Comments:

Ypsidixit - 2007-09-11 07:30:46
Ooh, look: you can read the whole chapter on Polymers. Wowie.
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Ypsidixit - 2007-09-11 08:52:35
The multimedia page is good too...though you'd think Scientific American could create an avatar that doesn't look like an arthritic mannequin.
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lisele - 2007-09-11 09:34:35
Omigod, the chapter on plastics just horrified me. I am deleting plastic from my life. I used to weep over the thought of otters strangled by plastic soda can rings, but the thought of seabirds having their intestines blocked by tiny blobs of polymers was awful. The fact of sand on the British shoreline being full of plastic fragments is shameful--the longer I live, the more humans seem like an infestation. Also, I was deeply disturbed by his contention that so-called "biodegradable" plastic does NOT degrade -- he said that biodegradable bags tied to pilings could be used to carry groceries a year later. I've been intending to try to compost one of these supposed "corn cups," but haven't gotten around to it yet. Now I really must try it. Petroleum is truly the ultimate Pandora's box, eh? "Pandora" means "all gifts" and it certainly has made so many things possible--for example, the Green Revolution. And now we have 6 billion people on the planet. That chapter was a grim awakening.
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Ypsidixit - 2007-09-11 10:02:11
Lisele, I swear I had the exact same reaction: "OK--that's it--no more plastics!"

I never really thought about the fact that when my parents were kids in WW II---we didn't have this problem. It's a staggering thought. The chapter said that the Bakelite of those days was when the huge tide of plastics began. But my mom and dad's childhood lives were not littered with the huge volumes of plastic bags, wrappers, containers that we toss every day.

So then I get to thinking. How do I do this?

I think the first thing to do is take a PLASTICS INVENTORY in our house. FInd out just where it is and how much. That would be kind of fun, actually, given my list-loving nature.

Step two would be to identify all the plastic crap that is unnecessary because there is a non-plastic alternative--OR because there is an alternative like: making yoghurt in my food evaporator (as recommended in its instruction book) instead of buying a tub of same.

Step three would be to REPLACE whatever plastic items could be replaced with better alternatives, like the string shopping bags I've never gotten around to buying or making.

Step four would be to identify items that come only in plastic but can be bought in greater bulk than at present. Example: the People's Food Co-op carries those huge jugs of Doc Bronners, which we use for everything at home. How can I get my stickly little hands on one of those, instead of the small bottles?

OK, I'm motivated. The chapter just pushed me over the edge of years of gloomy brooding about where all that plastic goes. I'm tired of it. Plastics Inventory, coming this evening.
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