Modern Muse

beyond the house

2011-10-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

Doris, age 16, in 1926, with her Aunt Mae, left.

Hey, loyal followers -- just wanted to post a link to my current project. Since my Great Aunt Doris passed away in March 2011, I inherited her journals, and have since been transcribing and compiling them for posterity. Fabulous funny stuff from a rebellious teenager in the Roaring 20s, spirited entries from a stubborn college girl in the Great Depression, and delicious posts from an independent young woman arriving in San Francisco on the eve of World War II.

Love, laughter, cocktails and lovers -- it's all there.

I may not be posting at the Muse for a while as the Doris Diaries gets on its feet as a project, so do check in at the following sites:

The Doris Diaries: Complete diary entries with photos and history

Daily tweets in Doris's own words on Twitter

Funny Facebook posts on her own fan page

Want to chat? Drop me a line at my own email address (posted in my profile at right).
Thanks for the love and I'll be back here in a little while -- with more house photos and green stuff.

Doris in her 80s with me and my daughters, Occidental, CA.

raising the roof

2011-08-04T10:30:00.000-07:00

or, our fate is ceiled. More work at the Green House: look, we have a ceiling!

And then they (our dear friends Arturo and G) covered up that beautiful insulation with Sheetrock, and it looks like this (below), except with tape and mud over the seams; the ceiling awaits some love from a paint roller. Thanks very much to the efforts of Arturo and Guillermo, we are almost ready for -- wait for it -- prime time (painting joke there).

That's on the inside of the house. On the outside, all is well. All our girls came up to visit and hang at the river last weekend, and here they are on the deck with Pa. (He's the fourth Stooge, wearing his signature T-shirt.) This is the reason we wanted a place of our own -- for family fun like this :)

However, they weren't our only visitors. The neighborhood cat, Jax, thinks it's his house, too. He has no qualms about coming in and sitting on the furniture. It is common neighborhood gossip that he is the father of our kitten. So -- in that sense, he's family.

In the past week or so we added more plants to the outside rock-lined flower beds -- my mother gave me a bunch of strawberry plants, some yarrow and chives, and a tomato seedling had snuck into one of the pots. All were planted except the tomato, which needs a little more growing time in the pot if it is to survive in the wild. The only expense in the garden thus far has been the purchase of the eight lavender plants, at a cost of $20 (I couldn't figure out how to get them for free). Patrick and I worked on creating steps from the road up into the "terraced garden" (euphemism for "rock pile," so far). We dug and leveled and used discarded 2x4s to build the risers, with slices off a long piece of rebar we found behind the house. So far, it looks good; will post a photo next time.

I was looking at expenses, and we are below $1000 in materials and supplies -- well below. Wood for beams, insulation, writing, nails and other hardware supplies, Sheetrock -- not terribly expensive. Food for a work crew and eco-friendly paint are a little more costly than I expected. Labor, of course, costs the most, but since we've asked two friends to help, we don't mind paying what they're worth, and as a labor of love, these two fine gentlemen have gone far beyond what a random contractor would have. They are treating their handiwork as if it was their own home. Safety, fixing existing code violations, ensuring that the ceiling is water-tight and energy-efficient, talking to the roofer who didn't want to do a certain task for us (so he did it!), etc. Can't say enough about my two guys!

I must mention gloves here. I am a wearer of gloves -- not for doing dishes (I rather like to play in the water), but for any kind of cleaning or other labor, I wear gloves. I also wear them on public transportation because I'm a little fussy about germs, but that's another post. Anyhoo, as I was digging up rocks around the "terraced garden" (ahem), I dislodged not just one but three scorpions. They are about 2-3 inches long and look pretty nasty. At first they play dead, then they get mad and try to kill you. I scoop them into a jar and we carry them away and toss them into bushes and rocks away from our yard. They look like crawdads -- too bad they aren't edible. Alas, I think their bite is worse than their food value.
So that cemented it -- our yard is a gloves-on affair. So -- I wore holes in my gloves. Here's my fix:

A good old ironing board, iron-on patches and 5 minutes of my time. I also sewed up the seams a little tighter, where they had been fraying. A $2 pair of cotton gloves will now last me another few months, if not longer. Don't they look like something a clown would wear? Well, I'll be your clown, and I won't have to touch spiders or scorpions. For heavy rock work, I actually wear leather gloves, but these are for my basic gardening.

I am currently packing for an extended stay at our river cottage through mid-August -- it's Mr Husband's annual vacation and we're taking the Boy and his friend to hang out in the sun, water and rocks. No scorpions allowed. Fishing, floating, canoeing, and some hikes in the woods are on the agenda. For me, more wall-painting -- because that's fun for me :) But also, lots of reading and puttering and daydreaming. I might even break out the poetry journal and do some writing.

When we get back to civilization (Alameda) again, we kick into high gear for back-to-school prep, plus one daughter is moving out and another moving in, and a foreign exchange student is set to arrive Aug. 22. So off we go. I look forward to a little calm and quiet before the crazy.

Peace out, homeys, until mid-August.

progress and purpose

2011-07-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

We've been busy at the Green House these days, painting with my Freecycled paint, or paint I purchased at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, which sells rescued building materials. I look forward to painting our living room walls some interesting shades of green/sage, but they're still working on the ceiling. Here's what the living room ceiling looks like ( <--) after repairing the damaged roof, removing a desperately leaking skylight, and adding beams and trusses where there were none. (That's right -- none.) But now there are many, just the right number, in fact, to keep this roof up and over our heads for another 50 years or so. Falling trees notwithstanding (heh heh).

The light bulb in the middle is actually going to be a ceiling fan, repurposed from the dining room where it had no business being, as there are windows and a nice door already. You can see a window and part of the door below in the dining area.

While I was waiting for the plumber to show up the other day, I primed the wooden panel and trim, aka wainscoting, in the dining area. I didn't think I had time to do it. But the plumber was late, then actually did not show up at all. So I got the priming done, and am going to call a different plumber. I used an old sheet (Thrift Town, bought for a bed, but full of cigarette holes, yuk!) instead of plastic for a drop cloth, and have been taking good care of my paintbrush. In the past, I would use it, forget it, find it all dried out and ruined, throw it away, buy a new one, repeat, repeat.... Funny how taking care of one's stuff actually works for the good of one's wallet and one's planet. Simply amazing, in fact.

When the guys are inside, hammering, sawing and making noise and mess, I tend to stay outside and work on the garden-that-will-be. The garden area is a rocky hillside, to wit:

Challenge: to create a terraced garden out of a desert-like patch of sloping, infertile ground. I started with a compost corner (at right) to make some good dirt. Food scraps, green weeds and grass, dead leaves, and the addition of some wormy compost from my big garden in Alameda will help. I have harvested rocks from under the deck and around the house to make the rock-lined flower beds in front. I planted sunflowers in front of the deck, not sure if they'll come up this year or not. I will be planting lavender in the next week or so, because they are very hardy, don't need a lot of water or TLC, and they'll attract bees and hummingbirds and add a nice scent to our cottage garden-to-be.
That cement slab is just a boring cement slab, not the top of the cesspool, but very big and heavy, so we won't demolish it (yet). We started to make a mosaic out of random pieces of marble that are lying around the neighborhood (someone's leftovers from a remodel, or an art project, perhaps?). When we get the top covered in marble, we'll affix it with some grout and call it art. I have a potted dwarf lemon tree in a tub that will be lovely in that spot, as soon as I can get it into the car (it needs 2 people to life it, ugh.)

Here's the kitchen door from the deck. I plan to paint it bright red or perhaps green -- something cheery and colorful that will really say "cottage!"

The deck is quickly becoming our favorite place in the world -- lovely in the morning and gorgeous in the late afternoon. The Stellar's jays come for peanuts, the tiki torches burn with citronella at night, and it's a perfect place for morning coffee or evening glass of wine. The only time it's unbearable in summer is about 2-5 pm, when the sun beats down without mercy. You just sit there and melt into sweaty goo. That's when its time to go inside for a siesta or run some errands. Or go jump in the river.

Meanwhile, back on the Isle of Style, my garden is going crazy with green beans that are purple and tomatoes that won't turn red yet. There are tons of them, so I feel like there's a ticking tomato bomb about to go off back there. Tick. Tick. Boom. Then it will be salsa, bolognese sauce and Caprese salad time. Looking forward to it. Big time.

I have laundry on the line right now and it smells so sweet. Cats are loving the heat, and prove this by staying indoors. Chickens prove it by refusing to lay ANY eggs for several weeks, yet continuing to eat their stupid heads off. They also continue to poo everywhere. Is there justice here? I think not. However, we are eating baby beets and turnips for dinner tonight, and when the sun goes down I will bake some banana muffins with the black bananas that died on the counter while I was painting wainscoting 60 miles away. The fridge turned out a pack of frozen spinach and a packet of tortellini, so I think we're set for dinner this evening.

I wonder if a glass of wine on the Island patio is as nice as a glass of wine on a country cottage deck? Luckily, we don't have to choose. Amen, amen.

judge not, and hot water

2011-07-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

I'm back at my post after five days in the redwoods, where our little green house sits. This is the house we just bought, using bubble gum, baling wire, rolls of pennies and our winsome smiles. I've been masterminding its renovation, getting inspections and starting to paint, buying things like beams and plaster-patching mesh and oddments from the hardware department.
I had to buy a Simpson Strong Tie item with no name, just a number, to hold a large truss and joist in place. I had to buy four of them, in fact, and the one place was out of them and I had to go elsewhere and ask for it by holding out this odd-shaped piece of metal and say, "Gimme two more o' dese tings." Want to feel like a dummy? Walk around with unknown pieces of metal in your hand at hardware stores and ask for help from smug salesfolk. The metal-thingies have no name. But they are indispensable. And they cost about $4.50 each, by the way. (I'm not kidding about the no-name. No one knows what they are called. But they all know what to do with it. "Oh, yeah, we have those -- wait here...")

So -- cha-ching! I've had guys digging into the septic tank and measuring our sludge. I had a creepasaurus with long fingernails inspect our house for termites. Finding none, he ardently tried to persuade me to inject poison into the soil up to 10 feet deep to keep termites out. Prevention, he says. For a problem that doesn't exist. For only $2,000. Umm. No, thanks. A nice fellow came and changed all the locks. Another nice fellow walked on our roof and we made a deal. Two more took crowbars to our living room ceiling. The roofer came back and addressed his crew to the roof. They left behind a lightweight, yet solidly sheathed house with sparkling new rain-gutters. The little green house (which isn't green in color, just in spirit) is so pretty now, I could bust.

We're going to have a new ceiling, new baseboards, new floors, new paint, new light fixtures and a new garden... all underway as we speak, and much of it re-using what we have or what I found on Freecycle. I feel good about the green-ness of it all.

Which leads me to two topics. Judgement, and hot water. One might lead to the other, you'd think. Not necessarily. So there I am in the new house over the weekend, washing dishes by hand, conserving water carefully, using my soap swisher, biodegradable organic soap, second-hand dishes, handmade dish-scrubber and organic cotton knitted dishcloth. My new neighbor (the ones with the trash and hoarding problem) drives up in her minivan and proceeds to unload bushels of groceries in plastic bags: sweet cereal, lots of ramen noodles, Capri Sun drinks, tons of junk food, individually-wrapped snack items. I didn't see a fresh vegetable in the load, except a large sack of potatoes. I didn't see any milk.

I just washed my dishes and watched and counted the number of plastic bags and my mind sped along and I ---- had to stop. Because who am I to judge her and her choices? Some kind of green goddess? Is it my job to tell a struggling single mother with myriad domestic challenges, not least of which is a husband who she's just ditched who abused her and the kids and made all their lives hell? Without going into further details, the woman has enough on her plate. It is not my job to change her, to improve her, to show her my golden way. It is my job to love her. It is all our jobs to love her, and the other people around us who frustrate and challenge us. Isn't it? It is. Go read your (insert holy book of choice here). Then tell me I'm wrong.

We made friends with our new neighbor and offered to help her clean up her yard when we get a Dumpster and she was so excited. We exchanged hellos a number of times over the weekend and it turns out she's sweet as pie and really making great strides in her own journey. But even if she wasn't a sweet Cinderella -- even if she was boorish and loud and stupid and repulsive -- it's still my job to love her, not to judge her by whatever class, environmental or other status I live by/in.

And so, to hot water.

We are closer to the cycle of water in our new home than in the city, because the source of the water is the river, and the end result of where it goes it the river. Our septic tank percolates into the dirt, runs downhill to the creek that leads to the river. So what we put in, stays in it and will eventually, at the molecular level, get to the river and the ocean. This is a bit daunting. The responsibility is palpable. It would be so easy to slip and send something toxic down the drain -- which is why we've made the house totally green. So I'm doing my dishes, per above, and I realized how often I reach for the hot water, versus just water, or cold water. Like -- so much. I realized that we -- I personally and we as an industrialized nation -- are addicted to hot water. Must have it for baths! Must have it for cleaning! Must have it for everything! When I rinse off a dish or a vegetable or my hands, I always turn on the hot water. Why? Because it is easy and thoughtless. It's always there. I tried to notice how much I reach for hot water over the past few days -- because it maybe easy and available, but it isn't free. And I admit, I'm a glutton for hot water.

Try thinking about hauling your water from a well in the yard. Think about walking 10 minutes to the river, then back with a full pail of water. Think about walking five or ten miles daily with one large jar on your head. Think about gathering the wood to heat the water, and when you would use the hot water in that case. And also think about the oil that is pumped x-many thousand miles from here and how far it is shipped, and what it does to the atmosphere to transport and burn fuel on a grand scale so we can use hot water whenever we want to.

When I put it into that context, I started paying more attention to when I really needed hot water. It turns out that cold water does just as much good in most cases as hot. You really only need hot water when you need to disinfect -- such as washing diapers, or dishes, or washing your hands after going to the bathroom. But rinsing your hands after cutting vegetables doesn't require hot water. Rinsing out a glass before refilling it -- cold water is just fine. Rinsing dishes before the dishwasher, if you do that -- cold water, because the machine will use hot to kill whatever germs are there.

Just something to think about on this (here) gloomy July day.

deep thoughts

2011-06-30T12:13:00.000-07:00

So this is it -- 30 days without plastic. What's the conclusion?
I conclude that it is extremely difficult to live without plastic in today's consumer world. I conclude that avoiding plastic takes wits -- paying attention -- and the wisdom to know the difference between Good (usable, reusable and recyclable) and Bad (one-use Saran-wrap or Baggies, plastic film wrap for "hygiene," or personal use items like tampons or plastic bottles for water, etc). Good and Bad plastic are always present; it's how you choose.

I conclude that when I opened my eyes to items I use every day that are made from plastic, it wasn't all that tough to find a non-plastic alternative, or live without it. I found myself stepping back a generation to use once-well known objects like a wooden comb, a wooden spoon and a cast iron pan, a cloth bag and a ceramic cheese dish with matching cover. I found that servers at the deli, the butcher, the cheese shop and the farmers market are all happy to let you bring your own bags or containers, or to wrap in paper if you ask nicely. I learned to just take the plastic bag sometimes because I knew I would recycle it, and that if I didn't take it, the server would just throw it away because it was too much trouble to put back and reuse.

We ate well this month. I conclude that eating without plastic is healthier but a little costlier -- and yet, I didn't have an appreciable difference in my month end grocery bill. Why? Because of all the junk food I wasn't able to buy. No chips, treats, crackers and cookies, junky cereals, fatty breads... everything is fresher, better for us, and more locally produced. This is good for our health, good for the planet, and NO PLASTIC. I was reading the Lucky, Safeway and Nob Hill sale papers a month ago with rabid interest, to see what was on sale, cheap and where I could use my coupons to get more for less. Today I read through all three sale papers and conclude that I can purchase vodka, fruit, corn on the cob and milk -- and that's about it. Almost everything on sale in three stores, in 20+ pages of sale papers --> all so badly packaged --> all so very bad for our health -- > I can't buy them anymore.

My friend Deanna asked me last night if I was going back to my old habits of just buying whatever. "The challenge is over, right?" I could go back to buying plastic stuff. There's no law against it. But it's like learning how hot dogs are made. I told her I used to eat hot dogs until I saw what was in them and how they are made. Now I can't eat them. Same with the plastic issue. Can't do it. Just can't.

This has been good practice for us. If I had set a challenge of "Let's all eat healthful food!" it would have made my family grumble (as they do). That wouldn't have affected the planet in the same way, though -- there is plenty of so-called healthful food that is grossly overpackaged. Soy products, from edamame, soy milk and tofu, are among the worst offenders. Meat substitutes (as well as highly processed meaty things like sausages and lunch meats) are all encased in layers of plastic. Coconut milk in the Tetra-pak, rice and almond milks in the Tetra-paks, even Paul Newman's and Cascadian Farms products are heavily packaged. Granola bars, that love child of the health food industry, all extra packaged in individual Mylar-plastic packets.

Nuts, berries, lettuce, potatoes, fruit, onions, mushrooms -- unless you're buying in bulk, these also come in plastic clamshells or bags. And I already discussed in detail the personal care and bathroom items that are plasticized. Bottom line is that you have to bring your own bags or containers to avoid the packaging. But it is possible. It is very possible. Despite the ambient plastic that is around us, in most of our food and nearly all other goods -- it is possible to live without, or at least with less plastic.

I should say something pithy here about how precious is the future for our children, and saving the butterflies and the whales, but you know all that. Plastic comes from fossil fuel, which is rapidly running out. So be smart, think ahead instead of living in the moment, and try to avoid it. The four Rs of the green movement are Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot. Plastic doesn't rot. Recycling is supposed to be the last choice for plastics -- reduce your use, and reuse what you can.

I think that says it all.

boxes, bells and whistles

2011-06-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Every day is a challenge when you're trying to avoid plastic. Every. Single. Day.

Plastic is so ubiquitous in our lives that it's hard to really see it all -- it attaches itself to products like static cling, and is almost as hard to get rid of. At the beginning of the month I took everything plastic-bag-like back to the grocery store bin for recycling (these are bins near the front door of most grocery stores, where you can recycle your plastic grocery bags). I put other plastic bags in with the grocery bags -- from other stores, plus other types of plastic wrap, baggies, etc. I figure I can at least try to get it recycled that way -- if it ends up in landfill at their end, at least I tried. And if it does get recycled, I'm glad I made the effort.

I usually have a pretty large bag every month - though it does compress down pretty small. I will say that my household is at about a third of what we've had in past months, which is a plus -- that means far fewer bags and plastics made it into the house. Our garbage can continues empty -- aside from the one car-trash dump last week, our new smaller 20-gallon can is empty. Our recycling bin is full each week, and there's been more in the green waste (city composting). So all of those are wins, and if I had remembered to keep score over plastic, I think I'd still be ahead.

I'd like to share this link that I got as an e-mail, for purchasing ball-point pens. These are the first to be made from 100% recycled plastic bottles, according to Pilot. If you're going to buy ball-point pens, then they might as well be made from something recycled, and then recycled again afterward. Here's the link: Pilot Pens on sale.

Another product I would like to praise is Annie Chun's, a line of Asian foods that has made strides toward better packaging. The instant soups have eliminated the plastic film wrap, and the containers are now compostable instead of plastic. The paperboard cover is made from recycled cardboard now as well. I make the point about Annie Chun's because I notice that most ethnic foods are lagging way behind in terms of eco-sensitive packaging. Especially imported foods -- I recommend avoiding them at this point, because foods shipped from afar are not good for the planet (food miles), and foods shipped from afar in plastic or virgin paper wrap are even worse. Annie Chun's is based in Marin County, by the way.

Pay attention to what you buy. It really does matter.

In other plasticky news, I am really enjoying my wooden and boar bristle toothbrush. I like it. It's gentle but does a thorough job. Plastic bristles make my gums bleed. Enough said. Both Mr. Husband and self are now using the organic silk floss and it works just fine. It doesn't shred as I thought it would. So that's also good news. I'm also enjoying the different feel of a wooden comb and brush with natural bristles instead of the "scratch my head" plastic brush I had been using as both comb/brush. Who would have thought taking care of myself would feel so nice? (I also feel like saying "I coulda had a V8!" right now. [slaps forehead])

As the end of the month draws near and payday approaches, I will again have to look at what we've spent on food and how the budget was impacted. I haven't yet made the call to cancel cable, and will take a look at bills and expenses later on to see how we're doing. I do know that our food is delicious these days. Our bread is better quality. Our milk tastes better. Our cheese is better quality. Our meat is definitely better quality, and not purchased because it's cheap or on sale. The junk food quotient has gone way down. Our beverages are healthier, too. And, amazingly, my family doesn't hate me.

We're very glad to say that beer and wine still come in glass (or aluminum), and so do quality small-batch sodas and juices. The San Francisco Chronicle had a nice little piece about glass vs. aluminum in Sunday's paper. The upshot is that if it's locally brewed or made, glass is the better option (Lagunitas Brewery or Sonoma/Napa wines, for my local peeps). If it comes from afar (out of state, imported), aluminum is lighter and therefore has a lower carbon footprint. Glass is infinitely recyclable or refillable, but it's heavier, so that's why local is preferred (fewer gas/miles to bring it), says the article. We celebrated by drinking a locally brewed beer Sunday.

How are you doing on your own plastics purge? Inquiring minds want to know.

news and notes, Day 27 (with a video!)

2011-06-27T09:39:00.000-07:00

It's been 26 days of living without plastic, or trying, and it's all good. Here's some of what's going on. I wrote to the Bear River Valley cereal people, who make delicious natural cereals and have a lot of info about green energy and how they purchase credits to offset their manufacturing. That's awesome news, and I want to support the company. Here's the gist of their response about plastic packaging on their cereals:
   "...When it comes to the packaging of our products, our first priority is to provide consumers with safe and fresh products. The polyethylene bags we use provide our customers with wholesome, quality products without the high cost of packaging materials. We currently use the lowest density poly material proven to keep our cereals safe and fresh. Unfortunately, this poly material is not recyclable and therefore, does not have a recycling symbol. We continue to review any new packaging materials that become available to us.
   "You may also be interested to know that we take environmental issues very seriously. We are committed to the use of renewable energy. We have active programs in place to reduce energy consumption and minimize water use. We also work with our suppliers, the government and the community to continuously search for ways to improve our own recycling efforts.
   "We certainly appreciate and share your concern for the environment. Your comments regarding the packaging were shared with our Marketing and Packaging Departments..."

So there you have it. If my rubric is to use no plastic, then I can't purchase this cereal. The bags they come in, while less than the packaging you'd find on most other cereals, are here for eternity in landfill. Would you buy this cereal? I *love* their ethics. I *love* what they are trying to do. But isn't there something they can do about the plastic? I very, very reluctantly have to say no to them, based on the plastic issue. And I'm sad to say so, because their cereals are also delicious. Poo.

In other no-plastics excitement, I painted a chair and did some decoupage over the past week, and instead of my usual (and much used) plastic drop sheet, I used an old bedsheet instead. It absorbed the paint and the glue and the projects did not stick to it. I believe the bedsheet can be used many, many times over again, and eventually will still decompose in landfill, though that begs the question about using paint that is unnatural in composition. Perhaps my next project will be to investigate natural pigments and milk paints. In the meantime, I'm using paint from my stash from Freecycle and redecorating on the fly.

I've been accompanying my daughter who is outfitting herself for a new apartment later this summer. We've been trolling the thrift stores looking for housewares. Along the way I've found a few items that further my no-plastics venture. Those include a fabric shower curtain that can be washed and reused many times over. If you've ever had a plastic/vinyl, shower curtain, you know that they are a mildew magnet, unless you spray them with a toxic anti-mildew spray every single day. If you try to wash them, they tend to tear. The ring-holes also tend to tear, especially if you have A Boy who thinks it's a gymnastics event to get into and out of the tub. The kids never leave the curtain open to drip-dry so mildew creeps in even faster. You end up with a grody plastic shower curtain that you throw in the garbage because how could it be reused? Then you buy a new one that is so stinky with VOCs (that's poisonous fumes, in the vernacular) for several days, and then the cycle starts again. I switched to fabric shower curtains a couple of years ago and have never looked back. They can be rewashed, and repaired on the sewing machine if necessary. We needed a shower curtain for our new Green House that I mentioned recently, so I was glad to find one for the same price as a cheap vinyl one ($3.99).

I also found a tall glass canister to store spaghetti, which means I can buy my pasta in bulk and have the right kind of jar to store it. I was also tickled to find a cheese dome, with a wooden base for slicing the cheese. The dome is glass and holds a nice seal against the air, so the cheese won't harden up. This completely eliminates the need for plastic wrap or Tupperware for cheese. I almost bought more than one of these but restrained myself. One is plenty.
It sounds like I've been shopping like a 5th Avenue diva but honestly, not at all -- these three items cost me less than $10 in total and I didn't buy even one Prada bag or pair of $500 shoes. (Although my daughter did find a designer purse at ThriftTown and was very happy about it.)

I'll leave you with this today: A dear friend (thanks, Katje!!) posted this on my Facebook wall -- watch it at your leisure -- but it's lots of fun about canvas bags, by Brit comedian-songster Tim Minchin... so how many words rhyme with plastic?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVh15aUt8-c

trash talk

2011-06-24T17:28:00.000-07:00

I warned you we'd have to talk about the bathroom trash can. Put on your gloves and gas mask, because this one is a stinky topic.
What's in your bathroom trash can? Compostables? Recyclables? Toxic waste? Biohazards? Betcha there's some plastic in there, too. I was going to photograph what came out of our bathroom trash, but I got a little shy and a little grossed out, so never mind. Just use your imagination, and follow along as we parse what's plastic and what's actually garbage.

Cotton swabs, aka Q-tips. Buy the kind with a paper/cardboard stick. Those can be composted or will disintegrate in landfill, while the ones with the pretty pink, yellow, blue or white plastic stems will not. Ever. (Not in our lifetime, anyway.)
Cotton balls, hair from your hair brush, and wads of tissue are compostable -- unless you used something toxic like nail polish remover on the cotton ball (garbage) or if you have a cold or communicable disease (garbage). Compost piles don't get hot enough to destroy the virus from the common cold, and we don't want your germs in the municipal compost piles, either. Don't flush these items, as they get stuck in the water waste system, and no one wants your germs there, either (there are plenty of germs already).
Toothpaste tubes, mouthwash bottles, cardboard toilet paper tubes, shampoo bottles, makeup containers, Kleenex boxes -- if it's plastic, paper or metal, chances are that it's recyclable. Use all that you can, and then don't be lazy -- carry the packaging down the stairs and out the back door (or wherever) to the recycling bins.
The plastic strip that comes around the neck of the mouthwash, the ambient plastic wrap around makeup, plastic film-wrap that comes around various other goods you use in the bathroom: This wrap may be recyclable in your area or maybe not. I take all plastic film-type wrapping (shrink-wrap) and bag-type plastic back to the grocery stores inside a plastic bag for recycling.
Feminine hygiene products: Ladies, STOP buying one-use products encased in hard plastic. The Tampax Glide products are a one-use product that then sticks around in landfill for 1,000 years. Buy tampons in the cardboard tube if you must , but plastic tampon tubes are floating in our oceans, caught in fences and waterways around the world, and languishing in landfills (if you've ever done a beach clean-up, you'll change your ways, guaranteed.). There's no need to buy these. Same goes for the uber-wrapped maxi-pads, which are wrapped, then wrapped again, and also have a plastic strip on the bottom and are made from plastic/paper. Better yet, switch to reusable cloth pads (visit Glad Rags, check around on http://www.etsy.com/ or check out the Hillbilly Housewife for a discussion of how easy and natural -- and money-saving! -- these are to use, and how to avoid the scam that tampon producers are perpetrating on supposedly smart Western women.) What do you think Laura Ingalls Wilder and Jane Austen and women in the Bible used in their day? A more modern take is the Diva Cup, available at health food stores or online, or if you have a diaphragm, use that every month as a menstrual cup. I've said this before and I'll say it again -- if you're too squeamish to talk about or handle your own menses, go back to 7th grade and start over, or get a little therapy -- it's your own body and it's perfectly healthy and natural. Don't be a big baby.
Hair coloring products: Every one of these boxes is full of plastic. They include a pair of gloves, a new bottle to hold the colorant, etc. If you want to color your hair, buy yourself a set of supplies (for about $10) at the beauty supply store, then just get the colorant every month or so. You'll save a ton, and you won't need to buy a new plastic bottle and gloves every time. Those gloves are good for more than one use, anyway. If you use it only once, it's not a Good Plastic. Really!
Toilet paper and soap packaging: These come singly or in a package of several, and the large packages are coated in plastic. Consider buying individual rolls of toilet paper, which come in paper wrap, and individual soaps in paper or boxes instead of multi-packs. You can finally use those gift and travel soaps!
Toothbrushes: Our dentist gives us freebies every time -- and we are encouraged to replace every three months. Do any of you recycle your toothbrush? Do you find a reuse for them? They are good for cleaning grout, scrubbing jewelry or small items, and also as a paintbrush for spatter paint. They make a good doll hairbrush or brush for your pet's delicate face. However, there are only so many extra uses for used toothbrushes, so make sure you recycle them. Then, buy a wooden one from Bass (about $6 at the Alameda Natural Grocery store, or available online) or try the ones at this online shop. The one I bought is wooden with boar bristles, made in Italy, and can be tossed into the fire (if you need kindling) or composted when done. All natural, it's biodegradable and harmless to the planet (except for the shipping from Italy). Don't chew on the bristles (a bad habit of mine -- I will fold laundry while brushing teeth and find myself chewing the bejeebers out of my toothbrush). Make sure to let it air dry, perhaps out of the bathroom, so it lasts longer.
Razors: People, stop using one-use disposable razors. Spend a little more and get a razor handle with changeable blades. Then take care of your razor. Don't leave it in a puddle in the shower. Dry it after use. Set it on the windowsill or on your dresser in the next room to dry. You can store them head down in a jar of isopropyl alcohol and they will remain rust-free virtually forever. Water ruins razors, so keep yours dry, and then you will use fewer blades and throw away less plastic. If you are a real Eco Hero, you'll switch to a straight razor (the Dervaes family of Pasadena recommends these) or be a real hippy and stop shaving. As for the need to buy an aerosol can of shaving cream -- stop (plastic!). I bought Mr. Husband a ceramic shaving cup and natural boar bristle brush 18 months ago and he *loves* them. He will never go back to a can of foam again. And you can buy some deliciously scented shaving soap on http://www.etsy.com/ or at a local bath and body shop like sumbody.
Plastic packaging from medications: Try to switch to a different size or ask if you can get a less-packaging option. Kaiser will work with you to reduce the plastic, but my insurance, Cigna, uses a mail-order system that does not allow for less packaging. Try, then, to recycle what you can: the plastic wrappings go in my plastic-bag-return to grocery stores, and the plastic bottles get recycled. In my over-the-counter meds, I make sure to buy a large-enough bottle of Claritin so I don't get individually wrapped tablets, but rather a bottle of loose tablets.
Cough drop wrappers: Try to purchase a brand that still wraps in waxed paper (compostable), such as Ricola or some of the Luden's varieties. I also bought vitamin C drops from CVS in a square tube-like package that are wrapped in foil, then in waxed paper within, so there's no plastic in the package. I find the vitamin C drops work as well for cough drops or hard candy, as the need arises.
Magazines and newspapers: These need to get recycled in the regular recycling bin, not just stuffed in the bathroom trash.
Plastic water bottle: Yikes! How did this get through my doors? You know that 9 out of 10 of these are not ever recycled, but trashed instead? Make sure you recycle all beverage containers, in whatever way possible. I think of them as money -- 5 cents in California for every can or bottle, plastic or glass, that I pick up and return. We've probably earned $50 this year so far in collecting cans and bottles on our walks and from various parties. Again, do a beach cleanup some day and see how many of these you retrieve (especially the caps). You'll never buy one again.
Chewed gum. Yuck. There's nothing you can do with chewed gum but put it in the garbage. I guess the thing to do is -- not chew gum.
Subscription cards, mail: Yikes, random paper in the bathroom garbage cans: pull it out and recycle it in appropriate place.
Dry-cleaning bag: I thought we had dealt with these earlier in the month. Pull it out, put in the bag-recycling and return to grocery store. Your dry cleaner may also accept these to recycle, and you can ask for no bag next time.
Button: Pull it out and put it with the sewing stuff.
Fingernail clippings: See hair, #2, above. Also -- yuck. Because these are down in the bottom of the can and loose, the best thing to do next time is to catch the clippings into a tissue and then put that into the compost bin.
Hairpins: Set aside for daughter to ask for when she can't find any in her bathroom.
Apple core: Compost. Who eats in the bathroom, anyway? Yeesh.

That's what was in our bathroom can. What's in yours, and is there a way to recycle or make less of an impact with your bathroom trash? (I'm thinking of disposable diapers and wipes, daily facial cloths, false eyelashes, toxins, old broken jewelry, a single sock?)

green guilt, green quilt

2011-06-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

The book, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story, has been recommended to me a couple of times and I wanted to offer it in case anyone else wants to read it. It's on my request list at the library; I'll post a review when I have read it.

Yesterday was a hot one -- hot and smoggy, so they declared it a Spare the Air Day: don't drive, don't BBQ, don't have wood fires, and try to keep energy use low. But I was in my car, driving up the highway to meet the roofer at our soon-to-be house, and man, it was really and truly hot on the road and smoggy in the air. I felt "green guilt" about the driving and have realized once again that my eco-lifestyle has become my new religion. As a recovering Catholic, I've noticed this before, and I won't say a lot about it, just that I notice similarities in "doing the right thing," "green guilt," knowing "the litany" and "the sins." Purging plastic is akin to a Lenten purge, isn't it? Or maybe, since it's supposed to be for life -- a vow of celibacy from plastics? Something to think about as I ponder (pray?) over my choices and light candles instead of flick on a light switch.

On my journey through Sonoma County yesterday, I visited my parents, and my mom gave me some of her childhood toys to sell at an antiques dealer here in town. Apropos to our current conversation here about toys and plastic, it was interesting to see what her toys were made of: paperboard puppets and doll furniture; Halloween masks made from starched and painted cheesecloth/muslin layers; aluminum and wooden pots and pans and rolling pins; cloth doll clothes and bedding; wooden beads to string. And the toys are still in good shape. Although there were choking hazards and perhaps lead paint in these older toys, at least they have held up over the years (70+). And they'll eventually go back to the earth, since they're all made of organic materials (the aluminum may take a little longer).

Chatting with my parents, who are children of the Great Depression, reminds me again of how many ways there are to do things: to save, to reuse, to resuscitate and revive. My father is an inveterate straightener of nails. My mother makes award-winning quilts (look for hers at the upcoming Sonoma County Fair) for the family, and as part of the Santa Rosa Quilt Guild's ongoing mission to make baby quilts for the homeless or less fortunate. My parents use what they have, either in the barn or in the fabric stash, to make their creations. If you're looking for inspiration on how to live with less plastic, look back a generation or two in your own family or neighborhood, and see what you can learn from our elders. (Feel free to post what you've learned in the comments section.)

For the past 18 or so years, I've slowly been working on what is perhaps the world's ugliest quilt. I chose some rather bold purple, green, and hot pink fabrics back then, and set to work on it when Ana was a baby. Ana is 19 now, and I finally finished what I could with this ugly thing. I took it to my mother's and we looked through her stash of fabrics, found some calmer green for the sides and back, and a friend of Mom's is going to quilt it and finish the binding for me. There were several leftover squares from this Ugly Quilt (it's so vivid that it will scare the beard off my husband when he sees it). My clever mother took the "orphan" squares and made a couple of baby quilts, using her fabric stash and some very calm lavender and dark green. The result of my mad fabric purchase from two decades back is that two babies will have handmade, warm, soft quilts to sleep in, besides the finished cover for our bed in our new (old) house.

There's no plastic in this story, but there's also no waste. There's no trip to the dump, there's no plastic bag, there's no shipment from China, there's no toxic side effects, and there's no mountain of refuse. There's fellowship, years of quiet handiwork; there's the creative act and the act of sharing and giving. There's the handing down of tradition, and the act of generosity toward others with less in their lives. I can't think of a single negative in this story. And that's a success, in a month of purging plastic or any time.

Guilt or quilt? I think I'll take the latter.

20 days in, plus toys

2011-06-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Isn't that still life pretty? It's the Teflon pots and pans, plus plastic utensils, that I'm giving away. (The picnic basket, wire chicken and canning kettle are just keeping them company for a few days.) I spent part of Saturday reseasoning some cast iron that I had used, then let sit, and then someone soaked it in water and it rusted horribly. Not pretty at all. Now I have three cast iron skillets of different sizes sitting in my oven with a light coat of olive oil, awaiting the next cooking opportunity. I got all three of them from Freecycle, by the way. Which means they cost me $0: my favorite price.

I've been thinking about long-term changes and what that means to my family. As it happens, we are days away from closing escrow on a house up in the Russian River Valley, deep in the heart of wine country. It's a small house (650 square feet!), with its own cesspool, right on a creek that leads to the river, which flows right to Jenner and the Pacific Ocean. It's on a private road, which means no garbage service. We have to be very careful what flows out of the house and out into the yard (watershed). We need to make it a "green" house -- as off-grid and zero-waste as possible. Taking the Plastic Purge here, in our rented city digs, is one way for us to get ready to live plastic- and toxin-free, when we eventually move up north (weekends and summers, until the Boy graduates, and then permanent residence).

Not everyone can do that, I know, and frankly, we never thought we'd ever own a house, much less get to live so much greener. But now we need to be ready to live without making a lot of trash. We have to consider what cleaning or household product we use so it won't go down the drain and kill off our beneficial bacteria in the cesspool, or flow into the creek and river and kill the spawning salmon and steelhead. We're looking at major composting, solar panels, gray water systems, energy-efficient insulation for heat and cooling, and best methods for all manner of things, from what we'll eat and how we'll heat the home, to what sources we'll use to refurbish and build. Reuse, renew, scavenge, and recycle... all of those will play a heavy role in the fixing-up of the house. That's a lot to think about, and it's a very exciting time for the Tracey-Park-Rodrigues-Romero clan.

The Plastic Purge: It's a dry run to see how (easy? hard) it is to live with fewer plastics in our lives.

So -- here's a different thought for the day. Our Boy is 13 and doesn't play with toys much anymore. He plays baseball and practices kung fu, rides a skateboard and a bicycle. But his Lego and Bionicle days are over. That's a blessed relief, because it's hard to purge plastics when the Lego company sends a new catalog every month, and all of their items are plastic. Every item is also considerably sheathed and swathed in plastic, plus plastic wrap, inside a box with plastic...argh! I could say the exact same thing about Barbie. In fact, the Toys R Us flyer in the Sunday paper is a frightening nightmare of plastic. It seems that toys are not often made of wood or cloth anymore. When my daughters were younger, they loved the American Girl dolls. I spent a lot of time sewing clothes and pillows and quilts for the dolls, but they also had their plastic "food" and accessories. We used to get the Hearthsong catalog, which has wooden, fiber and cloth toys -- pricey but somewhat more organic.

Since my kids have grown out of toys, and their entertainment now seems to be electronics, movies and friends, I don't have the toy debate to argue here. So what do you parents of younger children do as far as plastic in toys? Are you concerned about lead or BPA in plastics? Do you limit your child's exposure? How do you dispose of plastic toys that your kids no longer play with -- or have demolished? I'd be interested to hear from parents who are in the thick of it right now. What choices do you make for your children's playthings? Please post a comment. Thanks!

the Ayatollah of plastic

2011-06-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Do you think I'm judging you? By the looks on people's faces these days, they do. Since I started the Plastic Purge, just about everyone who talks to me says, "Well, it was plastic, but..." or, "You would have hated it, there was so much plastic..." and, "I know it's plastic, but...". There are the more aggressive folks who kind of snarl at me, "Is that plastic? Are you drinking out of a plastic cup? Is your Bandaid plastic?"
It's kind of funny. I suppose I'm making them think about their own choices, and that might make them a little uncomfortable. I'm not really the Ayatollah of plastic, though. I'm just a poor slob dragging along and trying to make plastic-free choices. If I were the Ayatollah of plastic, I'd start chopping off fingers for every infraction. You'd have 10 chances to mend your ways, and then you'd pretty much be hosed and have to live in my Plastic-Free World, under my rules. On your knees, heathens!

I'd much rather be the Green Queen (as opposed to the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland). I wouldn't say "Off with her head." (Much.) I'll say, "Off with your plastic!" and trade you a real silver fork for your plastic one, offer you a waxed paper bag for your sandwich, a ceramic mug for your beverage, a reusable canvas bag for your vegetables, and perhaps some wooden chopsticks or hair ornaments instead of plastic ones. Then we'd scamper naked with whales and butterflies and eat homemade tofu together happily under Mother Redwood Tree while fairies sang.

So back to reality. I spent some time Friday shopping for some necessary household items, and took a turn around the local mall just to see what kind of plastics were for sale, and what alternatives. In the clothing department store (Kohl's), all that clothing has the stupid little piece of plastic with price tag, and their bags are plastic. I recommend that you take your own large bags when clothes shopping, and try to recycle those little plastic scraps in your weekly bin. The cosmetics counter is redolent with perfume and with plastic -- hard to escape the cases and compacts. I was able to purchase a pretty, vintage compact the other day at Thrift Town for about $3, and that is refillable with powder. I notice that if you spend more, you can often avoid plastic -- true in cosmetics as well as in food. Glass bottles of perfume and boxes of talcum powder are two pricey examples.

Bed, Bath & Beyond had many plastic and silicone choices for use in the kitchen. I don't own any silicone products, and frankly am skeptical as to its safety with food use. We thought plastics and non-stick pans were fine until recently, when their toxicity was reported. So I plan to continue avoiding silicone bakeware for the foreseeable future. Call me suspicious, but I just don't trust manmade materials, based on past performance (silicone breast implants, anyone?) However, there were many bamboo implements, cutting boards and practical items like towel bars. Bamboo is very sustainable since it regrows so quickly. Lots of glass and plain metal pots and pans, tools and gadgets, too. I also saw the eco-non-stick pans, but I think I'll just leave these be for now.

Alameda Beauty Center has a very nice selection of sustainable and vegan hairbrushes and combs (vegan means no boar bristles). There is also a nice variety of Burt's Bees cosmetics and soaps. Surprise! Burt's Bees makes a spray deodorant in an aluminum bottle. It has a recyclable plastic cap and inner tube, but this is the first packaging I've seen that is not entirely plastic. I (heart) Burt's Bees. We have often purchased large bottles of shampoo from the beauty supply store, because we figure that one large bottle is the same as three individual bottles, and less packaging is better than more. I don't have a way to actually measure this belief -- it would be a complicated algebraic formula.

"If gasoline costs X and the shampoo is shipped from State Y to State Z, and if the plastic is made in State F and shipped to State G for packaging, and if the shampoo is made from baby squirrels which are not endangered but the exhaust from the shipping kills X many squirrels on the road, then buying one large bottle of shampoo at Store Q is/is not a better eco choice." (falls down in mathematical coma...)

If anyone can actually work out a formula like this so that we all have a simple rubric at hand, with a tap on the screen of our favorite pocket devices, please let me know. Is there an app for that? Until then, I'm going to continue to try and avoid plastic, excessive driving, imported items in general, and toxic substances.

By the way, Alameda Beauty Center has a nice punch card and takes off $5 when your card is full. I take my own bag because they offer plastic bags. As far as the mall, it's also nice to note that See's Candy is almost next door (at our mall), offers delicious free samples, packages mostly in paper and foil, and adds sunshine to my day. Plastic-free chocolate...mmm.

My last stop was at Beverly's, where I fondled the yarns and stroked the fabrics and flipped through crafty books. Lots of plastic here, for sure -- but also many paper-wrapped or unwrapped items, if you want to get your craft on. The bead aisle, scrapbooking and the fake floral departments scare me, with whatever mountains of plastic-making fumes spewed into whatever Third World country in order for us to make necklaces, memory books and floral centerpieces for our hapless friends and families. (This is as good a time as any to mention "The Story of Stuff," a 20-minute short film by Berkeley gal Annie Leonard, which shows you the consequences of our cheap stuff and where it comes from and where it goes after we're done. It's online and it's free. Be brave and watch it, and then tell me if it doesn't affect what you plan to buy next.)

I didn't go into Radio Shack, Anna's Linens, Old Navy or Big 5 Sporting Goods -- I was already exhausted from touching and looking and the smell of all that new stuff was actually beginning to nauseate me (really). But I imagine those stores, as in any store in any mall in America and beyond, that there is plastic aplenty, and that you can easily take your own bag, and that if you choose to avoid buying plastic, you probably can.

Caveat emptor, as always.

winning

2011-06-16T19:36:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of wins for the record.
1) The Sunday newspaper came with no plastic wrap, per my instructions. (I forgot to mention it earlier in the week.)

2) I cooked a lot today -- all of it without Teflon or the plastic utensils you need to use to avoid scratching the finish. In fact, I took all the plastic spoons, spatulas and sporks out of the drawer and all of the Teflon-coated pans, pots, cookie sheets and muffin tins out of the cabinet, and they are all ready to donate. My family is going to hate me.

3) The 7th-grade picnic went off without a hitch. I wrote a cheerful injunction to recycle everything, delivered the goods and then -- let go of the angst. It was out of my hands, and out of my control. No guilt, no worries.

4) I went to check on the level in the garbage can -- and was shocked to find it half-full -- of mixed trash. Mr. Husband had cleaned his car and didn't sort anything. There was no actual recycling in there, but stuff I would have considered green waste -- cigarette butts, fast food wraps. More instruction needed in this area. I did not, however, dive in and sort it. It was too cigarette-ashy and yucky to touch. This isn't really a win, I guess. Hmm. But...

5) Daughter Ana is talking up the Plastic Purge at work. My mom bought a reusable coffee filter. My friend Deanna bought clothespins. The world is a better place for these changes.

6) The last few items I ordered through Amazon have come in cardboard and paper only, no plastic. Yay!

7) We're eating like kings here. Tonight: freshly made tortilla chips from the Mexican taqueria down the way, purchased in a paper bag and kept crisp in a sealed container. We're having nachos, or open-face tacos, whatever you like to call them. Cheddar cheese from a local dairy, wrapped in paper. Lettuce from the farmers' market. My own homemade hot peppers in a Mason jar (from last summer). Farmers' market onion. Small dairy yogurt in place of sour cream -- from a glass jar. Salsa in a jar. Ground turkey -- yes, in styrofoam and plastic, from my freezer. But it's the last package of styrofoamed meat in there, so from here on, it's clear sailing.

8) School is finally out, and therefore, no more packing school lunches for 10 weeks. Yay!

9) Tomorrow is Friday and date night with Mr. Husband. We'll make it plastic-free, somehow.

what's good enough for me ---

2011-06-15T17:06:00.000-07:00

---isn't always good enough for others. I think. I kind of failed as far as plastic and procuring food for The Boy's 7th grade picnic tomorrow (the last day of school, at last!). They were desperate for anything for the kids, and there was low parent participation over this event -- the only thing they had was tomatoes. There's something like 150 7th graders. I looked at the food list and volunteered to take brownies, some beverages, hot dogs and buns, and potato salad. I had some potatoes, and figured I'd just grab a package of hot dogs. It's $1 for eight, right?
Heh heh. Sure, for the plastic-wrapped hot dogs, it's $1. Sure, about the same for a plastic bag of bakery buns. Sodas? Juice? Cups? What to do? I went to the regular grocery store, Lucky, again pushing my cart through the aisles with increasing desperation. Can I send glass to a school function? I'd better not -- liabilities, middle-school roughhousing, someone will get cut and they won't recycle the glass. Soda is bad for them. So is the fake fruit punch. Real orange juice comes in a gallon but has to be kept cold. Real juice costs a fortune. Water? They didn't ask for water. Water in plastic is a differnt kind of scourge (did you know that 9 out of 10 plastic water bottles are not recycled?)

Round and round went the internal argument. They also need cups. Should I get the plastic cups made of recycled materials? Guaranteed, no one will recycle them afterward. Paper cups? But they come in a plastic bag. I will get aluminum pans for the brownies and potato salad -- there are recycled options there. But -- oh, no! The aluminum trays are wrapped together in plastic? What if I get this one without plastic? Well, it's a turkey roasting pan. No plastic, but it's way too huge to bake brownies.

What can I get in bulk, to feed a lot of kids, not break the bank, and still avoid plastic? What can I do to minimize the impact, staying true to my cause? Budget, time crunch, other obligations, driving around...

So I compromised. I bought more potatoes, loose from a bin instead of a plastic bag. (They cost about twice as much or more then the plastic 10-lb. bag.) I bought a pack of buns and a pack of hot dogs. I bought two reasonable sized aluminum pans strapped together with plastic. I bought a gallon jug of the least-worst fruit punch I could find (Hawaiian Punch, yuk) and a plastic-wrapped package of paper cups. I plan to mitigate the plastic by removing the plastic bags from the buns, pans and cups, and recycling those myself. I will package everything in foil or waxed paper, in a large paper grocery bag, and deliver it myself to the park, so it will stay cold and won't get too squashed by 13-year-old kids forced to lug supplies. I will add stick-on labels that say PLEASE RECYCLE ME to the juice and aluminum pans. Maybe someone will.

I'm making potato salad and the brownies tonight. But I must confess to pretty grueling feelings of failure and frustration. I have to just stop and step away from the guilt, I guess, because most of this school outing is out of my control. Geez, I can't prevent the world from using plastic! I could have gone to three different places to get exactly the right thing (whole wheat bakery buns, hot dog links, recyclable cardboard cups, or pretty baby unicorn horns). But reality strikes: Who has that kind of time? Who, even the least considerate gas-guzzling tree-hater, can afford to blow money on expensive fuel to go to a couple of different stores for the right thing?

The bottom line for today's adventures is that some times you compromise, make the least-bad choices, and do what you can within your means. I hate -- HATE -- that my choices are so limited, however. I really hate that I have to choose between money and good food, or good food and perceived fears of hygiene (plastic = "cleaner food" to some people). I wish I could afford to feed a whole class of middle school kids a good meal that doesn't harm the planet or their bodies. I wish, I wish...

Oh, the dreams of a bleeding-heart treehugger. How they flutter in the wind.

flea markets and thrift stores

2011-06-14T12:07:00.000-07:00

I spent Sunday meandering around the ginormous antiques fair in Alameda and Monday I did research at several local thrift stores. In all of my travels, I looked at how much plastic is discarded and reused, as well as what alternatives there are for non-plastic use in the home. The items in the photo are some of my finds. I'll name them, clockwise: ice tray, canisters, cheese grater, nut chopper with new red handle, soap-chip swisher, lawn sprinkler head, jar grabber and fireplace bread toaster. The item in the center is a wall-mounted bottle opener (obviously not mounted anywhere yet). As I start to weed out some of the plastics in our house that may actually be harming us (Teflon, for example), I have been looking out for non-plastic items that would work just as well.
The nut chopper has a plastic top that broke when someone dropped it, but instead of discarding it, I found a new handle, a wooden one for 10 cents, as I mentioned the other day. This way, I can keep using the nut chopper as long as no one else drops it. If they do, I'll then see about replacing the plastic lid with a metal one, so I can keep chopping nuts the old fashioned way (no electricity).
I don't expect to use the bread toaster so much, except when camping or cooking out, but it's nice to have non-electric options. The sprinkler head is brass and will probably work for another 50 years. The canisters are enameled tin and will work as well as Tupperware for keeping my baking ingredients dry and tasty. My favorite item, however, is the soap-chip implement.

The other day LisaPie asked what I do about the impossible issue of plastic bottles of dishwashing soap. Well, here's your answer, LisaPie! I've had the swisher on the right (with soap chips) for a year or so. They cost just a few dollars at thrift stores or flea markets, and if you see one, get it! You put your leftover soap chips and slivers inside the little cage and then swish it in water. This makes soap suds for washing dishes or fine washables. It also uses up those pesky little soap chips (unless you use them already to make homemade laundry detergent or liquid hand soap). There's no plastic involved in this handy instrument; it's a wooden handle and metal cage. I use it in a sinkful of water, then set it in the silverware drainer to drip dry.
If you can't find one in your antique shop (I paid $4), try using the plastic netting that your onions come in. Put the soap chips into the netting and tie a knot. Voila -- you have dish soap! That netting will last you quite some time. (Onion netting is also a great kitchen scrubber. I sew mine into squares but just tie it into knots and start scrubbing. They *never* wear out.) Yes, the onion netting is plastic, but since you're reusing it (forever), you are not wasting the effort of making it, etc. It's a reuse that also avoids further need for plastic-manufacturing, transport, packaging, etc.

That's how it's done...(dusts off hands).

What I noticed about plastics at the antiques fair is that there *aren't* a lot of old plastic things that are useful. Most of what I saw seems to be kitschy stuff like toys or decor that people have saved but not worn out. In other words, not really useful but more fun or decorative items. Another way to consider this is that perhaps plastics don't hold up under heavy daily wear. I notice that plastic food storage as well as bags get sticky-feeling after a few washes, and then the bags start feeling too gross to reuse. The sticky Tupperware takes a while to get really grody, but when it gets there, who wants to use it? At that point, it;s not going to become an antique. It's going to get recycled -- or very likely just thrown away.

In my thrift store travels, I was happy to find lots of cast iron and simple stainless steel kitchen items. I got a cookie sheet to replace my Teflon ones -- the Teflon pans will go into the garden or garage for non-food use. They make great art trays, by the way, keeping beads and such from rolling off the table, if you're replacing your cookie sheets. I also found several glass containers to use instead of Tuppers for storing food items like rice, nuts, raisins, and so on. I bought metal shower curtain hooks, a wooden Lazy Susan, a couple of baskets and wooden boxes for storage, heavy pressed paper placemats (British-style pub placemats), and a really ugly ceramic tape dispenser (it has a sailboat on it and is so ugly that I can't bear to show it to you -- but... no more Scotch tape dispensers). Since I was thrifting, I don't think I spent more than a dollar or two on each item, and because they are used, that fits my Compact pledge (the buy-no-new stuff group to which I've belonged for four years now). On the other hand, there were lots of cheap plastic toys and tons of polyester clothing, all of which smells bad (polyester traps body odor and then releases it when warm, yuk).

It feels like all I'm doing is shopping and talking about shopping -- my point is to show that it's not expensive to replace harmful items in your home, and I will be able to donate or recycle the plastics I have now and wish to replace. Getting rid of plastics is not an elitist thing. I'm not trying to make people buy stuff -- rather, the greenest option is almost always to buy nothing at all! Ordinarily I wouldn't be out shopping anyway, since mass consumption is not good for my budget or the planet. But as part of the project, I think it's important to show readers that there are other ways, and that you have choices, and those choices can avoid plastic if that's what you choose to do.

Last item for the day: another scourge upon the earth...Mylar.

I honestly don't know what to do with these. They are not even plastic. I can't recycle them. I was thinking that I;d save and reuse them for gift wrap, but at some point they will be too torn to reuse. Eventually, these will go to landfill. I don't buy these anymore. My kids sometimes do, and I can't stop them from every bringing a Mylar bag to the house again. When I start to think about how many billions of bags of chips are eaten in a day, a week, a year, I start to feel like Carl Sagan talking about the universe..."Billions and billions...." It makes me feel sick to think of how much trash is generated by the 5-minute eating of grease and fat and salt that constitutes these snacks.

I can say "no more plastics." I can refuse to buy these things. But lots of people do, and that's not likely to stop soon. I know there's a plan by Terracycle to recycle these, if your school or company chooses to participate. None of my kids' schools are participating. Terracycle doesn't accept individual bags. I really don't want to make a purse or a bracelet out of this stuff. So I'm just offering these if anyone wants them. You want my garbage? I'll pay the postage.

In 14 days, I've grown the point where these really make me feel ill and depressed, knowing how long they'll sit in landfill. Sigh.

Your thoughts?

and now, this brief interruption

2011-06-14T10:48:00.000-07:00

Press Club Award for Alameda Writer

Alameda author, blogger and journalist Julia Park Tracey has been honored in the East Bay Press Club 2010 Excellence in Print Journalism Contest. Park Tracey took first place in the multimedia category for her 30-day coverage of “The June Food Stamp Challenge” in 2010. The EBPC announced results of its annual contest at an awards banquet held June 10 in downtown Oakland.
Park Tracey, founding editor and former publisher of the Alameda Sun, and her family lived on the amount of money people get on food stamps for a family of five for an entire month as part of a hunger awareness campaign by bloggers nationwide. She posted daily articles on her blog, Modern Muse.
“The author chronicled the adventure, throwing in tons of statistics, photos and outside sources, making a total of 32 posts that drew a great deal of comments,” according to judges’ comments.
The month-long series of posts can be read at http://www.modernmuse.blogspot.com/.

{big grin}

what I've learned (so far)

2011-06-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

1. Plastic bags are easy to wash and reuse. Fill the sink with hot sudsy water. Slip one hand into the bag and then act as if you are washing your hands. Turn bag inside out and repeat. wring the water out (gently so it doesn't rip) and then find a good place for it to hang dry. A tall spoon in the dish drainer is a good place if you don't have an outdoor or bathtub clothesline.

2. Bacon and other meat may leak through one sheet of butcher paper. Next time I'll ask for a double wrap of paper. Otherwise, the paper is just fine. No plastics needed.

3. Very soon I'm going to have to make the hard decision about keeping our non-stick pots and pans. I know Teflon is plastic. I know it gets into the food. I even killed our pet bird a few years back by cooking with Teflon. Yes. I killed it with Teflon fumes. I'm very sorry about that. So Teflon will have to go. This feels hard, though -- like getting rid of the TV or the Internet. So I'll get back to this one. But I already know what I have to do. (I told you the family would hate me.)

4. We're gonna have to get rid of cable anyway since I have to cut the budget to make room for more expensive foods without plastic. This is actually a win, obviously -- less crappy TV and mo' betta food. It's a win, really. But, stubborn child that I am, I don't wanna hafta. So...we'll come back to this one, too. (ITYTFWHM)

5. Just because it's plastic and it breaks doesn't mean it's dead and gone. A plastic item in my house broke this week and I was able to replace the broken part (the handle of the nut chopper I use when baking). I found a simple wooden handle (kind of like a drawer pull) for 10 cents at the Alameda Antiques Faire, removed the broken plastic one and replaced it. Now I have a nut chopper again. Yay! I put the broken plastic pieces in the recycling bin.

6. There are many metal, glass and wooden items out there that still do the job of a plastic version, without the toxic effects of making, shipping or discarding plastics. So if a plastic something breaks at hour house, or you need something new, see if there's an alternative to the cheapest thing. Chances are, if it's plastic and cheap, it's gonna break soon anyway. More later on reintroducing old/antique items back to our lives, but today at the Alameda Antiques and Collectibles Faire I found a brass sprinkler, a metal ice tray, some canisters, a jar grabber (for canning) a bottle opener and a cheese grater -- no plastic to be seen.

7. Water tastes better out of a reusable metal bottle than a plastic bottle. Maybe it shouldn't make a difference, but I can taste it. Actually, the best water vessel I ever had was a Mexican olla, made of clay. The taste of water from the olla was awesome. Your lips would stick to the clay edge of the cup just the tiniest bit. What a sensory experience. Loved it -- now to keep my eyes open for an olla.

8. Avoiding plastic is exhausting, requiring full vigilance. I can't believe how hard this has been so far, and also how wonderful the non-plastic alternatives have been.

What have you learned about plastics so far?

just one word

2011-06-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry I missed yesterday -- family comes before work (otherwise, what's the point of work?)
Friday I spent most of my day at home, working on various projects, and did not come across much plastic just drifting across my path. I was sewing, and reached for a new spool of thread. That's when I saw that it was sheathed in plastic, I guess to keep it clean or from unspooling. Funny, the more expensive brands of thread don't use plastic; just the cheap thread, those that I grabbed 5 for $1. And guess what? Made in China.

I don't know this for a fact, but I'm guessing that it's difficult or impossible to find made-in-America thread anymore. Most of our textiles have been shipped from elsewhere. It's possible to find clothing that's made in America (American Apparel is one such brand), but the sources or the products to make that clothing seems to come from elsewhere. "Elsewhere" usually means China. China is, unfortunately, not exactly synonymous with high quality or concern for the planet. (Hey, with lead in their baby formula, candy and toys, doesn't seem like China is all that concerned about her own people.) The "made in China" issue is a huge one that affects everyone in the USA -- you can't get a light bulb or a battery or a kajillion other things anymore unless it's been shipped from afar. To read more on this, visit some of the blogs of folks who are trying to live without "made in China" -- they are living with a lot less than I am without plastic. (I'd post a link here, but there are too many -- do a little surfing and see what you find.)

So: plastic. The three plastics that crossed my path yesterday were: the spool of thread, the plastic film on a pack of cigarettes (not mine; I've never smoked), and the ubiquitous plastic milk jug. It's not my smoking habit and I don't buy them, but I notice that almost all packs have the plastic film (not sure about American Spirits or the roll-your-own kind). This is one of the ambient plastics that I see all the time in gutters, blowing around at parks and beaches. The little plastic rip cord, the rest of the wrap -- it doesn't go away when you finish your cigarette. It's here for a thousand years. Please find a place to recycle it.

Then the milk jug. This was where I paused to consider my commitment to purging plastic. We're running out of milk. I didn't want to make a special trip out to get milk today, Saturday. I was at Walgreen's. I went to the refrigerator aisle and there was all this milk, Berkeley Farms, local to our area. All in jugs. Not a single carton to be had. And I almost bought it. The pain-in-the-ass quotient was that high. How important is this? my little naughty voice said. (The problem with the little naughty voice is that it often sounds so reasonable. You have to really listen to hear the wickedness.) What's the big deal? The jug is recyclable. You won't have to drive in the evil car, spewing terrible fumes and carbon monoxide, wheedled the voice.

Well, I didn't do it. I walked away. I was annoyed, and rightly so, because why should we have to make such ethical choices? Why aren't plastic-free options more readily available? Why should we have to choose between feeding our families at the expense of the planet, or doing without? It's a small suicide some days, when you have to choose to wait or do without because the best or better option isn't there.

Is plastic such a big deal? It is, actually. It's tied up in the production of cheap food and goods, which is tied to farm subsidies for the big growers and tax breaks for large corporations like Chevron and Dow and Monsanto and Procter & Gamble, corporations that don't pay taxes and don't give a flying hoot about our health, much less Planet Earth. They push their products on us, preying on our insecurities (do I smell? am I fat? am I old?) and our primal weaknesses (mmm, fat and sugar! easy calories! me sleep now, no make fire!). They cost us millions and billions in health dollars, as we deal with the effects of fat bodies, high blood sugar, cancer and heart disease. National economics and politics are at play: Who's lining whose pocket, who has the dough, where can we get more and still not be held accountable?

Do you really think we're at war in Iraq and elsewhere because of democracy? How about petroleum --the nipple for our driving fetish, our addiction to electricity, and the source of plastics? If I've hit a nerve, good. Think about the ripple-effect of your plastics consumption: one plastic bottle, one plastic sandwich bag, one ambient rip cord or shrink wrap. Particularly think about it when you're filling up you gas tank and whining about the cost.

Here's a link to an article about how some manufacturers are actually reducing their plastic packaging, especially the ubiquitous and hateful "clamshell" packaging --- why? Because the cost of oil to make the plastic is so high that it's cutting into their profits. We who share the planet are the lucky beneficiaries of such a move, but don't be fooled. It's not just cuz they're nice people. And that's why I didn't take the plastic milk jug and am going to ride my bike to buy a wax carton of milk today.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/112852/retailers-greener-packaging-nyt

What plastic thing will you say no to today?

fresh fruit & veg

2011-06-09T19:11:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite weekly outings is to the Alameda Farmers' Market -- we're lucky enough to have a twice-weekly market about a mile or so from my house. Yes, it's a bike ride away. I take my own bags, fill up the panniers and pedal home again. Easy peasy. Even better, none of the produce that I buy at the farmers' market has even one of those stupid fruit labels on it. Plastic! ptooey!

There was a funny Rhymes with Orange comic printed a few years ago that cracked me up: The lady is sitting in front of an x-ray machine and the doctor sees all these fruit labels in the woman's belly. "I think I know what's bothering you," he says, or some such. (Wish I could find that link!) The point is that those little stickers are inedible, indestructible, impossible. Awful. Criminal! I have seen them floating around my yard after they've decomposed off the fruit rind or skin in the compost, then blow away. I've read that these fruit stickers gum up the works in plumbing and sewage treatment plants. Can't the grocery stores teach their checkers a few numbers or have a master list without poisoning our produce with these egregious little fiends?

The farmers' market doesn't use the fruit-label stickers. There's no middle (wo)man. You get your veggies directly from the farmer (more likely his employees or family). They will happily put your fruit and veggies in a plastic bag, yes -- but they're also delighted to let you use your own bags. Yay for no plastic!

I also find that the produce prices are drop-dead affordable at our farmers' market, though I've been to some markets where this isn't the case. There is ongoing debate about affordable organic produce -- how it's an elitist luxury because it's so expensive. But I do very well with my budget at the farmers' market, getting heads of lettuce for $1, pounds of fruit for just a dollar or two per pound, and the vendors are generous with the lagniappe -- the baker's dozen of plums or tomatoes. One extra, no charge. They're great about cleaning house at the end of the market, willing to bargain for crates of bruised fruit for jam or less than perfect veggies for a song. Our market accepts food stamps (EBT) as well, and in my opinion, there's no better place to get the freshest produce. Knowing that I can avoid plastic is just one more reason to love the farmers' market.

Another option for some people is the CSA (community supported agriculture) box which is delivered weekly, semi-weekly or monthly to your door or a central pick-up location. We get a CSA box in winter months; in summer, we don't need it because of our own prolific vegetable garden. Here's the link to our vendor, but there are many in the Bay Area and elsewhere. One thing I like about CSAs, or at least this one, is that you can tell them what you like and dislike (please, no garlic or mustard in my box!).

I forgot I was expecting a delivery of veggies last week and opened the door one morning to see my box of fresh produce -- woo hoo! There were a couple of items wrapped in plastic in the box -- endive was shrink-wrapped in Styrofoam, plus there were one or two large plastic bags surrounding the other veggies. It's much less plastic than I would have faced at a regular grocery store or at the egregious produce-wrapper, Trader Joe's (infamous for its clamshell packaging of four sterile apples or tomatoes and anything else that once grew on a tree). However, I plan to write an e-note to the CSA main office and request no more plastic or Styrofoam in future boxes. If that means I miss out on endive, oh well, too bad for me. I'll also miss out on the Styrofoam and plastic.

Garbage can tally as of today, Day 9, on the night before trash pickup: just three items in the can, including the chewed gum, plus a granola bar wrapper (Mylar) and a weird piece of plasticky stuff that came on a food package. I went through our adult daughter's trash can and it was pretty gnarly, but I wore gloves and stood next to the recycling and green waste cans to do it. I rescued 2 glass jars (gonna wash), a perfectly good orange (gonna eat it), a couple of bruised leftover lunch fruits (gave to the chickens), a bag full of fabric and doll parts (gonna give to an artsy friend), a ton of cigarette butts/ashes (argh! green waste), a bunch of plastic (moved to the plastic recycling bag that I return to the grocery store), a couple of items of clothing (washed and will give to Goodwill), a handful of new unwrapped Bandaids (put them in my pocket for later use) and a whole bunch of paper and foil from various sources (recycled). This was a disgusting job, but part of the routine now, if I plan to keep our actual waste output low. But do it in gloves. Seriously -- ick.

With three small items in our new 20-gallon gray can, I have no reason to put this on the curb, thereby saving everyone a little energy. I'd call this a win over plastics for the week, wouldn't you?

Shoppy Shop Talk, Part II

2011-06-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's shopping adventures included the purchase of several personal care or cleaning items. I made the leap and purchased a wooden comb and a wooden-handled toothbrush, both by Bass, silk dental floss, tea tree oil toothpicks, and a box of baking soda. Why baking soda? Because, in addition to the many other uses of this amazing ingredient, from cleaning the sink, toilet and floor to washing your hair, brushing your teeth, washing clothes, and eliminating odors, the 1-pound box is about $1, and it's cardboard. A pound of anything for $1 is a good deal, if you ask me, but this stuff is truly miraculous. And unfortunately, I found almost nothing else for household cleaning that wasn't in plastic packaging. I also can't find any toothpaste that's not in a plastic tube. If I want to be truly plastic-free, I'm going to have to start brushing with plain baking soda.

I will add kudos for this Seventh Generation laundry soap package (see photo): It's HE detergent so you use just a little; the shell is made of compostable cardboard; the plastic cap and inner bag are recyclable; and the company is a solid "green" company that has proven its stance on protecting the environment. This package was purchased at Alameda Natural Grocery ($19.79). The price, however, made me gag.
I will go back to making my own laundry detergent when this is gone (2 cups baking soda, 2 cups borax powder, with about half a cup to 1 cup of grated soap -- any kind, leftover chips from the bathtub, shell- or flower-shaped gift soaps, Fels-Naptha or whatever you have leftover from hotels, etc.) I store this in a plastic ice cream tub (a great reuse opportunity) with instructions for 1/2 cup per load written in Sharpie, and the half-cup left in the tub, so anyone can use it. Our clothes come out very nicely with no residue and no fake scents. I add a half cup of white vinegar sometimes if it's a Stinky Boy or sports load. That's it, and my soap costs way less than $20, I'll tell you! Costco sells a 10 -12 lb. package of Arm & Hammer baking soda in a plastic sack for about $6. (Here's where I'd weigh the benefits of the outcome over the plastic packaging.)

I don't mind cleaning; in fact, I like to clean and will clean anything -- IF I have gloves. No gloves? No touchee. I'm super-squeamish about touching nasty stuff with bare hands, and wear gloves for many projects, inside and out. I even wear them on public transportation because ew, ick, germs. But most latex gloves, one-use gloves, etc? Bad, bad, bad. (Read up on latex and rubber if you want to know how the production of these ingredients has destroyed forests and led to international wrangling, downright hostilities and oppression of native peoples.) To cut to the chase, however, I found a pair of cotton-lined ethically sourced latex gloves that are biodegradable, plus recycled/recyclable packaging. The company is If You Care; check them out and see if they can help you help save the planet, too.

I mentioned the wooden comb and toothbrush only to show that a gal can get overexcited in the presence of non-plastics. I will eventually need a new toothbrush, so that's OK, but the comb was an impulse buy. I already stated for the record that I wasn't going to randomly throw away stuff that's good and working, just because it's plastic. Here's where I spit the bit, as Mr. Husband would say. (I'd chalk up one for plastics here, but plastics didn't earn any points. So ha ha.) I also bought silk dental floss -- you may not be aware that all of these "glide"-type flosses have Teflon coatings and nylon filament instead of cotton or other organic materials. What is nylon? Plastic. What is Teflon? Plastic. It's indestructible in nature, and birds have been known to eat it or get tangled. So consider seeking out a natural alternative, including a spool of cotton quilting thread (doesn't break too easily, and you get about a mile of it in one spool). I bought the tea tree toothpicks to replace Flos-Piks, a take-along dental pick that is plastic, often wrapped in another plastic wrap, inside a plastic bag. Yeesh! Bad news, bears! Grab a toothpick if you need to, and try to avoid the ones in plastic wrap.Back in the day, long ago when Jane Austen walked the planet, a dandy could get a silver toothpick to carry in his pocket. Now wouldn't that be dandy to have?

Other items of note from yesterday's ventures: My family likes burritos, and I was pleased to see paper-wrapped fresh burritos to go at the Lucky deli counter (in the cheese display). Great for grab and go! Bagels are available fresh at Lucky and Safeway bakery departments, and you can take a paper bag to fill, or bring your own bread bag. Specialty bagel shops, including Noah's, or Alameda's House of Bagels and Boogie Woogie Bagel Boy (both on Park Street) sell fresh bagels by the piece or as many as you want -- I haven't asked, but surely they will let you bring your own bag instead of giving you another plastic bag. Ask for the cream cheese *on* the bagel instead of in a plastic cup, or ask for a paper cup, or go buy your own cream cheese, which, as I mentioned last week, still comes in foil and paper.

One of yesterday's stops was at Farmstead Cheeses and Wines at the Marketplace in Alameda, and Jeff Diamond, the owner, couldn't have been nicer. Although cheeses are displayed in plastic wrap, the chunks you take home are wrapped in paper. I got two artisinal California (locally made!) cheeses -- California jack and Point Reyes blue -- for about what I would have paid for similar at the grocery chains, and got to skip the plastic. I heartily recommend buying cheese from a cheesemonger if you have access to one.

I have to address the financial aspect of non-plastic shopping, and will return to this topic again, as well. Instead of my usual $150 a week, I spent more than $300 yesterday, and that is simply not sustainable in our checkbook. True, I bought wine, vodka and that flippin' pricey bottle of laundry soap. The organics and specialty items are way pricier than the store brands and massed produced foodstuffs. However, there's a learning curve at play. Since I'm still adjusting to how to live without buying plastics, I'm hoping to discover better prices, more shortcuts, a way to use coupons or bulk buys to save money, and so on. I'm doing the legwork to show y'all how it's done, in your own town, and I hope, to inspire you to let go of the plastics in your life, too.

Tomorrow: The farmers' market and CSA home delivered produce -- how to avoid the stupid little plastic sticker on your fruit.

News Updates:

I picked up our dry cleaning and they kept their promise about no plastic. I took the clothes home, no problem. In future, if I had a lot of white shirts, for example, I think I would take along a clean sheet and wrap the clothes lightly with the sheet if I was really worried about keeping them clean, if weather was bad, etc.
Garbage tally for the week: 1 piece of chewed Nicoret (nicotine) gum. That's it. We have the new 20-gallon can and the only thing in it is a piece of chewed yellow gum. Everything else, so far, has been diverted from landfill by composting or recycling. Julia, 6; plastics, 3 (I added a point to plastics when I had the blues on Monday).
I made an exploratory trip to Berkeley Bowl en route to another destination and my Lawd, I think I found the Promised Land. Will discuss this type of store in more detail soon.

shoppy shop talk, Part I

2011-06-07T18:15:00.000-07:00

I'm back from a full day of grocery shopping and exploring non-plastic items. I went to three stores today as well as the farmers' market and a small cheese shop. I have good news to report almost everywhere, except at the bank. There, the news is scary. See that shopping cart in the photo? Those two bags of groceries cost me $98. (falls over in dead faint...) There's so much to tell that I'm gonna spread this over two days. Because who doesn't want to talk about food prices and plastic, ad nauseum? I do, I do!!

Today I went to Lucky, CVS, Alameda Natural Grocery, Farmstead Cheeses and Wines, and the Alameda Farmers' Market. (Last week I went to Safeway, Trader Joe's and Raleys/Nob Hill.)

Usually I don't grocery shop much on alternate weeks because we're out of ready cash. In pay weeks I do a Big Shopping, and in off weeks, a Little Shopping. Little Shopping can mean a trip to the farmers' market, plus stops for milk and bread. Big Shopping has meant, prior to the Plastic Purge, cutting of coupons, reading of sales circulars, schlepping around town to various stores, a triumphant return home with about 20 bags full of BOGOs, rebate items, sale items and so on, with about 50 percent savings at each location. Then we coast on this food til the next payday. This isn't how the financial planners would have us do it, but this is how we do it; it's imperfect, but does the trick, and the savings has really helped us cut back on debt. Cutting out the plastic wasn't really in the mix -- buying local and organic items was higher up the priority list than plastic packaging.

So, shopping:
Snacky things are always on the list for my family -- I have two adult daughters at home who work fulltime and frequently need to grab and go -- coffee on the run, a granola bar and a piece of fruit. When they get home, they also snack. So does The Boy, who is hitting a growth streak and suddenly wants to eat everything. Snacks, besides fruit and cheese and nuts, are always in demand. As for me, I have a sweet tooth. What's out there for a sweetie like me who wants candy or cookies -- without plastic?

I bake most of our cookies, cakes and pies, but today I purchased a tin of Danish butter cookies. The tin is reusable until the End of Time, and there's no plastic. Sometimes these tins will have an Ambient Plastic wrap around the edge but this one didn't. Yay! I was also happy to put an Almond Roca tin in the cart, a roll of Mentos (paper and foil), a paper box of Good-n-Plenty, and two kinds of chocolate bars. Hershey's -- the larger size is paper and foil, but most smaller sizes as well as minis are wrapped in plastic, and possibly packed inside a plastic bag, too. Cadbury and Toblerone bars are also in paper, foil or cardboard. There are a number of exotic chocolate bars that are packaged in paper and foil, if you can spare $4 to spend on a candy bar. I'm trying to keep my shopping as mainstream as possible, if I can -- thus, a large Hershey's, at about $2, and not plastic wrapped, works for me. (Another challenge would be to eat only fair trade foods, in which case Hershey's would lose out big-time and the other exotics would win a big gold star.)

I'm sorry to say that hard candy, Altoids, and any kind of gum except possibly Tiny Chicklets are out of the question, in terms of avoiding plastic. Altoids is in a tin, then taped shut with shrink-wrap -- feh! I am still unable to find any kind of health or snack bar (granola, cereal, protein, etc) that isn't packaged up like a fly swathed in a spider web. Potato chips, aside from Boulder Canyon and Sun Chips, continue to disappoint me in their packaging, even the most wholesome, organic, flax-seed-studded crunchy thing. Nope. All wrapped in plastic. Since I have yet to find tortilla chips in anything but plastic, I will try using Sun Chips as a base for nachos and tacos later this month. The original variety will work well enough.

I did discover a gem in the cracker aisle -- an old friend, the Wasa Crispbread. In several varieties, with a low price point, Wasa is widely available and very tasty. It's wrapped in paper (though there is a variety in plastic -- avoid!), and one could put this into a Tupperware bin of some sort to keep them crispy longer. These are wonderful with cheese or as a pizza base. Every other cracker box (I poked my finger into some and shook and rattled others) has a plastic bag inside the box. Friends, we're talking about 30 different kinds of crackers at four different stores. Wasa is the only one I could find without plastic. Not even matzos are exempt from plastic, and that's just not kosher, in my book. A reader mentioned that Grape-Nuts comes loose in a box, a la cat kibble, but I tried several sizes and brands (faux Grape-Nuts are terrible, by the way). All had a plastic bag inside the box. Bah!

I will add that I bought Triscuits, despite the plastic bag inside (I poked my finger in to be sure). But Triscuits has an interesting campaign going on now, encouraging home vegetable growing, and includes a packet of basil seeds in the cardboard of the box. I thought it was worth buying that to explore the green steps Nabisco is taking. Check out the link to the Plant a Seed, Grow a Movement Web site.

Snackwise, I was able to buy sunflower seeds in bulk (raw, so I'll have to brine and toast them myself for Mr. Husband's softball nights and spitting pleasure) and pretzels in bulk. I found plenty of bulk dried fruits, nuts, yogurt-covered pretzels, raisins, sesame twigs, and carob or chocolate covered fruit and nuts. I will definitely be back with my own containers for a dip into the bulk bins at Alameda Natural Grocery as well as those at Nob Hill last week. Another plus at ANG is the bulk cereals: Everyone with bins has bulk granola, and I make it myself, so who cares about the bulk granola? But I love my cereal, 24/7, so I was thrilled to discover organic corn flakes and a kind of oat Os (a la Cheerios) at ANG. I brought my own containers to fill and it was easy to do. I wrote down the bin numbers in a notebook frm my purse for check-out. I have already tried the corn flakes, and they blow Kellogg's away. Much crisper, and they stand up to the milk. Yum!

Speaking of milk, I plunged in and bought the half-gallon of Strauss milk in the glass bottle. True, it has a plastic cap that can be recycled, and there was a $2.50 deposit on the bottle. But at $4.29 for a half-gallon of organic whole milk, from a local dairy, in a glass bottle, with cash back when I return the bottle -- this is a sweet purchase. And it's delicious on the organic corn flakes. I also bought the Strauss half and half, a pint for $2.19, with a $2.50 deposit. I usually pay about $2 for a quart in a general grocery store. This is one change I can commit to -- milk in glass bottles. Yes!

Not only that, but I took another reader's suggestion and sought out St. Benoit yogurt. This comes in plain or honey flavors and is a quart jar full of yogurty goodness. It set me back about $6 for 30 oz., which is more than I would have paid for a dozen Yoplaits, but with one glass jar I can reuse or recycle, instead of a dozen plastic tubs. This was also from ANG. Another highlight from Alameda Natural Grocery: I found ketchup in glass bottles, several varieties. Can't wait to try it. Got that smoked paprika I was looking for, for when I make my own ketchup this summer with all my homegrown tomatoes, and the spice is in a little tin. I love that!

Other items in bottles purchased today include wine (but why must wines have that stupid plastic wrap over the cork? It's not lead, it's plastic.); vodka (glass bottles, yes, metal caps, yes, but a little plastic built-in jigger! What if I want to pour a large tot? Can't I be the judge of my drink strength?), and locally made vermouth (Gallo, with a metal cap and no plastic). Juice in glass bottles tends to be pricier, so I'll buy less. And juice is not all that good for you -- it's just sugar, whether you buy the HFCS kind or pure juice (fructose is still sugar). So it's better for our health if I don't buy much juice. I just got one quart today, Santa Cruz lemonade, made in Chico, not Santa Cruz.

I found fruit in glass at two locations: the store brand at CVS, where for $1 a jar, you get peaches, fruit cocktail or apple slices in light syrup, and at Lucky I got a jar of mandarin orange slices, about $2 for the jar, same amount as you'd get in a $1 can. I also swooped on some grapefruit segments in a glass jar. These are all great in salads, over cottage cheese, in a lunch box, etc. I like being able to see the fruit, and I appreciate that it's in a better quality package than plastic -- but the downside is that glass is heavier and weighs more to ship. That could add to extra fuel to ship, making the food miles for a glass product greater for a glass item then a plastic, canned or paper-wrapped similar item. (Read up on food miles if you're unfamiliar with the term -- it's an important part of my selection of locally grown and produced foods.)

As I said, I have lots more to chat about, re groceries, and will continue tomorrow. My purpose here isn't to tediously outline everything we buy and eat, but to show what is and isn't available without plastic, and how to decide what's a better buy. More to come in the Plastic Purge -- tomorrow, cleaning supplies, bathroom items, and some surprise discoveries, plus fun at the farmers' market! Woot!

a little bit blue

2011-06-06T16:00:00.000-07:00

I took my walk today at about noon, taking my usual route around the perimeter of the former Alameda Navy base, where we live. I don't know if it's this sort of endless nuclear winter we're enduring (hello, climate change!), or the sight of one laden cargo ship after another in the Estuary, packed to the top with containers from China and other shores. What are they full of? Oh, maybe useful stuff like light bulbs, nuts and bolts and cloth, but just as likely they're filled with useless party-supply gewgaws, little bits of rubbish meant as novelty or gag gifts (plastic poo, perhaps?). Toys, baby bottles, computer equipment? Probably all of these things, much of it plastic, I'm guessing.

So the wind blows cold and gray out at Alameda Point, ships come and go, and little bits of stuff flutter about: potato chip bags, screw tops from the ubiquitous water bottle, the abandoned water bottles themselves, and the flotsam and detritus of people's modern lives. A sun-dried condom. A sodden cigarette pack. A baby's teething ring. Broken CDs. Yet another smashed Bic lighter. Endless knots of fishing twine. And always plastic bags. Always. Really, people?

Walking my usual path -- or any path, on just about any street -- seems always to lead me to people's litter. I often take a bag along and collect the returnable bottles and cans. I can say I've had a 10-cent walk if I found two bottles, or a 30-cent walk if I found six. Some walks are downright profitable. I've had days where I had to abandon the full bag and start another bag, which I'd find blowing loose nearby, returning to fetch the full bag of bottles later by bike or car. Yes, the denizens of Alameda Point, the Antiques Faire, Bayport and Marina Village -- or passers-through -- really do just throw amazing amounts of crap and crud on the ground. People everywhere do this -- East End, Bay Farm, Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, Petaluma, Manhattan or Harlem. There's no place that's really clean anymore.

Do I sound disgusted? I am. It's many days since the old television commercial of the weeping Native American, and we're supposed to have learned something since then. Is it all that hard to cart your stupid garbage home, or find a trash can?

These thoughts take me to a darker, angrier, more selfish place, where why should I care what other people do? Why should I try? Why do I care about anything or anyone but me and mine? I can't save the planet by myself. No one around here (wherever "here" is) cares. Why should I? And I find myself just a step away from the brink, of turning my back on other humans, as happened on this island just a week ago -- just not caring enough to do the right thing. And that thought was enough to stop my slide into real gloom and bitterness.

There's plastic fluttering and drifting all around us. It's coming in by the shipload, being forced into our lives by manufacturers and retailers, and apparently by osmosis. Despite the family knowing the new rules and our mission for the month of June and beyond, our little pile of plastic bags is piling up. I just received a package from eBay that's wrapped and cushioned in plastic. It's in The Boy's backpack, on my fruit and vegetables (damn those little stickers!) and from what I read, it's even inside of us. (Bisphenal-A, aka BPA, is in the urine of 93% of people over age 6, according to a study by the Center for Disease Control.)

I could kick the empty beer cans and water bottles out of my way instead of picking them up, but then I'd be part of the problem instead of part of the solution. I may be just one granola-eating treehugger, but I want a healthy planet for my kids and grandkids, and you know what? I want that for your kids and grandkids, too.

Just something to think about while the sun tries to break through June gloom.

Sunday musing

2011-06-05T14:03:00.000-07:00

One of the pleasures of a Sunday morning (besides a tasty bowl of cereal) is the newspaper, that fat bundle lying like a gift on the front step. I (heart) the Sunday paper. The nice delivery person, a mystery visitor to our home once a week, leaves the paper on the front step, so close to the door that I could fetch it bare nekkid and still be OK. So why does s/he feel the need to wrap it in plastic? Not just on rainy days, but every week?
Note to self: contact San Francisco Chronicle and have the plastic bags stopped. The worst thing that could happen without the bag is that my paper gets wet, and guess what? It will dry. I know sometimes they put little samples of Tide or gum or something in the bag. Guess what? I don't want that stuff, either. Which reminds me: I should also call my local newspapers that deliver once a week and ask for no plastic bags.

I know some people use these slender bags for dog poop pick-up (yay for using them a second time!). I vastly appreciate the picking up of dog poop by the owner and do not like having to clean up after irresponsible folks who let their dogs roam free to poop, willy-nilly, on my lawn. However, wrapping dog poo in plastic only makes it easy on you. It's not actually good for the planet. Consider taking a few sheets of newspaper instead, so that the little package you pick up has a chance of decomposing a little more easily. It's just a suggestion; don't hate me.

Another much more annoying item on the front walk is the plastic-sheathed Kohl's circular, delivered with annoying frequency -- two or three times a week, it seems? Come on -- how much stuff do you have to sell, and how many times do you think I will read about it? Word: I never read it, and have always, previously, just thrown it in the garbage, being too annoyed even to strip the plastic and recycle the paper. Note to self: Contact Kohl's, track down who is making these local deliveries, and demand that they stop dropping this on my walk. If I have any success, I promise to post it here, for your benefit. (There, now you don't hate me as much.)

Also today: Mr. Husband came home with fast food from Taco Bell, and made sure to avoid anything (like the nachos or enchirito) with a plastic tray. His paper food wraps are all compostable, but he was given a lid and straw with his drink. The hot sauce packets are foil, but he said no to those and a spork (plastic, also wrapped in plastic), since we already have taco sauce packets at home and regular silverware. I'm not recommending fast food, but if you do eat it, there are ways to reduce the plastic. I'd call the score even on this one -- avoided some plastic, punked by some plastic.

I'm going to have to sit and look over our budget for the month of June, because money-wise, buying food without plastics has already proven to be more expensive. It's also proving more time-consuming, re cooking and snacking from scratch, as well as much healthier. But money is money. Our food budget for 5 people is usually less than $500 per month. It tops out at about $800, with more mouths and fancier food during the holidays (Dungenness crab, hello!), but usually we do pretty well. If buying better food in order to avoid plastic is a new direction for us, I will have to seriously consider other budget items: gasoline, cable TV, entertainment, pocket money, and other semi-flexible expenses.

On the other hand, forays to Taco Bell notwithstanding, we are eating like kings. Delicious cantaloupe and berries, fresh salami on whole grain baguettes, local dairy butter, olive oil, wonderful turnips, carrots, kale and bok choy, and the occasional gourmet potato chip or mint Milano. No complaints as to quality, while a year ago, on the Food Stamp Challenge, we were eating hot dogs, cheap cuts of chicken, and lots of starch.

If eating well and helping to keep some plastic from the waste stream is the end result of this Challenge, then "no plastic" may well become a lifelong change.

Results:
I called the San Francisco Chronicle (800-310-2455) and they put a note to my distributor to ditch the plastic bag. Julia 5, plastics 2.

my family doesn't hate me yet

2011-06-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

Perhaps they fear me. I don't know, but this is what happened yesterday. Adult daughter and her boyfriend come into the house bearing a pizza in a box and stop when they see me. "Can we have this?" she asks. She opens the box, shows me the pizza and the accompanying foil packets of Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes. Green waste and recycling, no plastic at all.

"Yes," I said. "Enjoy." And they did. Julia 3, Plastic 2

Mr. Husband had a no-plastic adventure yesterday as well. He had purchased some foot spray from Target, but all four cans were defective (that happens a lot with Target products, I find, but that's another topic and Challenge for the future). He took the cans to work and found a plastic bag somewhere in the office. He returned the cans and left the plastic bag with the customer service desk. He then purchased four more cans of foot spray and refused the proffered plastic bag, opting instead to put the cans into his pocket, holster-style, like some kind of cowboy fighting athlete's foot. "I'm Anti-Fungal Man!" (cue theme song).
He followed up this little shopping venture with his usual stop for popcorn and soda, enjoying popcorn in a paper bag (yay for traditions!) and refusing the straw and plastic lid to his waxed-paper cup beverage.
Julia/family, 4, Plastic 2

So it seems the family doesn't hate me (yet), but rather are entering into the spirit of the Challenge with alacrity.

More fun with family: Today, in the pouring rain, we are off to a family open house and barbecue (perhaps we can eat indoors? she wonders hopefully). I purchased graduation cards a few weeks ago and had planned to buy gift cards to give. However, in light of the Plastic Purge, I decided to enclose old-fashioned checks instead. I have been keeping my used gift cards in the past few months, thinking I could always recharge them with money, and I may yet do that. Otherwise, this is another example of plastic that gets used essentially once, then discarded. I'm thinking that cash or check gifts are a greener alternative -- dollar bills, expecially, since they go on being circulated til they fall apart, and are then recycled by the US Mint.

Stay dry, peeps.

PS: SORRY SORRY SORRY about the stupid ads that appear with all the plastic stuff. It's computer-generated. I'm sorry. Really, I am.

Punked by Plastic

2011-06-03T14:12:00.000-07:00

I was punked by plastic. In my grocery shopping adventures Thursday, I cheerfully bought two (minuscule and pricey) glass jars of mustard, and when putting them away, discovered Ambient Plastic (unnecessary extra plastic) bands around the lids. Why? Why is this necessary? (insert existential yawp here.)

I opened the waxed paper bag of salami I bought at the deli counter yesterday, after expressly forbidding the use of plastic in my order, and found the thin blue plastic sheet she used to load up the bag and not get her hand greasy. I guess they always throw that into the customer's package? I wonder if they couldn't use some tongs or a fork, because even if they don't put it in *my* bag, they still used plastic and are still throwing it away (hello, landfill) after one use. (*facepalm*)

Oy vey.

But in good news, I got my new smaller gray garbage can today from ACI. It's the same size on the outside, with an insert about the size of a three-year old (very handy if you have a Terrible Three undergoing a terrible tantrum)...(I kid!). So far no one in the family has forgotten about the absent kitchen trash can and tossed stuff under the sink. And so far no one has cursed me about the strange healthful foods I brought home yesterday. They will, however, when they ask for pocket money and there is none, because I spent it all on glass-, metal- and paper-packed goodness for their bellies and their futures. I told you they were gonna hate me.

In an errand today, I dropped off two items for dry-cleaning (silk and angora, two items I prefer not to mangle at home). I go to Garden Cleaners on Webster Street. I asked that they use no plastic bag to sheat my cleaned clothes and they assured me that would be no problem; it was written into the computer instructions. And no extra charge. It never hurts to ask. I also told the pharmacist at Kaiser "no bag" when he was trying to shove an already-boxed medication into a plastic envelope for me. Julia, 2, Plastic 1.

I will delve into the plastics problem in the bathroom later this month, but for now I'd like to illustrate a common product issue and how to solve it:

Exhibit A: Bad Plastic. Toilet paper wearing a protective coat of petroleum byproduct.

Exhibit B: No plastic. Toilet paper rolls bought, individually wrapped in recycled/recyclable paper. I compost both the wrapper of the new roll as well as the paper tube of the old roll at the same time. This is the CVS brand of recycled TP, and they often have it on sale. Plus you get those CVS Extra Bucks for buying the store brand and sometimes that leads to extra coupons or cash back. (Note: CVS also carried Crystal Dairy products, a California dairy.)

Exhibit C: Two versions of the same product, with some plastic, and with Bad Plastic. I use Claritin (generic) for allergies. Buying the box of 30 or fewer pills means several sheets of non-recyclable plastic-and-foil-wrapped pills. Buying the bottle of 30, 60 or more means one plastic bottle, recyclable. It's all about choosing wisely.

Comment Follow-Ups

Jon mentioned that oatmeal comes in cardboard containers -- albeit with a plastic lid. I didn't buy any yesterday but it's one of our staples here. If I buy it in bulk, I will take along an empty oatmeal container, and avoid the extra plastic, so thanks, Jon, and duly noted. Also, though individual packets of instant oatmeal are generally enveloped in paper, the product itself (instant oatmeal) has been found with traces of mercury, so I buy just the basic old-fashioned rolled oats. I prefer my breakfast without mercury or cancer, thanks.
Wendy asked where I found mayonnaise with a metal lid, and doh! I forgot about the lid. Looks like I bought a glass jar with a plastic lid. Plastic, 2, Julia 2.

Day 2: grocery shopping without plastic

2011-06-02T19:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday was a long day. I know that grocery shopping is not all that grueling (unless you have three small children attached to you), but this was more than the usual outing to procure nourishment. I was on a mission to feed the fam without bringing home any plastic. I would call today's foray a success, but also a shock. Although I've been looking at what to buy or not to buy as I mentally prepped for the Plastic Purge, I was unprepared for the lack of available foodstuffs sans plastic...or the cost of those rare items, either.
I looked through my coupons before shopping today -- yes, I am a coupon lady but not an extreme coupon cuckoo like they show on TV. I am a smart shopper and regularly get 50% off my bill while shopping. We don't buy a lot of prepared foods but have been buying cereal, granola bars, crackers and lunch meat with coupons and savings bundles. We also eat seasonally and locally (only US produce, only California produce if possible, only local dairies, etc.) and really try to adhere to the 100-mile diet whenever possible. But when you throw the "buy no plastic" rule into the mix, ha. There's nothing left to eat.

Of course, that's an exaggeration, but in shopping today, I went to four different grocery stores in two different towns, as well as stopping for a take-n-bake pizza, and my avoidance of plastic made the day arduous. I walked every aisle in those stores, passing so much food that I then started to take anything I could find that wasn't plastic-sheathed. I ended up bringing home a pint of Jelly Belly beans just because they were in a bulk bin, and I was kind of having a panic attack at the moment about what we'd be eating. Jelly Belly beans -- an important part of your nutritious day.

Anyhoo, I brought along plastic (yes, plastic!) take-out containers to fill with grain/seeds/cereal or whatever I could find in bulk. I have cloth bags for produce but somehow, I was just thinking that these handy reusable 2-pint deli soup containers were the right thing to take along. But the containers confused the check-out clerks, who either ignored the tare weight and charged me for the entire thing, plastic included, or couldn't get the proper tare weight and got close but still overcharged. Oh well. I think that may be something I can't avoid, but this is just Day 2.

As far as yogurt, sour cream, or cottage cheese, there was nary a package available that wasn't hard plastic. Almost all the cheeses were shrink-wrapped in plastic; those that weren't (with two notable exceptions) were ghastly expensive imported cheeses, at about $6-$10 for a small chunk. Not local, and not affordable. Two exceptions that I'm happy to announce: cream cheese is still available wrapped in foil, then cardboard, and Laughing Cow wedges are also wrapped in foil and then a cardboard box with a nifty red string to open the box. There was nothing like a granola bar or other such bar to be had, so I will try baking my own and having them for daughters and Mr. Husband to take to work. (I told you my family would hate me, didn't I? Sorry, fam, no more Nutri-Bars, Clif or Balance bars.)

I put off buying milk til the last stop, to avoid it getting warm, and by that point there were only waxed paperboard quarts available without a plastic pour spout, so I bought two of those (at the same price as a gallon in plastic) and will have to go back for more milk in a day or so (we go through a gallon or more per week). By the way, for those of you who like milk alternatives: all that soy, coconut, rice and almond milk that comes in the aseptic/shelf-stable Tetra pak? and the chicken stock, soup, tofu and juice boxes, too? -- please be aware that those packages are not recyclable in the US (though there are said to be plants in Canada that will take them -- will your trash facility ship them to Canada or Brazil?) So the supposedly healthful product's packaging ends up in landfill. No matter how green your diet, if you are creating waste with your food (by eating lots of beef or lots of Tetra-packed tofu), you're not doing the planet or the future any favors. Just something to think about.

I was able to get pickles, mayo and olives in glass jars. Ketchup? Not a glass bottle to be seen. Plain yellow mustard, no, but Sierra Nevada Pale Ale mustard, yes -- a tiny glass jar for twice the cost of a plastic keg of no-name yellow mustard. Sigh. Now come with me down the snack aisle, where almost nothing is plastic-free. I bought a box of pretzels last week, only to find that there was a plastic bag within; I am pretty sure most boxes of crackers have the same issue. I couldn't find tortillas nor tortilla chips without plastic (guess I can make my own, since I did find masa flour in a paper bag). Sun Chips and Boulder Chips are two delicious brands that make compostable bags, and I have been composting the Sun Chips bags for several months now -- it really works! So the family gets to eat chips this week. They also get to eat Pepperidge Farms Milano cookies (just one bag), which has paper and foil within; Pepperidge Farms also makes goldfish crackers, and those are available in very small or very large sizes w/o plastic -- but beware the mini-packages for lunch boxes, which are plastic, further wrapped in more plastic.

I was tricked by Klondike Bars ice cream, which I thought were wrapped in foil, but turned out not to be -- plastic wrapped, each one, inside that silvery box. Doh! Also for cereal: it's easy to fill a container with granola, but I already make my own and was looking for *anything* that wasn't oatmeal or granola. No luck at the bulk bins, but I did get an old-fashioned box of large-size Shredded Wheat, which are paper-wrapped inside, with a cardboard box. I think British Wheetabix may also be paper-wrapped, but will have to check that out. Note that these cereals are naturally soggy types.

I had no trouble at the meat counters, getting chicken, fish and bacon wrapped in paper only, no plastic. At the deli counter in one store, they were confused by my strange and exotic request but fished out a paper bag that they normally use for fried chicken, and filled it with sliced salami instead. I will switch the meats to Tupperware containers and freeze or cook soon (these are my own frequently used plastics, not the use-once-and-discard meat wrappings I could have brought home).

In the pet food aisles, I got large cans of cat food instead of the usual plastic-tray (Whiskas brand) or the usual many small cans. I feel a little better about using one can in a week instead of 5 cans. And metal is recyclable, but there's less of it this way.

Other grocery items included Arrowhead Mills pancake mix (paper), butter (paper/foil), red pepper flakes (glass), french bread (paper), melons (no bag), Annie's mac and cheese (paper/foil), and some Nile instant soups for our daughters to take to work (cardboard cup with paper lid). I bought sodas in cans and sparkling waters in glass.

I took a chance on a few items that will lead me to some deeper investigating: Tom's of Maine toothpaste used to be a metal tube but is now in plastic. I don't know why, but all toothpastes now seem to be in plastic tubes. I bought a cereal brand called Bear River Valley Cereal that I think is in plastic, but it might be compostable. I'm interested to read up on their green and renewable energy claims, as posted on the bag.

So my long-suffering family will be eating pancakes and cereal, fresh fruits and veggies, home-prepared beans, fresh meats, fresh bread, more wholesome chips and drinks, and zero breakfast bars or sugary yogurt this week. That is, after all, a success story -- good food! Healthy family!

One more thing: I mentioned that got a take-n-bake pizza -- from our local Papa Murphy's Pizza on Broadway in Alameda. I called ahead and asked if they could use foil instead of plastic wrap on the pizza,but they said no, they had only plastic. So I brought along a roll of aluminum foil and asked them when I ordered if they would use my foil instead. They happily agreed, and I find that worthy of a big green kiss. Thanks, Papa Murphy's peeps!