Two years ago Beth Terry decided to stop using plastic and began chronicling her saga on a blog, fakeplasticfish.com. She recently issued a challenge to readers to collect all their plastic trash for a week and submit photographs and tallies (the results are posted here).  Inspired and curious, I decided to keep track of all those bits of plastic refuse.

Here are the results of my second week cataloging and saving all my plastic waste.

Despite the long list, it's a big improvement over last week's results.

Non-recyclable

1 bag of feline pine cat litter

2 shopping bags

4 small plastic bags, 2 plastic molded forms, a software cd, a hang tag and a plastic security tag from my new camera1 molded plastic form from scissors

1 plastic cover for the father's day card I bought several weeks ago but still didn't mail on time

1 #6 plastic cup from a club 1 plastic cup from brunch at a friend's house

1 tiny ziploc bag and plastic hanger that contained extra buttons

1 plastic planter

1 herb marker

1 broken clothespin

2 ziploc bags

1 bag that held coconut

2 #6 containers and plastic wrappers that held shiitake mushrooms

1 plastic top and seal from a box of raisins

1 plastic bag that held muffin mix

plastic wrap from cheese

1 Soyjoy wrapper

1 licorice wrapper

1 fruit leather wrapper

Recyclable

1 Via Coco tetra pak

3 envelopes with plastic windows

1 broken #5 deli container

The first week of the challenge I had 19 bags and this week I'm down to 6 bags (excluding the camera's packaging). This week's plastic waste was far lighter and compact than last week's, check out the photo. Much of this waste was purchased or in use before I started the plastic challenge but I have to take full responsibility for buying a new camera and a box of Via Coco last week and accepting two plastic shopping bags.

Again this week, the bulk of my plastic, in weight and in number of items, was from food packaging. It's surprising how much of food packaging is not just plastic but the almost never recyclable #6 plastic, polystyrene. That's the same type of plastic as Styrofoam, which I'd never knowingly buy. From now on, I'll get my shiitake mushrooms at the farmer's market.

The scissors were from the office supply closet. The plastic packaging is ironic since according to the package, the handle of the scissors is made from recycled plastic. The father's day card was made from recycled paper but wrapped in a protective plastic sheath.

Now about the cat... his litter and his food come in heavy plastic bags. He and I are both pretty picky about these things. I want a cat food without a lot of unhealthy grains and a nice smelling, light weight, renewable (if not sustainable) cat litter. Feline Pine is made from Southern Yellow Pine which is grown on tree farms. Allegedly I could compost the sawdust litter at the end of the week but I don't think my neighbors would go for that. The litter is lightweight, so the energy required to transport it is less, and a bag lasts me about a month. But I'd be happy to hear about alternatives.

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Two years ago Beth Terry decided to stop using plastic and began chronicling her saga on a blog, fakeplasticfish.com. She recently issued a challenge to readers to collect all their plastic trash for a week and submit photographs and tallies (the results are posted here). Inspired and curious, I decided to keep track of all those bits of plastic refuse.

I work for the NRDC in New York and often write stories about making more sustainable choices on NRDC's green living site, simplesteps.org. As you'd expect, I avoid disposable packaging and buying plastic items, or so I thought until I started dragging all my plastic trash home with me.

I stayed true to the spirit of scientific inquiry and didn't avoid plastic despite my growing dismay at the pile accumulating in the kitchen. Once you begin setting aside your plastic trash you being to see plastic everywhere. Because it IS everywhere. My bag of plastic trash was larger than the week's other garbage, which doesn't include food scraps.

At the end of the week my plastic refuse covered the dining table, filled two bags and filled me with dread.

I was surprised at the amount of plastic that came from food purchases. In the photo below, most of the plastic on the right is food-related. And I'll admit, sometimes it's just far easier to accept a plastic bag. I let the bagger at the grocery store put my Marcal recycled toilet paper, wrapped in paper, in a plastic bag to keep it from getting wet in the rain. But looking critically at this list there's a lot more I could do fairly easily to reduce my pile of plastic. (The cat thought this was all great fun.)

Why is plastic so bad? It pollutes from its production to its demise. Even when it can be recycled, it's downgraded to other products, unlike metal or paper which can be used again and again to make the same products. And recycling plastic can be difficult and costly because it has to be carefully sorted by type. New York City's sanitation department only accepts plastic bottles and jugs, PET #1 and HDPE #2, for recycling. Other cities may collect more types of plastic but that doesn't necessarily mean they actually recycle all of it. Usually they're just trying to maximize the amount of HDPE and PET plastics by making it easier. So even the small amount of my weekly plastic that is recyclable in New York didn't make me feel any better.

At NRDC's office, we collect plastic containers and lids numbers 1-6 so I was able to recycle more of my plastic than the average New Yorker. But I'm still trying to figure out whether all of that plastic actually gets recycled. Here's the lengthy list.

Recyclable

#2 gallon jug of water - this was the emergency jug stored under the sink that expired last month

#5 container of prunes - I didn't even notice this was plastic and not cardboard when I bought it, why do the apricots come in cardboard and the prunes in plastic?

#2 quart of grapefruit juice

#1 bottle of conditioner

Recyclable at the office

3 contact lens cases

#5 packaging for frozen shumai - #5 molded tray and outside packaging

#6 container of hot sprouts

Non-recyclable

5 plastic bags from Associated Supermarket - I brought my cart and canvas bag to the supermarket but not everything fit and of course, they double bagged it

1 plastic bag from Paragon Sports - Not taking a bag at Paragon leads to a ridiculous amount of explanations with the security staff

1 plastic bag from H&M - felt lazy and didn't want to get dirt from the canvas bag on the new duds

1 plastic mailing bag that contained my new bike helmet

1 12 year old bike helmet

1 plastic bag from my lunch

2 plastic bags from Bed Beth and Beyond - again, the security people

2 plastic newspaper bags

1 temporary ATM card

5 paper envelopes with plastic windows

2 plastic screw things from kitchen faucet - if they were metal they wouldn't have broken!

Molded plastic packaging from Dr. Glove foam glove conditioner

4 plastic ties from clothing hang tags plastic bag that contained a softball (inside a cardboard box, no less)

#6 clamshell packaging for electric toothbrush

extra foam padding for bike helmet plastic bag wrapping bike helmet

molded plastic packaging from toothbrush (manual)

stickers for bike helmet

plastic ice bag - left over from a party

plastic wrap from frozen pizza

wrapper from a Luna bar

2 chip bags tofu container plastic packaging for wasabi rice crackers - #6 molded tray and outside packaging bag of pearled barley plastic wrap from cheese

molded plastic tray and saran wrap from chicken thighs

4 plastic produce bags

1 plastic sealer from soybean container

plastic insert from glass bottle of olive oil

2 Ziploc bags

1 plastic straw

2 plastic beer cups and 1 clear plastic plate - from dinner out with friends

3 plastic forks - I'm not sure where 2 of these forks came from, usually I won't hand over my lunch to the cashier to avoid the automatic bagging

I could easily stop accepting plastic shopping bags but I do use them for my trash. My local Associated grocery store doesn't have paper bags, like many neighborhood stores in New York. In fact, I often run out of plastic bags and have to bring some home from work. (Even at NRDC, where over a hundred committed enviros work everyday, the plastic bags pile up in the kitchen. The difference is that we collect them rather than toss them.) Next week I'll try saying no to all plastic bags.

I'll forgo my Lambeth Groves grapefruit juice and I'll certainly miss my fresh-squeezed cherry juice from the farmer's market which comes in an unwelcome plastic bottle. I go to the farmer's market a couple times a week which makes it easy to avoid packaging but I also order from the grocery delivery service Fresh Direct about once a month. The groceries are delivered in recycled cardboard boxes but all the produce comes in plastic bags. Sadly, bulk bins are few and far between in New York. I should give up chips for any number of reasons. In a normal week there might be more plastic cups from going out for dinner and drinks. I could start drinking bottled beer more when the gin and tonic is coming in a plastic cup. There were a few unusual purchases this week -- sports equipment and toothbrushes. I suppose I could have shopped around and looked for cardboard packaging.

But I am keeping my contacts, frozen pizza and tonic water. The pizza, from Fresh Direct, is pretty minimally packaged. I bought a home seltzer maker last year and love it but seltzer and gin don't work well together. Eradicating each and every bit of plastic seems nearly impossible but I will try to keep it down to scraps rather than piles. Check back next week to see how I do. In the meantime, in honor of our oceans, which inspired Beth to start this whole saga, take a minute to voice your support for national legislation toreduce pollution, protect ocean habitats and coordinate efforts to manage the coasts and oceans wisely.

While there may be signs we’re not hurtling toward a depression, job losses continue at a disturbing pace and the economy remains a mess. But tough times offer interesting opportunities, as we all get a bit more creative in finding ways to do things we like and get things we need for less…including finding the perfect prom dress.

No, I’m not kidding. Proms are serious business, and yes, the dress has got to be fabulous, but these days of mass layoffs and company-wide pay freezes the price for a party dress can be more than a family can afford. So does it have to be new? Or might “pre-owned” (like a car) and worn only once or twice (as so many fancy party dresses are) be just as good or better—particularly if it’s free or very affordable? Vintage clothing stores are great sources for beautiful pre-owned but barely worn party dresses. The latest craze, though, is repurposing through clothing swaps. A friend I know in Washington gets together with friends every few months for a clothes swap. She says it has really cut down how much she spends on clothing over the course of the year. And as these swaps are with people whose taste she shares, she almost always goes home with at least one thing she really loves for virtually nothing.

Swapping, repurposing, giving clothes a second life, whatever you want to call it is not just cool—it’s eco-cool. To show that even for prom night the eco-smart choices can be both chic and cheap, a Brooklyn-based teen group called Teens Turning Green teamed up with the local Whole Foods to launch Project Green Prom. New York area high school juniors and seniors were invited to participate in a dress swap program in which they would donate their previously worn and loved gowns in exchange for other dresses as a way to promote repurposing items to preserve the environment. A green stylist was on hand to demonstrate cost-effective ways for making something old new again. In addition, attendees enjoyed eco-beauty makeovers and green spa treatments by local salon owners, John Masters, Mineral Fusion and PRITI Spa. They also received flower and décor preparation advice, healthy eating tips and menu ideas for the big day.

While community-supported swaps are the rage in cities and towns around the country this year, my hope is that they will stick around. They say something positive about our evolving views on consumerism: Good times or bad, owning can be nice but sharing can be better. Find out about clothes swaps going on near you.

If Fluffy has fleas, think twice before grabbing that treatment from the grocery store.

Flea and tick treatments may contain toxic chemicals that can poison pets and harm people. A first-of-its-kind study by NRDC shows that dangerously high levels of pesticide residue can remain on a dog's or cat's fur for weeks after a flea collar is put on an animal. NRDC found that residues from two pesticides used in flea collars -- tetrachlorvinphos and propoxur, among the most dangerous pesticides still legally on the market -- were high enough to pose a risk to both children and adults who play with their pets.

Residue levels produced by some flea collars are so high that they pose a risk of cancer and damage to the neurological system of children up to 1,000 times higher than EPA's acceptable levels. Although we have safer options for controlling fleas on our pets, the EPA still allows dangerous pesticides to be used in flea collars and other products. NRDC is calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the pesticides tetrachlorvinphos and propoxur from pet products. Take action, tell the EPA to prohibit the use of these toxic chemicals in pet products.

California has already determined that one of these pesticides, propoxur, causes cancer and that consumer warnings are required. NRDC is suing major manufacturers and retailers of flea collars with propoxur to make them comply with this requirement or pull the products from California shelves. Retailers across the nation should help keep pets and families safe by removing products that contain tetrachlorvinphos and propoxur from their shelves.

Until the EPA bans the last of these toxic chemicals, consumers should avoid products that list tetrachlorvinphos, carbaryl and propoxur as active ingredients. Learn more about which products to avoid with the Green Paws product guide. NRDC checked the listed ingredients of more than a hundred flea and tick products to report which chemicals they contain and the chemicals' toxicity: whether they are linked to cancer, allergies and asthma or are suspected endocrine disruptors. Each product is categorized by its potential risk. We've recently updated the guide with new chemicals and products. Pregnant women and parents of young children should try to avoid products from the red or orange categories. When chemical control is necessary, choose a safer treatment and avoid the most toxic chemicals by selecting a product marked with a yellow paw.

Learn how to protect your pet without chemicals. Regular combing with a flea comb, bathing and vacuuming can reduce and control fleas. Pet bedding should also be washed in hot water once a week. Fleas tend to accumulate in bedding, so care should be taken not to spread the flea eggs and larvae contained in it. Vacuuming picks up fleas and eggs from carpets, floors and crevices, and from under or on furniture. Immediately after vacuuming, bags should be thrown away to prevent fleas from escaping and re-infesting the area. Severe infestations may call for professional carpet cleaning with steam. For more tips on treating fleas without hazardous chemicals, check the Green Paws site.

• Take action, .
• Check the GreenPaws guide to brand name flea and tick products to find out which products could harm your pet or young children and print out the pocket guide to chemical ingredients in flea and tick treatments.
  
• Learn how to protect your pet without chemicals. Regular combing with a flea comb, bathing and vacuuming can reduce and control fleas.

Happy Earth Day! Check out these great earth-friendly tips below, courtesy of Simple Steps and pass them on to your friends!

There's plenty of reason for hope this Earth Day -- the United States seems ready to cap the pollution that causes global warming. But there's also a lot of work ahead to curb the damage already done. Here are four simple steps you can take that will have an immediate impact on the environment. By focusing on the areas that will have the most impact, you'll find that doing your part for a sustainable future isn't as difficult as you may have thought. It's that easy!

40 percent of residential energy use is for heating and cooling. To stop global warming pollution and clear our air, we have to be more efficient. Start at home by making a few improvements where it will have the most impact. Take the house tour now to see what you can do.

The typical American prepared meal contains, on average, ingredients from at least five countries outside the United States. Almost 250,000 tons of global warming gases released were attributable to imports of food products-the equivalent amount of pollution produced by more than 40,000 vehicles on the road or nearly two power plants. By choosing local produce and food, you can make a real impact by sitting down to dinner. Find better food, closer to home with NRDC's Eat Local widget and get recipes for in-season produce.

Only 13 percent of plastic water bottles are recycled. When it's tossed out, plastic never disintegrates, it fills up landfills and ends up in our oceans. Plastic pollutes at every step -- from production to disposal. Cut down on your plastic waste by using less plastic and recycling plastic whenever you can.

In 1970, the United States recycled about 5 percent of its waste. Now we recycle approximately 32.5 percent, not even a third. Consider the waste before buying new products, avoid excessive packaging and unrecyclable materials.

Inevitable. Unavoidable. Tax Day is quickly approaching. So while you're cramming to finish your return at the last minute check out this post from our friends at Simple Steps to find out how you can save money by investing in the planet.

New Energy Efficiency Tax Credits

Now's the time to invest in energy-efficient home improvements and take advantage of new federal tax credits. Tax credits are available for 30 percent of the cost of qualified windows, skylights, doors, insulation, water heaters or solar panels. Tax credits, unlike tax deductions, are as good as a rebate -- they come straight out of Line 46, the taxes you owe.

You may not be able to claim tax credits for energy efficiency improvements to your home on this year's return (unless you installed a geothermal heat pump, solar water heater, small wind energy systems or fuel cells) but this is a good time to consider making improvements in 2009 and 2010. The economic stimulus package restored and expanded tax credits for energy-efficient home improvements made in 2009 and 2010.

Why is the government so interested in your windows and insulation? Heating and cooling account for a whopping 40 percent of U.S. residential energy use. Poorly insulated homes, single-paned windows and old inefficient water heaters and boilers are wasting energy and money. By increasing our homes' energy efficiency we can save money, reduce the emissions that cause global warming and reduce the need for new power plants. Learn more about where you may be wasting energy (and money) in your home. Take the house tour.

Tax credits are available for 30 percent of the cost, up to $1,500, for qualified windows, skylights, doors, insulation, metal and asphalt roofs, HVAC, non-solar water heaters and biomass stoves. The credit is available for existing homes and it must be your primary residence. For windows, doors, insulation and roofs, the credit is only for the cost of materials, not installation.

There's no upper limit for geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells through 2016 for existing homes and new construction. And you can include the cost of installation when figuring your 30 percent tax credit for these as well as HVAC and biomass stoves.

In addition to the federal tax credit, you may also be eligible for rebates or other incentives from your state when you make energy-related improvements to your home. For state-by-state details, see http://www.dsireusa.org/

Not all Energy Star labeled products are eligible for the tax credit so choose carefully. Learn more about qualified products and credits on the Energy Star website. Check out IRS form 5695 to learn how to claim residential energy credits. Remember to keep your receipts and the Manufacturer Certification Statement.

How much energy could be saved by more efficient lighting? If you're among the millions of Americans who switched to CFLs, you've seen the difference in your electricity bill. But how much energy could be saved with better federal efficiency standards? The numbers are staggering -- a higher standard for just two kinds of bulbs found in offices and homes could save 15.8 quadrillion BTUs of energy by 2048. A quadrillion is one thousand million million -- that's 15 zeros.

Slightly higher standards than the ones proposed could save an additional 6.2 quadrillion BTUs of energy and save consumers $25.6 billion dollars by 2048. And any reduction in energy use reduces emissions of CO2, NOx and mercury, in this case by 290 million metric tons, 461 kilotons and 2.4 tons, respectively.

Many Americans have already done their part by switching to more efficient lighting at home, tossing out incandescent bulbs and replacing them with CFLs. Now it's time for the government to make sure the lighting industry is making the best, most efficient products for all consumers.

Take a look at the lighting in your office and home and see if you're using these older, inefficient bulbs. BR type bulbs, with a slight bulge designed to focus light where needed, are exempt from efficiency standards. You might find these bulbs in recessed ceiling lights or outdoor spotlights. The truth is CFLs work well in these sockets and you don't need these specialty lights wasting your money. Not all fluorescent tube lamps are efficient, older T12 bulbs use much more energy than T8 or T5 bulbs. Its easy to tell, T12s have a diameter of 1.5 inches (12/8), while T8 are an inch around and T5s are 5/8s of an inch around.