Don't Drink Oil

It's a cute video in support of "plastic" made from corn... check it out in preparation to read, if you will. It's short!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FzYcW3Fdhs&feature=youtu.be

Red Solo Evil

I have a problem with this, though. Oh, don't get me STARTED on Red Solo Cups and the accompanying stupid song that was written in praise of drunkards and plastic... but let's talk about cups made from corn. Or sugar. Or potato starch. Forks and spoons and plates and even these clear cups for our beverages. These things are great, right?

Well....

Compostables are coming along, but it's not quite right yet. I feel like unless we can replace every single piece of plastic picnic-ware etc with compostables all at once, like, tomorrow, then we have problems. One, these things require high-heat composting. You can't just toss these things in your bin out back. Not all communities have that. YET. These thing will come. But as of now...

How many people do you know that pay attention to where they are throwing what out? Are you at a gathering where you can announce, hey, these cups have to go into a special bin! Hell, you can't even get people to recycle regularly most times! I can't count the times I go down to our trash bin which has the blue recycle bins (3 of them) RIGHT next to it and there is recycle stuff in the trash. With that, we expect people to know they need to put this here special cup in a special place? See, just one of these will ruin a regular batch of recycling. And don't think recycling centers have the manpower or ability to go through every single piece of trash that comes their way. (Americans don't want THAT kind of job. Ew. Yucky. We're above that kind of labor, dontcha know. We need jobs, but not THOSE jobs. Eww.) So, these things are actually dangerous to the system as we have it now. It's not good. I sure don't trust people's knowledge enough. Do you?

Also, making these things out of, say, corn, encourages mono-cropping and GMOs. This is not good. Is it worse than the oil it takes to make plastic?? I don't know. No? No. I don't know. It's a BIG topic. Yes, I think they are better, but no, I am not sure we are ready for them. We have to get there. We aren't there yet.  And I know mono-cropping and Monsanto are right up there with Big Oil. This is not simple. My brain is in a twist just typing this.

You know what I do know? The best way would be to not use any of these things at all anymore. just stop. We lived without them quite well and easily before. Did we not have parties and picnics before Red Solo? Did we suffer? Oh, but Good, glass breaks. Kids can't use glass. It's too dangerous. We HAVE to use plastic! You don't want our kids to get hurt, do you? What kind of person are you?? We can't live without plastic anymore!

Sigh.

Never mind. We're already lost. Forget I said anything.

We Just Don't Get It

No, no, it's my fault, it is, I went and read a magazine AGAIN. My bad. I should know better.

But I expect better from Real Simple. I like this magazine. It usually has sensible stuff in it. So imagine my horror when I saw a blurb under "Moneywise - how to save in May".

For a better bottom line: "Stockpile Paper Goods." (Really? Do we learn nothing??) Here's their big idea: Just before Memorial Day, many stores slash prices by up to 50% on picnic products (paper plates, plastic utensils), says Joanie Demer, a cofounder of thekrazycouponlady.com, a coupon site. Pick up enough supplies now to see you through barbecues and birthdays for the rest of the year.

Sigh. Cofounder? More like confounder. So not only are we encouraging mindless consumerism, we are giving a giant green light to loads and loads of garbage and waste. Plastic utensils??? Are we HEARING anything out there??? Hello? Is this thing on?

It's my fault. I read a magazine. I really just should have left it at the doctor's office and been blissfully ignorant, but no, I had to go and read it. (Oh, hey - did you know that's a cool thing to do? I take magazines given to me by my mom to my doctor's office. It's my OB/GYN and he has a horrid reading selection. Mostly  parenting and baby mags. Um, some of us are there for opposite reasons. I figure people like me need a tiny bit of variety. I even brought in a Fitness just to amuse myself.) Anyway... I'm really kind of horrified that we still have this mentality. It's so last decade. How to save in May and the rest of the YEAR and beyond is to invest in some bamboo plates or some mismatched dishes from a thrift store and use them again and again. Oh, wah, boo, those need washed. Tough. Wash them. You have kids. Stop spoiling them with unspillable snacks and make them clean up something for a change.

Yeah, see? I shouldn't be given magazines. They make me snarky.