Significant Emotional Events
We all have experiences that forever imprint on our minds and cause a shift in how we think about things. My dad has always called them significant emotional events.
One of my significant emotional events occurred a few years back while whale watching on a 36-foot SuperRib in Southern California. Looking back, I vividly recall the awe as we found our small craft surrounded by a school of hundreds of dolphins. And, I’ll likely not forget how relieved I was to disembark what amounted to a jazzed-up rubber dingy with saddles for seats, having survived two hours of choppy seas. My significant emotional event though began not with a whale sighting, but when our captain brought the boat to a standstill about eight miles off the California Coast so we could lift a sodden still tied-together bunch of deflated mylar balloons out of the Pacific Ocean.
At first there was a feeling of pride. Hey, we did our part in cleaning up the ocean! Any pride was soon replaced though with disgust and dismay as our captain shared that balloon extractions were unfortunately a regular occurrence for him.
Fast Forward to March 2020
Last week, after reading a feature article in Rolling Stone magazine titled Planet Plastic – How Big Oil and Big Soda Kept the Plastics Crisis a Secret for Decades I realized it was time to move forward with some ideas I’ve been contemplating for many months. Though the Rolling Stone piece is a longish read, I hope you choose to check it out to better understand where we are at, how we got here and how we might create change with respect to plastics. I also hope you choose to continue reading below to get inspired to create some change of your own.
The Backstory
In January 2019, about six months after the Pacific balloon incident, I happened upon a powerful documentary – A Plastic Ocean. Like many people who watch it, I came away from this movie disheartened about the state of our planet. As the daughter of two polymer chemists, one who spent his career working with plastics in the medical industry, I understand how plastics have contributed positively to our way of life, especially when it comes to health care. I also understand that we could all stand to reduce our plastic footprint, which goes hand-in-hand with reducing our carbon footprint. I ended up spending 2019 figuring out how to best do that.
My initial dive into the world of plastic pollution and clean-up efforts introduced me to Ecobricks, reusable building blocks created by densely packing clean, dry, used single-use plastic into used plastic bottles. Ecobricks are an innovative way to keep plastic out of our waste system and therefore out of our soil, water and our bodies. Around the world people are using Ecobricks to build furniture, walls, play structures and more. As a professional coach, I know long term change requires awareness of what’s really going on and I reasoned that making a few Ecobricks could help me build awareness of just how much plastic my husband and I actually contributed to the waste stream. I had no idea my commitment to creating a few Ecobricks would end up being so impactful.
My experiment involved a commitment to divert from the landfill all plastic we disposed of in our household. Diversion looked like 1) recycling it, 2) finding an alternative use for it or 3) washing and drying it and stuffing it into an Ecobrick. Unrecyclable pieces too large to stuff in a brick and that had no alternative use were added to a large vase in my living room where they would serve as a constant reminder of my commitment
The Challenges of Recycling Plastic
If you live in the United States you know recycling plastics in many areas has become challenging because China is no longer willing to accept our discards. Cleveland is no exception. As such, I recycled the few plastic products that I could (primarily number #1 & #2 bottles and jugs) with my curbside recycling, took my #5 plastics to the Gimme5 bin at a local Whole Foods, and recycled #2 & #4 plastic bags and film packaging at my local grocery store. I learned I could keep plastic clam shells out of the landfill by hauling them to my hometown, where they were still recycled, when I visited my parents.
Throughout 2019 I recycled, sorted and cleaned all of our non-recyclable single-use plastics and stuffed over 30 Ecobricks. I also found numerous alternative uses for plastic, like Sabra Hummus tubs which make great stacking storage for tiny crafting supplies, naan containers which made wonderful drawer dividers and artists who collect plastic lids for creating large scale pieces of art.
Shifting Habits
As you can imagine, my attempt to divert all plastics from the landfill quickly resulted in me looking at packaging in a new way and it significantly impacted my shopping habits. I stopped buying products I had used since childhood, such as Jif Peanut Butter, and made the shift to old-fashioned-need-to-stir peanut butter packaged in a glass jar. I switched to eggs packaged in cardboard. In addition to milk packaged in “waxed” cartons, I stopped buying bagged salad kits (they typically contain no fewer than five separate plastic bags), and salad greens packaged in what amounts to a suit of plastic armor. This all reduced the amount of plastic I had to creatively keep out of the landfill. More importantly, it built awareness of just how ubiquitous single-use plastic is in our lives. It also helped me develop an appreciation for products with minimal and plastic-free packaging.
Though I devised what I thought were some fairly sound procedures for processing plastic and stuffing the Ecobricks, making them was tedious, time-consuming and surprisingly physical work and I was glad when my experimwnt wrapped up in January 2020.
Though my experiment concluded, my new habits have stuck and I’m benefitting from becoming a more ethical consumer and from my new side table, created with, you guessed it, Ecobricks.
Living Intentionally with Plastics
OK, so you’re probably wondering why I shared all of this with you. Well, in today’s topsy-turvy world of crazy politics, scary viruses, climate change and economic uncertainty, I’ve talked with many friends recently who feel like they’re losing control in their lives. While it’s true you likely won’t stop Covid-19 or slow down the rollercoaster that is the stock market you can take control of your purchasing habits and disposing habits, and those habits can positively or negatively impact the health of our planet. This is an opportunity to live intentionally and regain some of that control.
So, in the spirit of more sustainable and intentional living, here are five things you could try, all of which might positively impact the planet we all share:
- Build awareness of YOUR plastic recycling options. I learned in the Rolling Stone article mentioned above that “Since 1950, the world has created 6.3 trillion kilograms of plastic waste – and 91 percent of that has never been recycled even once.” This needs to change. Most of us have access to some type of plastics recycling, but unfortunately as noted above, what is recyclable differs significantly by location. You have an opportunity to learn more about the recycling stream in your community. Who is picking up your recycling? What exactly do they accept? Where do they take it for processing? What conditions cause contamination of your recyclables, causing them to be landfilled instead of processed? Talking to a real live human being is important these days because local recycling guidelines on the internet can be outdated, resulting in folks inadvertently tossing items in the recycling bin that are no longer accepted, ultimately resulting in contamination. If your waste is collected by your municipality, who then transfers it to a waste processor, contact that processor directly for the most up to date information on what is and isn’t currently accepted for recycling.
- Put your reusable shopping bags in your car right now. Yes, stop reading and do it now, because it’s that important. Put them on the passenger seat so you will see them and be more likely to use them. If you don’t yet have reusable shopping bags, please get some. The average life span of a plastic shopping bag in the United States is twelve minutes and only 1% of the estimated 100 billion plastic bags used by Americans each year are recycled. A number of communities, such as the one I live in have either enacted plastic bag bans or are considering them. Using reusable shopping bags is an easy change and an opportunity for you to possibly get ahead of future bag bans.
- Minimize your unused plastic belongings. Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I’m all for minimizing. I ask though that you minimize responsibly. Unless the plastic item you’re releasing is unrepairable, please don’t throw it away, because there is no “away.” There is only the landfill. I guarantee the plastic ice cube tray, or toy, or plastic tote you’re no longer using would be appreciated by someone who currently doesn’t have one. In the long run, sharing what you no longer need with people, by donating to thrift stores or freecycling results in fewer items being produced, which results in fewer emissions, which results in a healthier planet. An added bonus for you in the short run: Having less stuff means less to take care of and more time for you to do other things!
- Become an environmental steward and properly dispose of plastics, both your own and those you see lying around. Better yet, if you live near a park or beach volunteer to pick up plastic trash. The Alliance for the Great Lakes hosts regular beach cleanups all along Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes. All you do is sign up and show up. They loan you heavy duty gloves and a bag (I think it’s helpful to take a bucket instead) and ask that you pick up as much trash as you can in an hour. Cigar tips, broken plastic toys and countless bits of microplastics top my list of finds during these clean-ups. Click here if you would like to sign-up for a beach cleanup near you.
- Even better for the planet than recycling is not producing single use plastics. During the year I learned a lot about our world’s plastics crisis and how it relates to our climate crisis. Did you know that the same oil, natural gas and coal that are fueling our climate crisis are used to create plastic? Though few think about it, the production of plastic contributes to the warming of our planet. You can be the change you hope to see in the world by refusing to accept or purchase single-use plastics (plastic straws, cups, bags, packaging and of course, balloons) and by letting the companies you do business with know that you care about their use of single-use plastics. As a former CPA and business consultant I can guarantee that if enough people refuse to use a product, economics will dictate that the company will eventually stop manufacturing it. Create a habit of talking with store managers, calling or writing manufacturers and regularly letting companies know your thoughts via social media.
Hopefully you’ll try one or more of the above. Maybe you’ll even choose to run your own plastics awareness experiment! No, you don’t have to do it for a year. (As my husband will tell you, I tend to go a little overboard with my experiments.) A month, a week, or even a few days of paying close attention to the plastics you use can’t help but open your eyes to the problem with plastics. Through more intentional living though you can become part of the solution instead of just contributing to the problem.
What’s coming up for you? What might you be willing to commit to? What does living more intentionally with respect to the plastics mean to you?