Living Plastic Free: The RULES

I’ve been living the NoNewPlasticPledge for 8 1/2 months now. Some of you wonderful readers were there from the start, and others have discovered EnviroWoman along the way. From the emails I get and the comments you great folks posts, I thought it would be helpful to restate my rules.

Although originally posted way back on New Year’s eve, I was so plastic naive way back then, the rules weren’t that detailed so I’ve provided you with some clarification. And all the amendments to the rules I've invoked as I learn more about plastic.

Okay here we go:

Original Rule #1: I CAN NOT buy or accept products containing or packaged in plastic for the first 90 days of 2007

• Clarification: This INCLUDES recyclable and recycled plastic. Hey, it’s still plastic, so it’s a no no.
• Clarification: This DOES NOT INCLUDE any and all petroleum-based products. The magic word in my pledge is ‘plastic’ not ‘petroleum’. Yes, I know you can’t have plastic without petroleum. (But you can have petroleum without plastic.) Remember, I’ve taken the NoNewPlasticPledge, not the NoNewPetroleumPledge. My beef with plastic is that it’s everywhere, and it doesn’t degrade.
• Clarification: This INCLUDES plastic other people bring into my life. When my female kinfolk sent me a package covered in plastic tape, I had to accept that as my personal consumption and add it to my plastic shrine. If someone brings plastic packaged chocolates to work and offers me one, I have to say no. At restaurants I can't order something I know someone will serve to me in plastic which will be thrown out after I’ve finished with it, like water in a plastic bottle or a plastic glass or with a plastic straw. However, this leads into a gray area….because how far do you really take it…. If I eat at a restaurant or a friend’s place and they serve food that was once packaged in plastic, but not served to me in plastic then that’s okay because it’s their plastic consumption, not mine. Like I said, it’s a gray area…and I’m not always consistent in my logic but hey, they are MY rules, so I can do what I want.
• Clarification: I CAN touch plastic. Some people assume my pledge means I can’t even touch plastic. Now come on folks…let’s GET REAL.
• Clarification: I CANNOT get others to buy plastic for me. Several wonderful souls have offered “I’ll buy this plastic then give it to you, then it won’t count”. It DOES COUNT and it would be cheating. Even if you’rwe're talking chocolate….it’s still cheating. EnviroWoman doesn’t cheat.
• Amendment: The resolution was extended to the entire 2007 year
• Amendment: This INCLUDES not buying or accepting biodegradable plastic (which I didn’t even know existed before Jan 1st)
• Amendment: This INCLUDES anything which qualifies as plastic according to wikipedia like nylon, polyester, Teflon, synthetic rubber, acrylic, styrofoam ad plasticizers (though this last one is a hard one ‘cuz it’s hard to really know what has plasticizers in it). Let’s just say, it blew my mind when I read this wikipedia page back in February, ‘cuz that’s when it really hit me how much stuff I had actually sworn off. Like nail polish. Ignorance is bliss. Reality sucks.
• Amendment: I CAN purchase compostable bioplastic – because it’s not petroleum-based plastic (as with biodegradable plastics, I didn’t even know this existed before Jan 1st). I am well aware that this counters the logic of the second clarification point above. Here’s what I like about compostable plastics – they degrade way faster than petroleum-based plastics and into earth-friendly benign matter. Regular, degradable, and biodegradable plastics don’t.
• Amendment: This INCLUDES papers which obviously have plastic in them, like sticky labels and that foily shiny plasticy stuff all my fav chocolate bars come in. This amendment eventually leads into a gray area…because how can you really tell if some paper has plastic in it…
• Amendment to the amendment: This DOES NOT INCLUDE magazines and books. It did for the first 6 months, but now I just can’t live without them.
• Amendment: I DO NOT have to be uber-extreme at work. Work presents challenges. ButI have to admit I stick to my NoNewPlasticPledge guns about 99% of the time. Here are some examples…

A coworker noticed I didn’t have scissors and took it upon themselves to order me a new pair….which came packaged in plastic and had plastic handles. I graciously thanked my coworker for their thoughtfulness, accepted the scissors, but quietly returned them to the supplies cupboard so another coworker would claim them.

At a work sponsored conference I received a plastic binder full of wonderful paper stuff and accepted it graciously. Later, I returned the binder to the conference organizer but kept the wonderful paper stuff.

I don’t order office supplies for myself that I know contain plastic.

If I must order plastic stuff for others, I delegate it to a team member so I don’t have to break my NoNewPlasticPledge. It’s kinda cheating, but kinda not.

Here’s the 1% where I have to ease up on the NoNewPlasticPledge... when I order print materials which contain varnishes (that contain plasticizers).

• Amendment: I CAN purchase plastic on behalf of someone else if it’s for them and I’m reimbursed. DesignGuru at work asked me to stop by the local ArtEmporium and pick him up some art portfolios, which I was reimbursed for. That was okay. But when I needed a white sheet for a backdrop at a work photo shoot I was spearheading, I couldn't buy it because the sheet was packaged in plastic – so we used white paper instead.
• Amendment: I MUST re-gift plastic gifts. When a person gives me something, like a gift, which contains plastic or is packaged in plastic I accept it graciously, then re-gift it to someone else. (Hey, hang with me and you get lots of great plastic cast offs.) In some cases I return it to the giver. For example, the local phone company dropped off a new plastic-packaged phone book (which I didn’t request). By my rules, I have to return it to them, or accept the plastic as a MINOR SIN and add it to my shrine – I chose to return it.
• Amendment: I can only plead ignorance once. If I had been buying something which I honestly didn’t know had plastic in it, then I don’t count those purchases as SINS. But once I realize it contains plastic, I can’t continue to buy it without committing a MINOR or MAJOR SIN. This has occurred with soda pop, and tin cans, for example.
• Amendment: Food for TheBeast is an exception. When I started the no new plastic pledge I didn’t know most tin cans contain plastic. Once I did know, I stopped buying tin cans for myself. But I still buy them for TheBeast. Shes 18, has gum and tooth decay and can’t chew or stomach crunchies. So she’s on a diet of soft canned food. It woudn’t be right for her to suffer because of my pledge.

Original Rule #2: I CAN borrow or rent products that have plastic. So for example, I can rent DVDs, but I can’t buy DVDs.

Original Rule #3: I CAN continue to use or re-use any plastic in my possession as of Dec 31 2006.

• Clarification: When stuff gets used up, that’s when I replace it with non-plastic alternatives. Some people assume on January 1st, I threw out all my plastic stuff, and that I never use plastic. Again, let’s GET REAL. Plastic is everywhere, and in everything – I’d have to throw out most of worldly possessions. That would be totally disrespectful to Mother Earth, and would mean I’d consume a whole pile of new resources replacing stuff unnecessarily.

However, I will admit, moving to a new abode gave me a great opportunity to send alot of plastic to the Thrift Shop, or to storage. And I have given things up, or replaced things, like highlighters, and pens, and kitchen utensils before completely using up my non-plastic supply. All in an attempt to accelerate my transition to a NoPlasticAtAll existence. But, it’s gonna take a couple of years to get there.

In retrospect, this is a smart rule for anyone attempting to make such a big change in their life. It’s made the transition more bearable. If I had had to shop for non-plastic alternatives for ALL MY STUFF during the first couple of weeks, I’d have given up on this resolution way back in January.

Most of you are familiar with my plastic shrine which includes ALL the new plastic I’ve let into my life during 2007 which is now ready to be trashed or recycled. But I have a second plastic shrine, which graced these pages for the first time in January’s PROGRESS REPORT and will again in December’s PROGRESS REPORT. It includes all the plastic I had on hand as of Dec 31, 2006 which I have continued to use, and which is now ready to be trashed or recycled. I’m keeping it so at year end we can all get a good comparison of how much I’ve been able to reduce my consumption during 2007, in comparison to 2006. It’s not an exact comparison…but it’s still a good one.

Original Rule #4: CRUELTY-FREE takes precedence over plastic-free. If alternative products contain animal byproducts or have been tested on animals I'll choose the cruelty-free option over plastic-free. For example, since I don't wear leather, I'll always choose plastic 'man-made material' shoes over leather.

• Clarification: Shoes are an exemption. And it’s not because I’m one of those women who lives for shoes, which I’m not. It’s just that I knew I wasn’t going to find plastic-free shoes and I absolutely refuse to wear dead animals.

So I think that pretty much covers it. Let me know if you’ve got any questions and if you think I’m UberExtreme, or UberEasy on myself.