Week 27 Plastic Waste, Part 2 - Food Waste Edition

The same week I went on a Freegan Trash Tour, I also cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer. There were several plastic wrapped items that I would never eat and were WAY too old to pass on to someone else. Witness my shame!

- Veggie burgers, veggie 'turkey' and a fish fillet, left in my old apartment by Former Roommate #1...I moved last August, so this stuff is almost (and probably over) a year old.
- 2 Vitamin bottles, left in my old apartment by Former Roommate #2. I've been hanging on to them for almost a year and never use them--I think they were pretty old when she left them.
- 3 Giant Costco Chicken Breasts, from my last trip there in November. I ate 2 of them and felt funny after both-- either they were bad or my mind was so freaked by the unnatural size of them that my body reacted.

Everything but the vitamin bottle caps went in the trash. Caps go to Aveda for recycling.

Delaying my 'no poo' experiment

As you will see from my Plastic Tally (when I eventually post it!), I've used up 2 bottles of shampoo recently. I've been anticipating this for months, planning a "no poo" experiment. Going "no poo" means not using shampoo on your hair. Instead, you can use baking soda, or wash with conditioner, or even just rinse with water and scrub the scalp with your fingers. You can read about it here, here, and here.

My plan was to try the baking soda thing for at least 3 weeks. (My friends are already planning an intervention over this one.) Then, if I couldn't stand it, I would try a bar shampoo, like JR Liggetts or Lush. Another option to try would be just using conditioner, though if I'm substituting shampoo for conditioner, isn't that trading one plastic bottle for another? However, I might use less total product this way, meaning a little less plastic. Then, if all else failed, my plan was to reward companies like Aveda and Origins for thier recycling programs by purchasing their shampoo.

As it turns out, I don't need to try any of these things...yet. I found 3 more sample and partially used containers of shampoo in my under-bed toiletry stash. So for the time being I will continue what I have already been doing to use less plastic in the shower: wash my hair 2-3 times a week (down from 4-5 times), and use up what I already have.

Fancy Recycling Symbol- not a recycling symbol, actually.

Since I'm now in the habit of scrutinizing every plastic container I own, trying to determine it's recyclability, I've come across this symbol and wondered what it meant. It looks fancy, must be European.

Well I was right about it being European, but this actually isn't a recycling symbol. This is called the "Green Dot" and it basically means that it:

complies with the German Packaging Ordinance for the return of consumer packaging. The symbol can, in fact, be in any colour other than red. It is administered by Duales System Deutschland GmbH, a non-profit organisation which was established to enable manufacturers and distributors to fulfil the requirements of the legislation. This shows that a fee has been paid for the recovery of the packaging in some European countries.

What does the symbol mean here in the United States? Bupkis. Nada. Zilch. Furthermore with the specific bottle of MAC tinted moisturizer I'm looking at now, there are no other symbols indicating what kind of plastic the bottle is made from- so I can't put it out for curbside recycling if it is #1 or #2 plastic. Not very helpful.

However, many cosmetic companies have recycling programs. For instance, when I'm done with it I can take my MAC tinted moisturizer back to MAC (though they don't say what they will do with it), or I can take it to Origins- they have a brand new recycling program and will take back cosmetic packaging, no matter what brand, for recycling or "energy recovery"-- I'd love to see more details on what that means!

Now, if only I could find a really good tinted oil free spf moisturizer that doesn't come in plastic...

Week 27 Plastic Waste, Part 1 - Freegan Trash Tour edition

Last Friday evening (a little over a week ago) I went on a Freegan Trash Tour in Brooklyn. What is a Freegan?

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

The word "Freegan" is a combination of "Free" and "Vegan", (though I don't know that all Freegans are Vegans). Freegans are probably best known for reclaiming waste, i.e. dumpster diving, and the Freegan organization in NYC gives regular Trash Tours that are open to the media and to the public.

During my Compact year, people sometimes asked me if I was a Freegan or if I'd become one. Once I figured out what they were talking about, I said no-- my Compact was (and still is) more about getting rid of the things I don't value to make room for the things that I do. I had and have enough changes to make without "going Freegan". But I do admire Freeganism: they rescue items and food from the trash to use for themselves and to share with those in need, and they point out the massive waste in our society, and question the value and utility of a system that rapes the planet and creates so much waste. I'm really glad I got to do the tour.

I think everyone should do it. Taking a Trash Tour really opens your eyes, shakes you up, and forces you to examine your own feelings about consumption and waste. For starters, you see up close how much edible food gets thrown out each and every night, right in your own community. Then you decide for yourself: will you just watch, or will you take some of it home? I did a little of both- including taking some plastic that was already headed for the trash.

Here is what I brought home:

- 4 bagels recovered in front of a bagel shop
- 2 roses recovered in front of a deli
- a new magazine with the cover removed, recovered in front of a health food store
- a bag of prepared lettuce, one day expired, from in front of a large chain grocery store
- a lime recovered in front of a gourmet grocery store

The magazine was good subway reading material and I'll pass it on to someone else soon. I ate all the bagels (they were great toasted), and had 3 salad servings before the lettuce went bad. The roses joined my freezer compost today, and the lime is still in my refrigerator.

Plastic waste from the evening: a produce bag and a shopping bag that will be used for kitchen garbage and compost, the lettuce bag that is being used for compost.

Want to learn more about Freegans? Look here.

Plastic Free "Only In New York" Fun

If you find yourself on the Upper East Side this evening, come find me at the corner of Park Avenue and 86th Street and I'll read you a poem by Walt Whitman.

I will be there between 5:45-6:45 offering free Whitman poetry readings to passers-by; several other actors will be at corners along Park Avenue doing the same. This is part of The Sixth Annual Walt Whitman Birthday Bash, a free event sponsored by Theater 1010 and The Walt Whitman Project, celebrating Whitman's 190th birthday a few days early--he was born on May 31.

Coming to the Birthday Bash at 7pm? BYO fork to keep it plastic free. There might be cake.

Finally applied for my renewable MetroCard

Well, it took me long enough. I just completed the online application for an EasyPayXpress 30-day Unlimited MetroCard. Once I get it, I won't have to throw out another MetroCard until it expires (cards are good for a year, I think), wears out or is lost, stolen or damaged.

Now, instead of purchasing a non-recyclable Unlimited 30-Day MetroCard each month, I can just use one card and it will refill automatically. No more panicked card purchases in the morning while I'm trying to catch the train that will get me to work on time-- an added bonus.

I hope it arrives before my current MetroCard expires.

Many people don't use 30-Day Unlimited MetroCards because they worry they will lose it and be out a lot of money-- this is also a concern they may have with the EasyPayXpress. Another concern some may have is with giving bank/credit card information online to the MTA.

From my own experience, I've been using the Unlimited card for a few years and have lost or had my card stolen all of 2 times. Both times I called the MTA and had my money refunded quickly. And if you are worried about giving the MTA your debit/credit card information-- if you purchase MetroCards from the kiosks using those cards, you ALREADY share that information with them. The only difference is they will have your permission to make a monthly charge to renew your card.

Week 26 Plastic Waste

It has been 2 weeks since my last tally, and there's kind of a lot to report. Here goes:

- Olive Oil cannister and plastic cap
- cap for a vanilla bottle (red)
- fruit sticker (representative sample- there were more)
- 2 windows from pasta boxes
- blue magic marker cap
- plastic wine cork, Ecco Domani
- generic Cetaphil (facial cleanser) bottle and pump
- plastic wrap from a newish bottle of facial cleanser
- chicken broth TetraPak
- Bob's Red Mill flax meal bag
- a bag that once held rugelach, but now holds the remnants of THREE credit cards
- a Diet Coke bottle and cap

Olive oil: the big cans last me several months, and I feel that is the best way for me to purchase it. The can gets recycled. Vanilla cap: next time I'll look for a larger bottle with a metal cap, or at least a larger bottle. Sometime I should try making my own. Cap goes to Aveda. Fruit sticker: comes on all citrus around here, except lemons and limes. I wonder why. Trash. Pasta box windows: I still have a few odds and ends of pasta to use up and might just get a jar of sauce and finish them off in the next couple weeks. Trash.

Magic marker cap: found while emptying the cabinets when my roommate moved out. Trash. Wine "cork": Beth keeps a list of wines with the kind of cork or cap they use. What is easier for me though is to follow my friend Kate's advice and go for bottles with metal caps. She assures me there are some good ones at Trader Joe's, and she is much fussier about wine, so she should know. Cork goes to the trash. Facial cleanser: I opened up one last small bottle of facial cleanser. It will take me a long time to use up, but when I do I'm changing to a non-plastic option. Goats milk soap? Olive oil soap? I'm open to suggestions. I have fussy, sensitive skin! Bottle gets recycled, pump and wrapping go to the trash. Chicken broth: still have a couple of these lurking in the cabinet. Not a huge fan of store bought broth and will be happy to return to homemade, or bouillon cubes in a pinch. TetraPak gets recycled.

Flax meal bag: I can get whole flax seeds in loose bulk sections. Rugelach bag: my roommate had them around on her moving day, and I ate the last few and kept the bag. They were yummy. But only fyi- plastic free rugelach is pretty easy to come by at many if not most bakeries in NYC. I didn't know what rugelach was before I moved here! Bags go to the trash

Credit cards: Oof. This is a lot of stupid plastic waste, most of it my fault. Two of the cards are from when I lost my wallet last fall, the very night I started this blog. It was miraculously returned to me intact by a neighbor the next evening. Yay, neighbor! But by that time the cards had been reported lost and they sent me new ones. This week I finally got around to activating the new cards and replacing them in my wallet, which says something about how often I use them. The third card came from when Amex discontinued IN:NYC and sent out the latest version of their equivelant card. I wasn't pleased since I had -just- gotten a new replacement Amex. Cards go to the trash.

Diet Coke bottle and cap: another mistake on my part. I stayed late at work and they ordered dinner. I was all fake virtuous, getting a paper wrapped deli sandwich, and shifting the guilt for the bag onto the other people who were getting food as well. Then I ordered a can of Diet Coke, because I saw someone else drinking a soda and wanted one- even though I know the cans are coated in plastic on the inside, and I could have had water in my Kleen Canteen. Well, the deli sent a plastic bottle, not a can. And you know what? It didn't taste that good. Maybe someday I'll stop craving soda, but I still want it now and then. Bottle gets recycled curbside, cap goes to Aveda.