itsyournature

Posted on Switchboard by Kathryn McGrath

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…

Posted on Switchboard by Kathryn McGrath June 19, 2009

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…

Before you head out for a pricey sushi dinner, you might want to check out a recent blog by our friends at simplesteps.

They site a recent article in the New York Times which found extremely high levels of mercury in sushi bought from 20 different manhattan stores and restaurants. While pregnant women and children are the most susceptible to mercury present in fish, the rest of us should also be wary of how much and what types of fish we eat.

Check out this handy guide from the NRDC to help you make better choices when you can't fight the craving for some sashimi.

Friday, January 18, 2008

There's quite a lot happening on the sonar front as of late. After a federal judge finally and triumphantly imposed a strict set of rules on the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar off the coast of Southern California, the Bush Administration attempted, in the name of the ever-vexing "national security", to nullify the protections. The case has since been returned to the district court for consideration where a federal judge has kept part, but not all, of the original restrictions.

The Navy will have to maintain a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar buffer zone along the coast, and between some islands, as well as provide monitoring and training to watch for marine animals during exercises. However, the Navy is currently not…