Being Gifted with Plastic

The holidays are drawing to a close...how much new plastic did you take in this week?  How much went out?  Are you somebody who thinks about these things?  In my little corner of the world, I sometimes feel like an alien.  I worry about plastic.  I think about it a lot.  I try not to bring it into my life.  But then there are the times when I receive a gift.  What if that gift is plastic?  What is the common courtesy around such things?

Here's an example:  Our elementary school decided to sell Smencils.  They are pencils that smell...like fruit or gum or whatever else.  I had a little talk with my sons and we all decided we didn't need smelly pencils, especially since we had enough pencils and the Smencils each come in a plastic tube to keep the smell intact.  The tube claims that it is biodegradeable (I am currently testing this out to see how long that actually takes and whether it works at all).  The Smencils come to the school in #3 (PVC) plastic tubs.  (Yeah, that's PVC, the 'poison plastic' - doesn't recycle many places and is toxic from start to finish.  The tubs are now sitting in my garage because our PTO pres. gave them to me to use in the classrooms as Terracycle collection tubs - but I don't want any more PVC in our school, so I am determined to find a place that will recycle them.  This is stressful to me, though, as I really wish we did not buy pencils packaged in plastic inside of plastic!)  So, back to my story....I tell the PTO pres. that it really is OK that my kids do not get Smencils...since our school has a policy that everyone gets a Smencil, even if they can't afford to order one for themselves.  But people are allowed to buy Smencils for other people, so that's exactly how we ended up with a Smencil.  My next-door neighbor bought a Smencil for my son.  A nice gesture.  He accepted the Smencil happily with a 'Thank you' and brought it home from school.  Did I tell the PTO about the issues I had with Smencils before they started selling them? - yes.  Smencils are marketed as eco-friendly, so when I told them, they had the same reaction they have to most of my anti-plastic statements....not again!  Why do I think about these things?  Don't I know how cool Smencils are?  They are made of recycled newspapers.  Do I want to deny our kids the joy of experiencing them?

I went to the mother/son dance last year with my then-1st-grader.  They had a dance contest and he won a prize.  The DJ handed him something and he came over to show me what it was:  a set of plastic teeth with a battery inside.  When you bite the plastic, it lights up inside your mouth.  Packaged in plastic.  Great!  Just what we needed!  My son knew that this was not a good gift, but what could we do with this item now?  We could give it away and it would still end up dying in a landfill or the ocean or elsewhere, stuff leaking out of the battery, if it didn't already leak into some poor child's mouth!

Every class party, my kids bring home treat bags.  I usually cringe before opening them, because I know what they are full of:  plastic dollar store trinkets and candy, all wrapped in plastic.  Full of good intentions, but nothing that we needed or wanted.

So what do you do with gifts like these?  I think the only thing you can really do is educate ahead of time and hope that people will listen to your requests.  When they don't, I'm not sure there is much you can do unless you want to alienate these people from your life.  People have told me I should just give the things away to 'those who don't have toys and who would appreciate them'.  It's not that I don't appreciate the thought, it is that I don't appreciate the harm that comes from these things.  And I don't really want to pass that along to another person.  It's the same way I feel about donations to the food bank:  If it's not something I would want to eat, why would I want to give it to another person?

So to anyone reading this who is thinking about giving me a gift, please hear me when I say:  Your smile, your presence, the delightful sound of your laughter, the funny stories you tell, your delicious homemade cookies, the way you put up with me and still stick around...all of these are my most treasured possessions, the things that I want from you.  If it is plastic, please do not buy it for me or my family.  And if you invite me for dinner on plastic plates, please do not be offended if I take them home to reuse and if the next time I eat at your house I bring my own plates.  Thank you very much!!!

p.s. - Thank you, Mom, for hearing me about the plastic!  It is a shame that those earwarmers had to come packaged in a hard plastic case, but other than that, you did not add to my plastic tally this Christmas - yeah!!!  We didn't buy much for Christmas this year.  It really warmed my heart when my middle son told me that his favorite gift was a book of bedtime stories since he would get a chance to read them to us every night.

Have a peaceful, less-plastic-filled New Year!!!

No Impact Week With YES! Magazine: September 2011

This week I'm taking part in YES! Magazine's 'No Impact Week'.  There's still time to join!:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/no-impact-week-with-yes-september-2011-2/no-impact-week-with-yes-september-2011

Yesterday, we focused on consumption.  The topic of consumption has been on my mind for a while now, so it wasn't the hardest of the challenges for me.  My kids brought home a 'Back 2 School Smencil Gram' flyer, though, so it presented the opportunity to have a little talk.  Did we need any more pencils?  The answer was an easy, 'No!', as we save pencils from year to year and have more than enough to last us for a few more years without buying a new one!  Would they be upset if all of their friends got a Smencil Gram and they didn't?  I didn't get an immediate 'No!' to this question and I could see the wheels spinning.  I asked them if there was something we could do together as a family to show our love for each other instead of sending out the Smencil Grams.  Bingo!  'Can we play Candyland together, Mom?'  An extra family game night sounds like a great idea to me! 

(For those of you who don't know what a Smencil is, it is a pencil made of recycled newspaper which has a scent - there are lots of scents and according to their website, they are "the same as those used to make soaps and candles, which are safe for reasonable personal use as tested by the manufacturers."  They also state that "by using corn-based biodegradable plastic tubes, even Smencil and Smen packaging is environmentally friendly."  While that sounds good, I'm not sure the plastic tubes can biodegrade in the landfill, where I'm sure most of them end up.  If you need to buy a pencil, it seems to me it would be more eco-friendly if it weren't in any type of packaging at all.  I can be a real killjoy, can't I? ;) ).

Today's topic is Trash.  One of the recommendations for today is something that I thought I had done, but their suggestion is much more complete:
Put together a no-trash travel kit for the week with a reusable drinking receptacle for hot and cold liquids, a handkerchief/old t-shirt, Tupperware®, utensils, and reusable produce bags.

So I am adding a few things to my take-along kit!  One thing I noticed that I accumulate a lot of is tissues.  I do buy recycled tissues, but with 3 little boys (one who currently has a cold!), the tissues add up!  The old t-shirt suggestion for handkerchiefs is a good one for me!  I'm going to try to cut some up later today - will try to post some pictures.

Now that's what I call FUN!  Do you have a no-trash travel kit?  How have you used it?  Will you add to it this week?

Want to join me in the fun of the No Impact Week?  I'd love to hear your experiences!