Tuesday Video - Plastics

If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a hundred times ( actually only 3 ) - plastic was man’s miracle material, and now it’s going to take man’s miracle solution to figure out what to do with it.  Which is why trying to wrap our heads around Seattle’s Referendum 1 (the plastic bag fee) is so frustrating.

Mr. McGuire was on to something when he predicted plastics were the future, but not even in his wise ways could he predict how out of control plastics would become.  In Seattle, where citizens will vote on August 18 to approve a 20-cent charge for consumers who want to bring home a disposable paper or plastic shopping bag from convenience, drug and grocery stores, 360 million paper and plastic shopping bags are thrown away every year - which results in 8,500 tons of greenhouse gases.

Well Mr. McGuire, plastics were the future, but what’s next?

We often get emails from people asking us to to talk about their “green” products, and when done out of context, this can be very ineffective and confusing.  But these are local folks working hard to make a living while paying special attention to their place in the greater ecosystem.  So in an attempt to highlight progress on problems we bring up on the blog, we’re going to make a concerted effort going forward to introduce you to local solutions that are related to the issues where they apply.

It would be impossible to completely do away with plastics in our lives, but we can all take steps to reduce our use of it - such as eliminating the need for plastic containers full of windshield washer fluid. Spenser , a Spokane-based company, has come up with a machine that pumps windshield washer fluid directly into your car’s reservoir.  This handy invention, which the company hopes catches on at gas stations all around the country, would certainly help limit the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills.  Check their site out HERE , and look for Spenser near you.