November 4, 2007
Week 20 Results: 22.1 oz of plastic
No, it’s not my Halloween costume. Any guesses? Read on. Here’s the weekly tally:
Non-recyclable items used this week but purchased before the plastic project began:
- 5 Refresh Endura single-use eye drop containers (#4 plastic).
- 1 pump sprayer cap from a bottle of Formula 409 all-purpose cleaner. See below.
- 1 cap from a bottle of Act fluoride rinse. See below.
- 1 cap from a bottle of dried onions. See below.
- 5 pieces of plastic from various iPod accessories packages. I’m forever discovering little plastic goodies while cleaning.
- 1 plastic liner from a queen-size mattress cover. This thing had gotten all ripped up, so I just decided it was time to stop sleeping on plastic and removed the lining from the cover. It’s a pretty heavy hunk of plastic.
Recyclable items used up this week but bought before the project began:
- 32-oz bottle of Formula 409 all-purpose cleaner (#2 plastic). As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve switched to vinegar and water for all-purpose cleaning these days. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.
- 18-oz bottle of Act fluoride rinse (#3 plastic.) This is the last one! As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been debating whether to continue to purchase fluoride rinse once these bottles are used up. After checking with several dentists, I’ve decided to forego the fluoride and see how my teeth fare. I have, however, found a possible alternative for mouth rinse. Will write about it in a future post if it turns out well. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.
- 3-oz bottle of McCormick dried onions (#1 plastic). As I use up bottled spices, I replace them with bulk spices that I’ll store in glass jars. This bottle goes in our recycling bin.
And that’s all the old stuff. Now for the new plastic waste.
- 1 wrapper from a block of Loleta Cheese Company organic sharp white cheddar.
- A bit of plastic from around a Recycline toothbrush container. The toothbrush and the rest of the container get sent back to Recycline.
- 1 plastic cap from a glass bottle of Straus organic milk.
This week, I also got rid of a bunch of plastic packing materials that I’d been storing. I took the Styrofoam peanuts to The Packaging Store, where they will be reused, and I gave the box of bubble wrap to a Freecycler who wanted it for an art project. These were materials I’d had before beginning this project. As I’ve written before, nowadays when I get new plastic packaging, I send it back where it came from.
Beth, I am so done with pastic, after reading your blog! Minneapolis has a long way to go before we can be called eco-friendly. I am part of a group of concerned Minneapolis REALTORS who are making Green Homes in Minnesota a household word. We need a our Minneapolis MLS to help us market Green homes. We work with Minnesota Green builders and Green home buyers to search for just the right MN Green Homes for sale. If you are interested in Minnesota Green Real Estate homes, please contact one of our helpful green REALTORS in MN
That heavy plastic liner for your mattress pad can serve a multitude of uses, such as if you cut parts of it to fit the passenger floorboard of your nonexistent car so that during the rainy season your wet and muddy-footed passengers can drip themselves and their belongings onto it instead of the regular floor cover. I think it would be too slick and therefore slippery for the driver’s side.
You look kind of like Benazir Bhutto or Mother Teresa or some other Muslim or religious person.
Which gives me an idea:
Can we find passages in the Koran and the Bible which can be interpreted as banning plastic? Something like, “And thou shalt make thy vessel out of clay, or of wood, or of gold, or silver, or bronze, for all other materials are abominations in my sight … and when you have used thy vessel, thou shalt not discard it by thy path, nor in thy well, nor in the sea, nor upon the earth that I have created …” You know, something like that. So that all good religious people would have to obey it. That’s like three billion!