Thursday, August 7, 2008

how could plastic possibly be forever?

Is plastic really forever? Yes. Here's the problem with plastic: it doesn't biodegrade. To biodegrade is to decompose naturally with the help of biological agents, like bacteria. Banana peels biodegrade. Plastic cigarette lighters do not.

Instead, plastic photodegrades. This means that it's broken down by light (not bacteria). As it absorbs sunlight, plastic breaks into smaller and smaller pieces. This sounds promising, right? Almost like it will disappear? Not so fast. First of all this process takes hundreds of years. And second, the very smallest bits of plastic (which are called nurdles) get sucked up by the fishies in the sea and enter our food chain.

Knowing that, don't you want to find an alternative to your iced coffee and eat some plastic-free apricots from the farmer's market? yay, me too!



















And can I say, I'm so happy to have Erin back! Aren't you all happy to have the blog back in action after our summer hiatus? For anyone who is plastic dieting, I recommend finding a plastic buddy because it's so hard to do this alone! I need Erin around to keep me honest and inspired and to be this hardcore:

erin: I hate plastic just thought you should know--it drives me nuts sometimes.
I am going to knit a sleeve for my coffee/tea mug that is made of metal of course because it is old and all the insulation has come out the little hole in the bottom of the mug (where they put the insulation in)...so now the mug is very very hot when you hold it (thus defeating the purpose in many ways) but I don't want to buy a new one because they all have plastic tops and my mug is still good--so end of story tonight I'm knitting myself a coffee mug sleeve so I don't burn my hand instead of buy a new mug!

4 comments:

Anna said...

Erin and Kerry,
Thanks for checking out JUNK - the plastic bottle raft sailing to Hawaii. I'll get in touch when I'm back in town (out of the country with limited internet) but just wanted to send a quick note thanking you for your efforts.
Cheers,
Anna

Unknown said...

i didn't even know you could knit!

plasticfreenyc said...

Thanks Anna, we're huge fans of JUNK! Enjoy your travels and we'd love to catch up when you get back!
Kerry

plasticfreenyc said...

Suz, don't you remember the great knitting experiment of 2004? I took a class and knitted the cutest baby sweater you ever saw. but that was erin who's going to knit an insulated cup cozy, not me.