Bring Back the Zippo

There are so many disposable things in our lives that we don't need to be disposable, it's mind-boggling. For example, take the easily-ignored lighter. There are a lot of smokers out there. I used to be one of them. How many times does it happen that they have lost the lighter? Constantly. How many lighters do we go through in the course of, say, a year? 3? 6? More? We have them left over from my smoker days and from when we have found them in the laundry room, etc. We use them to light candles and incense. They get lost or get used up, and thrown away they go. As I've said before, though, away isn't really away.

Cigarette lighters collected by volunteers;
 picture by D. Tsukayama,  Midway Atoll

Remember Zippos? Those awesome metal refillable things that just plain looked cool back in the day? Why did we abandon those in favor of plastic? Plastic lighters can be dangerous. I had one explode in my car once, as it sat too close too being in the sun as my car was parked at work. Plastic shards everywhere, lighter fluid smells. They go through the laundry. They end up in the ocean. They leak their toxic fluid into the ocean. They never go away. And for what? Convenience? Because we cannot be bothered to refill Zippos?

Here's what REALLY funny: It's very hard to buy the necessary lighter fluid. This I know because I was fond of using refillable lighters. They make it very hard to purchase that stuff. Because it's dangerous. I find that vaguely ironic, because I find the plastic lighters far more dangerous in the long run. Is that why people don't buy Zippos? Because it's too darn inconvenient to buy the fluid? That has to be the reason, because overall there really can be no other excuse. They have a lifetime warranty so it's not like it breaks and you are SOL. Pure, sheer convenience, I guess.

Look, almost all of us have need for lighters at one point or another. Lighting candles in the dark when the power goes out, camping, fireplace, pilot lights that went out... why not have something of quality that will last, rather than cheap dangerous plastic that ends up in the Midway Atoll of all places, in the stomachs of baby albatross??? What a great cool neat thoughtful green gift: a Zippo. I went to their site after thinking about this, and WOW! I have to say, I was even more impressed. What a great story they have, and what cool products. I don't get on people for smoking. It is what it is. I DO get on them for littering or for the plastic lighters. Matches are preferable, for that matter. But, yeah, let's please do away with plastic disposable lighters. There is nothing redeeming about them. We do not need them. The planet doesn't need them. They are bad-bad-bad. 

I will buy no more. When I find need for a lighter, I will purchase a Zippo and keep it forever. Better yet, I will find an older one and keep it forever. Those things rock my world.

I didn't intend this to be a commercial for Zippo, but it sure turned into one. HAH! This IS an indictment against plastic lighters. Please: buy no more. And think about gifting something to that candle enthusiast you know... a personalized pretty lighter is really a very thoughtful gift! Designed. Engraved. Whatever! They will think of  you every time they use it, too! Get one for the smoker in your life. Even if you do not approve of their choice to smoke, at least you can help them be a little better about it! Right? 

And when you go to Zippo's site, please tell them I sent you. Not that I'll get anything, just... well, they should know. Hah!

Over 36 Pounds

Very excited... I am taking a Speakers' Training Course called Rise Above Plastics. Yesterday was our first class. We met at Venice Beach for a clean-up to see exactly what gets washed up/left behind on a daily basis. We arrived with buckets and gloves and great attitudes, and set to work picking up what we could.

Just my small contribution to the pick-up.

The beach looked pretty clean on a sunny Saturday morning. The craziness of Venice Beach had not quite hit full force yet, and there were surfers, and people riding bikes on the path. Typical Southern California day. We were to go out for just 20 minutes. In that time, about 40 of us picked up almost 40 pounds of crap.

When you think about that number, please realize that the nearly 20 cigarette butts I personally found weigh very very little. It takes a lot of those to make a pound. Bottle caps, same thing, they are pretty light. Also, most of what I was trying to grab were tiny little broken bits of Styrofoam. You know, that stuff you use for mere minutes but then it never, ever, ever goes away? Styrofoam and plastic will never break down completely; they are here for good. I picked up countless little bits that used to be something bigger and got broken up out there to be eaten by fish and other animals that have no idea that what they are eating is going to kill them.

The other thing about cigarette butts: think about all those chemicals and carcinogens that we humans happily and willingly take into our bodies, and what is left in the filters. Now realize that when that filter hits the water, those chemicals get leached out immediately into the water. Now think about the 100 or so that we picked up in 20 minutes on one tiny stretch of beach on one morning. That adds up to a lot of chemicals. The oceans can only handle so much. Small little tiny creatures directly affected, which affects the bigger guys, which affects the even bigger guys, which eventually comes right around to... us. Is there any wonder the cancer rate among our children and pets has exploded? I never wonder. I know why.

And soon, I will go around speaking out alllllll about it. Come see me!

Your Right to Convenience

You have the right to have convenience. You have the right to make garbage. You have the right to waste water. You can do whatever you gull-durn please. If you want to triple-plastic-bag your leaky chicken at the grocery store, by good-goddamn it is your right to do so. You want to have a baby, and gosh-darn it, you are going to use plastic diapers, because gosh-darn it, you are going to be tired, and you know what? Shit stinks. And YOU do not want to have to deal with that.

Umm... yuck.

Yeah, I heard that from my own step-daughter. She NEVER planned to use cotton diapers, and now she IS pregnant. Even though the "disposable" ones (quotes on that, because they are NOT disposable, they are just moved away from YOU to another place) are bad for the planet, bad for the kid, bad for... well, ME. Yeah. They are getting added in to MY world. Why don't I have a say in that? Because YOU must have your convenience? Even though you KNOW babies poop and it smells bad, but you are going to have one anyway, but the rest of us have to revolve around that? What about OUR rights to a clean planet? No? Nuthin'? Not so much?

So you have the right to use plastic. And you don't think the government should step in and ban plastic bags, because that is an infringement of your rights, and, after all, where will it end?? You know - smokers as the same thing... no smoking on the beaches, public places, what's next? You're own home? Yes, actually, in some towns you cannot even smoke in your own back yard. Because smoking hurts people other than the smokers. Well, guess what - your water waste is hurting those who DON'T waste. Because, just like we share the air, and you don't want to smell their cigarette smoke, we share the water, and I want to have mine around to use when I want, and since I use it responsibly, YOU should too. But you don't. So we have to put bans and limits on water usage sometimes. But guess what? I have to follow the same bans and limits, even though I wasn't the problem.

Likewise, because YOU can't be bothered to ease up on the plastic, MY Earth is polluted, even though I have been enjoying it responsibly. Your gross dirty diapers are in my environment, even though I had nothing to do with them. But there they are.

So, I ask again: where does your right for convenience end, and my right for a healthy planet begin? It doesn't seem to matter, so long as things are easy for the masses.

Man, I would LOVE an answer to that one...