And there’s always…  “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” ~ Albert Einstein

Here my new favourite…  “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” ~ Barack Obama

So now my confession…and after all my writing about plastic and everything…I haven’t exactly “been the change”….

I was on a walking tour yesterday of green London. We stopped by this fantastic shop offering yummy-looking, convenient raw-food meals and snacks.

I picked up a freshly-made carrot and apple juice to take along. After having taken a couple of tasty sips, a participant on the tour commented on all the plastic and paper cups being used, but that there seems to be no place in London to recycle anything (so true!). Furthermore, in her country, Slovenia, you would rarely see anyone walking along with a drink. Rather, you sit and have your drink in a proper cup (although that’s changing, she said). Contrast that with the States, where it’s hard to find anyone not walking along with a drink!

So here I was, an American in London, walking along – on an eco tour even – with my juice in a plastic cup, thinking “now what am I going to do with this darn thing?”

I thought for quite a while about finding a place to wash it out, then bringing it home and recycling it.  However, as a no. 7 plastic, I didn’t have much faith that it would actually get recycled in the end. So I’m ashamed to say it went into a bin.

But it got me thinking…what were the alternatives?

• Not purchase the drink in the first place. Did I really need it? It was good, and my first thought (after thinking I wanted to drink it) was that I was supporting a great store concept with eco credentials. I also did want to get some calories in me for the walk. But no, I didn’t really need that drink in that plastic cup.
• Bring my own glass – this seems like a bit of a pain, and actually, I was already lugging around a metal water bottle to avoid buying a plastic water bottle.
• Petition London to put in more bins for recycling. Hmmm…there’s an idea…maybe while they’re at it, they could put in more waste bins too, to decrease all the litter…
• Purchase the drink in a proper cup or mug and sit down and drink it. While not exactly feasible on a tour, this is a commitment I would like to make – not only for the environment but also as a lifestyle choice – slow down, enjoy the drink.  Now to find the coffee shops that still serve in real mugs…

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.

Friday’s tip was about recycling those little bits of plastic, like bottle caps.  They say that in the USA, recyclers don’t really want these caps because they are too small for their automated processes, they can get mixed in with the wrong kind of plastic, and, if attached, keep unwanted air in the bottles.

While my local council here does take them (but do they actually get recycled?), that’s not the case all over the UK.  If yours doesn’t, the bottle caps page at the ReduceReuseRecycle might offer some help, although the options were extremely limited when I checked.

Ideal Bite claims Aveda stores will start taking them, which is really cool except not yet true in the UK…but I called and they said they were looking into it so that’s good news.

Most alarming was the link Ideal Bite included to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s site on the Albatross. Apparently in the North Pacific, 40% of Laysan albatross chicks die each year because their bellies are full of plastic (much of that plastic comes from land first).  That’s far more than the occasional bird dying.  Click “A Deadly Diet” on the Monterey Bay Aquarium site to see what came out of one bird. Once in Cornwall we watched a seagull down a practically full packet of Extra Strong Mints.  Ok, I know this country has a lot of seagulls, but thinking about what the Extra Strong Mints did to that bird’s stomach makes me feel sick.

I’ll admit that sometimes the convenience of plastic does win me over.  However, it’s images like these that really make me think twice.

Layson Albatross photo by Tatters:).

Some plastics break down and leach toxins when heated with food (see What Plastic is What).  The Mayo Clinic states that “it’s important to following general safety guidelines when you’re heating food in the microwave. For example:

• Use microwave-safe containers. Use containers or wraps specifically labeled as ‘microwave-safe.’ Don’t use margarine tubs, carryout containers, or paper or plastic grocery bags.
• Check product labels. When you heat packaged foods, follow the microwave instructions printed on the label. If instructions aren’t given, transfer the food to a plate or container that you know is microwave-safe.
• Don’t allow plastic wrap to touch the food. Leave a small gap between the plastic wrap and the food while it’s being heated.”

Not all plastics have been shown to leach, but personally, I’m a huge fan of Pyrex. Goes in the oven, in the microwave, and has lids so no plastic wrap necessary.  I especially like the cool vintage stuff.  (Ok, I know that there are those of you out there who are against microwaves, but I’m just not that excited about cooking to make that leap yet.)

Plastic baby bottles have been making the news lately, and, given that pretty much every one I know is having babies right now, I thought these recommendationsfrom Environmental Working Group (EWG) might be helpful.

Photo by madaise.

PVC: The Poison Plastic

“PVC or Polyvinyl Chloride (#3) has many harmful environmental effects. PVC is used in plumbing pipe, shrink wrap, outdoor furniture, some water bottles, and salad dressing bottles. Greenpeace has been working to eliminate the production of PVC, because its manufacturing processes consume approximately 30% of the chlorine used in industrial processes and release many other toxic chemicals, some of which accumulate in the body.

Recycling groups are concerned about PVC, because a small amount can severely contaminate large loads of PET (#1) plastic. PVC strongly resembles PET. If PVC is accidentally incorporated in a load of material being processed for recycling, a release of potentially toxic compounds can occur.

Disposal of PVC also presents problems. PVC is widely used for medical purposes. Medical waste is usually disposed of through incineration. Incineration of PVC can release dioxin, which is a carcinogen….”

Besides running the recycling programme in Berkeley, CA, the Ecology Center website has loads of useful environmental information.

Photo by Groupe Aménagement Numérique des Territoires.

In 2006 in the UK, only 20% of household plastic bottles get recycled and 13 billion plastic bottles are disposed of each year.  Now, I had to research this a bit, because I had heard that “billion” in the UK is different from “billion” in the US.  However, accordingto Wikipedia, since 1974 the UK government abandoned the “long scale” definition of billion, which was a million million, for the “short scale” (“American”) definition of 1,000 million. That means that in the UK 2,600,000,000 bottles are not recycled each year. (Sourse: Recoup, Recycle-more.co.uk)

Worldwide, 60 billion tons of plastic are produced each year, and less than 5% is recycled.  (Source: Project Kaisei)  Where does it all go?  Seemingly everywhere, given how hard it is to get away from plastic litter, which takes forever to break down. Obviously a fair amount goes into landfills. A fair amount gets eaten by animals, too.  

What really made me reconsider my plastic use was hearing about the Plastic Vortex in the Pacific Ocean, which is supposedly twice the size of Texas and, with an estimated 4,000,000 tons of plastic, contains six times more particles of plastic than plankton.

What really amazes me is that a group of people have gotten together to start filtering the ocean. Seriously.  I’m so impressed by someone who can wake up one day and say to her or himself, “I think I’ll tackle the biggest area of litter in the world.”  Project Kaisei: Capturing the Plastic Vortex will be filmed and documented by National Geographic.

Update Sept-09:  Scientists have returned from exploring the “Great Pacific Ocean Garbage Patch.” More here. Project Kaisei Flickr Stream is here.

Photo by Von Floto.

 PET or PETE: polyethylene terephthalate.  Used in drink bottles (clear or lightly coloured).  Easily recycled.  Per Treehugger, doesn’t leach.

PET water bottles were the subject of a scare implying that reusing water bottles resulted in DEHA (a suspected carcinogen) leaching into beverages. While it got a lot of coverage, it now seems that the evidence for this claim was pretty shaky (some reports state that this type of plastic doesn’t even contain DEHA). Health advocates will caution that there isn’t enough research to know the effects of plastic, and ya gotta wonder about those bottles when they get heated up, but even Treehugger says that PET plastics don’t leach.  (Sources:  Snopes, U Florida summary, About.com’s Urban Legends,  The Free Library)

HDPE: high density polyethylene. Used in milk jugs, trash bags, detergent and shampoo bottles and some yogurt pots (cloudy or white). Easily recycled.  Doesn’t leach.

 PVC: Vinyl or polyvinyl chloride. Used in some cling wraps, some cooking-oil bottles and squash bottles (with handles), meat packaging, childrens toys, fashion accessories, shower curtains, office binders, detergent and spray bottles.  Limited recyclability. Per Treehugger, it’s “a bad, bad plastic.” Soft PVC (UPVC) can leach phthalates (an hormone disruptor) and off-gas chemicals into the air.

 LDPE: low-density polyethylene. Used in shopping/carrier bags, some cling wraps, baby bottles, reusable drink & food containers.  Recycleable in some areas (not generally recycled in the UK, although some supermarkets offer carrier bag recycling). Per Treehugger, it doesn’t leach.

PP: Polypropylene. Used in baby bottles, yogurt and takeout containers, reusable food and drink containers (e.g., Tupperware and Rubbermaid-types), drinking straws. Sometimes recyclable (not generally recycled in the UK).  Per Treehugger, it doesn’t leach.

PS: Polystyrene. Used in takeout food containers, egg containers, plastic cutlery, CD cases, Styrofoam. Leaches styrene (a neurotoxin and possible human carcinogen). Banned in Portland Oregon and San Francisco. Not often recyclable.

Everything else.

PC: Polycarbonate. Used in Nalgene water bottles (although Nalgene has now switched from polycarbonate) and baby bottles. Leaches the plasticizer bisphenol A (BPA – a hormone disruptor that mimics estrogen) when heated (see this Time article).  

PLA: polyactide – (one type of) bioplastics. Not easily recycled.  May contain toxins so can only be composted commercially.

Compostable Plastic – according to Ideal Bite, it’s nontoxic and “breaks down as fast as paper in compost.”  My own research of a Sainsbury’s compostable plastic bag disproves this, although it did eventually break down, and it is better than putting it in the bin.

Sources:  TreeHugger, Planet Green, Ideal Bite, Ecology Center

Now, I’m in the early days of this blog and I really want it to be about fantastic design solutions, rather than environmental problems.  So without focusing too heavily on the negative, I will say I’m not a fan of vinyl (I know, I know – it’s so cheap!). 

There’s loads of information out there on the internet about vinyl. One source I really like is the movie website Blue Vinyl. Basically, as the Blue Vinyl factsheet says, vinyl has a very toxic lifecyle, releasing harmful chemicals during manufacturing, use, and disposal.

By the way, vinyl is no. 3 on bottles.

Photo by Cheryl Kempton.