The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Monthly Archives: January 2013

January 25, 2013

Dear Virgin America, I Love You, But Not Your Plastic Bottles

01/29/2013 Update: Richard Branson responds to my letter on his blog today: Plastic On Our Airlines. 

Dear Richard Branson & David Cush,

This letter serves two purposes.  First, to express my sincere gratitude for all you have done to make Virgin America the only airline I can fly without crying the whole time, and second, to ask you to address the issue of plastics on your flights.  First, the good stuff.

I’m a nervous flyer.  On takeoff, I’ve been known to cut off the circulation in my partner’s hand from gripping it so tightly.  And years ago, I had flight attendants offering me free alcohol even before the plane took off (and even though I was sitting in coach) just to calm me down.  But nowadays, after a little hypnotherapy and the advent of Virgin America, I actually enjoy flying.  Which is fortunate, because after the release of my book last year, I’ve found myself sitting on planes probably more often than… Read the rest

January 4, 2013

What to Do with All That Holiday Plastic

For those of us working to reduce the amount of plastic we consume and the plastic waste we produce, the holidays can be challenging.  What do we do about plastic gifts and wrapping we might receive from well-meaning friends and family?

First, it’s important to have some strategies for avoiding acquiring a lot of holiday plastic in the first place. I let my friends and family know early on in my plastic-free experiment that I would appreciate gifts of experiences or donations to charities instead of “things,” which reduces the chances that they will get me presents made from or packaged in plastic.  (Here’s an example of a letter I sent to my family a few years ago.)  Those are the kinds of gifts I like to give as well.  But if I do order gifts for others, I’m very careful to request no plastic packaging in the box. I reuse gift bags, boxes, bows, and ribbons from gifts given to me at previous holidays and can’t remember… Read the rest

January 2, 2013

Empire State Skyscratcher rocks our feline world

Hello, people and Happy New Year. Our human mom, Beth, is very very busy, so we wanted to help her out by writing a blog post to tell you about the amazing thing we got for Christmas this year. We’re not exactly sure what it is, but mom acted really excited when she opened it, so we know it must be pretty special. (And no, we no longer speak like those Cheezburger Cats. We are 5 years old and have learned proper grammar!)

Anyway, Christmas Eve, Mom came home and started talking really loudly when she saw a big box at the front door. She said stuff like, “Wow. He didn’t use plastic tape or plastic label covers. This is great.” We don’t know what those things are, but we know our mom doesn’t like plastic.  And we love boxes, so we started to get excited too.

 

Mom cut open the top with her keys and was even more excited when she looked inside.  She said there was cardboard, twine, paper tape, and only a little plastic…… Read the rest