I’m a Barbie Girl…

Lifes fantastic when your plastic…. better had be as we’ve all got the plastic in us

The chemicals im plastic appear to be mobile – ie they can leach from the plastic product into your food.

If its not the leaching its the fish and chips. When it finally does finally break down plastic doesn’t actually biodegrade it photo degrades. It falls apart in to smaller and smaller toxic particles. These are then absorbed into the surrounding environment entering the water and earth and so the food chain and so into us.

Some of the chemicals used to make plastic have not actually been passed as fit for human consumption – or are known to affect our hormones. At the moment everyone is worried about BPA which can now be found in nearly everything. So I might not be a barbie girl for much longer

Whats in your plastic?

The chemicals in plastic are added to give plastic a wide range of properties. However some of those chemicals are extremely toxic. Here are some of the baddies – for more details click names.

Dioxins
Dioxins, which are highly toxic even at low doses, and are produced when plastics are manufactured and incinerated.

Bisphenol A or BPA

BPA can leach into food from the epoxy linings in cans or from polycarbonate bottles. Many studies have evaluated BPA as a hormone disruptor. Pregnant women and very young children are considered by some to be especially at risk.

Phthalates
To make clingflim clingy manufacturers add various toxic chemicals known as “plasticizers” during production. Traces of these chemicals can leak out of PVC when it comes in contact with foods. Yikes. Whats more they are “reasonably anticipated” to be carcinogens and are not good for lab rats.

Antimony
#1 PETE plastic water bottles have been shown to leach antimony into water. Small dose of which make you sick large doses can kill you. Ughh.

Follow the link to find out how the plastic gets inside you – go to the plastic in me

Greece

Beach combing just aint what it used to be – couldnt make a bon fire with and toast marshmallows over this lot washed up on a beach in Greece

swimming with bags

For plastic marine nastyness click on the green turtle tag

Green sea Turtle, Indian Ocean.

Originally uploaded by plasticbagpics

Why is there all that plastic on the beach…

Hot diggory dog, From 2009 those big ships will not be allowed to dump non-biodegradable, lasts-for- ever plastic in the Mediterranean where it will inevitably wash up on our beaches.

Why have they ever been allowed to do it at all??

As of May 1, 2009, ships will no longer be allowed to dump waste into the Mediterranean. The new rules, announced by the United Nations Environment Programme, ban the dumping of “all plastics, including but not limited to synthetic ropes, synthetic fishing nets and plastic garbage bags” as well as “all other garbage, including paper products, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery, dunnage (loose material used in ship storage), lining and packing materials.”

see any number of blogs for more or try treehugger for more

But 80% of plastic rubbish in the sea comes from the land

You still have to give it up plastic that is

The Trash Vortex

Whats made of plastic and is the size of texas? Its the trash vortex out there in the middle of the sea. Swirling currents collect up all the ocean debris into a big rubbish soup in the centre of the ocean. In the old days this rubbish was biodegradable so would rot. These days its plastic which does not rot. Result – permanant rubbish floating round the ocean.Try wickpedia for an great intro what we are doing to our oceans.

For more articles go to trash vortex

Dont fancy reading? Watch one of these scary videos of what lurks beneath the waves

For educational dvds go to http://www.algalita.org/videos-research.html

SEA ANIMALS mistake plastic for food eat it and choke or starve to death. The plastic does not rot in their stomachs but comes out intact. It can then go on to kill more SEA ANIMALS. Serial killer plastic.

Albatross chick fed plastic by its parents starves to death.

Stupid humans too are eating plastic

Plastic degrades – it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Dr Thompson and his team have been researching sea side plastic

“They found plastic particles smaller than grains of sand. Dr Thompson’s findings estimate there are 300,000 items of plastic per sq km of sea surface, and 100,000 per sq km of seabed.
So plastic appears to be everywhere in our seas. The next task was to try and find out what kind of sea creatures might be consuming it and with what consequences.”

to cut his report short Its ends up in the little fishes and so into you.

Want to cut down on plastic rubbish? – you can find plastic free products with the A-Z plastic free index

Burning plastic

Those of you kind enough to read these pages will know that one of the reasons I am boycotting disposable plastic products is that they are not so easily disposable. For instance burning them – may be not such a good idea….. I got the following from if energy

Can you burn plastics? This is a very old question that has not really been answered. Some people think that burning plastics in wood stoves, furnaces, or in open fires is better than burying plastics in land fills. But this practice produces a lot of pollution and health hazards that cannot be ignored.

Let’s break the problem down to size. Burning garbage produces unpredictable results when burned together. This is because garbage contains so many components that when burned, simply changes chemical form. The resulting pollutants are therefore always unknown. When you burn plastics with paper and other materials, the chemicals on them may be released unto the atmosphere or left on the ground. These will find its way into the biological systems of plants and animals and ultimately deposited into human cells and tissues. From there it may cause anything from simple allergies to more formidable conditions like Cancer.

One of the most dangerous pollutants that is produced as a result of garbage being burned together is a highly toxic chemical called Dioxin. According to Wood Heat, Dioxin does not decompose and builds up in tissues of animals and humans, and can be found in fat cells of cows and humans. The World Health Organization said

“Once dioxins have entered the environment or body, they are there to stay due to their uncanny ability to dissolve in fats and to their rock-solid chemical stability.”

In incinerators, Dioxins can be destroyed but in open fires, it will be produced. To stop the incidence of toxins being produced, garbage must be segregated prior to burning.

Which leads me back to our original question, after segregating plastics from the other components of garbage (which must be recycled when applicable),can we burn them?

The answer is yes, several types of plastics can be burned. Toxins come from “Halogenated Plastics”, those that are made from chlorine or fluorine, which clearly should not be burned. On the other hand, Polyethylene which is a common plastic and is not made from these chemicals can be burned. Polyethylene has the same heating value as oil and can be mixed with other fuel types easily (grounded and mixed thoroughly).

But why should we burn polyethylene, when it burns easily and produces black smoke and soot? Some researchers in India are looking at binding briquettes using polyethylene. Mixed with well ground agro-residue for use in high temperature combustion systems, polyethylene plastic can be used as a major component for char briquettes.

The most important reason for burning plastics this way is that when collected, sorted, and used as fuel, the amount of plastics used by one household on a daily basis is almost equal to the amount of plastics reused as fuel, thus solving an energy and a waste management concern.

For more on burning plastic go to dioxins and burning plastic

Margerine free buns

I gave up margerine in tubs but then got caught out baking a cake. All ready to go – eek no marge. I had to go the corner shop to purchase some and of course it came in a nasty plastic pot.

Since then I have discovered that you can bake cakes using vegetable oil – better than butter in bad fat terms, better than marge in a tub in plastic waste terms.

Heres the recipie I like best

lavender muffins from recipie bazaar - NB instead of butter use sunflower oil.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon lavender flowers
• 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 cup apple, peeled and diced, divided use

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Coat 12 muffin tins with cooking spray or line with muffin cups.
3. In large bowl, sift together flour; sugar; baking powder and salt. Make a well in center.
4. In separate bowl, whisk together milk, lavender; butter and egg. Add milk mixture to flour mixture and stir by hand just until batter is evenly moistened. Fold in 1/2 cup of the apples.
5. Fill prepared muffin tins about three-quarters full. Gently tap filled tins to release any air bubbles.
6. Sprinkle remaining diced apple over muffins. Bake until skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes our clean, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool muffins in pan about 10 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack.

Water

In April 2007 I gave up bottled drinks.

Turn the world state we use 15 million bottles a day every day in the UK – www.turntheworld.com. Which is backed up by the Independent which states that Britons use 275,000 tons of plastic bottles each year – 15 million a day.

And a lot of that has got to be bottled drinks.

Its now its a year since I have a fizzy drink out of a plastic bottle. Not that that was so hard I mean fizzy drinks are basically diabetes in a bottle, corpulence in a cup tooth rotting badness in liquid form….

No bottled water was my drink – the sportsman aid the clubbers choice. That was back in the days of my youth now I think waht a total l rip off – its stupidly expensive and creates a mountain of waste. Water from thetaps is just as good. You can believe me or read more here

Shopping bags

String bags are my choice – they are fantastic but are of course full of holes.
When it rains things get wet.
Another flaw is that they are see through – if a purchase is private then this is not the bag you need.
These problems have been remedied by the purchase of a Chico bag. Shower proof and opaque it folds up to the size of a golf ball.

   

 

Chico bag are only available from america but  the British company onya bag selll bags that are so similar as to be identical — folds up small comes with clip so it can be attached to shopping bag or husband – for detailsgo to    www.onyabags.co.uk
 

Pratfalls

I dont want you running away with the idea that I am perfect, a shining light in a naughty world. No Pam too has her problems. Not only was there was the terrible bell ringing incident and she has occasionally fallen by the plastic wayside. Plastic pledges have been broken – there there have been unexpected friends, hunger in strange places or difficult shop persons.

I am not blaming others or even myself. Living without plastic needs a certain amount of planning and plans going astray is a fairly common kind of thing. And of course the more I give the more pitfalls there are.

So here are my plastic bloopers

« Older Entries