Collected Thoughts

For Father's Day (yeah it's tomorrow but Dad is super busy so we celebreated last night and today) we went to he beach and walked around. I took pictures, only about 35 or so. It wasn't really low tide so I wasn't inspired to take a bunch.

But there was a great blue heron and a pod of dolphins -- they even were jumping out of the water at one point.

And family.

I went and took pictures because although this beach isn't directly on the Gulf, it's a sound on the Gulf side of Florida. So, there will be oil here it's just a matter of time.

I took pictures so my nephew will know what it looked like (although I have a ton of pictures already but still). Because he's 2 and he may not be able to get down here before the oil gets here.. and it's depressing.

But also it makes me mad at myself because I'm partly responsible for this because of my use of plastic products and my lack of recycling. And my huge energy bill -- omigod May/June was hot and my bill has floored me, really the highest it's been since...well a while.

I digress.. there's a great blog called Fake Plastic Fish about living plastic free, or as close to it as one can.


I've been trying to make better plastic free choices. Today I totally failed because just about everything I dealt with today was disposable, throw away mostly made with plastic.

while I was looking to see what I have that is recylcable plastic I realized that a couple of the lotions I use regularly are primarily petroleum based. Plastic containers made from petroleum and then the 3 or 4 ingredient - petroleum. The one all natural no chemical lotion I do have is in a plastic container that's not marked recyclable.

I went to the grocery store the other day and looked at all the containers that used to be glass and are now plastic. I looked at all the individual serving stuff, individually wrapped in plastic, and then collectively wrapped in plastic.

It's daunting and it's easy to get overwhelmed and think -t his is just the way it will be. But I try to remind myself that it doesn't have to be. Ever change helps.

There are, right now, food products with labels proudly proclaiming - Now HFCS Free. That's because of consumer demand.

So if that can get changed because of consumer demand, how many other things can be changed?


Here are some things Iv'e been working on changing - reusable shopping bags and produce bags (or not using produce bags), buying bar soap instead of body wash, trying to remember to turn off the lights, turn up the thermostat and make sure that things are unplugged ( esp after this bill). The pharmacy I go to gives prescriptions in clear plastic zip bags with their logo. The last time I picked one up, I took out the medicine and the information and handed it back and asked the tech to reuse it. (She started to ball it up and throw it away).

I go through about 3 prescripton bottles a month. they are #5 plastic and can't be recycled in my city. But Preserve is a company that makes products from recyced #5 plastic and they have drop off places OR you can mail them (not the caps unless they are marked 5 and with the labels removed) they make toothbrushes and razors and kitchen stuff from them. It clearly states you can send the toothbrushes and razors back to be recycled, I'm not sure about the other things I'm going to clarify.

http://www.preserveproducts.com/aboutus/index.html

They have drop off spots at Whole Foods and other locations or you can mail #5 recyclables into them. I'm going to start collecting them and doing this.

So I'm going taking small steps to be come more of a recycler and also to use less plastic and petroleum products.