Less plastic, please!

The province of Ontario recently announced that its LCBO stores are phasing out plastic bags. Their stock is expected to run out between now and the end of this summer and the liquor stores will be supplying paper or cardboard boxes on demand or encouraging customers to bring or buy reusable ones. It's kinda funny how just 10-15 or so years ago, I remember having to argue with cashiers about not having purchased items placed in plastic; these days, most places seem to (finally!) be encouraging their customers to move away from them.

I think it's great and hope that the Ontario's move sets a precedent for other province-run liquor stores around the country. In Ontario alone, this move will eliminate 80 million plastic bags a year, and their long-range plan is to cut the entire province's number of plastic bags used by half by 2012.

(I love how the president of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association was quoted as saying ''bans send out the wrong message''. I mean, what else could he possibly have said, this silly, silly man?)

Guilty geeky pleasures

I recently stumbled upon a book of illustrations by Kurt Halbritter at a local fund-raising book sale. Aside from online antique or used book stores selling copies of his work, I've been unable to find any information about him on the internet. The book I picked up is a spoof of illustrated naturalist books and is called Halbritter's Plant-and-Animal World. It's translated from German and is comprised of images and descriptions of fantastical animals -- integrating human appendages. As a blurb on it from the New York Times in 1982 pointed out, the effect or wit of its original puns has likely lost some punch here and there during its translation. I've managed to find a site hosting a few of the illustrations from it. In the book, this one is described as

Cunning Cuddlefish
octabrachium cupidissimum
Sleazy eight-armed sea monster; can't keep its hands off anybody. Polydactyl and puritanical, it preys primarily on Christian sailors who have gone astray. Research into the sex life of the Cunning Cuddlefish is currently at a standstill for lack of any captive specimens. Cuddlefish cuddling is a tough act to catch, let alone follow.

This one is the

Leghornucopia
illex iambecornuta
Indigenous to the Solomites. Long-haired, sure-footed and provocatively crowned with a pair of ravishing legs. The luscious Leghornucopia lives way up in the mountains, at altitude ranging anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 feet, and comes down from these peaks only on the coldest winter days. The severe climate of its natural habitat notwithstanding, this erotic beast has led many a hunter astray, enticing and exciting him to such heights that they can hardly hold their peashooters straight.

Some of the illustrations are a bit more risqué, some are a little less clever. It was a fun find for a buck. Other find for a dollar apiece: Alan Alda's Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself, a like new trade-sized copy of Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. I also picked up a crafts book with sections on things like braiding rag rugs and how to make dipped candles.

Plastic Bags, Part I

Around a month and a half ago, I tucked my bicycle into a small nook between the side of my sofa and my collapsible (and sadly, unused) sewing machine, and resigned myself to a winter of adapting to being a pedestrian again. Part of this meant that I would be losing the speed and mobility that had allowed me to spend the previous seven or eight months being a finicky shopper, able to flit from one store to another to shop for better deals or fresher produce. Travel-time more than tripled, which entailed the necessity to plan ahead more carefully. On the other hand, I also suddenly found myself with two free hands to carry bags for extras outside of what I could ordinarily cram into my well-worn knapsack whilst cycling. I'm quite happily car-free, and for those rare occasions when I do need to make a large purchase, it's much cheaper to take an occasional cab than to have a car sitting in my driveway 24/7. So far, I've managed to keep my cab rides down to one every couple of months.

I've generally had no problem accepting some plastic bags at stores, since I do it so rarely and always reuse the bags to clean litter boxes (which nonetheless leaves them ending up in the landfill, I know). Lately, my mother's been re-homing her plastic bags with me, since they would otherwise end up getting thrown out by her. Because of this, I've decided to nose around online a bit, to look for creative and useful things to do with extra bags, as well as ways to reuse existing items at home to actually make reusable bags. I've noticed that reusable bags are often for sale now at many grocery stores, from $1.00 to $4.00, so I was curious to see what other options were available.

I found this blog post on how to make bags out of old sheets and used jeans (or other sturdy fabric). The cost is zilch if you use your own old sheets and old jeans. Online instructions for making shopping bags are plentiful. For instance, morsbags.com even has animated step-by-step instructions for another type of bag. It calls for more durable fabric than what you'd get with sheets. I'd suggest checking out a thrift store, or the liquidation sales that fabric stores often have, if you want to keep costs down.

A woman called Cristen has devoted a blog to crocheting with plastic from old bags. She tells you how to prepare them first and provides links to dozens of projects, including how to make crocheted bags out of used plastic bags. Cindy, at myrecycledbags.com provides tons of patterns (with illustrated instructions) for plastic bag crafts. For instance, she has instructions on how to make a doormat or a pot scrubber. Now if I can only learn to crochet... Craftzine has also featured information in its blog on how to crochet things out of plastic bags, as well as how to fuse plastic to create things like clothing and jewelry.

So why not just recycle the bags, you may wonder? Aren't most bags biodegradable these days, anyway? I'll post more on that aspect of the plastic bag issue later.

(Listening to: The Bauhaus' The Sky's Gone Out)