Yes it really is that simple (a plastic reduction idea)

[Joe Thompson]

Odd thing happened to me the last few weeks, something I've done has caught on!

Due to the nature of my job grabbing a quick bite at restaraunts is pretty much daily fare. While examining my own habits it dawned on me how much extra plastics I as a consumer have been using because of this. Super size or large size drinks typically come in a plastic cup, and regardless of size there's always that plastic cup lid.

Realizing that when I'm at most fast food restaraunts refills are free, so I began requesting the smaller cups which are made of waxed paper. I also noticed that unless I take my drink with me (which I rarely do) a lid and a straw are not necessary. So I stopped using them. Small thing I know, not likely to really impact much with just one guy reducing his plastic use.

The interesting one is that my co-workers have caught on (Every so often someone would ask me why I avoid the lid or ask for the smaller cup... pretty simple explanation.). At this point most if not all of my co-workers have followed suit. Just a little more impact.....

Because a lot of these lunches become "working meetings" with clients and vendors... I've noticed there too... more people asking why, and following suit. Now we're getting somewhere!

So as I reflect on this strange phenomena (people rarely listen to me lol) it dawns on me... now when I see those stacks of cup lids I get depressed, and choosing not to use them hasnt inconvenienced me in the slightest. Through this simple excercise I've noticed myself becoming much more concious of the plastics I discard and while the impact of my change is minute the fact that my actions have begun to infect others habits for the better makes me feel pretty darn good about the non sacrifice.

heh, it really is that simple!

[BrianPlankis]

Joe,

Excellent little habit change and glad to see it catching on! You never really can tell what will catch on with the general public.

I work at UH and I'm rarely without my reusable cup for either water or soda at meetings. I noticed at the last faculty meeting that I was the only faculty member (out of 45) that was NOT using the Styrofoam cups provided by the food vendor. So I printed out a sheet of paper on Styrofoam cup use (how many are thrown out each year, etc) and brought in all the extra reusable cups I had at home (cleaned) to the next meeting, eight in all for anyone to have.

I was happy to see that at the next meeting four of the cups returned and two others had brought their own. Again, not a huge change, but it is something!

Brian

[Joe Thompson]

lol yeah styro is another depressant in my world... but in the grand scheme of things simply doing something no matter how small often accomplishes much more than sitting around and arguing about what to do.

I've noticed that over time it ends up being slightly more catching... when shopping for food or housewares I find myself making brand decisions based on packaging now. Items packaged in less plastics tending to be the sway.

[Joe Thompson]

Well, with earth day come and gone (with little hubub this year for some reason) and of course me thinking about my plastic reduction in retrospect... I'm now doing many more "little" things here and there that might be of interest to some... maybe not.. but here goes:

I'm an avid beer drinker, luckily I'm also in the heartland of America's small brewery world. I switched to using refillable growlers a while ago so that I can obtain my beer fresh and of course local. It's dawned on me though that this simple tactic has not only provided me with a better tasting beverage, but I've cut out a good bit of my carbon footprint by avoiding the materials and energy that goes into packaging bottles and cans of beer.

Following the same method today I took a pair of mason jars with me to the tobacconist (I love pipe tobacco, every sunday I typically pick up two bags of tobacco's to enjoy throughout the week). While not a huge impact, this did cut out two plastic bags from my use... and it saved me the step of transferring the tobacco to the mason jar which I do anyways when I get home.

I utilize a great number of books to perform my work as a network engineer, rather than increase my footprint (not to mention my costs) through ordering a ton of reference materials in physical form I signed up for Oreilly's safari subscription. Found at http://safari.oreilly.com safari is a subscription based bookshelf with access to a ton of publishers that push out technical books ranging from desktop computing, to project management. Not only did I shave around $2500 off our annual budget, I cut out the time involved in waiting for books to show up at the doorstep, AND reduced the footprint involved in printing, packaging, and shipping those books to me.. not to mention saved space at the office to store the things.

We switched from buckets of cat litter to boxes, this reduced our plastic usage as well as makes it easier to pour the litter as the boxes arent quite so heavy. The boxes are then broken down and placed in the recycle bin

Here in colorado, xerascaping is key to a good yard due to the dry area. We xerascaped both front and back yards years ago, but todays task is to build up a few rock "retaining walls" to help channel rainwater and snowmelt to areas where we are having to water ourselves. Yesterday I re-routed the output pipe from our sump pump to put the water in the garden and not in the street. And of course the wastewater lines from both our RO units go straight into the garden. If not for rainwater collection laws here, I would probably be doing more.

I've been taking a good look at the packaging for our foods and everything we order. It's quite interesting how many times I see things overly packaged. Everything from the small Tart from Whole Foods that came in a cardboard box measuring 3 x 3 x 5 (wow big box for a small pastry, and a plastic window?) to one of my vendors shipping me a license key for a phone system (sd card shipped in a 12 x 12 x 6 box... nuts) has caught my eye. I have brought the overpackaging up with my avaya vendor requesting that they no longer ship the card separately and include it in other boxes or use an envelope mailer. As far as the tart, I dont think we will be purchasing things like that anymore.

Just a few more things here and there that didnt inconvenience me (in fact most of them made my life easier!) that others may find useful.

~J

[CarmieJo]

I like the book service!

[BrianPlankis]

lol yeah styro is another depressant in my world... but in the grand scheme of things simply doing something no matter how small often accomplishes much more than sitting around and arguing about what to do.

I've noticed that over time it ends up being slightly more catching... when shopping for food or housewares I find myself making brand decisions based on packaging now. Items packaged in less plastics tending to be the sway.


Joe,

Yes, no matter how small the action might seem, doing it DOES have an impact.

I found this nice little calculator from Starbucks: http://www.starbucks.com/thebigpicture

While Starbucks has done plenty of greenwashing in the past and still has plenty of room to improve, I like the little calculator because you can use it for any cup use or to estimate what a change will make.

With my reusable mug I save at least one cup per day, probably closer to 3 cups per day (weekdays) now that I bring my lunch instead of going to fast food.

What is the big deal about 2 cups per day (if I count weekends)? That is 36,500 cups over 50 years! I wonder how big a room it would take to hold 36,500 cups? It would take 14 trees to make those cups. Is it really worth cutting down 14 trees (and eliminating the habitat for the animals they support) for paper cups?

Granted most of my cups were styrofoam or plastic, but keeping 36,500 of those cups out of landfills seems like a good idea too.

What if I got 10 faculty members to switch? 365,000 cups or 140 trees over 50 years.

So your little act of not using the straw and plastic lid is keeping a lot of lids from being made, even if just 10 people adopt the practice!

Brian

[Joe Thompson]

thanks for the words of encouragement Brian, it's actually quite interesting how many people are following suit!! Even the act of asking for the smaller paper cup instead of the large plastic cup at fast food jives is catching on.

[Tal Sweet]

Very cool! I'm a big advocate of re-useable shopping bags. I started a few years ago after getting my first one while on a visit to Maui. BTW, Maui has mostly outlawed plastic shopping bags since then.

It makes me sick to see people walking out of stores with a cart full of plastic bags. :(

I've even started to re-use my paper bags (until they wear out) when buying liquor at the local party store. In MI liquor has to be placed in a bag when sold.

Another thing I do is use 2L pop/soda bottles for phyto culturing until they get too dirty. Smaller bottles are used for copepod and rotifer cultures that I give to others.

[Joe Thompson]

re-using the paper bags is an interesting idea too Tal!! I'm already getting a ton of use out of the bottles for my cultures, and then recycling when done....

My biggest hurdle this summer is convincing family members to change just slightly... with nice weather comes the yard.... comes plants... have you ever seen how much plastic ends up in the trash because of plants? Trying to convince family members to pick up ceramic or clay pots when they can instead of the plastic ones that will freeze and shatter before next year has been a tricky one.

Even trickier has been trying to explain to them that those LED yard lights that only last a single season, arent very eco friendly at all. Just because it says solar and LED doesnt mean it's good for the environment. One of my clients is a manufacturer of diamond wire saws used to cut sapphire and silicon for use in solar panels... After touring just their facility it made me re-think the whole solar alternative. The amount of resources that goes into just making the wire that cuts the crystals.... is enourmous!! Not to mention the amount of crud from the cheap batteries and electronics that hit the landfill after a season.

And with it being light out until 8, I dont really see the need at all to begin with. Best to save my money and not buy it at all I think!