Living without plastic

Beth Terry, author of the Fake Plastic Fish blog, is in the news today, with a story and video on KGO-TV, the ABC affiliate in San Francisco. The focus is Terry's effort to minimize the amount of plastic in her life. According to Teresa Garcia's story, Terry consumed only 3.7 pounds of plastic in 2009 -- she knows because she saved it all in a bag. That's about 4 percent of the national average of 88 pounds per person a year. The video includes a quick list of tips for others who would like to live without plastic, such as using stainless drink containers, reusable wood utensils, metal razors, and even a glass straw. Blog readers will recall that Terry made headlines back in 2008, when she convinced Clorox Co. to set up a system to accept used Brita water filters for recycling. Terry also wrote a letter to the editor that Plastics News published on Feb. 22. Her letter argued in favor of plastic bag taxes and bans. It's interesting that in the 20 years since Plastics News started publishing, the plastics critics who have been prominent in the media have changed. In the "old days," news reports likely would have quoted people like Richard Denison at Environmental Defense Fund, or Rick Hind at Greenpeace. Today the spotlight instead is on people (and groups) like Beth Terry, David de Rothschild and the Surfriders Foundation. It's an indication of how much plastics litter and marine debris have become local issues -- while at the same time interest has spread so quickly around the world.