Was moved by effortless beauty, and stumbling a friend’s site ( www.supercw.com ) to post a link to here:

http://raymondmolinar.blogspot.com/

View polaroids the way they always should be.  Static yet dancing.  Blinding and bright, while capturing the weight of it all.

a.

Kickin it.

Texas

We all know plastics have been around for a long time in various uses in our society.  Did you know that they are all still around though?  Every piece you’ve ever used, every bubble tape you’ve ever purchased, water bottle you’ve quenched your thirst with, those plastic sushi pieces at Aloha Sushi, and those popular yellow cancer bracelets, yep those too.

Estimated at a size twice that of Texas, may I present Plastic Island.  A floating island of semisynthetic polymerization products.

I’ve added a new link today on the right side of the page, Rise Against Plastics!

Visit their site for a glimpse into all that is plastic and all that will be forever more.

Think before you drink…how can you commit to the plastic pledge and ban yourself from those water bottles?  How can you limit your use of plastic in a plastic world?

Some quickies but goodies:

a.) Use real silverware and dishes for your lunch at work.  Go to the Salvation Army or Goodwill and pick up some mismatched funky 70’s dishes or pottery and make up a story to go with them!

b.) stick to jewelry that is recycled, vintage, reinvent your own, and purchase on etsy.com (handcrafted goods not made in China, though I cannot say whether the materials were or not)

c.) Buy CD’s online instead of in the store with plastic jewel cases.  Most of us live in a digital music world now, and put music straight onto our iPods or other music devices…why not eliminate the middle man of plastic blunder?

d.) Carry your own bag!  This movement has gained much attention in the last year, and I am sure anyone reading this is familiar with the concept.  Keep going though!  One time is not enough, every time is where it counts!

e.) Buy pens with refillable ink.  This is a random one, but as I am sitting here at a desk, made of wood, with plastic stopper on the legs   I am looking at the pens surrounding me, each of them disposable and not refillable.  It occurs to me that I should look into this as a small but important step.
How many fish are now trying to write with my discarded pens to no avail?  One too many I pressume.

f.) Reduce Reuse Recycle.  Find ways to reuse your plastic items.  Reduce the amount of plastic you consumer.  Recycle that which you cannot reuse.

The lesson is this.  Plastic has created many “things” without which we would not have a thousand+ useful everyday items.  Some medical, some trivial, some just funny.  But we lived thousands of years without them.  If they are going to destroy the oceans we count on, and come back to us in the form of the ahi steak we consumed last night, is that really advancing as a society and culture?  History repeats itself.

It happens to each and everyone of us. Perhaps not everyday and maybe not as often for some, but it is inevitable. You buy something, use your purchasing power, you get a receipt as proof. Proof your purchase exists, proof you paid for it, and proof it left the store.

So what do you do with it?

If you are like most consumers, it reaches the trash before you even leave the building. Or maybe it makes it to the bottomless pit of your Botkier bag, or the floor of your Prius. Wherever it goes, it certainly does not see a long life span.

Well let’s change all that. Let’s make the most of this piece of paper called a receipt. I have two solutions presented here to expand the time that exists between register and rubbish.

1.) Reuse the receipt.

Most receipts have a gorgeously blank backside upon them to which you can jot down a number of things:

Your to-do list for the day.
Your grocery list.
Your goals for the week (cause we know writing them down makes us more likely to attain them).
Your next running playlist for your iPod.
A quote you passed at a cafe.
A note to mom your at Emma’s house till 10pm.

Whatever it is, a note has room to breathe on a receipt. It has a second life. A purpose.

2.) Recycle the receipt.

I know this is a more obvious route, but let’s do this. Let’s do both number’s one and two. Let’s use the receipt up AND recycle it!

If you don’t have access to recycling paper (and most of us do, even if it takes a little effort) then repeat step 1 over and over till you cannot read past last weeks goals you’ve achieved.

While you’re at it, why not make this your first goal of the week?

There are going to be some upcoming posts on my travels thru Mexico over the last two months. These will all have a eco-slant to them (of course!).

In my travels one of the things I have noticed is the way having less, provides you with more. What I mean by this is that by the pure nature of not having the means to purchase the garlic press, the cappuccino machine, and the wine stopper you are forced to think creatively. Maybe it’s from tapping into this creative force these items were created in the first place.

I end this short but sweet post with a quote from a travel the world over, one of my favorite reads on this journey I have taken down here.

“I have no plans, no dates, no appointments with anybody, so I leisurely explore souls and cities”. – Jack Kerouac, Mexico City Blues

much bliss,

a.

A new age of sporking has begun. May I introduce to you the eco-green spork.

It all started with a personal desire to lessen the amount of plastic silverware I was consuming at my favorite Thai restaurant, The Bangkok Chef (Honolulu, HI). Sure that I could resist their shiny white on white forks and spoons I started to seek an alternative.

What I found was a perfect compliment to my lifestyle, the earth, and my veggie tofu pad thai.

Introducing the bamboo (or Bambu) spork ($1.95 usd). It happened while on a trip to San Francisco to visit the family and friends. I was walking thru Cliff’s Variety in the Castro district when I almost literally walked into a display of all things Bambu.

Tempted to buy more, wisely realizing I need less, I spent a good ten minutes slowly crawling my eyes over the retail goods…still looking for a reason to purchase one of the temptingly crafted items. The instant I saw it, I knew it was for me. Something I could justify as a purchase for my own needs and wants, as well as helping out the plastic silverware issue I was having. It sat in a nice collection of itself duplicated over and over.

A small 3.5″ piece of organically grown bamboo cleverly crafted into a modern day spork. It’s even biodegradable 4-6 months after being disposed. After a bit of research I learned that Bambu is a modern thinking company as well with an aggressively renewable policy. They also are proud contributers to 1% for the planet. Bambu joined with 1% For The Planet in 2005 and contributes over 1% of net sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment.

One quick swipe of the visa and I had the utensil of my eco dreams. It went immediately into my bag for it’s first scoop of take out, thereby avoiding a plastic bag from the store as well. Double bonus!

Since it’s inception into my catchall that could be called my purse, but I prefer bag, it has proven itself useful and a worthy contributer. Not only for eating, it’s primary focus, but also for amazing friends with my clever little contraption, thereby giving me “oh what a good idea” comments, and “you always have the neatest stuff”. I will take both as compliments, thank you.

What I really love though is being able to simply share the idea that you don’t have to give in to the “disposable” society our culture has created inevitably out of our dominance in the “must have now, can’t wait, make it as big as possible” attitude. Will you join me, us, we?

The Bambu spork can be found at Cliff’s Variety if you live in San Francisco, and other retail locations listed here:

Bristol Farms
Crate & Barrel
Dean & Deluca
Sur La Table
Whole Foods Market

If you live or are visiting Shanghai:

www.bambuhome.com

or at various online retailers, some of which I have listed below:

www.greenfeet.com
www.cooking.com

Have you used a spork from Bambu, or another sustainable, biodegradable resource? Email The Green Bohemian or comment below!