I’ve got a conundrum. Â It’s Black Friday, the day in the U.S. when the holiday shopping frenzy officially begins. Â Environmentalists decry this day of conspicuous consumption, advocating Buy Nothing Day instead. Â And normally, I would be one of them. Â But this year, I actually have something to sell: Â my book. Â In fact, I’ve planned a […]
I just got back from a week on the East Coast doing book promos and visiting family, and all I got was this stupid Facebook photo… Two days ago, my sister Ellen posted that photo and caption and tagged me. Â It would have been funny, if it weren’t my Campbell’s cream of mushroom soup can. […]
I felt like I was back in kindergarten yesterday… cutting and pasting with paste you could eat if you wanted to. Â I’m taking my plastics information display to the ReUseConex in Portland tomorrow and wanted to make it sturdier. Taping paper pages directly to the wooden board was not working well. Â The paper curled […]
Stop what you’re doing for a second. Â I want you to start a petition. Â Or at least sign one. Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event when bloggers all over the world band together to write posts on the same theme. Â And this year’s theme is “The Power of We.” Â It’s one thing for […]
Every time I stay in a hotel (and nowadays, with all the travel I’m doing to promote my book, I’m getting to visit more and more of them), I inevitably roll my eyes at the preponderance of single-sized, plastic-packaged amenities: little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and single-sized soaps. Â Sure, many guests love them and […]
Halloween Plastic can be scary!  But blogger Amber Dohrenwend has one solution to Halloween plastic.  She’s the author of The Cardboard Collective, a blog about using recycled cardboard (the kind you would fish out of the cardboard only recycling bin or dumpster) to create toys, crafts, and furniture. She lives in a small apartment in Tokyo, […]
I realize  Talk Like a Pirate Day is over for 2012, but there’s a certain piraty expression that’s good all year round:  Arrr! According to the official website, it means “variously, ‘yes,’ ‘I agree,’ ‘I’m happy,’ ‘I’m enjoying this beer,’ ‘My team is going to win it all,’ ‘I saw that television show, it sucked!’ and ‘That was […]
When Annie Leonard (The Story of Stuff Project) admonishes us to “make change,” she’s not talking about dimes and quarters.  She’s one of my personal heroes and someone I was excited to interview back in 2010.  So you can imagine how honored I was this year when asked if she could interview me for her podcast The Good Stuff, a companion […]
It’s hard to find plastic-free versions of a lot of camping supplies. Â Plastic makes things lightweight and easy to carry in a backpack. Â I don’t camp a lot, so usually my strategy to avoid new plastic is to borrow from friends or find things second-hand via Freecycle, Craigslist, yard sales, or thrift stores. Â At […]
Summer is not yet over, so there’s still time to squeeze in a post about Life Without Plastic’s new Freezycup stainless steel popsicle molds. Â (Of course, there’s no rule that says popsicles can only be eaten in the summer anyway.) But before I talk about this new mold, let me back up a bit. Â Two […]