November 15, 2011

PRESERVE


So this afternoon my great friend Jill brought me a couple of these really fantastic little storage cups. Yes, they are plastic, but here's the great part: they are made by Preserve, a Boston company of 11 people that makes kitchen products and other stuff (toothbrushes!) from 100% recycled plastics (as opposed to virgin materials).

The Preserve team is also the people behind Gimme 5, the entity that collects #5 plastic (polypropylene) for recycling (you can drop your #5s at the front door at whole foods), which is in part where they get the plastics they use to make their products. See how that all fits together? Using recycled plastic means using considerably less water, greenhouse gases, oil, coal, natural gas and electricity than manufacturing with virgin propylene. Which has to be better.

So, although I like to use glass and ceramic bowls when I cook and glass for food storage, and even though Steve and I carry lunches in glass containers, that strategy has proven less feasible with the girls' school lunches. These are exactly a lunch size, and the particularly celebrated thing about these little cups is their screw-on tops, which will not pop off ... like some other past efforts. AND they a cheery green, which will make even hummus-on-the-go look tasty. We will treat them well and get many miles out of these ... and in the end, return them to Gimme 5 for recycling. THANK YOU Jill!

September 13, 2011

Back!

So, please pardon the year-long gap: let's just say it was a pta thing.

It is GERNOT WAGNER who brings us back to life with this article in the New York Times last week, sounding the alarm bell for us all.

Wagner argues that even if we do Everything Right, and go as Green and plastic-free As Possible, we are collectively too far past the point where we can save ourselves through individual action: "the changes necessary are so large and profound that they are beyond the reach of individual action." Society has to recognize -- and pay -- for the true cost of the actions and conveniences in which we have so long indulged.





It doesn't mean we should give up on our individual contributions -- they can add up to alot, and they help keep the much huger issue in the front of our minds. But let's urge our lazy politicians to get on the stick, to be bold, to admit the emperor has no clothes, and to demand collective sacrifice.