible and hope others will be inspired to start making changes. I hope that comes across!
I am glad to have found your site. I have spent years thinking and thinking and worrying and worrying more about the environment and EPR and Individual SR and CSR. But have not done anything concrete about spreading the awareness, other than practicing reduced consumption and recycling.
Best wishes in your work.
I would be honored to have you on my radio show!!
Hi Sheila. I would be honored. I will send you an email.
Beth,
I was recently challenged by a good friend to stop using new plastic. I knew it was bad for me and everyone else, but it was difficult to imagine life without it. So I dug in. I did some research. And I have to say that you are my new plastic-free hero. Your commitment and your journey are inspiring. Now, instead of dreading a life without frozen berries, I’m looking forward to the challenge of living more sustainably.
Thank you for sharing your story, for your activism, and for the significant resource your experience is for others. I can’t tell you how much I admire your adventurer spirit the ability to go (among the) first and to report your experiences to the rest of us travelers. I look forward to continuing to read your insights and do keep perusing your previously posted articles.
I don’t really have any intelligent comments right now, just wanted to tell you that your blog is a huge inspiration to me right now… I come back to it all the time and browse for more posts I haven’t read yet – feels much more satisfying than aimlessly browsing YouTube or other things I usually do when I’m too tired or uninspired to do anything else.
Thanks!
Thanks for this great resource. We have started our own project on this issue, and so much of the information here is relevant and useful. We are really working hard on de-plasticizing our personal/family/household lives, but at the same time are very keen on various forms of action–for instance, a locally-directed petition on plastic packaging that we’re working on now.
I like your comment on your “own unconscious overconsumption.” I have considered myself to be “environmentally conscious” for a long time, but since beginning this project on plastic, have become increasingly and often painfully aware of the myriad dimensions of our consumeristic dysfunction. It’s interesting how plastics and overconsumption are so closely intertwined, and dealing with the one inevitably leads to questioning the other. For me, it has really started to bring into even clearer focus issues that I was already aware of, but had not–and still have not fully–grappled with, such as how our definitions of success and work are so often at odds with the needs of sustainability and sanity, at personal, family, and community levels.
Anyway! Thanks for the inspiratioN!
I agree we need to stop all the use of plastics and not just toss things in the trash. Thanks to Oprah’s show where I first learned about this on youtube, I have changed my ways of living with plastic.
I do want to note that that picture is totally staged. What bird has food in its lungs/ribcage? Its so dramatic that it doesn’t look even possibly real.
Hi Preya. Sadly, that photo is not staged at all. It is a Laysan albatross on Midway Island. The island is covered with albatross carcasses filled with plastic just like that. Learn more at http://www.albatrossthefilm.com/.
Hi. I appreciate your job and I post on my blog about
PS I need to read Plastic Ocean but the connection dont’ go. Can you help me to find a good link?
thanx
bye
Andrea Mameli (Cagliari, Sardinia Island, Mediterranean Sea)
Hi Andrea. Sorry about that. The article has been moved. I updated the link and the title. Here is the correct link: https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a19543266/water-pollution/
Why not consider moving away from disposable water filters all together. I purchased one of these water filters over two years ago and love it. Just pour water in the top and get from the built-in tank when needed. It looks like a tea container at a restaurant. They make small to large sizes. A little history below:
As early as 1827, Henry Doulton developed ceramic filters for removing bacteria from drinking water. “Offensive to the sight, disgusting to the imagination and destructive to the health.” This was how London drinking water, which was drawn from the Thames, was described in a pamphlet published in 1827. The Thames was heavily contaminated with raw sewage; cholera and typhoid epidemics were rampant. The first ceramic water filters were made using various earth and clay materials. By the time Queen Victoria came to the throne, Doulton was established as a manufacturer of domestic and industrial products in a fine stoneware body that bore comparison with any in Europe.
Google “Big Berkey” to find out more.
Hi Beth, I was at your presentation “Hooked on Plastic” a few weeks ago and took away life-changing knowledge. I would like my readers to receive the same knowledge. Looking on your site, I cannot easily find a clear definition on “single-use plastics.” Do you have something that I can refer my readers to? Also, please feel free to read my take on the challenge on my blog. Thanks Nimisha
Hi Nishima. I just posted your October challenge to the Fake Plastic Fish facebook wall.
Single use disposable plastics are exactly what you would imagine — product packaging that is used once and discarded. Bags, wrappers, containers, utensils, cups, bottles, etc. If they are meant to be discarded — either in the trash or the recycling — after use, then they are single use. Mostly, we think of take-out food packaging, but it also includes non-food product packaging (clamshells, blister packs, shipping tape and packing materials, etc.) And it also includes the plastic tubs, jars, and other containers that you buy in the grocery store.
Beth,
What a wonderful blog you write! i have only just found it today, but I am enthralled by it! I am a fairly recent eco convert but in case I was in any doubt, this has well and truly sealed the deal. I’ve taken the liberty of sharing your blog on a forum I frequent https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/plastic-makes-me-a-sad-panda.18149730/ and, although the initial reaction has attracted the normal frostiness, I hope to convince at least a few people to think twice before they get that straw in their soda!
Keep up the great work!
John
Hi Beth-
As I was reading through your plastic-free guide, I noticed that you mentioned Berkeley often…and so I had to see where you reside! YAY! You live in the Bay Area, I like in SF. Just yesterday I started a blog, recording all the plastic I use everyday, hope to cut it down to almost none I realized I kept talking about how our society need to cut back, but never told myself to do it. Its quite shocking how many materials are plastic that I just don’t even think of. yuck.
Anyhow, so glad I found your site! I would love to get more involved in the community as well, so let me know if there is anything I can do to help rather then just my own duties to rid my life of plastic.
Thanks,
Brenna
Thank you so much! I was so happy to find this site. I’ve realized the importance of recycling after my kids were born. During the first week of recycling paper and plastic the amount of our trash per 2 week period changed from 3 large cans to 1/2!!! It seems like one person can’t make a difference, but if compare 3 cans per two weeks over one year versus 1/2 I think it helps A LOT. If we all do a little it adds up to a lot. The problem is not only plastic. We are obsessed with quantity. I’ve started a business of remaking and reusing old clothes (read unwanted in PERFECT condition) to make new garments. We overstuff our closets with things we never wear (hey, it was on sale!), get bored with it and then replace it with more stuff we don’t need. Think about all the energy and resources that goes into making it! I agree, a lot needs to change in our society, but I think it all starts with each and every one of us.
Beth – You are a true inspiration and I love what you are doing!!!! Thanks a million for bringing such awareness!
here is the link :)\
http://sudhasrinath.blogspot.com/2010/02/fake-plastic-fish.html
Hey Beth
I hope you dont mind me mentioning your blog in one of my posts under – Co-green blogs segement… :)..take care and hope to interact with you soon!!!! It would be wonderful to have a friend who thinks on the same lines as I do :)…for that matter is a lot advanced in her quest for a greener life than I am :)….
Hi Chanda. I completely agree with you that one person’s actions don’t make a difference in the larger picture of creating global change, which is why I have created this blog in order to reach a broader audience.
I believe that personal action, while not enough, is crucial. When individuals begin changing their own lives, they see the limits that they are up against, and hopefully will be inspired to become active on a bigger scale. Voting for change not only at the polling place but also in the letters they write, store managers they contact, companies they target, etc.
That is why I created the Take Back The Filter campaign http://www.takebackthefilter.org/ back in 2008 to ask Brita to take back and recycle their plastic water filter cartridges. And the campaign was successful, due to the participation, on small or larger levels, of other people. We were able to concentrate our individual voices into a campaign for change.
That is also why I created a discussion board on Fake Plastic Fish for supporters to discuss various ideas for creating change.
I am looking for another campaign that speaks to me. I want to get involved in making changes in companies that affect me directly. I feel that companies are more willing to listen to their customers because those are the people whose money they rely on. Since I don’t generally eat in food courts, I would like to direct my energies elsewhere, but if you do, I would be happy to share my experiences with how we targeted and succeeded with Brita.
Finding a company that is already making responsible choices is a great way to start. You can use them as an example to request the same changes from other businesses.
When we started our campaign, we were able to point to Brita in Europe, which was recycling their cartridges already and had been doing so for many years. Your idea of finding out how Ikea is operating their eatery is a great place to start. Get as much information as you can before starting a campaign.
Also, it’s good to first target the low hanging fruit. Find a company that seems like it wants to do the right thing, and target them (in a kind way) first. Because once that company makes changes, you can ask other companies to follow their lead. The Clorox Corporation (which owns Brita) was already making environmental strides with their development of Greenworks cleaning products, which had been endorsed by the Sierra Club, and their purchase of natural products companies such as Burt’s Bees. I don’t think we would have been successful targeting a company like Procter & Gamble, their biggest competitor, because that company continues to market the same toxic products without offering alternatives. At least that was the case back then.
These are just some ideas that come to mind right now. If you are serious about beginning a campaign, I would be happy to give you more ideas.
Thank you for reaching out to me.
Hi Beth,
Nice to see others concerned about cruelty to animals and giant garbage patches in our oceans. I think it is time for people like us to unite and take action.
For every person who is aware of this issue there are hundreds of people who squander away earth’s precious resources. One person’s cut backs are not going to make any big difference. Rather we shall try to make food courts in malls etc install dishwashers and make them use reusable plates, cutlery etc.
Ikea is a good example, they don’t use plastic cutlery. I want to know the economics of operating a dishwasher in a food court and want to eliminate wastage in a bigger scale than at the individual level.
Please contact me, we can share ideas and work together towards this goal.
Thanks,
Chandana
Hi Beth – thank you for your investigative comments on the CR blog. You are right there is much more the consumer should know about Harmless-Dissolve; much more.
I am very happy to give you all this information and contribute to the great work you are doing through fake plastic fish. Please e mail me or call (I’m happy to call you straight back) so we can take this forward.
Rest assured Beth, this has passed the EN13432 compostability standard and is totally harmless during degradation and when degraded – its fabulous. And, for someone who has spent most of their life trying to good in the world, its the least I could do as a packaging specialist.
Look forward to getting to know you.
Will
Hi Jeet. I am glad you are working on this project. I have been working on it for over two years. Every detail I have is here on this site or on the sites listed on my right sidebar. I’m not sure what else you are asking for, but please feel free to peruse this site and use the information for your project.
Hello!
I am from India ,I have a keen intrest in knowing about the plastic monster which we have created ourselves.Now finally I got a chance to interact with you .Actually I have an assignment about plastic monster So can you please give me every detail you have or send me sites which would help meto make my project.