The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Category Archives: Events

May 19, 2009

Leatherback Sea Turtle friends Plastic Sea Monster at Bay to Breakers 2009 and both win!

No plastic tally this week. Didn’t have time or energy to do it Sunday after WINNING THE COSTUME CONTEST AT THE 2009 BAY TO BREAKERS!

(I’ll add last week’s plastic to my next tally.)

Eli Saddler of Oceanhealth.org and I participated as a leatherback sea turtle and the plastic that kills it in an effort to bring awareness to the problems of plastic in the ocean and encourage Bay to Breakers attendees to bring their own bottles… next time. Mostly, we just had fun. Well, I did. Eli was sweating buckets in his sea turtle costume made of polar fleece from recycled plastic bottles. Who knew the weather in San Francisco would suddenly be so warm?

Click the above image to see our costumes up close. Here’s a short video of the day. We had a blast, and winning in the “Green” division of the costume contest is worth the sunburn I’ve got now. (And yes, I had my sunscreen with me, and no I didn’t remember to apply … Read the rest

April 22, 2009

EARTH DAY 2009 LESS PLASTIC PLEDGE

Last Wednesday, at Oakland’s Earth Expo, I asked attendees to fill out green pledge cards vowing to give up some plastic from their lives. Those who pledged were entered in a random drawing for a gift basket, containing all kinds of less-plastic goodies: ChicoBag, reusable water bottle, & bamboo cutlery donated by Whole Foods Oakland; cloth produce bag donated by Green Sangha; LunchBots containers; GlassDharma straw; LaundryTree soapnuts; Ecology Center membership, all donated by those respective companies.

And the winner is: MagdaLena Koper!

Many people took the pledge on Wednesday, and I thought it would be nice to share their responses here. Would you like to take the pledge too? Please leave a comment below. I’ll come up with a small surprise gift for one lucky online winner.

To do my part to spare our oceans from plastic pollution and take responsibility for plastic waste, I pledge to replace the following plastic ite… Read the rest

April 17, 2009

Oakland Earth Expo – Went to Teach and Learned a Few Hard Lessons

I would love to show you the photo of a plastic-bedecked Beth flanked by a class of enthusiastic middle schoolers during Oakland’s Earth Expo on Wednesday. I’d also love to show you the photos I captured of an ironic stray plastic bag in flight over the Expo grounds. Unfortunately, I can’t show you these images because I carelessly left my camera unattended on the display table for a few minutes, and it got bored and ran away.

If you are the person who helped liberate my camera, can you please at least send back the memory card? It’s not worth much, but I’d sure like to have those photos. I’ve already replaced the camera with a much smaller model, one which I’ll keep securely in my pocket next time. (More plastic waste for the tally this week. Another of my less than mindful moments. *Sigh*)

I’m very grateful to the helpful folk who took pictures and sent them to me: Oakland Zero Waste Initiative Team Le… Read the rest

March 3, 2009

A Jedi is always prepared…

… with her/his reusable travel mug or water bottle. And this post is just an excuse to show off the depths of our geekitude last Saturday at San Francisco’s WonderCon comic book convention.

Really, it was a wonderland of plastic… plastic action figures, plastic-wrapped posters, plastic bags, plastic boobs (I think). We only went for the opportunity to dress up in costumes left over from the short film Reservoir Jedi, made by Michael and his friend Andy several years ago, and for the chance to see what Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher look like up close these days.

But even at a fantasy convention, the rules of Fake Plastic Fish apply. Michael had his Klean Kanteen, I had my travel mug, and we both refused the plastic swag bag offered at the entrance to the fest.

We walked around looking fabulous (I would so totally dress like this every day if I could get away with it) but did not buy anything but coffee. On the way to the convention center, … Read the rest

August 26, 2008

Searching for plastic-free water at Outside Lands wears me out.

I love music more than ice cream. Even more than fudge sauce. And to me, the band Radiohead is like magic. I don’t understand how they make the exquisite and sometimes excruciating sounds that they do. I just know that as long as there are humans on this planet whose organized noise can move me to tears every single time I hear it, there must be hope for us.

So for a few months, I’ve been really looking forward to seeing my first Radiohead show live at the SF Outside Lands music festival in Golden Gate Park. And I was also pleased that this festival was being billed as a green event and planned to visit a section they called Ecolands, where there would be all kinds of “green” organizations and vendors measuring carbon footprints, collecting recycling (including old cell phones), and serving up organic food.

So I wasn’t really worried when I got to the festival entrance on Friday and was asked (after my bag was searched) to em… Read the rest