Life…and Plastic

Hey guys,

I’m sorry it’s been so long! It seems like just yesterday (oh, clichés…) that I was returning from Hawaii, all jazzed about the amount of plastic pollution experts I had mingled with. But then I started interning at Seventh Generation and it was work, work, work then BAM! Time to move. Then BAM! Summer! Wowza.

So what have I been up to since, when was it, April? May? Well, right now…sweating. Sweating up a storm, in fact. Hot can’t even begin to describe the current weather conditions! But I digress. I’m still in Burlington, VT and have moved closer to downtown – I bike to work every day and it’s glorious. My roommates and I have signed up for a summer CSA through the Burlington Intervale, and we’ve gotten nothing but awesomeness, every week. Add this to our garden bounty and we should be all set on greens until next spring. Yes, we have a garden! Cukes, peppers, tomatoes, kale and bok choi…plus an herb garden. I can’t tell you how excited I am to pick tomatoes straight from the vine and avoid grocery store madness (speaking of tomatoes, Tomatoland looks like a great read! Can’t wait to dig in.).

My sojourn into the realm of a plastic-free lifestyle is taking some time, mostly because of pointless food-packaging that I succumb to and then feel guilty about later. Was that Popsicle wrapped in plastic really worth it? No…definitely not. But I’m working on it and as you’ll see, I’ve only been getting more and more inspiration to rid myself of the plastic plague.

Tonight, since it’s so hot out and I have so many things to write about…I’ll just start with a list of some positive things I’ve seen regarding the fight against single-use plastics. Here we go, prepare to smile:

•  Seeing the massive amounts of networking going on in the social media realm: everybody that’s in the fight against plastic, whether it be bags, single-use “disposables,” beach clean ups or what have you…everybody is in it together. Realizing that people are picking up cigarette butts in North Carolina or plucking plastic trash off beaches in Maine or fighting to ban plastic bags in Portland…it’s so inspiring. Plastic pollution is only getting more attention and the network of people getting on-board is growing. Keep up the good work, people!
• Aforementioned: bag bans. Portland, OR just banned the bag and joined a growing list of cities to do so. Rock on, maybe Burlington will be next!
• Burlington getting on their game with recycling. I don’t mean city recycling. That’s old hat. I mean public recycling. Yeah. Parks in Burlington now have recycling bins conveniently located throughout and people are free to dispose of their (unnecessary) plastic water bottles and beer cans. Woohoo! Less litter on the streets and less plastic ending up in landfills. Hey, it’s something, right?

And with that, dear readers, I bid you goodnight. Time to turn off my heat-pumping laptop (it may be time for an upgrade soon) and ponder ways to cut plastic outta my life. Next up: exciting opportunities, traveling and plastic, of course! (Think Tom’s of Maine, take-out waste and straws…)

Stay cool!