Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Fake Plastic Trees

Starting this post got that radiohead song stuck in my head. I don't know how much the song has to do with what I'm about to say. Nevertheless, I read this really disturbing article the other day, that made me want to never purchase another piece of plastic anything - ever. Not that I really think that's even possible, but seriously - the article speaks for itself. I wonder if it's what drove this "Eviro-Woman" (that's what she calls herself) to swear off plastic for 2007. I don't know that I could ever go that far, but I'm certainly cutting back as much as possible. For that matter, I'm still trying to get in the habit of keeping my reusable shopping bags on hand and now also trying to get that song out of my head.

photo courtesy of hangdog on flickr

9 comments:

Carla said...

"Must a discarded flip-flop remain with us until the end of time?"

Ouch.

lauren said...

Seriously. Does that mean that i can't buy them in good conscience anymore? oh well, i guess they don't do so well in Bellingham anyway.

Carla said...

Leather?

Carla said...

Seriously though. This article and the no plastic lady make me reconsider a lot of things. Packaging for one. She takes chinese takeout containers and fills them with food from the bulk section at the store. Who does that? Better question: why don't we. The fact that every bit of plastic ever made still exists is REALLY disturbing. I lost a pair of flip flops in the river last year. Think they've made it to Garbage Land in the Pacific yet?

lauren said...

yeah, seriously. but, i think that i would rather get some reusable produce bags than take chinese takout containers.

Carla said...

but like, for granola and powdered milk and junk like that. i need reusable produce bags for produce though. and i need to keep my fred meyer bags in the car. plastic bags should be outlawed.

lauren said...

indeed! they may look at you like you're crazy (well, maybe not in washington) but it's worth it to not create more demand for those silly plastic bags!

Carla said...

so, the plastic bag count. it's like several hundred thousand per minute?

Carla said...

never mind. found it.
"Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year."