Making Up For Lost Time: BYOB Edition March 4, 2008

Most of you have probably already heard about this, but given my slew of plastic bag posts, I thought it was worth a mention.

As of… well… now, the Whole Foods in my ‘hood is no longer distributing plastic bags. This change should be national by the end of April. Good news for landfills and sea creatures everywhere!!

They are encouraging BYOB but still carrying paper. Here’s what they say about that: “We aren’t trying to settle the ‘paper vs. plastic’ debate. We say ‘reuse!’ instead. But when you don’t reuse, we provide 100% recycled (and recyclable) paper bags.”

I would love it if all grocery stores made this move. The other day I went to a Star Market, short on cloth bags (my own fault), and they tried to give me 10 plastic bags for $30 worth of groceries. Yuck! I hope they get on board.

Is the end of “paper or plastic?” happening in anyone else’s part of the world?

Making Up for Lost Time: Clairol Edition March 1, 2008

Hello wonderful people! Thanks for hanging in there with the empty space that has been this blog for the past few months. I’m feeling rather lame for not posting in a while. But I think perhaps the blog and I have needed some winter hibernation, to juice up for the next round of inspiration. Shelly’s excuse for not writing is much, much better than mine though. Random thoughts forthcoming over the next couple of days, and hopefully GfG will have a little more life in it come spring.

For starters: I am sitting here writing with a towel on my head because I’ve just colored my hair – one of those semipermanent, 16 washes, do-it-yourself-from-a-box deals. I do this every 4 months or so. (I’m sure I’m not to confess that, but this IS a blog after all). And THIS TIME the crisis of conscience hit. Not only does this little project involve a paper box, paper instructions, plastic gloves, and 3 plastic bottles, but at the end of it I dump a good-sized puddle of toxic chems down my sink and shower drains. What did the planet do to deserve this? Or the people miles away who probably end up with this stuff in their soil? Personal vanity – not a pretty sight.

I know this opens a whole can of worms about women, cosmetics and the beauty industry. In the spirit of small steps that this blog represents, I’ll be going to back that old college stand by, henna. Anyone else have any small changes they’ve made in the world of hair color or other beauty products?

Also there’s this: Why does the crisis of conscience hit when it does? What is the X factor? This was the nth time I opened that box of hair color, and THIS time the penny dropped. This time I SAW the chemicals, paper, plastic and FELT their origins and destinations. And now I don’t think I can go back. As a frequent observer of my own brain, moments like this fascinate me. Anyone else have a “penny dropping” story to share?