Saturday, March 14, 2009

Week 16 Plastic Waste


Here's my waste for the week:

- another Metrocard
- razor head for my Mach 3
- Wrigley's wrapper
- 2 dental floss containers
- mechanical toothbrush head
- hair goo jar
- eye drop vial
- bottle of expired aspirin

Metrocard - I really should check with the MTA to see if there are better options. Razor head- I have 3 more new ones, they should last me a long while. Wrigley's wrapper- once again, it looked like paper through the vending machine glass. I wasn't looking very closely, obviously. Dental floss- I have 2 more of these around, so it'll be a while before I look for a less plastic option. Toothbrush head- thanks to a trip to Costco pre-pledge, I'll be using these for a long time yet. Hair goo jar- been hanging on to this for a while. There is no "chasing arrows" symbol on it, but there is a big PP marked on the bottom. Probably means polypropylene. But without that #5 stamp it can't be recycled through Gimme 5. Aspirin bottle- not recyclable. Ideas for what to do with the old aspirin? It is over a year past the expiration date.

6 comments:

Gruppie Girl said...

You look like a serious flosser!

Anonymous said...

PP is definitely polypropylene. I'll bet Gimme5 would take it.

Have you heard of Eco-Dent floss? Comes in a cardboard box. Minimal plastic.

Juli said...

Beth- I've been looking for Eco-Dent since you posted about it a few months ago. It isn't sold at the 'usual suspect' places- WF, Fairway's organic dept., the local health food store. But I'll keep looking. Those places carry other items from Eco-Dent, but not the floss.

Gruppie Girl- you'd think I had a serious flossing habit! But no, these were partial containers that were hanging around and I finally used them up.

Anonymous said...

Hi Juli. Have you requested it from Whole Foods? I have found that ours is very accomodating to requests from customers, especially if they already carry other items of that brand.

Juli said...

Beth- haven't requested the Eco Dent yet, but plan to. Still working on getting rid of my floss stash :)

Anonymous said...

Hey Julie,

A suggestion for the metrocard, you can always refill the balance on a used card at the computerized vending machines! They give you the option of refilling a balance on an old card. However, I'm not sure if this would work if you're buying monthly unlimited passes...and also, great work on reducing waste!