Reduce packaging and garbage.

A few years ago I wrote a letter to a tea company asking them to reduce the packaging for their tea bags. The tea was packaged in a box that was wrapped in plastic. The individual tea bag was also wrapped in plastic.

Here are some tips I’d like to share with you on buying products that minimize the packaging garbage:

1 – Choose products that have minimal packaging. To use tea as an example, buying a metal container of loose tea has much less packaging waste than buying a box of tea bags that has lots of plastic. Tea can be brewed in a pot or individual cup infusers are available through tea shops.

2 – Think about alternatives to the products you buy. If you buy stock in the paper boxes, could you use the bullion cubes or make the stock? It’s not just about the packaging, but the transportation of bulky stock boxes is wasteful.

3 – Do you actually need the product?

Can you filter the water instead of buying it?

Can you use reusable handkerchiefs instead of disposable tissues?

Can you use a reusable bag instead of taking the ‘free’ one?

Do you actually need garbage lining bags, or can you use a can that has a handle and take the trash to the containers without lining it?

Can you use rechargeable batteries instead of the disposable ones that are wrapped in plastic?

Can you grow your own herbs, instead of buying the small amount you need in a plastic box?

4 – If there is a product you like, but the packaging is excessive, write a letter to the manufacturer and ask them to change it.

5 – There is a yearly packaging conference where companies purchase packaging for their products www.packagingdigest.com. If you want to let your voice heard, hold a sign in front of the entry to their conference. It will make a statement to the buyers that excessive packaging is wrong.

If you have any other thoughts on how to reduce packaging waste, please post your comments. I’d like to hear from you.

Paper or Plastic? Plastic is so much worse

I watched "Our Synthetic Sea" again this week. I saw this movie a couple of years ago in Berkeley where Jan Lundberg of Culture Change presented it to a group of people interested in the health of the oceans. If you have not seen the film, please contact www.culturechange.org to get a copy. The movie is really good at showing how devastating the plastics plague is. The photo of this bird shows how it was killed by the plastic pieces that it fished out of the ocean.

Although it takes so many more resources to produce paper bags, I think plastics are a lot worse due to the long term effect of the garbage they produce. According to the movie, every piece of plastic ever made is still around. They show how little pieces are floating in the sea and are eaten by fish, birds, and ultimately us.

Another good film on plastics is blue vinyl (http://www.bluevinyl.org/animationlow.htm). Vinyl is one of the worst plastics around, so if you can don't buy it. Either for your house, your bag, your skirt, or shoes. It's become an alternative to leather, but it seems it may be an environmental disaster.

How long will a takeout meal be remembered?

If you get containers, plastic utensils, and a bag, it might be forever.

I don't like to get takout because it causes so much garbage, but last night I did not have time to cook and had to get takeout for about 8 people at the local Thai place. To avoid all the 'extras', I took my 4 glass containers in My Own Bag :) to the restaurant and gave it to them when I placed the order. They accepted them and had no issue just putting the food in it. In the end, the only overhead was the dishwashing and the 15 minute wait, but that's a small price to pay.

A good option for a one person takout container is the one offered by www.to-goware.com. I use mine if I need a quick take out or bring it along if I know I'll have lefovers.

Save a tree + energy + time + landfills + your sanity

I went to an organizational workshop with friend to learn new strategies to organize my office and my house. The instructor focused on organizing documents and mail. I thought it would be good to share some of the ideas with you.

First of all, start at the source of the problem. Who is sending you mail? Do you need it?

If not, don't throw it away without addressing the cause of the problem. Next week you'll just get more of the same. The key is to call the sender who is creating this problem. One of my friends mentioned that she missed paying important bills, because they were buried under junk mail.

By calling the senders I found out some important strategies for keeping mail down:

1 - You have to call the opt-out service every 5 years, so that you will not receive pre-approved credit offers through the mail. Their number is:

1-888-5-OPTOUT (567-8688)

By removing your mail from these offers you'll also help protect your identity.

2 - If you belong to any frequent flyer program, you need to call them and tell them you don't want them to share your contact information and send you any mail. Otherwise, they will send you 'partner' promotions every week.

Delta: 800-221-1212

United: 1800-421-4655

Continental: 800-523-3273

American: 800-882-8880

3 - Do not register any products you buy, otherwise you'll get e-mails and mail to constantly upgrade and your name will be sold for partner promotions.

4 - Do not order from catalogs. When you do, the amount of catalogs you receive will mushroom very quickly. They all share and sell information.

5 - If you are a member of any organizations, including your alumni associations, call them and make sure they do not mail you any promotions and catalogs.

6 - Call each of the banks that you have credit cards with and make sure they take you off their mailing list. Otherwise, you'll continue getting promotions for new cards and services from them. (When I called one of my banks, they actually sent me a confirmation letter that they took me off their mailing list. What a waste.)

7 - You have to be vigilant to get down to zero junk mail. Basically, each piece of mail you receive will generate more if you don't stop it by making that phone call.

8 - To remove yourself from the delivery of 'free' flyers from grocery stores and special promotions that are inserted in the mail, contact the post office (800) ASK-USPS.

9 - It's almost election time and I'm getting lots of flyers in the mail. I'm not sure how to remove myself from these lists. Does anyone have any tips?

I had a day off work recently and I spent 5 hours just calling all the various free newspapers, catalogs, credit card companies to get myself off their mailing list. They all say that it may take up to 4 months to be removed from the mailing list. I'm hoping to start 2008 with zero junk mail and a much smaller recycling bin.

:)

Critical Mass - 15th anniversary

I rode my bike in Friday’s 15^th anniversary critical mass. This is only the third time I rode my bike in critical mass. I support the ideals of critical mass, but I am concerned about the way it blocks mass transit. I wish the bike ride focused more on the wider streets where cars dominate and create ‘mini highways’ through the city. In San Francisco, it’s Fell, Oak, Franklin, Gough, Geary Blvd, Masonic St., Guerrero, and Potrero. That’s not even the streets through the car centric SOMA neighborhood, which has tiny sidewalks and 5 lanes of cars. How can those neighborhood ever have community without the basic public space that sidewalks create.

My ride was great, as I left my house in Duboce Triangle, there were just a few bikers on Market St. By the time I reached VanNess, there were several and by the time I was downtown I was already running into friends. As always the ride is a fantastic way to ride through the city without having to worry too much about car traffic. The critical mass of bikes just halts the cars and nobody can get through.

A friend told me that in years past the bicyclists were giving out flyers to car drivers with reasons for critical mass and distributing flowers to create peace. I did see lots of women with flowers in their baskets and several trumpet players, boom box and iPod bike systems, single wheeled riders (don’t know how they stayed up on all the hills). However, this year I had some bad vibes from motorists. On 16^th and Valencia a guy in a small convertible car tried to get through the ride as it was getting thinned out and actually ‘hit’ a few bikers. Eventually, a crowd had to stop in front of him to prevent any serious issues. Also, the ride tried to enter the highway on Octavia and then again on Duboce St. entrance. Both attempts failed with cops literally creating a wall. I talked with one of the cops and asked what would happen to me if I rode onto the highway. They said they would arrest me and I would come back with bruises and scratches, because they are authorized to use force as necessary. Humm…. I was not taking my chances.

I wonder what it will take for San Francisco to change it's perspective and look at biking as an alternative to congestion, pollution, and isolation created by riding a car. Cities like Amsterdam and Paris have emerged as an ideal of what I would like San Francisco to do. I wonder if it will take a new mayor, a green mayor to actually implement this type of system. We don't have any streets permanently closed off to traffic and dedicated to pedestrians, it's only fair that we create more sidewalk and bike lanes in the meantime.

Here is a short video from Valencia and 16th St. area where bikers were coming from both directions:

On a brighter note, today all of San Francisco will be dancing at Love Fest: http://www2.sflovefest.org/.

My Own Blog

In 2004 I launched My Own Bag in a effort to raise awareness about plastic shopping bags and create an alternative to the canvas bags that were available at that time. It was then that I created the company and begun selling limited edition reusable shopping bags. Since that time many companies have introduced bags that are beautiful. I'm very happy to see this and that people are finally realizing the waste that is created by stuff we get for 'free'.

Living in San Francisco I'm exposed to so many different ideas on how to reduce, reuse and recycle in a new way. Some of my favorite new trends I'm seeing is local water at restaurants, no take-out, urban compost on a large scale, bike commuting, solar cooking and solar drying, and urban edible gardens (I have one and love it)

In this blog, I'll share my experiences and thoughts on the changes we're seeing, and some great ideas people are coming up with. Together we can learn how our lifestyles affect the planet, and what each of us can do to minimize our ecological footprint.

Please contact me if you have some great ideas. ~Ania