While most environmentally conscious people know that no purchase, especially from SaveOn, is without it’s consequences, in the case of Oil of Olay, they’ve found a surprising way to keep the price down, and still get those spa results. The latest incarnation of Olay products, an ancient in the world of new beauty, are shower cleansers that make your skin feel like velvet. Sadly, rather then using salt, pumice, or other organic substances to exfoliate your skin, Oil of Olay uses teeny tiny pieces of plastic. These teeny tiny plastic pieces wash right down the drain, straight through the sewage filtration systems, and into the oceans.

If you have not heard already, our oceans are CLOGGED with plastic. Proctor and Gamble spokesmen say essentially “this stuff is so small, it’ll barely make a dent.” I am paraphrasing of course, but it’s smallness in this case is the whole point. Recent reports suggest that there may be 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile in our oceans. Not only does plastic in our oceans irreparably harm and kill sea life, it also makes its way back into the food chain as it’s ingested by the sea animals we eat. This plastic broken down into its smallest form is being linked by researchers to a number ghastly diseases and health problems such as prostate cancer, diabetes, obesity, low fertility rates, and birth defects, to name a few.

Thanks to Proctor and Gamble they’re making new products with micro plastics ready to go, no need to wait for the sun and the elements to do their work. They’ll just flow out to the sea right under our noses, ready to be caught and cooked up in your next bucket of steamed clams. I guess the new catch phrase could be “You eat what you wash with?”

To Read More: See Slates: Scrubbing Out Sea Life

one step back
We all know we should use these “low energy” light bulbs, even if they look a little funny, we use them because we love the earth. We’ve heard the hype (direct from the ge website):
• Save $36-$59 on energy bills over the life of the bulb
• Last 8-10 times longer than standard bulbs
and most appealing to the green of heart…
• Use up to 75% less energy – and using less energy means less pollution is generated

So why on earth is it so overly wrapped in this crazy thick plastic??? When basically every piece of plastic ever created still exists…do we need our “green” products slathered with the stuff?

Get involved…there is a form letter in the comment section to this post — cut and paste, email away, and let them know you care!

**it’s also worth noting a new bill has passed in Congress relating to the use of these lightbulbs. Below is a Republican Congressman railing against the bill. I hate to admit that much of what he says does unveil the silliness by which our legislators are approaching very serious issues. You Decide!

In a bid to become more eco-friendly, last March, Ikea’s U.S. division started to charge 5 cents per bag for going plastic. The alternative for customers was to either bring in their own bags or buy $0.59 reusable ones from Ikea.

After one year, the company reports that the response was exceptional. Ikea’s initial goal was to reduce usage in their stores from 70 million to 35 million bags per year. They got that and more: Plastic bag consumpiton dropped a whopping 92 percent, meaning roughly 64 million less bags were used.

read (portfolio.com)

In Fort Bragg, CA mushrooms are being discussed beyond the scope of pizza toppings. Turkey tail and oyster mushrooms (pictured above) have been used in the cleaning up of oil spills, through a process called bioremediation. Bragg locals are proposing their town be the pilot study to see if these mushrooms can treat the dioxin that infests the site of a former lumber mill.

read (nytimes.com)

46,000 Estimated number of floating plastic pieces per square mile (2.6 sq km) of ocean, according to a 2006 U.N. study

source (time.com)

ALERT GET RID OF THOSE PLASTIC BABY BOTTLES, is what I hear when NPR opens an interview with the following quote “Water bottles, baby bottles, and food cans, might cause cancer, early puberty, and neural and behavorial changes.” A new study and draft report by a Federal Health Agency, The National Toxicology Program, claims that a common chemical found in many plastics called B.P.A. may be altering human development, and the findings are serious and should not be dismissed. The really scary thing is when I did a search on toxicology and plastic on NPR this report was not the only one that came up. In fact there is also a link to obesity. Is it possible that while plastic has facilitated the great leap forward with medicine, it’s flip side is that the by-products are destroying our health? Touché! http://www.npr.org/search.php?text=toxicology+report+on+plasti

This is what one amazon reviewer astutely pointed out:

1.0 out of 5 stars
yum, delicious plastic, December 15, 2006
By Steve Patsy (Phoenix, AZ United States) -
Prior to buying this product from Amazon I called Braun’s customer service to inquire about the interior of this kettle. I wanted to know if the interior was made of plastic or stainless steel and if the water ever came in contact with plastic. I was told by a Braun representative that the interior to all their kettles is stainless but when my kettle arrived today the interior is plastic. So if you like the idea of water being heated in leaching plastic, then this is the product for you. On the other hand if you do not want any harmful plastic chemicals being leached into your hot water, then this is not the kettle for you.

First San Francisco banned it. Then Chicago started taxing it. Now, the city of Seattle is taking action against bottled water; last week, Mayor Greg Nickels signed an executive order to stop the city from buying bottled water. That means no more bottled water at city facilities and events, which may sound like a small step, but it’ll make a big difference; last year, the city spent $58,000 on the stuff (and that’s not including the true cost and carbon footprint of bottled water). We’re willing to bet that the city’s taxpayers can probably think of about 58,000 ways to better spend that money.

via (treehugger.com)

[Read more →]

I just read that if everyone in LA county gave up bottled water for one year it would save 1.7 billion bottles, enough to wrap around the earth more than 1.5 times. Enough!

Oh, but how would I keep my bread fresh or brush my teeth without it? It’s all so confusing. I dream of a world where everything is decomposable and biodegradable and seeps back into the earth in a dark and creamy mulch. And yet how much shorter would our life-spans be were it not for those tubes sticking out of our limbs during surgery? Plastic is everywhere. It’s too many places!