Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Reduce plastics!

I am determine to reduce the number of plastics entering my house. DETERMINED.

Today, I sent this message to "Organicgirl" - www. iloveorganicgirl.com - which is a brand of organic produce sold at the West Seattle Morgan Street Thriftway. I also mentioned to the checker at Thriftway that I do not wish to buy highly packaged produce.

Reducing plastic is difficult. I'm learning more, and realizing that such a simple step is actually going to be very difficult, but that it's an important part of what needs to be done to heal the earth, create clean air and water for humans and animals alike, etc.

Today I'm suggesting two ways that you, a not-so-crazy-person-as-myself, can heal the earth:
1. When given a choice, choose the product with less packaging, or no plastic packaging.

2. When not given a choice, speak up! This can be as simple as mentioning to a store employee that you'd prefer to have less packaging in your products, or as active as creating a national letter writing campaign. (I believe that the middle road, just sending an email to state your opinion about plastics and packaging to the manufacturer/producer, is a great idea.)
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Yesterday I went grocery shopping at a local (West Seattle, Washington) store and needed green onions. I was delighted that organic green onions were available, and I'm happy to buy your brand...but I was very unhappy with the fact that it came in plastic packaging. One of the reasons I buy organic is to help my body (I feel no need to ingest pesticides) but the other is to reduce harm to the environment. A simple, tiny rubber band seems so much less harmful than a big plastic bag! Plus, I had to buy twice as many onions as I needed, as I couldn't control the quantity within the bag, so unless I can pawn them off on someone or find green onion recipes (?) a good portion of them are certain to go to waste.Please, consider reducing your packaging. Your logo is cute, but it's not worth damaging the earth with the production and disposal of toxins (plastics) that are unnecessary.In the future, I will not buy your product; now that I know that this store has highly packaged organic goods, I'll return to shopping at PCC and other local, organic stores that do not promote packaging.Thank you for considering my request.
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PS If you live close to me and you need green oinons, gimme a call. I've got way too many!

PPS I never thought to plant green onions - hmmm. I wonder if I can find seeds....

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