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My book, Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too, is a practical guide to ridding your life—and the planet—of plastic. Available in hard cover or digital format from BuyGreen, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and anywhere books are sold. Click here to order your copy or read more about the book.

Stories in this Email:

Take Action — No More Plastic Micro-beads in Facial Scrubs!

From the Waste Up – A Movie About Learning to Live Plastic-Free

The Beauty of Picking up Plastic

Win a Plastic-Free Book! Take the Quiz & Make a Pledge

Tips for Creating Zero Waste, Plastic-Free Events

Take Action — No More Plastic Micro-beads in Facial Scrubs!

Six years ago, I posted a rant about the fact that many commercial facial scrubs contain tiny plastic (polyethylene) beads meant to exfoliate the skin. These beads are too small for water treatment plants to filter out, so they end up in our waterways and eventually the ocean. In the ocean, tiny plastic pieces mix with the zooplankton to enter the food chain. What’s more, plastic in the ocean acts as a sponge, absorbing and concentrating toxic chemicals. It’s one thing when plastic ends up there inadvertently, but it’s inexcusable for companies to produce plastic products intentionally meant to be flushed down the drain.

Now, it turns out, plastic particles aren’t just in facial scrubs, and they aren’t only made of polyethylene. According to a recent...

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Comments

I used to used to try facial scrubs thinking I “needed” ... by Maddie
Years ago Estee Lauder made a scrub called Milk Cleansing ... by Rozy
Many years ago Estee Lauder made a wonderful scrub that I ... by Rozy
I was such a heavy user of micro-bead shower gels and facial ... by Eve Stavros
Plastic-Free Ericka Moderator we don't have any kids yet. ... by M
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From the Waste Up – A Movie About Learning to Live Plastic-Free

Among all the depressing environmental films out there, wouldn’t it be great if there were a funny, entertaining one about what it’s actually like to try and live without plastic? Taina Uitto, who has blogged at Plastic Manners since 2010 about her own plastic-free experiment, has been filming her process since day one. And last year, she invited 6 Vancouver families to join her. Now, she is putting the footage together into a feature film called From the Waste Up: Life Without Plastic, which will follow the adventures of these families as they try to navigate modern life without plastic. (There may be a few other people that you recognize in the film!)

But the filmmakers need your support to get it finished!

Check out the trailer:

Who Is Taina?

Taina is not just a...

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Comments

Roamin Traveler Hi. I do use those things, but I don't buy ... by BethTerry
Roamin Traveler Hello! Yes, items you mentioned like your ... by Plastic-Free Ericka Moderator
the thing is that even my computer, mouse, phone are plastic. ... by Roamin Traveler
CanadaGuyWell said! Taina comes across as someone very ... by Plastic-Free Ericka Moderator
BethTerry CanadaGuy by CanadaGuy
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The Beauty of Picking up Plastic

Dr. Marcus Eriksen of 5 Gyres, an organization dedicated to researching ocean plastic pollution, has said, “If you want to clean the gyre, clean your beach.” He meant it literally, since “if we stop adding more plastic to the ocean, in time the gyres will kick out the plastic pollution they currently hold.” But I choose to think of the statement metaphorically. Spending a morning cleaning plastic from a beach or river bank or roadway doesn’t just remove a fraction of plastic trash from the environment, it heightens our personal awareness of the problem and gets us in touch with the physical reality of plastic pollution — both beautiful and terrible. We understand how vast the problem is compared to our tiny efforts at mitigation. Sure, we might...

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Comments

I thought how living on the East Coast I could post such ... by Greg
@Lara S Glad you enjoyed this post! Thank you for reading and ... by Plastic-Free Ericka Moderator
What a beautiful and touching post. Thank you so much. by Lara S
BethTerry Thanks for the information. What you shared ... by Stace
AStrandintheWebofLife BethTerry I don't think they want this ... by BethTerry
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Win a Plastic-Free Book! Take the Quiz & Make a Pledge

2013-04-20-Earth-Day-SF-wig Happy Earth Day everyone. It’s been a busy weekend, what with the plastic sea monster out and about. I spent several evenings at home braiding plastic bags into a new doo. What do you think? At San Francisco’s Earth Day Festival on 4/20 (probably around 4:20pm), a somewhat wobbly-looking guy with an equally impressive head of hair stared at me for several minutes, then held out a funny kind of cigarette and said very earnestly, “YOU can smoke this.” Really? Is that how I come across these days? I said no thank you and continued on my mission.

That mission? To spread the message that we can refuse disposable plastic! And that there are lots of great alternatives.

2013-04-20-Earth-Day-SF-01

Take the Quiz. Win a Book.

Plastic-Free-3D-cover2-300x364 I also wanted to disabuse people of some common fallacies...

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Comments

Hi all. I have chosen a random winner for the book and am ... by BethTerry
@chicknlil Hi. You are the random winner of the book! But ... by BethTerry
1.False 2.False 3. False 4. False 5. I am a big coffee ... by HouseofCrew
1-4 False. #5 We have been reusing the same couple plastic ... by Maria
Hey Beth, My girlfriend and I love your book. We read it to ... by Anton
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Tips for Creating Zero Waste, Plastic-Free Events

Zero-Waste-Event-10 Whenever I give my plastic-free presentation, I’m interested to see what the hosting organization will do to ensure the event itself is as plastic-free as possible. I try to give tips beforehand so I don’t walk in on a table full of plastic cups (which has happened more than once, ironically.) But lately, I’ve discovered some really ingenious ideas, some of which I wouldn’t have thought of myself. Some are about reducing plastic, and some are about reducing waste in general. So I thought I would share my favorites.