Kamik Recycled and Recyclable Rain Boots

So, I have kind of a confession.  I waited until we had the biggest rainstorm in years to even think about buying rain boots.  I waited until my work shoes and socks were soaked through, and I was sloshing around the office all day, to ask myself, “I wonder if I can buy Kamik recycled rain boots here in the Bay Area.”  I’d already researched the boots for inclusion in my book.  I just hadn’t bothered to actually try them out.  Until now.

So, last Thursday evening, I found myself in Nordstrom at San Francisco Centre asking if there were any Kamik rain boots and basically getting laughed at for thinking any store in town would still have any rain boots left.  So I did something I’m not proud of.  I ordered them overnight from Amazon.  And they arrived the next day.

Kamiks are great but Amazon sucks

Okay, first let me tell you about the boots, and then let me explain why ordering from Amazon is not the best idea.

Most… Read the rest

Feelgoodz natural rubber and hemp flip flops

Confession: Up until a week ago, I still sometimes wore plastic flip flops.  Granted, they were flip flops I purchased back in 2005.  And I wore them until they had holes in the heels.

But still, why would I continue to wear plastic ones after discovering the natural rubber flip flops from Feelgoodz two years ago?  It had to do with the straps.

The natural rubber straps were fine for short walks, but if I wore the flip flops for an extended length of time, the straps would irritate the top of my foot a little bit.  So I would revert to the plastic ones for a while.   Many other people love the original Feelgoodz and have not had this problem, but now, I’m psyched to have discovered that Feelgoodz is offering two alternative models with soft hemp straps instead of rubber, and they feel really great.  Just in time to save my heels, Feelgoodz sent me a couple of pairs of flip flops to review.

Soft Strapz flip flops

(Disclosure: If you purchase Feelgoodz… Read the rest

Buying Clothes Without Plastic. We Ask. Companies Listen.

Clothing is fraught with plastic. From the synthetic fibers that the majority of clothing is made from nowadays to the hidden plastic packaging most of us never see, the world of fashion is a plastic-free gal’s nightmare. But I do what I can. And now some companies are listening.

Organic Cotton Clothing

A couple of years ago, I was thrilled to find prAna brand 100% organic cotton clothing (with zero synthetic fibers) at a local Oakland woman’s clothing shop (See Jane Run).  (I’m not a high fashionista.  I’d live all day in a cotton hoodie and pajama bottoms if I didn’t have a real job.)

The prAna clothes had zero plastic. The zipper was metal. Even the tags were made of fabric and attached with twine instead of plastic.

Avoiding the plastic wrappers

What I didn’t know was that most of prAna’s clothing (like almost all brands of clothing these days) was delivered to the store and to mail-order customers … Read the rest

Feelgoodz natural plastic-free flip flops

I need new flip flops. Seriously. I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes since I stopped buying new plastic three years ago, and this summer, I’ve been walking around on worn down foam Teva’s that look like this:

Any podiatrist worth his/her degree would be appalled.

So anyway, I needed new flip flops, and I remembered that Lisa from Condo Blues had worn a pair of natural rubber FeelGoodz flip flops to the Blogher conference last year and loved them. So I wrote to the company and asked for a pair to review on Fake Plastic Fish.

(Disclosure:  If you purchase Feelgoodz flip flops via this link, I earn a small commission to support my plastic-free mission.)

The shoes were sent in a plain cardboard box without any additional packaging.

The flip flops come in all different colors, but I chose black for the sake of versatility. I’m not a big shoe collector, like many women are.

About Feelgoodz Flip Flops:

1) Made from 100% natural rubber.… Read the rest

PACT: Changing the World through Changing my Underwear

(2017 Update:  Please note that unfortunately, Pact has changed its packaging and is using a lot more plastic.  Specifics about the new packaging have been detailed below.)

This is what happened. I generally hate shopping for clothes. And I really hate shopping for underwear, which you often can’t try on. (How can I know how it’s going to fit and feel if I can’t try it on first?) And now, with the added conviction that my undies have to not only feel good but be good for the planet, finding the right ones has become a real drag. So I procrastinated on buying new ones, repairing my old panties over and over again until they were just shreds of thread. I had a lot of reasons to hope I never got into an accident!

The motivation to finally take care of business came before my trip to Disneyland. I knew I’d be sharing a hotel room with a co-worker. Holy crap! What if she sees my holey underwear? I jumped on Google and once again started my hunt… Read the rest

When 100% Cotton Doesn’t Mean 100% Cotton

So I found myself in Target last night shopping for a jacket.  Don’t bother to ask how that happened.  It would require an in-depth analysis of my addled brain, which would probably bore you to sleep.  Suffice it to say, I was in Target (which as far as I’m concerned is on par with Wal-Mart) in the Women’s Wear section, obsessively checking the label on every single top, sweater, and jacket to find something that was not made out of plastic.

Plastic clothing?  That’s right.  Labels like “40% wool, 60%  Acrylic,”  “90% cotton, 10% Spandex,”  “50% cotton, 50% polyester,” or “100% cotton shell with 100% polyester liner” all mean clothing partially made out of plastic.  Plastic that comes from oil.  Synthetic fibers produced by the petrochemical industry.

Okay, I realize that I was in Target and that even the cotton there is probably loaded with pesticides… Read the rest