Sunday, April 6, 2008

The Minimalist's Birthday


I found a great web site I'd like to share with my readers. It's all about reducing the amount of plastic we use. Check it out. It's really worth it.

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/10/list.html

You know it's funny, plastic was a wonder when it was first developed. Remember the line in Mrs. Robinson when the old guy tells a young Dustin Hoffman, "I have one word for you son, plastics."? Well he was right. Plastics will be around long after we are and they have been very useful. But one of the problems that we have living in the corporate world that we have to deal with today is that there is no common sense. If plastics are no longer beneficial, use something else!

But you know how they work. They don't want to make any changes because that might cost them money. They'd rather spend the money selling us their plastic tubs of whatever, rather than retool their factories, (where ever they are!)

Quite frankly, when asked, "paper or plastic?" I want to scream, "Why is plastic an option?" If I can buy biodegradable plastic bags for my dog's poop, why doesn't our government just outlaw non biodegradable plastic bags? Why do consumers have to do everything? I'm sick of voting with my dollar! Aren't you? I think it's time we tell our government to do their job. Please leave a comment if you want to help me in this effort. I'm going to start with plastic bags and go on from there. San Francisco has almost done it. See:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8888798

I would love to hear your ideas. This is America. We don't have to stand for this nonsense!

If you're concerned about plastic as I am, read these sites:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html

http://www.fakeplasticfish.com/2007/10/list.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great post and even better idea!

You mentioned San Francisco...but what about Seattle? The rainy city is gearing up to place a 20 cent tax on paper and plastic bags at the grocery store!

When Ireland started charging for its plastic bags, their use dropped by 90%!!

I have more thoughts, but don't want to clog your comments. More here at www.smartsense.wordpress.com