My July started out well, I continued to make gains, or rather losses, by sticking to plastic avoidance rigorously. I bought big, heavy blocks of cheese, eliminating wraps for what would have been several smaller packages. Regular Catalina dressing purchases stopped when I concocted an Ed-approved home brew. I was feeling pretty cocky before it happened. I fell off the plastic wagon — in a big way. Ed and I went to Trader Joe’s.

Upon entering the store, I immediately noticed Joe’s is packed with plastic! What happened to the old Trader Joe’s where you could pick up a head of lettuce or a few tomatoes without a hint of packaging. We did not purchase any produce for that reason, but the temptation was so great for an array of goodies, when we wheeled up to the checkout stand, our cart had more synthetic polymers than a Dow laboratory. Scones, bagged in plastic drug across the scanner. Bleep. Blue cheese, wrapped in plastic. Bleep. Nuts in plastic bags. Bleep. Plastic by the pound slid past. Oops.

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In honor of all my sailing friends hanging out on Catalina Island this week, I won’t rename the salad dressing I concocted yesterday. I thought the ingredients were weird to begin with, but as is my nature, I had to do my own thing to make the blend even more bizarre. Licking it from my finger to compare it to the store bought, Ed declared it “just as good”. Regardless of the odd ingredients, he liked it.

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Every ounce of plastic ever made is still on our planet. — Sailors for the Sea

In a 1998 survey, 89 percent of the litter observed floating on ocean surface
in the North Pacific was plastic. – United Nations Environment Program

Most Americans who bothered to make a resolution this year, probably vowed to lose weight. Me too. Yes, even though I am a puny 108 pounds, I hereby publicly vow to lose 10 pounds. Sounds excessive? No, actually it is most likely a too tiny percentage. I hope to reduce my plastic garbage this year by ten pounds. I have yet to figure out just how much ten pounds of plastic amounts to, but I bet, when measured against the mass of goods I buy, use, then simply toss (even into the recycling bin), that ten pounds is in fact a very modest reduction for a year. I may indeed be setting my goal too low. Read more