Another plastic recycling option: Caps!

Aveda started recycling plastic caps last September, during the Spring/Summer 2009 New York Fashion Week. Plastic caps are usually made from #5 plastic, and are not collected by the City for recycling. So, in addition to the Park Slope Food Coop and the Take 5 program at Whole Foods, we can drop off our caps at Aveda stores. Has anyone tried this or seen the collection points at Aveda? One advantage to Aveda's program is that they take rigid plastic caps whether there is a #5 symbol on it or not. Here are the details on what they take:

What type of caps do we collect?
The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.

Excluded from collection are pharmaceutical lids and non rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), and screw on lids that are not rigid. If you can bend or break the lid with your bare hands, than it does not meet the rigid plastic definition. Please do not include any metal lids or plastic pumps or sprayers. Unfortunately, too much of the wrong types of materials can contaminate the recycling process. We appreciate your efforts in keeping it clean!

Full details are here: http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp

Aveda stores in New York City:

COLUMBUS CIRCLE - AVEDA STORE
10 Columbus Circle STE 308
NEW YORK, NY 10019

GRAND CENTRAL STATION - AVEDA STORE
10 Grand Central Termina 87 E 42ND ST
NEW YORK, NY 10017

AVEDA LIFESTYLE SALON - NEW YORK
456 West Broadway
NEW YORK, NY 10012

AVEDA ACADEMY - NEW YORK
20 Vandam St
NEW YORK, NY 10013

AVEDA INSTITUTE - NEW YORK
233 Spring Street
NEW YORK, NY 10013

In praise of drinking fountains

Remember in grade school how you would stand in line for the water fountain, wishing the water hog would hurry up so you could take your turn? And then when it was finally your turn you would drink and drink and drink until your teeth hurt from the cold because that water was just about the most delicious thing you ever tasted?

Well, it is STILL THAT GOOD. Maybe it is the wait. Maybe it is the aeration, and drinking fresh cold water straight from the source. Whatever it is, this stuff is amazingly good-- and already paid for with our tax dollars.

This is something I've known for a long time, but the point was nailed home during my Christmas travel. There I was early on Christmas morning at LaGuardia airport with several new Kleen Kanteen bottles in my suitcase, gifts for nieces and nephews. I checked the bag to avoid any hassles with security, arrived at my gate and looked around. It was obvious that Siggs and Kanteens were popular gifts this year! A few hip young things were hanging onto sparkling new bottles, and the sight made me happy...and thirsty. That's when I realized I left my metal water bottle on the kitchen counter. Crap!

It wasn't a problem, though. Water fountains were plentiful at the airports, there was never a line for any of them, and that water tasted SO GOOD. I wasn't thirsty during my short flights, and it was nice not to have to worry about generating waste, or asking the flight attendant about filling my bottle instead of using a plastic cup- this has never been a problem when I've asked previously, but it is nevertheless a bit awkward.

Drinking Fountains! Try one today!

Forked

It has been a busy week, trundling between work, caroling gigs, rehearsals, and church singing jobs-- along with the customary flurry of last minute Christmas preparations. There hasn't been much cooking going on. This means meals out, and my choice of the week has been Whole Foods-- they have a food bar with lots of variety, and have cafeteria style trays and bowls. Fast, good, no waste.

Except for the forks. Whole Foods has re-usable bowls, but not re-usable cutlery. So there will be a plastic fork and fork wrapper on the next tally. I still haven't made or ordered a silverware to-go kit, but tossed a fork and spoon in my work bag for the time being.

Of course, that didn't help me yesterday at the annual office holiday luncheon. I totally forgot about that. Plastic everywhere. I chose virtue (well, fake virtue) and grabbed a couple cookies with a napkin. Later in the day though, I accepted a slice of cake from someone and didn't even THINK about the plastic plate until I saw it later beside the computer and gasped. How did that get there?!?? I slunk off to the kitchen, washed it and stashed it in a drawer with some other plastic-ware.

Light posting for the next few days as I travel to the midwest to see my family. Merry Christmas!

Week 4 Plastic Waste

This is a few days late...

- Plastic window from a CFL mini bulb box.
- labels from a green pepper and some oranges.
- bag from some shredded cheddar cheese
- thread spool and package for D-Rings (sewing notions)
- plastic topped party toothpick
- Reese's Peanut Butter Cups wrapper

CFL Bulbs: the larger bulbs come in a box with no plastic window, why not the small ones? I could probably do a better job of looking for produce without plastic stickers. The next cheddar I buy will be in a block, wrapped in paper or placed in a container brought from home. I haven't tried this yet with the cheese counter guys, so wish me luck. The sewing notions are from a home improvement project-- I made two big belts to tame a futon mattress that really, really didn't want to fold for couch duty. In the future I can go to notion stores in the Garment District and purchase notions from bins, counted out into a small paper bag. But for thread I'm stuck with plastic. They used to come on wooden spools, but not anymore.

I've been pretty lucky with holiday parties so far, getting away with putting nibbles on a paper napkin. However the Swedish meatballs were my downfall. I used that plastic topped toothpick with intent. As for the Reese's wrapper-- I squinted and told myself it looked like paper but knew better.

On the topic of Planned Obsolescence

Remember this ad from Ikea a couple years ago? Back then, I thought it was genius. Way to personify an object, then yank the rug out from under us! Now? It just makes me sad. I'm not sad for the lamp. I'm sad for us.



That old lamp could have been re-used, donated, given away, Freecycled (stuff on Freecycle, even BROKEN stuff, goes FAST), or taken to an electronics recycling event. But no, it is on the curb in the rain next to a half empty plastic garbage bag, bound for a landfill. A lot of New Yorkers put things out on the curb knowing someone might pick it up, and generally a lot of stuff DOES get re-used that way. But in the rain? With no note that says "Still Works"? Forget it.

Can we declare war on planned obsolescence?

This article was posted on the New Jersey page at The New York Times:
Time to Buy a New Stove. Again.
...I wish it were placed somewhere more prominent so that everyone would read it.

The refrigerator repairman had waxed philosophical, holding the defunct thermostat aloft like poor Yorick’s skull. “Plastic!” he boomed. “They all used to be metal.” His glumness should have warned me that planned obsolescence has reached the level of infinite jest.

The article/opinion piece (I recommend reading all of it) bemoans planned obsolescence as it applies to large home appliences-- stoves, in particular. As an apartment renter I've never felt the pain of replacing a major appliance. But I know the feeling when it comes to smaller kitchen appliances, cell phones, iPods, computers, TVs, DVD players, furniture, clothing, radios...

You name it, if it was made recently, it wasn't made to last. It also wasn't made to be repaired. It WAS made to be replaced. And it was probably made with plastic and came in a lot of unecessary packaging.

Can we stop that now, please?

Good News: NYC's Plastic Bag Law To Remain Unchanged

This is great:

In January 2008, the New York City Council passed a law creating the most expansive plastic bag recycling program in the nation. In June of this year, the State Legislature passed a bill that would bring plastic bag recycling to the entirety of New York State.

The State legislation initially threatened to preempt the Council's law, and would have drastically reduced the number of city stores required to accept bags from consumers. However, upon signing the bill into law, Governor Paterson announced an agreement on legislation that grandparents in the City’s plastic bag law, so as to allow it to remain in full force and effect.

More details and statements from Speaker Christine Quinn and Council Member Peter Vallone are here.

Thanks to all who wrote letters to Governor Paterson!