But What If I Never Throw It Away?

Sad news on my New Favorite Thing, my stone paper.... I was told it is NOT recyclable. I thought it was. But.. but... I SO love to write on it. It's so smooth. Now, am I a giant hypocrite for using it? It's still compostable, right? I mean, it's stone, it will take forever, but it's at least natural, right?

And that's all it took to send me into one of my brain-spins. Ok, yeah yeah yeah, I know, it doesn't take much most days. But here we go. So, this stuff can't be recycled, but it IS natural, but trees are natural, and that's recyclable, and that breaks down pretty quickly, But it takes too many trees to make paper and isn't it better if we are making paper out of something else that is a waste product and natural and BESIDES - what if you never throw it out anyway? I have notebooks from COLLEGE. I don't get rid of them. Sure I'll die someday and they'll get tossed eventually, not put into some Good Green Witch Museum for all time to come. But...

What's right, what's wrong? I think I am OK using my stone paper. I think I am OK with my plastic Neti pot. I have a very anti-plastic friend who had that conundrum in her life. They make ceramic Netis which are awesome, but then it's slippery trying to use it in the shower and you drop it and it shatters and now you are using resources to buy another. They are made of stainless steel too, but ouch doesn't that get hot? A plastic Neti will last the entire life span of your showers, will it not? Does that make plastic OK in this instance? Just this once? If I have it for years and years and years and no new resources are being used to replace it? Does that expand to other things that I would avoid? Plastic things break and cannot be fixed. A Neti will likely not break or wear out. But cups? Plates? You know, those ones that are meant to be used again and again but that I say to avoid anyway for other materials?

It's enough to make a poor little witch fly right 'round the bend.

Thoughts? I don't consume very much. I don't buy a lot. I try to conserve and reuse when I can. I don't avoid plastic as completely as I would like. But I try to use the hell out of everything I have. Does that count? I'm the Good Green Witch, not the Perfect Green Witch. I'm not asking people to be perfect, just better. Just be good, too. We live, we learn, we find out not everything is as good as we think it is, we find out about BPA, eggs are good for you / eggs are bad for you no they are good.... oatmeal will save you no it won't...

Life is a work in progress. A journey.

I think I'll write that down in my stone paper notebook. You know, to save it for later.

Tree Free Paper

This paper is made of what? STONE? AWESOME!!!

When I think tree-free paper, I think maybe recycled or made from hemp. (Hemp. Hah. The perfect answer to most if not all our economic woes and many environmental ones, too, and we can't grow it in the US. Go figure.) But I never heard of paper made from stone. Apparently I am a little behind the curve on that one.

The people who introduced me to stone paper are Buffalo Natur out of Canada (http://buffalonatur.com/index.php). They have lots of other great green products too - basically everything you (used to) need for school supplies. I mean, who uses PAPER anymore. Well, I do now, because I will find any excuse to write on this stuff. There are plenty of other brands out there, and they really are not that much pricier than regular paper tree-killing notebooks. These particular notebooks are made of stone which is recycled from construction sites. Think what an endless supply that is. Think about your paper usage. Sure, you may not use a notebook very often... but at work? Your printer? Or your kids?

This paper is cool because it is apparently recyclable, it is water and grease resistant, very durable, and hey you do NOT get paper cuts with it! I swear! It feels great  Everyone I show it to wants to write on it then wants to steal my notebook.

Trees are precious. We need not cut them down just so we can throw them away. These other ideas for "paper" are the kind of ideas that really make me happy. If you can't easily find hemp paper (Thanks W.R. Hearst for that SO much), then check out this stuff in your local drug store. If it cost a few cents more, well, how much paper are you REALLY using, it's worth it and maybe, just maybe, you will be a little more judicious with it?

Cost, price, value. These are topics for another one... but in the meantime, this stuff is SO cool! I encourage you to look for things like this. I'll point them out when I find them. I'm still trying to nail down where to buy products from these guys, but there are other brands out there.

I love it!

How Far We Aren't

The industry through which I earn my pay is not a very sustainable one in any way, shape, or form. I knew this. But it really hit me a few weeks ago. Pull up a mouse, let me tell you my tale.

Hollywood is all about image. In casting offices all over, images are printed out again and again and again. Computers have helped cut out a little of the massive mounds, pounds, reams of paper, but not by much. It's about holding the image in your hands, making up boards, discarding. (And since it's about paper, it's about ink cartridges too. How many used? Hard to know. Color printouts all day long.But that's another topic.) I noticed, in one such office, two giant blue barrels, into which the discards go. I gently inquired how often those hit overflow-point. I was informed, it isn't too bad, they get filled and emptied maybe every other day. At this point, I am still slightly horrified by the waste, but not completely dismayed yet.

No, that came shortly afterwards. The tale goes on that the bins are taken by a shredding company. After all, these pages contain personal information that would be very bad to get out, and for some reason, shredding this stuff is not enough. And here's where the horror comes in: because simply shredding the personal information is not enough (???), it is far too dangerous for the shredding company to do anything with that shredded stuff. So they keep it. Yes, they keep these bags and bags and bags and bags of shredded paper and material in storage. In storage. It never goes anywhere. It just sits there. this prime paper (that I at least thought, well, it's going to get recycled) just goes to some storage place somewhere and sits. Moldering. Rotting. Just... sitting. Ignored, soon forgotten... pointless.

Not that I should have been surprised. I've seen first-hand what so-called recycling is really like. We think so long as we throw plastic in the bins, everything is hunky-dory. it's not. That stuff, IF it even gets processed, just gets shipped overseas. We don't DO anything with it. Someone in China might, or it might just get dumped in some third-world country. All we know is it's gone from our sight.

One office in one town in one state in one country. Multiply that by all the offices you can think of that shred documents then multiply that by towns and cities you can think of off the top of your head, and now you can start to get a sense of what I felt that day.

We're taking on water. And we are not bailing fast enough.

Un-learning Gift Wrap

Facts

According to Hallmark research, the gift wrap industry accounts for approximately $2.9 billion a year in retail sales. (Source: Hallmark Industry Estimates, 2009)

Gift bags were introduced in 1987 and, according to Hallmark research and sales history, they have been the number one way consumers choose to present gifts since 2002.

Hallmark is credited with founding the gift wrap industry in 1917.

I almost don't feel like I need to say anything after that. But you know me. I will.

We spend perfectly good money on something that is going to be torn up and thrown away. Sure, it's pretty for a few days. But what's the point? Pretty? Pretty is the point? Ugh.

I cannot and will not understand that line of thinking anymore. There are so many ways to present presents that do not involve buying a wasteful product that will only end up as garbage. Plastic covering it before you buy it... trees felled to make the inside tubes, and the paper itself, unfriendly ink and dying processes... there's so much wrong and unnecessary about wrapping paper, and really nothing redeeming. Oh, wait, it creates jobs. I forgot. So long as we create jobs, we can do anything. Damn the consequences to the future.

You can wrap things in material, bandannas, newspaper, brown paper that can be decorated... reusable shopping bags, t-shirts... SO many different things! It might be different if there was some irreplaceable need for wrapping paper, but there is not! It is NOT a necessity! It's one of the least necessary things I can think of! $2.9 billion??? SURELY that money is better spent in other areas. No? Just me?

Someone, please, explain this to me if you would. Because, for the life of me, I can't come up with a reason for wrapping paper except that Hallmark likes money. It doesn't matter if you find it at the 99 Cent Store; it's waste and it is not needed. The only way it is good is if you have kept and re-used it for years. There are a few people who manage that, but it's still going to be waste in someone's house somewhere, some time soon.

Don't get me started on all the plastic ribbons.