The blog formerly known as   Fake Plastic Fish

Category Archives: Direct Action

January 15, 2018

Get Involved: Class Action Lawsuit Targets “Natural” Baby Wipes Claims

A few weeks ago, my friend Diane MacEachern of Big Green Purse reached out to me about an investigation for a new class-action lawsuit that is just getting underway against companies that are promoting their baby wipes as “earth-friendly” or “biodegradable.”  If you know me, you know I hate greenwashing and have railed against the claims of companies marketing toothbrushes, produce bags, and so-called biodegradable plastics.  So I was very interested to hear more about the baby wipes issue and specifically about how and why a lawsuit could be an effective means of combatting these claims.

Disclosure: Gutride Safier has retained me to help spread the word about this issue and direct you to more information; however, the opinions provided here are absolutely my own.

“Earth-Friendly” “Biodegradable” Baby Wipes Greenwashing Claims

While companies are required to list many of the in… Read the rest

October 31, 2016

Californians, Don’t Be Confused by Competing Plastic Bag Bans on Ballot!

11/30/16 Update:  Hurray!  Despite the disappointing national election results, California has some things to cheer about.  We passed Prop 67, the single use plastic bag ban!  Thanks to everyone who voted!

A few weeks ago, I did something completely out of my comfort zone.  I signed up and then showed up to phone bank with Clean Water Action in support of Prop 67, a statewide plastic bag ban on the upcoming November ballot, and against Prop 65, a competing measure that could completely undermine efforts to eliminate plastic bag pollution across the state.  I also dragged my friends Nancy and Corbina along with me since, you know, misery loves company and all that.

What is Prop 67?

In 2014, the California legislature passed SB270 (Padilla), a law which would ban single-use plastic carry out bags and require merchants to charge customers a 10 cent fee to purchase disposable paper bags. Shoppers could avoid paying the fee by bringing their o… Read the rest

November 23, 2015

New (and Old) Tools to Eliminate Plastic Straws

By now, many or most of you have seen the shocking viral video of a sea turtle with a plastic drinking straw stuck up its nose and the team of ocean researchers attempting to pull it out.  I don’t normally like to begin posts with gruesome images, but in this case, I’m hoping this video will not simply horrify you but also fill your heart with compassion and spur you to action.  It’s 8 minutes long, and if you have the patience to watch the entire thing, it’s worth it.… Read the rest

August 18, 2014

Ask eBay to Stop Recommending Plastic Bubble Wrap to Sellers

Sign the petition to ask eBay to quit recommending plastic bubble wrap.

Cory Trusty of Aquarian Bath (a small business owner and sponsor of this blog who is committed to reducing her plastic footprint) got tired of all the plastic bubble wrap she receives when ordering supplies from eBay sellers.  While she has found her own unique way to request and receive less plastic with her orders (explained below), she realized that getting sellers to reduce their plastic packaging across the board would require help from above, specifically from eBay itself.  Why?  Because through its recommendations and feedback process, eBay has fostered a “Bubble Wrap Culture.”

Cory writes…

The eBay Bubble Wrap Problem

For 2012, eBay revenues were nearly 7.3 billion dollars, and eBay now has 128 million active users. Bubble wrap is the first packaging option that is recommended by eBay to every seller. Other alternative suggest… Read the rest

April 11, 2014

Why You Should Sign My Petition — Even If You Don’t Own a Vita-Mix Blender

If you haven’t yet signed and shared the Vitamix petition I created and blogged about last October because you don’t own one of these high speed blenders and don’t plan to buy one, here are a few reasons to sign and share it anyway.

I myself don’t own a Vita-Mix.  As I gushed last September, I’m in love with my Waring Pro with its all glass and metal pitcher.  My blender may not be as fast, but it gets the job done without adding toxic chemicals to my smoothies.  So you would think I wouldn’t care about what material Vita-Mix’s pitcher is made from.  But the fact is, we are all affected by plastics on this planet, whether directly or indirectly.  This point was driven whom a few weeks ago during a week-long meditation retreat on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

Plastic in Paradise

The Hui Ho’olana is a retreat center located in the center of the center of the center: the very center of Molokai, which i… Read the rest

October 24, 2013

Quick Action: Ask Vita-Mix to bring back the stainless steel blender pitcher!

Did you know Vita-Mix, the high speed blender that is so fast it can make hot soup, originally came with a stainless steel container instead of plastic?

If you don’t have time to read this whole post, please click the following link to sign and share the brand new petition I posted on Change.org last night asking the company to bring back the stainless steel container.

https://www.change.org/p/vita-mix-please-bring-back-the-safe-non-toxic-stainless-steel-pitcher… Read the rest

May 19, 2013

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 feel overwhelmed.  But hopefully, the exercise can our revitalize our commitment to reducing plastic at the source.

Yesterday Morning at Damon Slough

… Read the rest
April 22, 2013

Take the Quiz and Make a Pledge

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.

Take the Quiz

I also wanted to disabuse people of some common fallacies about plastic.  So I asked people to take the Plastic-Free Quiz & Pledge for a chance to win a copy of Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too.  The co… Read the rest

October 15, 2012

Our Petitions Make a Difference: Say No to Disney’s Toxic Lunchboxes & Yes to Safer Chemicals

Stop what you’re doing for a second.  I want you to start a petition.  Or at least sign one. Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event when bloggers all over the world band together to write posts on the same theme.  This year’s theme is “The Power of We.”  It’s one thing for each of us to do our part in making changes in our personal lives to reduce our plastic consumption.  But if we want to truly protect the planet from the tons of toxic chemicals that are released into our air, water, and soil, we need to make our voices heard together, as a group.  And these days, it’s not really so hard to do.  With sites like Change.org that make it easy to create a petition and promote it virally via social media, anyone can take action for systemic change–flex our “citizen muscles,” as Annie Leonard puts it.

Tell Disney to get the Phthalates out of kids’ lunchboxes

When blogger Lori Alper of Gro… Read the rest

April 4, 2012

What Do You Think of the Plastic Produce Packaging at Trader Joe’s Nowadays?

Six years ago, Michael and I got a notice that a Trader Joe’s grocery store was going to be opening down the street from our house. This was back before I had woken up to the problems with plastic, and the news thrilled me. I had visions of all the fresh salads I was going to buy on my way to work every day. And then a few months later, I saw a photo of a dead albatross chick filled with plastic, and I started attempting to live plastic-free.  By the time the new Trader Joe’s opened, I could no longer shop there. The only department where I could find anything not packaged in plastic was the liquor aisle.

What seemed to be the most egregious misuse of plastic was in the produce aisle. While most grocery stores–even mainstream stores like Safeway–carried loose produce, Trader Joe’s seemed to only sell produce in plastic-wrapped multi-packs or plastic net bags. And while some of its produce containers were made from PLA, a comp… Read the rest