Oh, crap.

Yet another excellent reason to stop using "disposable" plastic (and paper, and metal):

"Just months after riding an incredible high, the recycling market has tanked almost in lockstep with the global economic meltdown. As consumer demand for autos, appliances and new homes dropped, so did the steel and pulp mills' demand for scrap, paper and other recyclables.
Cardboard that sold for about $135 a ton in September is now going for $35 a ton. Plastic bottles have fallen from 25 cents to 2 cents a pound. Aluminum cans dropped nearly half to about 40 cents a pound, and scrap metal tumbled from $525 a gross ton to about $100."

This doesn't look good...

Why isn't this big news?

When other cities around the country and the world do something about plastic bags, The New York Times writes about it. When the New York City Council passed a bag recycling law last January they wrote about it. And when Mayor Bloomberg proposed a 6-cent bag tax, they certainly wrote about it. But when the State of New York passes a weak bag recycling bill that would NULLIFY New York City's law, there is nary a peep from the Times. What gives?

WNYC, Gotham Gazette and NY1 have aired the story, but without follow up. That has been the only coverage-- at least that I can find with Google searches. The bill is currently with Governor Paterson. He can veto or exempt NYC from it, or do nothing and let it become law-- which it will IN THREE DAYS.

Am I missing something? This will affect everyone in the city-- we all buy groceries! For the life of me I can't figure out why more people aren't screaming bloody murder. If anyone knows, please give a girl a clue.

Here is how the State law would affect NYC:

*The State bill would preempt the City from taking stronger action on bag recycling, now or at any future point.

*While the Council’s law applies to stores of 5,000 square feet or more and to chains under a common name, the State bill only applies to stores 10,000 square feet or more, and to chains under common ownership or management. The 5,000 square feet requirement is better suited to the City’s needs, as stores tend to be much smaller than in other parts of the State.

*The State bill only applies to plastic carryout bags. The Council’s law also required the recycling of film plastic, such as package wrap, dry cleaning bags and newspaper bags.

*The Council’s law has clear responsibilities for manufacturers of plastic bags. They must, upon the request of a store owner to whom they sell plastic bags, make arrangements for the collection, transport and recycling of plastic pursuant to the provisions of the law. Under the State law, there appears to be no manufacturer obligation to collect, transport or recycle bags.

So if you think the State law sucks and want to do something about it, go here (this page also has links to more information about the issue):

http://council.nyc.gov/html/action_center/no_to_plastic_bag_bill.shtml

Big money in caps?

I don't know that much about plastic, apart from knowing I want less of it in my life. There are many different types, some more recyclable than others, some scarier than others, but all of them a complicated mix of petroleum and chemicals.

This guy writing for the Duluth News Tribune knows a thing or two about plastic though:

After being yelled at for putting a cheapo high density polyethylene bottle with a polypropylene cap still on it into a recycle bin, I had to check the plastics market. The Ides.com Street Plastic Prices Report confirmed my hunch: Polypro was selling between $1.01 and $2.25 a pound. HDPE was going for only 49 to 89 cents.

So why are recyclers asking you to throw away the more valuable material and reclaiming the cheap stuff?

Several reasons, says Duluth’s Greg Hartel. “It becomes difficult to bale a plastic bottle when the top is on,” he said, relating horror stories of caps turning into projectiles when the bottles are crushed.

In that case, duck. The real issue, though, is economics.

“It’s not necessarily that something can’t be processed, but whether a particular process makes it economically feasible to do it,” Hartel said, adding the no-cap policy of his family’s business may change with an impending expansion. “I don’t think we’ve made up our minds which direction we want to go in regards to caps.”

At two bucks a pound, I’ll help — except I might have competition. Mike Lunow from Waste Management in the Twin Cities said the company’s Duluth operation does accept caps.

Huh! It has always bugged me that plastic bottles are recyclable, but the caps are not. And here's this guy saying the caps are worth twice as much. Hopefully the recycling companies will figure out how to get at that untapped revenue potential soon.

Week 2 Plastic Waste

Here's the weekly tally. Some of this was discarded pre-pledge but is being taken out now:

• Cap tab from 1/2 and 1/2
  
• 2 clear/2 foil packs from Annie's Organic Mac-n-cheese
• Carefree panty liner bag, and a few liners (plastic backing) and wrappers
• Wrapper for McVitties Digestive Crackers
• Ball of packing tape found when cleaning under the bed
• Plastic grocery bag, used as a kitchen trash bag
• A few plastic window envelopes
  
• A Swiss Miss cocoa powder envelope

I'm looking into alternatives to the panty liners and will post about that later. We use grocery bags to line the kitchen trash can-- I don't think my roommate will want to go without. The cocoa envelope might not contain plastic, but it probably does. My hands were cold at work today and I really wanted some, so I caved.

New development in the bag recycling issue

The State of New York passed a bag recycling law- but it is weaker than the one passed last month by New York City. The new state law, awaiting signature from Gov. Paterson, would require stores larger than 10,000 sq. feet and certain chain stores to collect used bags for recycling. New York City's law passed last January is stiffer- it includes more chain stores and stores larger than 5,000 sq. feet.

Local politicians are urging Governor Paterson to veto the new law or exempt NYC. Good on them. This law does not effect Mayor Bloomberg's proposal for a 6-cent bag fee.

The law hit Paterson's desk on Monday. I heard about it yesterday evening on WNYC. So far it hasn't been covered in the New York Times. NY1 has the story.

If you'd like to tell Governor Paterson what you think about this issue, his contact information is here. Or add your name to a letter from the New York City Council.

Update - The governor has until 12/12 to act. A copy of a letter from Cristine Quinn about this is at sustaiNYC.

Bad Morning

Slept late and didn't have time to make coffee. Totally fine, just pack a travel mug and fill up at the office! Not as good as coffee from home, but it is free.

Except the office coffee comes in those pods and you know...plastic.

I know where I'm going at lunchtime!

(Oh yeah. I totally had a good plasticless lunch packed and ready to go, and forgot to grab it. Drat.)

There Is No Spoon

I had a close call at lunch today. I try to pack my lunches on office days, which include a cloth napkin and silverware from home. Today I was lazy and had a yen for chicken noodle soup from the place downstairs. Then I remembered I was spoonless.


What to do? Should I cave and use a new plastic spoon? These are my least favorite-- the flimsy plastic ones that get soft in piping hot soup. I'd rather not think about leaching chemicals with my lunch. I decide to sip the broth from the cup and toss back the solids at the bottom. There are wooden chopsticks at the checkout counter. Aha! One time use chopsticks aren't a great environmental choice either, but I will re-use them. They did the trick.

I need something like this to put in my work bag:

Image taken from Plastic is Forever. This cool kit is available from http://www.reusablebags.com/. The thing is I know I could make something similar myself-- and that is how it took me almost two whole years to get my Eco-Bags.