The Unseen Threat: Nanoparticles Lurking in Your Bottled Water

Plastic water bottles. They are everywhere. What would we do without them? From sporting events where cases of them are handed out to athletes... to emergency situations where we see truckloads of water bottles being delivered to victims of disaster (natural or man-made). But what if those bottles of crystal clear water are actually harming the people who ingest them? What then?

Let's back that up a bit and take a look at plastic to start with. It's sooo handy... cheap, lightweight, easy to transport, malleable, not breakable (generally). It can made into so many handy things. And let's remember where it comes from. All plastic originates with crude oil or natural gas. Plastic water bottles, for example are made from PET plastic (that's short for polyethylene terephthalate). PET plastic is made from petrochemical sources, the first step of which involves the polymerization of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid or dimethyl terephthalate to produce PET resin.

Let's be really clear here... if you have trouble pronouncing those things... odds are they are not good for you. And ingesting crude oil is definitely not on anyone's diet.

But surely those plastics are... you know... inert? The plastic is made and then it just sits there, like glass... and does nothing? Nope. Not so fast. But let's get back to our plastic water bottles...

Benefits of Plastic Bottles

Cost: Plastic is generally less expensive than aluminum and glass, so manufacturers and distributors obviously like cheaper. And so do consumers. 

Weight: Plastic water bottles weigh less than aluminum cans and glass bottles, which also means cheaper transportation costs

Durability: Plastic is flexible and less prone to denting or puncturing, and definitely less likely to break. This means less product loss during transportation, handling and storage and less likelihood that the product will be damaged. Less waste is good, right? Certainly for the bottom line.

Convenience: Plastic bottles are resealable, which allows us to drink some now and save some for later. The bottles are also easy to squeeze and crush, making them less bulky afterwards.

Consumer preferences: This is us. We apparently like hte convenience of plastic water bottles...

The Problem of Plastic Bottles

Now the problem(s)... because while they may cost less in terms of manufacturing and transportation, there are other costs.

Recycling: While many plastics can now be recycled... that doesn't mean that they actually are. Many plastic bottles do not find their way to a recycling centre and get lost in forests, streams, ditches and waterways. Even if they are recycling, contamination of the recycling stream can limit the use and energy efficiency of the process. Many plastics can only be recycled a certain number of times before they need to be downgraded. So food or drink plastics eventually end up as lower-grade products.

Microplastics: The recycling process generates microplastics, teeny, tiny bits of plastic that contaminate the environment. But they are not the worst ones... these ones you can see with a microscope... but there are even smaller ones.

Nanoplastics: These are the teensiest, tiniest bits of polymer plastic, 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Even a regular microscope can't see these ones. It used to be thought that a 500 ml bottle of water might contain 325 bits of plastic (micro or nano). But a recent study has shown that the actual amount is orders of magnitude higher...

Terrifyingly Tiny Plastics

Somewhere in the world, pristine water from aquifers or reservoirs or even just plain old tap water is poured into plastic bottles. That $0.01 of water in a $0.05 bottle then gets boxed up and shipped and sold to us. Costing us anywhere from $0.50 (if we buy a flat from Costco) or $2.50 if we get one at a convenience store. (Side Bar: Did you know Convenience = Expensive?)

Pure, clear water, right? We can see it through the plastic. It looks sooo good and clean. Not.

You see... plastic water bottles are NOT inert. They do not just sit there quietly and do nothing. Plastic water bottles begin shedding teeny tiny bits of plastic as soon as they are made - nanoplastics.

Now researchers have known this but they thought there might be 325 or so pieces of microplastics floating around in the water bottles. But a recent study took it a step farther. Because... remember... nanoplastics can't be seen under a regular microscope. You need a super-duper microscope to see nanoparticles. And what did they find... brace yourself....

The average bottle of water contains anywhere from 110,000 to over 370,000 pieces of nanoplastics.

And these bits of polymer plastics are soooo small that they can migrate into your body's tissue... into your muscles, your organs, your blood, your brain and your unborn child's organs.

And those nanoplastics carry all sorts of toxic things with them... endocrine-disrupting chemicals such as bisphenols, phthalates, flame retardants, per- and polyfluorinated substances, or PFAS, and heavy metals. All of which are used in the manufacture of plastics.

Response from International Bottled Water Association

And what do the bottled water folks say to this new research?

“This new method [of testing water] needs to be fully reviewed by the scientific community and more research needs to be done to develop standardized methods for measuring and quantifying nanoplastics in our environment. There currently is both a lack of standardized methods and no scientific consensus on the potential health impacts of nano- and microplastic particles. Therefore, media reports about these particles in drinking water do nothing more than unnecessarily scare consumers.” (quoted in CNN article)

Ummm... that sounds suspiciously like the response of tobacco companies in the 40s, 50s and 60s... downplaying the dangers of smoking... Class action lawsuits tell a different tale.

Also sounds a bit like pesticide companies saying that their pesticides are so safe, you could drink them (pesticide lobbyist Dr. Patrick Moore in an interview)... right... we know how that's playing out. (Class-action lawsuit against Monsanto & Bayer for the pesticide Roundup)

I foresee a class action lawsuit against plastic bottle manufacturers and bottled water companies... don't have a crystal ball... not a psychic... but anyone can see the writing on the wall.

What Can We Do?

Stop buying plastic water bottles.

Ugh.

We have a bunch as part of our emergency kit. They are so convenient for that. But plastic water bottles do have an expiry date so what do we do with the expired ones now? We used to drink them but... not sure I want to do that anymore.

But in all other ways... we avoid plastic water bottles like the plague. We have excellent tap water and fill up our stainless steel water bottles with water when we head out the door. There is no reason for us to have plastic water bottles in our day-to-day life.

But this also got me thinking... what about plastic pop bottles?? You don't think they are immune from nanoplastics do you? Or plastic liquor bottles. Or plastic ketchup bottles.

It is tempting to just throw-up our hands in despair and go "Ah, we're going to die someday anyhow from something..." Or we could start somewhere. Start small. Ditch the bottled water. Drink pop out of cans, not bottles.

And read the news. Now that researchers can identify and categorize the nanoplastics, we can expect a LOT more studies on their impact on our health.

PS - We Are Hooped - my Starbucks tea bag is plastic and studies reveal that a plastic tea bag can release BILLIONS OF nanoplastics into one cup of tea.

PPS - We are Seriously Hooped - Studies have also shown that a single tampon can release billions of nanoplastics into a female body

Further Reading

CNN article on nanoplastics in bottled water (there are a tonne of other news articles out there - early January 2024)

That's a Wrap! The Benefits of Recycling Gift Wrap

As we approach the Christmas gift giving season, I came across an intriguing display in our local grocery store... bows made out of paper rather than plastic! They come in a variety of fetching colours, and the reason they jumped out at me was that they looked "dull" compared to the normal shiny gift bows.

You know the bows I'm talking about... these ones... that look shiny and picture perfect. They come in bags of a dozen or two dozen and we've been using them since... well... since as long as I can remember.

Although... given that my Mom learned frugality during wartime/post-war shortages... we always reused our bows. We'd stick a bit of folded scotch-tape underneath the bow and tape it to the gift. On Christmas, we'd all carefully pull the bows off so they, and the paper, could be reused again.

But those shiny plastic bows are not recyclable. They are made out of some plastic/paper composite and... pretty as they are, they aren't good for the environment. Nor is most of the gift wrap - the shiny, sparkly paper that is also a composite... if it doesn't hold it's shape when it's scrunched into a ball... it's not pure paper.

And somehow... over the years, I lost the habit of saving wrapping paper. We no longer slide a paring knife under the tape to open the gift carefully. No... it's a rip-tear fest and the paper gets tossed in the garbage. Which goes against my eco-heart.

Now... we haven't bought "new" gift wrap for years. We just go to the thrift store and buy rolls there. We aren't fancy about our wrapping paper. Although... back in my 30s... I read a minimalism book which had some interesting suggestions. But white wrapping paper (new) and then use different coloured ribbons and bows to add some pizz-azz to the gift. The white paper and ribbons could be used for birthdays, bridal showers, Christmas... any occasion really. And I did that for a while... until it became too hard to find plain white paper.

I know there are much simpler, more eco-friendly gift wrap ideas out there... use fabric... use newspaper... use brown paper... The temptation, always, I think... is to now go out and buy a roll of brown paper, and some fancy doodads to tie onto the gift... or make it fancy somehow with extras fancy string or whatever.

The key though, I believe... is to use what you have at hand. Use brown paper bags from the grocery store. Use old bits of string. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be store-bought...

In the meantime... we will continue to use up the rolls of gift wrap that we have and maybe... this Christmas... I can get us back in the habit of opening gifts carefully... so that we can save the paper for another day, another year.

To Write or Not to Write... Christmas Cards

I am a writer and letter writer from way back. I used to send dozens of  Christmas cards every November/December. And yet, over the years, I have grown ambivalent about Christmas cards.

I love the excitement of finding something in the our mailbox, other than flyers and promo cards. I love seeing who the envelope is from and then opening the envelope.

I am then usually disappointed to find a mostly blank card with just the printed felicitations and then a signature or two. 

Meh. That seems like a lot of effort and money to just send a generic greeting and a signature. Yes, we can put the card up on our card holder and revel in the feeling that people still care about us and love us. But then what?

Recycling Christmas Cards

At the end of the season we don't keep the cards. We toss them in recycling except... we then need to spend some time deciding if the card is recyclable.

If it has any of the following, it is NOT recyclable...

• glitter - sooooo bad for the environment
• sparkles - same thing
• singing/talking battery-powered - battery and plastic housing not recyclable
• shiny foil bits - like the lettering
• ribbons - gotta rip those off and toss them
• jewels and other doodads - rip those off too
• plastic coating - just wrong
• photographic cards - ooohhh... of the family sending the card... those need to be kept!

And let's not even talk about the envelopes... all of the PSAs below make it challenging to recycle paper and can actually contaminate the paper recycling process. PSAs are "pressure sensitive adhesives" and they make the envelopes soooo pretty...

• self-stick address labels
• festive stickers (I'm guilty of this... I LOVE plastering stickers all over the envelope)
• plain old tape - because sometimes the envelope flap glue is not great...

So I sit there every year and assess each Christmas card and their envelopes. I find that, by far, the vast majority are not recyclable. At least not the front cover of the card. I will often tear of the back part and recycle that and then toss the front part in the trash. My rule of thumb for deciding if something is plastic-y is... can I tear the card easily? If not, then it has some plastic baked into it. Paper-anything should tear easily.

But tossing the front of the card just seems... wrong. Such a waste. All the energy that went into making and transporting and buying and sending that card and then... it is used once and just... thrown out?

Reusing Christmas Cards

Would it be horribly horrid if we reused Christmas Cards? If we just cut off the back part and then wrote a new felicitation on the inner side of the front cover? So a Christmas post card? Or is that chintzy and cheap? Or thrifty and eco-friendly? Of course, if people wrote longer greetings on the inside cover... that would preclude this idea!

There was a day when I had grand schemes to reuse Christmas cards (the front cover) in new and creative ways. Like...

• Cut them into a circle and use them as a mason jar topper if we gift garden preserves
• Glue the front of an old card to a piece of folded card stock to make a new card
• Write a recipe on the reverse and include when you send packages, parcels or gifts
• Cut them into gift tags (that way you don't have to buy gift tags)

But those dreams of being a creative wizard, worthy of Pinterest fame have evaporated in the reality of life. Time to let those dreams of future me go! Although... some of those ideas seem really easy... like the jar toppers...

But maybe physical Christmas Cards are going the way of the dinosaur? Maybe it's more 123GreetingCards.com? Digital Christmas Cards? Although I really don't like those either. First, they usually end up in my spam folder and I'm never quite sure if they are legit... so I might err on the side of caution and just delete them, sight unseen.

So fear not... physical Christmas cards are still a "thing"... you just have to walk into any store to see boxes and boxes of fresh, crisp, shiny, glitzy Christmas cards.

During Covid, Christmas card sending went up over 144%! That's a LOT of Christmas cards! I can't say we were part of that. We kind of gave up on writing Christmas cards a few years back. It just seemed soooo... pointless and capitalist...

Capitalist Cards

Go out and buy a new box of cards? Nope. We gave up on that years ago. When we do send cards, we go to the thrift store and grab whatever we can find there. Are they stylish? Probably not. But they are cheap. They are second-hand. And they are mostly simple cards made of paper. (Pssst... we do the same for birthday cards... no way are we paying $7 for a new card!)

Then we have to figure out who we are sending the cards to and decide which type of card to send to each person. Some folks really appreciate the religious cards (Hi, Mom!) and some don't appreciate a hint of religiosity in their mailbox.

Then we get to write their addresses on the envelope, which causes us to wonder... have they moved this past year? Is this even the right address? Heck... do we even have a physical mailing address for them? We just have a street address but no postal code so need to spend time on Canada Post figuring that out.

Then it's off to the post office to buy stamps and mail the cards. Have you seen the cost of postage??? And the line-ups at the post office? Ugh! (I sound a bit Grinchy right now... don't I?)

We'd go to all the effort and send out 40 cards, and would receive less than half of that in return. Sometimes only 10. Meh... thinking of the money (purchase price, stamps) and the environmental impact (unrecyclable cards) and the time (writing the cards and then deciding if they are recyclable)... it just seems a bit pointless. An empty gesture signifying what... cultural norms? The "done" thing? But whyyyyy???? 

Family Newsletters

On the other hand... some cards include a family news sheet of the past year. We LOVE reading those!! That brings smiles and joy and laughter and connection.

We generally send ours via email though. Guess we are cheap. We don't want to print 40 of those on the colour printer (or at Staples) and have to do the whole Christmas card thing...

Those family newsletters are also much harder to let go!

We've fallen off the Christmas newsletter bandwagon the last few years. Will this be the year that we get back on it? Time will tell... But look for it in your email Inbox in early December... maybe mid-December... Maybe this blog will jump-start our newsletter writing.

I do have to say... I still tend to send physical Christmas cards to our elderly relatives, the ones who don't have ready access to email. I'll write some news inside the cards as well... none of this "Christmas card with just a signature"... I really don't see the point of those... But maybe that's just me???

An Alternative

Maybe we could try this instead... Think of the elderly, the single, the grieving in your network. Maybe it's that old lady in the little house down the street. The one that you see toddling along on her daily walk to the corner store. What if you figured out her postal address and sent her a card... with a personal greeting.

Maybe it's the single person up the block who keeps their yard so neat and tidy and has done a tonne of improvements over the last year. Send a card thanking them for all that they have done to beautify the neighbourhood.

For years, I drove by a house on the way to my local Starbucks. I always thought it was a very well-maintained house. Such a neat garden and well-maintained. I never saw anyone there, just the one car in the carport. I thought about writing an anonymous post card just thanking them for their presence. And then I saw the occasional second car in the driveway and I thought... "they are getting home support" I should really write that card." I never did.

Too late to send that card...

And then this past year, there was a For-Sale sign on the property. Now it's sold and... did the people move into a care home? Did they die? I don't know. But I never sent that card and that sits with me.

So... this year... we'll be trading writing "signature cards" for sending cards to... other folks. Call it Random Acts of Christmas Card Kindness...

Plastic Craft Beer Can Labels

 Are you a beer drinker? Yes, then you can continue reading. If you're not a beer drinker... you can still continue reading and lament over yet more plastic in our lives!

I'm a beer drinker and I love my craft beers. Although I won't turn up my nose at a Rickard's Red... or a Sleeman Honey Brown. Even a Coors Light will do in a pinch. But craft beers... mmmm... those are good!

I was on the BC Ferries Inside Passage route a few months back. They serve alcohol (unlike the short routes between the mainland and Vancouver Island). And not just any alcohol, but local craft beers from Prince Rupert. Excellent!

It was a very nice beer but as I sat there and picked away at the label, I realized it was a plastic label, stuck on the naked aluminum can. And, me being me, I wondered... how does this get recycled???

With a regular aluminum beverage can, the product information is actually printed on the can. 

It's just the aluminum can and some ink. So when they get recycled, the ink gets burnt off, but that seems pretty minimal.

But what about these craft beer can labels? They are serious plastic. Are we supposed to peel the labels off? And dump the label in the trash (ugh) and recycle the naked can? Nah, they can't expect that!

So then what? Some recycling guy is going to pull plastic labels off of millions of cans? Nope. They will just get dumped in the recycling furnace and all of that plastic will get burnt off and generate toxic fumes which, hopefully, get scrubbed out of the furnace exhaust. But who really knows.

Small Batch Brewers

I dove deep into why craft beer makers use these plastic labels and the short answer is... they do small batches and those big commercial can offset-printers are too expensive and/or need a large batch to make it affordable or doable.

So, for craft brewers, it's more economical and easier to just use sticky labels or... shrink-wrapped plastic labels. You know the ones. You think you have a printed can but... if you look closely, it's shrink-wrapped and you can slice the label and get the stand-alone label (see photo at right).

Peel Your Labels

That is annoying too... all that plastic... what a waste. But here's the rub... yet again... they pass this off to the consumer. 

Here's a pic from a craft beer - Telluride beer (somewhere in the USA). See what the edge of that label says?

"PEEL OFF LABEL BEFORE RECYCLING"

Seriously. Their label of convenience tosses the onus on the consumer to peel off the label (and do what with it) and recycle the naked aluminum can. Or, the consumer can recycle the labeled can and bear the guilt of knowing that that plastic will pollute the atmosphere. Nice.

Some jurisdictions, like Quebec are now legislating that can labels cannot weigh more than 1% of the container weight (when it's empty). Since most labels weigh 10% of the can... that effectively eliminates most labels. And apparently they are moving in the direction of banning these labels entirely.

Contaminated Recycling and Fire Hazard

Even the recyclers are getting grumpy with the plastic labels on cans...

Michael Anderson, senior manager of recycling technology at aluminum recycler Novelis, says the potential fire risk involved with incinerating these cans is substantial. He tells me the plastic labels are about 10 times the weight of a can’s traditional paint coating, which makes them more difficult to burn off.

“Any combustibles, whether it be paper, plastic, or cardboard acts as a fuel source in our de-coating processes and at a minimum … hampers our productivity,” he says. “Worst case, the material flames so hot that it burns our baghouses and results in physical damage to our recycling process, ultimately resulting in a line stoppage until the equipment can be repaired.” (From The Takeout) 

Ink-Jet Technology

So what can craft brewers use instead of plastic labels? Does it just mean more expensive craft beer. No. As it turns out, new ink-jet technology developed in the last few years means that small batches of craft beer can now have product information printed directly onto the can. So there is no need for plastic labels or shrink-wrapped sleeves or any other added complexity.

Aluminum is infinitely recyclable, and can be turned around in as short as 60 days. So when we buy our favourite craft beer... and we find plastic labels or shrink wrap on the can... perhaps it's time to contact the brewery and inform them that there is another option.

So I did... I wrote to Wheelhouse Brewing Co. in Rupert... see below...

Letter Template

Hi!

Had one of your beers (Blacksmith) on the Inside Passage ferry a few months ago. Loved the beer but wasn't happy about the plastic sticker label. Peel off the label and toss it in the garbage? Or let the label and aluminum can go into recycling where the label is burnt off into the atmosphere? Not great.

I know that small batch brewers use these labels because offset printing is too expensive for small batches. But do you know there is new ink-jet technology that allows craft brewers to print directly onto the can? See links below.

I'm originally from NW BC and I'd really love to see a local brewer be successful. But I also care about the environment and can't patronize a brewer that doesn't share my concern.

More Reading

Aluminum container design guide - https://www.aluminum.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/AA_ContainerDesignGuide.pdf

Peel Your Cans - https://www.axios.com/local/denver/2023/04/03/peel-beer-labels-before-recycling-cans-brewers

Problem of Plastic Can Labels - https://thetakeout.com/are-shrink-wrapped-beer-cans-recyclable-1832063063

Cans not being recycled - https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/featured/craft-beer-has-a-recycling-problem-cans-are-not-being-recycled-and-shrink-wraps-are-a-big-part-of-it/

Small Batch Printing - https://onmilwaukee.com/articles/craft-beverage-can-printing

Ink-Jet Technology - https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/packaging-distribution/labeling-affects-recyclability-of-your-aluminum-beer-cans/

InkJet Can Printing - https://www.inkcups.com/blog/beverage-can-printing/

What's Hanging Around in Your Closet?

What do you do with the plastic hangers when you go clothes shopping? Do you smuggle them home? Leave them in the store?

We used to have some of them in our closets but, honestly, they aren't the best hangers. Flimsy, weird sizes that don't look neat and tidy. Not a great deal. Although... some of them do have that flocking on them that prevents your clothes from slipping off. And the ones with the clips are kind of cool for skirts and stuff.

I think these were more popular for pilfering back in the day when wire hangers ruled. Single wire hangers are NOT good for clothes long-term so... back in the day... if we could smuggle one of these plastic store hangers home... that was a bonus!

But apparently over 100,000,000 of these flimsy plastic hangers get tossed away every year, in the UK. If we look at the USA... that number balloons to over 8 BILLION hangers (wood, plastic, metal) that are tossed every single year. That's a lot of hangers. And a LOT of plastic.

While these hangers aren't "single-use" plastic... they still aren't built to last. Although... I have to say... I am impressed with thrift stores that manage to get a LOT of mileage out of these hangers!

Mismatched Thrift Hangers

Then you have the plastic hangers that you can buy in a store. You know the ones... they come in an array of fetching colours and shapes.

They are OK. I just wish all of the manufacturers could stick with one shape and style! Our clothes closet has a lot of these and they are a real mish-mash. And somehow... I have this idea that matching hangers are better. But are they?

Because I can't remember the last time we bought new plastic hangers. If ours break or we need more... we just go down to the local thrift store and get a 8 or 10 for $1. Why would we ever buy new!?? And so... we live with mismatched hangers.

Innovative?

Now... we get to the crux of this... I was in Superstore the other day and I saw this sign at the check-out.

Whoooooaaaa... switching from plastic hangers to wooden hangers! Now that is cool! And apparently... the customers think so too! They are asking if they can take the wooden hangers home because they look so cool. And honestly... that is what Superstore thinks too. This is what their press release said in 2021 when they introduced this out east...

"Overall, we feel the look is more elegant and classy,” says Joe Fresh manager Gina Singh. “I believe it makes the product look a lot more appealing.”

So it's really a marketing ploy... but it makes them look good too because it has an environmental aspect. I am going to guess that the environmental impact of plastic hangers vs. wooden hangers hinges on one key factor... how long do they last.  It's the same with grocery bags... we think paper bags are better than plastic bags and that canvas reusable grocery bags are better than the ones made out of tarp-like material. But it all boils down to... how many uses do you get out of them??

Recyclable Hangers?

Another question is... are plastic hangers actually recyclable? They short answer is not easily and it depends. Many hangers are made out of multiple materials - different types of plastic, maybe a bit of metal for the hanger bit and... that flocking! So whether or not hangers are recyclable depends on the type of hanger and the jurisdiction. Our city just recently started accepting hangers in curbside recycling, so that's a definite bonus but... I wonder what happens to them.

In many jurisdictions, however, hangers end up in the trash unless you reuse them. Soooo... it really makes one think about pilfering those store hangers! Are they really going to work in your closet?

Wooden Hangers

Now, when I think of wooden hangers... I think of those sturdy ones that have been around for every it seems. Before thin wire hangers... there were wooden hangers. 

But they weren't cheap... and in our family, growing up, my Mom would use them for coats and maybe for her fancy dresses. But for us kids... we had thin metal hangers.

In terms of length of use... wooden hangers win, hands down. I read one Reddit comment where someone had had their wooden hangers for 65 years. I doubt that can be said about any plastic hangers!

Sooo... wooden hangers are better, yes? Well... yes and no. I don't think Superstore is using vintage hangers from the 1950s. They are getting new wooden hangers... which means somewhere, some tree was cut down to make a hanger. And, although it's hard to see on the Superstore photograph... they look kind of thin and... I just wonder how long they will last. Probably not 65 years.

I was reading another blog that mentioned some companies are making hangers out of recycled paperboard. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Which is good... but it does take energy to turn paper into a hanger.

Gramma's Hangers

I should mention at this point that... we didn't keep using metal hangers. Somewhere in the 1970s, my Mom discovered braided macramé hangers.

You know... you take too balls of wool, two identical metal hangers from the dry cleaners and... you make a sturdy, eco-friendly hanger that clothes won't slide off of. Win-win-win. Even more of a win when you could get the hangers for FREE from the local dry cleaners. 

My Mom was nothing if not frugal and thrifty. And so, of a winter's evening, my Mom, my sister and I would sit and weave macramé clothes hangers. Tidy ones... not the ones with yarn pom-poms and bits of yarn dangling artfully. These are basic, unfrilly hangers. And they work the best. Free. Clothes don't slide off, they last forever, or close to it. Some of mine are pushing 50 years old. And if you take care of them... there is no rust from the metal inside.

My sister gifted me a bunch of these for Christmas a few years ago. Eco-conscious and we'll get lots of use out of them!

Conclusion

Sooo... kudos to Superstore for switching away from plastic hangers but I'm not sure that their motives are purely environmental and altruistic. Hangers made from new wood... nope. Not buying it. They might have done better in saying... "we will be reusing plastic hangers for as long as they last... and we don't care about mismatched hangers". But... that's not very fashionable.

It's the same with some fashion, design and minimalism blogs. Buy cool new wooden hangers that all look the same and... ooohhhh... so pretty... so chic... so... yeah, no.

We'll keep using Gramma's hangers... we'll keep using our mismatched thrift store hangers. We aren't fashionistas... and we will try and get as much mileage out of the hangers as we possibly can. It's not much... but it makes a small difference.

Cukes - better shrink-wrapped or naked?

Have you seen those triple packs of cukes in Superstore? Maybe only if you shop there. Well, let me tell you about them.

They come wrapped in plastic shrinkwrap, all three of them bundled together. It's a way better price than buying 3 single cucumbers (also separately wrapped in plastic). But the kicker with the triple pack is... the cucumbers inside the triple packaging area ALSO shrinkwrapped! What the heck??

Isn't that double packaging and incredibly bad for the environment? Yes it is! And Superstore got that memo and now those triple-packaged cucmbers are naked inside the packaging. Which is good.

Or is it. I just learned that cucumbers dehydrate three times as fast when they are naked. So the shrink-wrap actually serves a very useful function. A naked cucumber will last 2 days... a shrink-wrapped one will last 7 days. If we want cucumbers in February... then we should be grateful for shrink-wrapped produce... because they can be transported farther and still arrive in good shape.

Sooo... I'm actually kind of missing the individually shrink-wrapped cukes. You see... we bought at triple pack last week and ate one cucumber quite quickly in our salads. And then we ran out of greens for the salad and couldn't get to the store and... now those 2 naked cucumbers are off - going slimy and mouldy. Had they been individually shrink-wrapped, they might have lasted longer.

Now that we know that, however... we can take some steps to clothe our naked cucumbers. Put them in a big ziploc bag and squish out as much air as possible. 

Because... which is worse... some excess plastic wrap or... two wasted cucumber and all of the wasted water and gas and labour and... everything went into producing them and transporting them and storing them and selling them?

Now... having said that... there is no excuse for shrink wrapped bananas! Oh, the Brits...

Your Recycle Bin is Easily Contaminated

Recycling... we all try so hard, but it is a huge challenge. I sometimes tell guests that they need a PhD in recycling to figure out our system. Some things can be placed in the blue bin, but some have to go to the depot. All cans and plastic tubs need to be washed to avoid food contaminating the paper in the bin. Pizza boxes... which look like they could go in the blue bin, really need to go in the green bin because of all the green stains on the cardboard. And on it goes.

We have a large basket in the cupboard under the sink that collects all of our recyclables. Once a week, I take it out to the blue bin and do a final once-over. There is always something that has snuck into the recyclables that doesn't belong there... a glass bottle, a pill bubble pack (mix of foil and plastic - not recylable) or a kleenex box with the plastic bit.

Our city is cracking down on blue bin contamination. They are sending scouts out ahead of the trucks now and checking blue bins. And woe to the household that has banned items in their blue bin. They might get a warning... and then after a few of those... something more serious might happen. Not sure what that is yet... but I'm sure we'll hear about it. Friends of ours have had two warnings already. Now... they recently moved into a house from an apartment so they are new to the whole blue bin thing. But they are getting a crash course!

Anyhow... I thought I would go over some of the obvious things that contaminate our paper recylables... A really good rule of thumb is this... if it's made of two different components (paper and plastic) it is NOT recyclable.

Tissue Boxes

This is an easy one. See that plastic window... it's gotta come out. And it doesn't take much to just reach into the box and tease the plastic away from the box. Depending on your jurisdiction, that plastic might even by recyclable... but with the filmy plastic stuff... not as part of the paper stuff.

I always flatten out the kleenex boxes as well, otherwise our basket under the kitchen sink gets full super fast.

It just takes a moment or two to tear out the plastic window and then flatten the box.

Pasta Boxes

And then we have pasta boxes... the ones with the little plastic windows so that you can see what type of pasta is in the box.

Not sure why we need that little plastic window... a picture of the pasta would be perfectly fine too! In fact... in the UK... in 2020... Barilla got rid of the little plastic window! They realized they didn't need it...

That was 3 years ago... not sure why that little innovation hasn't trickled across the Atlantic but... our pasta boxes still have plastic windows.

And guesss what... yep, you need to take the little plastic window out when you toss the box into the blue bin. And these ones are much harder to get out than the kleenex box. I often have to rip out the entire cardboard bit that the window is stuck to. So annoying. Time to ban those little plastic windows!

Christmas Cards

But they're paper, right? They should be easily recyclable? Well... it depends on what they are made of. Remember... things made of two different materials... especially plastic-y things... generally not recyclable. 

I hate to tell you this but there is no paper in the world that looks like shine-y gold or silver. All of that stuff is some sort of foil... probably nylon foil. And glitter/sparkles are definitely not paper.

Sooo if your Christmas card is pure, boring paper with no glitz or glam... it's probably recyclable. But if it's got sparkles or shiny bits... nope. I tend to rip the front off of these cards and toss that bit while recycling the back bit.

Store Receipts

Back in the day... we used to get short little paper receipts from stores, like tiny ones. One of the thrift stores in town still has a receipt like that. And it's actually "paper".

But most stores use thermo-paper and those receipts are super long with all sorts of information on them. But here's the thing... they are all coated (mostly) with BPA (Bisphenol A), a nasty industrial chemical that is super bad for human health. If you did put your receipts into the blue bin... the BPA would contaminate the rest of the paper... and might end up in tissues. We don't want that. Soooo... store receipts are NOT recyclable.

But what do you do with them? Throw them in the trash. If you're concerned about info on the receipts... then shred them and toss them.

Envelope Windows

I remember reading once that you could leave those little plastic address windows on envelopes when you recycle them. That still seems to be the case, probably because those little windows aren't super attached to the paper. It is relatively easy to heat the paper and have the adhesive dissolve. But if you want to go for it... tear out those plastic windows!

See... the rule of thumb about not recycling two different materials doesn't apply everywhere! Sigh.

Padded Envelopes

Some padded envelopes are obvious... they are plastic on the outside and have plastic padding (bubble wrap). Other padded envelopes are less obvious. They look like paper on the outside and inside... but have a layer of plastic bubble wrap hidden from view. You'll know they have plastic guts though because they are light... and make a plastic sound when you squish them and bend them. The other option is a padded envelope that is stuffed with paper products. They are usually a bit heavier and... for lack of a better word... feel lumpy. There are also some new ones that have a layer of honey-comb cardboard or corrugated cardboard as padding. Those are obviously great!

For recycling... pure plastic padded envelopes... can be recycled in our jurisdiction if they go into the flexible plastic stream and get dropped off a the depot. Pure paper padded envelopes can go into the blue bin. The mixed material envelope... with paper and bubble wrap... not recyclable. Goes in the garbage.

So annoying... Not sure why we need padded envelopes that can't be recycled... Do they "look" nicer than one-material envelopes?

Take-out Cups

These are a bane on the landscape. Timmies coffee cups. McDonald's drink cups. Starbucks latte cups. 7-11 slurpie cups. So many convenience cups. All of them lined with a thin film of plastic. What to do with them? Blue bin? Green bin?

They actually go into the blue bin, at least in our jurisdiction. As long as they are rinsed so they don't contaminate everything else in the blue bin.

Now that is all "in theory". I found this link which laid it all out quite nicely. The coffee cups are sorted out and then baled up and sent to a paper mill. There, they are shredded and then sent into a "hydropulper" which separates the different layers. Great! In theory...

The Cost of Contaminated Recycling

There was a recent news article on CBC which uncovered huge problems with our recycling system. You see... India receives tonnes of paper recyclables from Canada, which is not ideal to start with (huge carbon footprint shipping all that stuff overseas). But on top of that... the "pure paper" bales are contaminated with all sorts of things - like coffee cups and milk cartons and other plastics. 

And that's not the only time this has happened... Malaysia... the Philippines... All of them are miffed at Canada for sending contaminated containers containing "recyclables" which end up containing basically... garbage. Things like soiled adult diapers. That's just wrong.

Now, we aren't responsible for what gets baled and sent to India. Are we? Well, we aren't making up the bales but... what we put in our blue bin is the starting point. It all starts with us. Small steps... remember.

In the News - France Leads the Way by Introducing a "Repairability" Index

Have you noticed in the last few years (decades?) how it's gotten cheaper to buy a new [fill in the blank] rather than repair the old one? Whether it's a fridge, freezer, computer, lamp or bread-maker, somehow repairing these items has gotten ridiculously expensive, while the cost of a new one has gotten relatively cheap. There's something wrong with this picture.

I know that manufacturers have been building things under the motto of "planned obsolescence" for years now. The idea being, manufacture something so that it will only last a few years and the consumer (that's us) will have to buy a new one. Gone are the days when you buy a washing machine and expect to keep it for 25 years. Now, we're lucky if they last 10 years.

Part of this is also the "latest" fad. We need the "latest" iPhone or iPad or smartphone or purse or whatever. And where do the old ones go? The broken and worn out devices that are only a few years old? Well, hopefully they get recycled but... that's not always the case. Apparently a LOT of dead devices are sitting in people's cupboards, not being recycled. Some even end up in the garbage where they leach toxic waste.

Broken smartphone screen
"Droid Eris meets pavement" by robertnelson is licensed under CC BY 2.0

It's not an ideal scenario. Can you imagine if we changed cars as quickly as we changed our smartphones? Oh... wait... I think some people do that! But what if you always had to take your car to the dealership to get it repaired? What if independent mechanics couldn't access the user manuals and specs on your car's electronic systems? You'd be paying through the nose for dealership repairs. Sounds ridiculous but up until a few years ago in the USA, that was exactly what was happening. If your car broke down, you'd have to have it towed to the dealership. Their "proprietary" repair manuals and specs were not available to independent mechanics. You, as the car owner, did not enjoy the "Right to Repair". Crazy, yes?

Well... the exact same thing happens today with smartphones and other electronic devices. Oh sure, people can figure it out and there are all sorts of people and businesses that will repair smartphones but... did you ever notice the most appliances have a little phrase on the back/bottom? Something along the lines of "Attempts to open this appliance/case will void the warranty". Imagine if that is written on the undercarriage of your car motor? "Sorry... this car is not repairable... go and buy a new one."

The manufacturers don't make it easy for anyone else to repair their devices. In fact, repairability is not something that dovetails nicely with planned obsolescence. After all, why would you make something easily repairable if your ultimate goal is to have the device break down so that the consumer will buy a new device? The thing is... our current level of consumption is not sustainable. If the entire world consumed items at the same rate that we do in Canada and the USA... we'd need to find five more Earths. Not going to happen. We need to conserve what we have and use it very wisely.

Even something as simple as replacing the battery in a smartphone or a laptop can be a challenge. I remember our first smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S2) ... you could easily remove the back and access the battery and SIM card. Same with my old laptop... just pop out the batter housing and pop in a new one. Not anymore. Our new (1 year old) Samsung Galaxy S10s do not have a removable back. Same with my HP laptop. If the battery starts failing... well, then, it's time to replace the entire laptop and/or phone. There's a website, IFIXIT, that scores the repairability of smartphones... Here's what it has to say about the S10

-   battery replacement is possible but still unnecessarily difficult
-   glued-down glass both front and back means greater risk of breakage and makes repairs difficult to start
+   a single Phillips driver takes care of all the screws

Repairability index of a Samsung Galaxy S10 smartphone

That's just crazy... but that's a lack of repairability for you. The S10 scores only a "3" on the list (out of a possible 10). Does any smartphone score a 10?? Well, our old S2 scored an "8"... hmph. The S5 (which we also had) scored a "5"... And then the S7 scored a "3". See the pattern? Older phones are more repairable than the new ones. Sigh. But... there is hope... enter the FairPhone 3 which scores a solid "10" on the scale of repairability. The Shift 6m (German company) scores a "9". All of the other newer phones (since 2019) score a "6" or lower. The thing is... buying a new smartphone is NOT a cheap endeavour! They usually cost well over $1000 CAN and that is a hefty chunk of change.

This is why repairability is about to explode onto the global market. France is first out of the starting gate by introducing an index of "repairability" for things like washing machines, lawnmowers, televisions and smartphones. The ultimate goal is to reduce the amount of waste and keep appliances and devices in circulation for longer. Nearly two-thirds of Europeans would rather repair their products than buy new ones... savvy people.

France's repairability index (scale of 1 to 10)

And... in November 2020, the European Parliament followed suite and voted to support consumers' Right to Repair.

The resolution was adopted with 395 in favour and just 94 against, with 207 abstentions.

“By adopting this report, the European Parliament sent a clear message: harmonised mandatory labelling indicating durability and tackling premature obsolescence at EU level are the way forward,” said Rapporteur David Cormand, MEP from France.

Apparently, more and more US states are proposing Right to Repair legislation in their jurisdictions as well. Which is good news!

There are, however, a few potential hiccups with the French system... manufacturers are the ones who grade their devices/appliances on how repairable they are. Hmmm... still, it's a start and time will tell how that works as people engage with the devices and decide if the repairability index is accurate!

Repair Café from Wikipedia

You're likely heard of repair cafés popping up all around the world. The idea is that volunteers come and help people repair their broken [fill in the blank]. I just had a look at the link above and there's even a repair cafe in Nanaimo! (Although, I'm not sure how much it's doing during the pandemic!)

The truth is... some appliances have gotten so complicated (I'm looking at you Smart TV) that it's no longer an easy thing to just replace a tube or a transistor (or whatever). Repairing a Smart TV can be a daunting prospect.

On the other hand... we have also lost a lot of the repair no-how for simple things like a hole in a sock. My Mom used to darn our socks (remember that!?) but I don't think I'd be able to do it. Not only do I not have a darning block/egg, but our entire sewing kit fits in a cookie tin. There's no big supply of yarn or thread. We can still sew buttons back on... but that's about it! So... in some cases, the tendency to not repair isn't due to a lack of repairability... just a lack of ability!

I'm hopeful that this repairability thing will take off... we can do our own part. By not buying the latest whats-it... but taking our broken whats-it to a repair cafe. By asking manufacturers about the repairability of their devices/appliances. It can be hard. Not to be driving the latest flashy SUV. Ours is just a few months shy of it's 25th birthday... imagine that... driving the same vehicle for 25 years. Radical thought.

P.S. Another news article came out which indicates that the repairability legislation is spreading across Europe! Excellent news.

Why do Home Renovation Shows always Smash Stone Counter Tops?

I have a pet peeve with home renovation shows. It doesn't matter what show it is but... on Demo Day... they all tend to go in and just smash up perfectly good kitchen cabinets and stone counters. Why??? It seems like such a waste. A waste of money, a waste of materials, a waste of... well... waste. All that stuff has to go somewhere, into some landfill somewhere. I know it looks good on TV but... seriously?

Fixer Upper - Chip & Joanna Gains

There are some shows where they will actually take out the cabinets carefully and say that they are sending them off to be repurposed. But those shows are in the definite minority. Maybe it costs too much to lift out stone counter tops? Easier and cheaper to just smash everything with a sledge hammer?

We did a kitchen reno last year and there was no smashing involved. A couple of friends came over and helped us take the 40 year old cabinets off the walls. It wasn't a lot of fun because some of the cabinet screws had been painted several times but... we got them all down with no smashing. And our friends then loaded up all the cabinets and used them in their garage. These weren't even wood cabinets, just cheap builder-grade laminate/particle board cabinets. But they got a second life.

Our old laminate counter top, on the other hand, did go to the dump. If it had been a long 6 foot stretch, we would have taken it to the ReStore where someone could have used it for something. But... our longest stretch was 8 feet with a big hole in the middle for the double sink sooo... off to the dump it went.

Which just goes to show that it can be done. I've seen people list old kitchens on Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace and sell them. Or just give them away for free. Look in a few open garages in your neighbourhood and you might see a whole plethora of storage cabinets thanks to a kitchen reno.

As for stone counter tops... there are a gazillion YouTube videos about how to take them out in one piece. But then what? Donate it. Sell it. Use it in the garden. Get it cut into tiles. Use it for a fireplace. Use it for mosaic flooring. The possibilities are endless. And the dump should be the last place for stone counters...

Which makes me wonder... all of those home reno shows just tend to toss all the waste into a big dumpster. Does all of that just go into the landfill? Or does someone, somewhere, sort through all of that stuff and pick out the wood and the tile and the insulation and the drywall? At first I thought, Noooo, that can't be but... apparently with environmental laws, there are some things that can't be dumped in the landfill all willy nilly... things like wood and drywall and metal.

I found the local DBL site and... will you look at that... There's a pic of workers sorting through a dumpster load of construction waste. Looks like a pile of drywall in the background. Go figure... so they DO recycle all that stuff. At least... here they do.

DBL workers sorting through construction waste
(from DBL site)

But... the Gold Star for limiting the amount of waste goes to another company called... Unbuilders. Because, it's not just kitchen renos that create waste. There are also whole houses that get demolished. And those often go something like this...

House Demo via Wikipedia

Yup, just get a digger machine and start tearing away at it... then load it all into a dumpster and send it off for sorting and disposal. Again... seems like such a waste.

But... Ta-daaaaahhh!!! Unbuilders to the rescue! They are a Vancouver company that unbuilds houses... Check out this 1 minute YouTube video of them unbuilding a house.

Smart, eh? Because some of those houses have old-growth timber in them (used up until the 1970s) and that stuff is pure gold in today's market. While traditional demo companies take the wood to be chipped and burned as fuel... Unbuilders sees a better use, a second life, for ancient lumber.

Yes, unbuilding takes longer and costs more but... there are a few other things to consider. Homeowners who go the way of unbuilding qualify for a tax credit. So even though Unbuilders cost $45,000 for a traditional home ($10,000 more than a regular demolition), the tax credits allow the homeowner to come out ahead with big savings. 

Stack of salvage lumber from Unbuilders site

The Unbuilders salvage anything and everything - metal pipes, wiring, wooden floors, sinks, appliances. Their current record for a single home is 96.8 per cent of materials salvaged or recycled and diverted from the landfill. The only things that can't be recycled or salvaged are vinyl flooring and asphalt shingles.

It's nice to know that there are companies out there that don't just crash and smash and toss. And... the Unbuilders have come to Vancouver Island too!! Excellent news...

P.S. Second Pet Peeve

The habit of home renovation shows to call everything "granite". Not all stone is "granite"! There's marble, soapstone, labradorite, granite, basalt, gneiss, granodiorite, gabbro, diorite and... a whole array of stone that is used to make counters. None of which are "granite" although some could be called "granitic".

Granite, geologically speaking, is a very specific rock type with a very specific ratio of minerals like quartz, two types of feldspar, mica and maybe some amphiboles. This is granite... see the pink feldspar... typical of granite.

These... are NOT granite... although they are called "granite" by home design/decor/renovation folks. Sigh. Sloppy language...

Closing the Loop on Single-Use Packaging

 "10 01 2013 Lonely milkbottles" by Kikishua is licensed
under CC BY-NC 2.0

Do you remember when everything came in glass bottles? Things like pop and ketchup and HP sauce. And milk! Apparently, so I've been told, there was a time when a milkman would deliver glass bottles of milk door-to-door. Dropping off the new full ones and picking up the old empty ones.

Oooh... and remember the Poppe-Shoppe? Where you'd bring your empty Poppe-Shoppe bottles back and then pick up full bottles? Well, strap on your seat-belt because the future is going to look a lot like the past in a few years.

In case you missed the memo, recycling plastic containers is not the solution. You've likely heard that China has stopped accepting all of our recycling containers, mostly cause a lot of them are contaminated with other stuff. You also may have heard that in a few decades, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. Which begs the question... where do our empty yogurt or laundry bottles go?? There are some rather alarming statistics about how much plastic we are sending off in the recycling stream. We think we are doing the right thing by tossing it all into our blue bin but... the truth is that in today's world, single-use anything has hit a brick wall. We can't keep living this way.

Rock Cycle
(from Santa Fe College)

The earth is NOT a single-use system where things are born, used, and then tossed away. The entire earth is a circular system... from the rock cycle (ejected out of a volcano as molten lava, solidifies as rock, gets eroded into sand, cemented into new rock, etc, etc, until it finally gets remelted into lava) to the carbon cycle (we've heard a lot about that) and the water cycle (ocean, evaporation, rain/snow, streams, lakes, rivers, oceans, etc.). And let's not even talk about the biological cycle... we are born, eat all sorts of things that come from the earth (plants, animals, mushrooms) and then, when we die... we go back to the earth, which will feed more plants and animals...

Plastics are most definitely not a circular system. Oh yes, some plastics can get recycled and turned into new plastics but a lot of them are given new life farther down the plastics food chain. Food-grade plastic might get recycled into a park bench or a fleece jacket. Until, eventually, it runs out of lives (it only has one or two to begin with) and ends up in the garbage. Plastic is most definitely not infinitely recyclable.

Unlike stainless steel (and other metals), aluminum or glass which can be used, collected, melted down and reformed into new tins, pop cans or jars/bottles an infinite number of times. Glass is, after all, just quartz sand melted at high temperatures and cooled quickly. In many ways, very similar to a simple rock cycle. And it's similar with aluminum and stainless steel... which is nice to know.

The future is refillable
(From LoopCanada site)

So, if plastic is not all that it's cracked up to be... is there a solution? Well, funny you should ask, yes there is!! It's called Loop. They are a company with a vision. They are partnering with different retailers around the globe (and most recently, Loblaws in Canada) and TerraCycle (of the ZeroWaste Box fame) to bring refillable/reusable containers to a store and/or delivery service near you.

The basic gist is this: you pay a deposit when you buy an item, say a bottle of ketchup. You use the bottle of ketchup and then bring it back to the store (or put it in the delivery bag) and either (a) get your deposit back (in case you don't want ketchup anymore) or (b) get another bottle of ketchup. And your original bottle gets cleaned and refilled with new ketchup for the next person. Loop has deposits on everything from ketchup bottles to laundry detergent containers to diapers and menstrual pads. Mind you... the deposit on a ketchup bottle might be $0.25 while the deposit on a diaper might be $47. That will keep a few diapers out of the landfill! And yes, they take back the used diapers and menstrual pads and recycle them via TerraCycle.

This is not a small thing. Kraft Heinz Canada commissioned a survey which found that 83 per cent of Canadians want less packaging on their groceries, and 78 per cent want grocery products with zero-waste packaging.

Some of the items for sale on the LoopCanada site

Now, in Canada, the Loop service is just starting out in Toronto (only) and will also be online via the Loop Store. Loblaws will be selling some of their bestselling President's Choice products with Loop. And apparently they are also looking at developing a reusable cookie tin for its PC Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies. I almost want to say... aren't "cookie tins" already a thing?? I think the trick here is actually getting the cookie tins back via Loop so that they can be cleaned and reused for more cookies... instead of ending up holding buttons in someone's sewing room... or loitering for months in the local thrift stores. 

Chipits from the LoopCanada site

I had a look at the LoopCanada site and they already have some products up for sale: olive oil in glass bottles, pasta sauce in jars (nothing new there) but... how about chocolate chips in a little tub instead of a plastic bag! Now, that's different! And there are a whole suite of things in refillable metal cans/tins, like coffee and ice cream and cranberry sauce. Cool...

Which brings me to this... not all of the Loop items are packaged in glass or aluminum. Some items come in stainless steel and some items still come in plastic containers. But the key is... those plastic containers are not being used once and then tossed in recycling. They are being collected and reused for the same product, like cat litter or laundry detergent or Chipits chocolate chips!

I don't know about you, but I would dearly welcome the day where we have less of that plastic bag packaging that houses everything from chocolate chips to walnuts to cheese to toilet paper. A LOT of our waste, when we start looking at it in more detail is packaging. And that is just sad.

It's nice to know that there are alternatives coming down the pipeline towards us. I would imagine that our first shot at Loop will come via their online store but... who knows, maybe Loblaws will start introducing the concept into their stores. That would be super cool.