Friday, September 30, 2016

The idea about plastic

I'm not exactly sure what started my current obsession with getting plastic out of my life. I had read some articles about how bad plastic and even recycling plastic are for the environment. I'd been thinking about how to cut down on the plastic packaging that inevitably comes into my house through grocery store and other purchases. I've been noticing plastic packaging and talking about it all summer.

While researching plastic and recycling, with the thought of posting some videos in the venue of my Rotary eClub, I realized that this whole plastic thing goes much deeper than I initially thought. And also that although there are plenty of articles saying what I want to convey, for the life of me, I cannot find any videos to re-post extolling the vices of plastic recycling.

I was planning a series of videos on Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to share with my Rotary club. After hours of pouring over videos on YouTube, I still couldn't find the recycling propaganda that I was looking for. What I did find, though, was that I'm not alone in my distaste for plastic. I started looking at other people's blogs, including Beth Terry's Fake Plastic Fish, now called My Plastic Free Life, which lead me to her book Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too. Delightedly, I found two copies at the local library and borrowed one, which ironically was covered with a plastic cover by the helpful library acquisitions department.

So I look forward to reading this pro-environment bible as I begin my own journey toward finding enjoyable ways to kick plastic to the curb. (But not literally, because then it might end up as part of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.)