“Use of plastic materials reached approximately 100 kg per year per capita in North America and Western Europe in 2005 and is expected to increase to 140 kg by 2015.”

“Every year large amounts of plastic debris enter the ocean, where it slowly fragments and accumulates in convergence zones. Scientists are concerned about the possible impacts of small plastic fragments— microplastics—in the environment.”

A single person can make a substantial difference by limiting their use of plastic!

Some sweet suggestions to help you on your way to a personal plastic ban include:

• using glass containers and bringing these containers when you purchase bulk foods (or even bakery bread!)
• save glass jars (they are perfect for storing foods in the fridge!  Goodbye, toot-a-loo… Ziploc).
• if you decide to eat in a restaurant and would like to take leftovers home, bring your own container instead of using a styrofoam container
• using (and re-using) reusable cloth bags for groceries and ANYTHING you buy!
• using reusable cloth produce bags or not putting produce in bags at all
• buy local food (normally requires less packaging and you can also convince the vendor that you have your own container and cloth bag)
  
• avoiding products that are packaged in plastic – there are so many products which are identical yet available in different packaging! – example = ketchup in plastic or ketchup in glass? Glass is natural and easily recyclable.
• plastic bags that are unavoidable, like toilet paper bags, are great to us as garbage bags
• buying second hand clothes… you’ll be surprised by the awesome finds!
• baking and cooking as much as possible
  
• eat less meat! Just think of the plastic material and energy wasted due to the production of meat! It requires the growth of animal feed, methods to grow the animal (including production and use of hormones and antibiotics), slaughtering of the animal, packaging of the meat, transportation of the meat, disposal of packaging. Beans are cheaper and have a lot of protein – they are a delicious alternative.  Beans can be purchased bulk or in recyclable aluminum cans.
  
• instead of chewing gum (which is packaged in plastic and gum itself contains plastic) eat a mint leaf.  Mint leaves are actually really delicious – chocolate mint leaves are my favourite.
  
• plant a garden outdoors or invest in a heat lamp to care for an indoor garden (uber fun to eat the product of gardening!)
• find a toothbrush that has a replaceable “head” so that the handle can be reused
• make your own art (photography, drawing, painting?) its so much more fun and meaningful anyway!

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Always question plastic that is associated with your lifestyle! I bet you’ll figure out a way to replace it, resulting in less of an environmentally devastating impact

Thank you for using less plastic!

I was listening to a podcast called “Skeptically Speaking” and an interesting point about industry bias was mentioned regarding bisphenol A (BPA).  You’ve likely heard about BPA when it was widely popular in the media since “Canada was the first country in the world to declare that it intended to label BPA a toxic substance.”  Scientific studies (examples on PubMed and by the Endocrine Society) on this plastic ingredient showed negative human health effects; BPA is an endocrine (hormone) disrupter.

Conversely, independent studies conducted by chemical industries showed results with insignificant BPA effects.  Clever. Worrisome.

Janet Stemwedel, Associate Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University, and author of the blog Adventures in Ethics and Science identified the following in a Skeptically Speaking interview:

“Every now and then you get the feeling that animal models are chosen intentionally but not correctly.  One of the examples I’ve become aware of recently is in testing of the safety of the chemical Bisphenol A which is often called BPA.  It is a compound used to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins.  There’s been worries about the safety of BPA because it’s similar to the hormone estrogen in its structure.  So if you look at mass media reports on the research on BPA safety; the mass media usually says that there are mixed results, some studies indicate significant impacts on health and others not so much.  But it turns out, if you unmix those studies, 90% of government studies on the safety of BPA have found evidence that BPA has significant health impacts.

Of the industry studies, on the safety of BPA, none of them in this group found evidence that BPA had significant health impacts.  It turns out that this may have been because these industry studies used a strain of rat that was known to be insensitive to estrogen.  So that’s an example of choosing an animal model that shows, perhaps, the result that industries who profit by selling a certain kind of chemical might want to find in their research.”

What happens when powerful chemical industries oppose a BPA ban?  The ban becomes limited to… baby bottles.  It’s a start; however, this will obviously “result in ongoing human exposure and environmental damage.”

Speaking of human exposure, “BPA was detected in the urine of 91% of the population aged 6 to 79 years.”
Bisphenol A concentrations in the Canadian population, 2007 to 2009

The deliberate avoidance of true results outlines the importance of looking at numerous scientific trails and also paying attention to who funds a certain scientific study since it may be biased. If BPA studies are biased… could other studies by chemical companies regarding plastic be biased? This is a reason to question the safety of plastic.

I ere on the side of caution and avoid using plastic for health and environmental reasons. I buy bulk food, prepare food and choose glass packaging as an alternative.

“We are at a mid-way place. On a remote and isolated island in the middle of the Pacific, twelve-hundred miles northwest of Hawaii.

This is a moment in time, a chance to witness and understand our role in an astonishing environmental tragedy. This is a place that provides context. Here, reflected in the beauty of the Albatross, is an unfolding horror. Yet it is a horror in which we see our own lives, a snapshot of our impact on the planet that challenges us to consider how to move forward.

Join us, on a breathtaking and emotional journey, into the heart of the Pacific, and into the heart of ourselves.

Production of the feature film “Midway” continues through 2011.”

To my dismay, the beaches were covered with plastic debris.  Straws, plastic bags and water bottles; you name the single use object and it was there.

This is heartbreaking; we are responsible for this.  We should not blame whoever did not ‘tidy’ the beach; those responsible are the people who created the problem in the first place, the people who did not care to reduce the use of these products in their lifestyle.  Even if this is not their specific plastic water bottle, they have contributed to plastic waste which must bediscarded somewhere else on the Earth.  They’ve thrown it ‘out’. ‘Out,’ in the way most people understand, gets rid of the problem… but in reality ‘out’ does not exist.  ’Out’ merely implies that it is out of our line of view, it has been put somewhere where we can simply forget it and replace the single use product with another.  Unfortunately, if anyone believes that recycling plastic makes single use products sustainable they are making the assumption that

1. recycling companies recycle everything they acquire from the consumer and
2. recycling turns a plastic water bottle into a new plastic water bottle (water bottle as an example which applies to other products such as plastic bags and plastic utensils).
Both assumptions are false.  Oftentimes recycling companies do not have a market for certain types of plastic, so it isn’t worth their time and money to recycle it.  They truck the unwanted plastic to a landfill.

If the product does; however, have a market and is ‘recycled’the chemical composition of the recycled plastic makes it unlikely to be recycled ever again… so recycled plastic normally composes objects such as plastic park benches (something that could be made of decomposable wood).  Plastic is here forever.  When plastic breaks apart by sunlight (photodegrade), it’s toxic chemicals are here forever.  Plastic does not biodegrade.

In saying that, I am not opposed to recycling; it is important to recycle the plastic we’ve already created… but the consumer and the producer should avoid single-use plastic products initially.

Sadly, the aesthetics of this situation are not even close to the most bothersome consequence of plastic debris.  The majestic wildlife and diversity that I observed on the island is at risk of mistaking toxic plastic for food.

Marvel at the beauty of nature.

Click HERE to visit the fantastic, user-friendly website developed to promote practice of the 3R’s – Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.

“Give a second life to items in good condition by using the on-line posting board to list items that you no longer want, or to look for items that someone else no longer needs.”

Check out the “recyclopedia” for information and ideas on what to do with items such as; aerosol cans, bicycles, clothing and grass clippings.

For more information click HERE.

(photo credit to the included link)

“The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 3 – 1 to approve a sweeping single-use plastic bag ordinance. With this historic and far-reaching decision, L.A. County becomes the largest municipality in the U.S. to adopt a plastic bag ban for its 1.1 million residents.

Currently, six billion single-use plastic bags are used in L.A. County annually. Effective July 1, 2011 – that number will be dramatically reduced saving taxpayers millions of dollars in street, storm drain and beach cleanup costs.”

For more information: read the Los Angeles Times Article

“No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.”

(Image credit: http://www.ci.manhattan-beach.ca.us/Index.aspx?page=1592)

Sioux Lookout is the first community in Ontario that can proudly say they are making the greatest effort to reduce plastic bag distribution. On September 15th, 2010, five of seven Council members voted in favour of a ban on the free distribution of single use plastic shopping bags in the Municipality of Sioux Lookout.

Mayor Kathy Poling says that although fines for violating the by-law have not yet been approved, the violator will likely be charged $150 for a first offence and $500 for a third offence.

For more information, click here to view the PRESS RELEASE.

Congratulations to the community of Sioux Lookout; you are setting an example and are leading communities toward more sustainable practices!

Sioux Lookout Public Invitation: A Special Council Meeting will be held Thursday, September 2, 2010 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m., in the council Chambers, Municipal Office, 25 Fifth Avenue to provide further opportunity to the public to provide comments to Council on the proposed Plastic Bag Ban By-Law No.20-10.  All aspects of the bylaw will be open for discussion, including what is proposed to be banned.

Curious about the bylaw? Click to read: By-Law No. 20-10 Plastic Bags Ban