Posts filed under 'Living without plastic'
May 12th, 2009
A few things in the news, in case you missed them:
1. Chicago is taking steps to be the first U.S. city to ban the sale of baby bottles containing bisphenol A, or BPA — a chemical that hardens plastic. A measure was passed Monday by a city council committee and goes up for the big vote Wednesday.
Minnesota has already passed its own measure limiting use.
The science is at what’s at odds here. I found this breakdown from the New York Times:
BPA is a strengthening agent in many hard clear plastics. It is also used in the lining of cans and myriad everyday products from CDs to eyeglass lenses. The Food and Drug Administration agreed in December to reconsider the issue of the hazards of BPA, after it received criticism from its own advisory board for a draft risk assessment it issued in August saying that the levels of BPA to which children and adults are exposed do not pose a meaningful risk. The chemical appears to have estrogen-like effects, and in animal studies it appears to accelerate puberty and pose a cancer risk. Other studies have linked BPA to higher risk of heart disease and diabetes in adults.
2. This is a little old, but … President Bush’s polar bear ruling will stand. From the Los Angeles Times:
The Interior Department let stand a Bush administration policy barring the federal government from using the precarious state of the U.S. polar bear population as a reason to crack down on global warming, upsetting environmentalists and cheering oil and gas companies.
The decision means the government cannot use the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar explicitly has blamed those emissions for the habitat erosion that last year landed the polar bear on the list of threatened species.
The AP summarizes it like this:
The iconic polar bear was declared a threatened species because global warming is causing a severe decline in Arctic sea ice. But the Bush administration rules limit that protection, saying no action outside the Arctic region could be considered a threat to the bear under the law.
Environmentalists have strongly opposed the rule as have many members of Congress. They argued the limits violate the Endangered Species Act because the release of greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and cars indirectly threaten the bear’s survival.
But Salazar said the answer to dealing with global warming rests in a broader, comprehensive approach that limits greenhouse gases.
April 27th, 2009
In the ocean, that is… This Wall Street Journal article begs the question, since there’s apparently no real way to measure it. Plus it’s not always visible at the Pacific surface.
Some say it is about the size of Quebec, or 600,000 square miles — also described as twice the size of Texas. Others say this expanse of junk swept together by currents is the size of the U.S. — 3.8 million square miles. Or, it could be twice that size.
On a related note, “billionaire eco-warrior” David de Rothschild is supposed to sail this summer across the Pacific in a recycled plastic craft to draw attention to the problem that this mass causes to wildlife.
August 26th, 2008
a few months ago, i bought this t-shirt, size M, from cafepress.com, because i needed to wear something for the photos to go with my rockford woman story about “living without plastic” for a week. or at least not buying it in its most noticeable forms.
i washed it and hung it in my closet, waiting to give it away. and now the day has finally come!
i’m giving away this “green is the new pink” shirt by drawing names at random.
how can you win?
send me an e-mail with your name, address and daytime phone number for verification, to jpollock@rockfordwoman.com.
and you need to prove that you read this blog by telling me what my favorite color is: orange.
please enter only once. i’ll take entries until wednesday, sept. 3. if you win, i’ll probably want to take your picture with the shirt on.
to see all the stuff i’ve written about plastic, click on “living without plastic” on the right side of the blog.
good luck, go greenies, and spread the word!
August 13th, 2008
ok, just kidding, but that’s what one of my former co-workers, lil swanson, joked when she sent me a link to a bbc article in which the author is going a whole month without buying plastic.
she’s running into similar conundrums, so i enjoyed reading it. it doesn’t hurt that she uses british lingo like “nappies” and “pong” (which means “to stink,” but i won’t link because there are other meanings and even other slang words that may offend the light of heart).
reminder: the summary of my week without plastic is running in the aug. 22 issue (sept/oct) of rockford woman. more to come on that!
July 25th, 2008
time did its own article. (and it tipped me off to one woman’s blog. she’s way more serious and committed than i was in a week.)
a few facts stood out for me.
The U.S. produced 28 million tons of plastic waste in 2005 — 27 million tons of which ended up in landfills.
Plastic makes up nearly 12% of our trash, up from 1% in 1960.
July 24th, 2008
for those concerned about plastic baby bottles: a european study finds the level of bisphenol A “safe.”
i know at least one mom who opted for glass bottles because of fears over the potential harmful effects to the human reproductive system. i personally used plastic bottles when i wasn’t nursing. not sure what i’d do given the concerns today.
July 1st, 2008
… this u.s. news & world report article, sent to me by alice kaczmarek of rockford, brings up “more problems.” specifically it addresses phthalates (a softening agent commonly found in pvc). you can find tips to limit exposure here.
and you can find a report critical of media coverage on phthalates (find out if your shower curtain will kill you… hint: it probably won’t). a challenge to understanding our environmental concerns is the science. both journalists and laypeople probably don’t know enough.
June 23rd, 2008
a friend of mine said, ala “seinfeld” style: what’s the deal with everything being doubled bagged these days? bread for one. greeting cards. shampoo. avoid this practice if you can…
or just use a “festivus” bag.
June 18th, 2008
when i was a kid, one of the highlights of going to grandma’s house was drinking ting soda out of bottles with paper straws. the straws would get all soggy from the liquid and the bad-habit chewing.
but did you know they still make paper straws? there’s a company called aardvark. cool, eh?
p.s. ting is now known more as a different jamaican brand soda. reports of the original ting’s death are mixed. nevertheless, returnable bottles are a part of wisconsin nostalgia.
May 28th, 2008
… was on thursday: juice, as i predicted.
can’t believe i forgot to write it down. picked it up when i ran to the store to get fresh produce (w/o bags) for mango salsa.
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