August 2009

It's been a long time since my last post. Life has changed for me and I don't even live at the ramshackle house any longer. I guess I'll just live a ramshackled life instead.

As far as experiments go, this summer didn't hold much in the food and sustainability experiments department. I have been experimenting in other parts of my life -- but I'll leave those parts to your imagination for now.

One of the truths of my August and September is that I haven't bought produce. Not a real level of produce anyway. I have bought the occasional hot pepper, the melon here and there, the necessary lime or lemon. But really, almost nothing.

The CSA has come to my rescue again. I went to my neighborhood farmers market the other week just for fun and it was almost painful. All the beautiful and amazing foods that I couldn't buy because I just can't eat that much produce! A fine problem to have.

It's fun to be swimming in green beans and cucumbers. Then, of course, every two weeks there is another fruit reaching perfection. In Oregon, we do not lack fruits. I guess we are short on citrus, but I prefer stone fruit anyway. First there was the berries, then the peaches, the early little plums, then the cherries, the figs, now the fat plums, the grapes, the pears and the apples are just around the corner. Oh, and what about asian pears -- but it's actually hard for me to tell when those are ever ripe. They're always so hard. But fruit has been falling freely and abudantly into my life non-stop this summer.

The fruits though -- plums especially -- trigger me in an almost manic way. Right now Italian plums are covering the trees in my life by the thousands. So many plums, there are hundreds on a single tree. Hanging there purple black and covered in a white mist of sugary ripeness. Everywhere. I have like 50 plums in my fridge right now -- avoiding the fruitflies. But what do I do. I can, I freeze, I make cake and clafoutis. There are still more.

Something about the fruit on the tree gives me a hording reaction. Take as many as I can carry and I'll figure it out later! Gather Gather Gather. Now I'm drowning and spending every free moment processing plums. For what? 30 jars of plum jam? Strange homemade asian plum sauce? Yet another sugary dessert that my ass does not need. Well, yes.

But I can't say no. I can't just walk away.

What is it about the wasted plums that I hate? I guess part of it is total confusion. Why are there still 200 plums on every tree? Why are these same plums at New Seasons fancy market for $3.99 for a little green box and people are buying them and letting these splat on the grass?
People are dumb I guess. Really I suppose people just don't have the time to pick or the knowledge of the good trees. Bummer.

I don't have the time either -- I need to cut back.

Spending my life as an end of summer food processor is so satisfying but pretty unsustainable.

scientists: charming and disarming.

I've spent the last few years having an on and off obsession with scientists (also mathematicians.) Primarily because I don't actually know many (if any) scientists or mathematicians. They seems very different from my life and I imagine them to have great stories of banal things that encourage my mind to drift in wonder about tiny details of monstrous proportions.

As I meet these folks, they rarely are able to live up to my very high expectation of personality and charm.

However, ones I read about in books often make me crush out in a serious way.

The book "The World Without Us" introduced me to Dr. Tony Andrady, apparently known as the oracle of plastic's life in our world. He writes 800 page books on the subject of plastic and strikes me as the kind of guy that makes obscure jokes about hydrocarbons in that very endearing way. I think of him dreaming of a bacteria that one day will be able to ingest plastic, pooping out an entirely new substance.

Anyway, I like Tony. I enjoy that he is described as having a "reasonably persuasive voice."

Tony lays it out like this.


The vast majority of plastic that has ever been created -- this primarily means since the 1950's when the whole sha-bang really took off -- is still here. None of it has broken down entirely, none of it has been made into something other than plastic. It's all hanging around, waiting. Waiting for what? Well, he says, there are a couple of answers. It's waiting to be broken down into smaller and smaller pieces for animals to eat or to become more and more clear for animals to get tangled in and die. While, probably all plastic will biodegrate on some level and every permutation of plastic has a different life span --- no plastic has ever died a natural death.

I appreciate Tony's cynicism. It's quite charming.

But the beauty of this scientist -- is his belief in the absolute truth of nature. That everything that comes from it will eventually be taken back to it. Nature will take no defectors.

Tony comes back with the science for us.

Give it 100,000 years -- Earth will either hustle some microbes to evolve so that they can eat plastic. They have, apparently, recently learned to eat oil -- very exciting. Go team. Or if biologic time can not meet plastic where it is at then geologic time will be the victor. Tony hypothesizes that something will happen and the Earth will take in the 1 billion tons of plastic we've made so far (no hyperbole, serious number) and it will turn the plastic into magic. Just like dinosaur bones and petrified trees of the past -- the plastic particles, the polymers and hydrocarbons, will emerge to our distant homo-sapien relatives as some new and clever resource.

Tony says, "Change is the hallmark of nature. Nothing remains the same."

Until the next geologic era?

Well, the science is fuzzy.

bioplastics

To me, bioplastics sounds a lot like biofuels -- maybe a good idea or maybe just a tech fix that will have merciless repercussions in the near future.

A tech fix is the process of solving a problem with a technological invention only to have that fix create an entirely new problem that now, again, needs to be fixed. Tech fix is often based on industry and usually lacks a holistic approach to problem solving.

Plastics though were originally made from bio or organic materials. The strictly chemical, petroleum based polymer strands of today are a relatively new invention.

Bioplastics are long strings of polymers made from soybeans, cornstarch, and potatoes. The first plastics were made from cellulose -- pure vegetable fiber. The great US advocate of rubber & plastic -- Henry Ford -- made plastics from soybeans.

So when we see natural food stores busting out the corn-based plastic fad, we know that this is not new science. It is just a convenient time for them to be green.

In the end, will it be a better solution than petroleum based plastic products -- especially one time use plastic products? Maybe. My instinct is to say - Of Course! But I wonder, what will happen when we try to replace the existing plastic reality with corn-based reality (not to mention gas with ethanol)? That is a lot of farm land, that is a lot of food going into the landfills instead of peoples' bellies.

The sheer volume of food being used in such a way makes me recoil and long for a simple juicy butter dripping bite of corn-on-the-cob.

Dreaming of yummy corn does not move us toward a solution. How can anything move us? When the density of consumption is at max capacity and creates a situation where nothing can be done to replace all the plastic we use. Nothing is reasonable or good in that large a quantity -- not corn, not cotton cloth, not glass jars, nothing.

Really, I think, we all know what we have to do -- and it's not making everything out of soybeans -- it's just that most of us aren't ready to admit it.

1979

From Plastic: The Making of a Synthetic Century

Our postindustrial epoch frequently goes by the handle Information Age. But it could just as easily be called the Plastic Age. Plastic provides us with the material prerequisite for information storage and retrieval, both analog and digital. ... Plastic not only imitates natural materials, it allows us to recreate an entirely new world of the visual and aural imagination.

In 1979, the global volume of plastics production outstripped that of steel. At precisely that point in our industrial development, we entered the Plastic Age.

The ultimate triumph of plastic has been the victory of package over product, of style over substance, or surface over essence.

The Tower Challenge

No plastic huh?
wellwell, here's my challenge as I head off to work at the Flag Point fire tower, just east of Mt. Hood. I shopped today for my delicious tower purchases....."ah, nope...not that. ah.....nope, shit....no no, yes, no....no cheesepuffs? moving on....ah, put back the Thai Noodles! poop." and goddamn I didn't bring enough bags to fill up from the bulk snacks so I had to use NEW PAPER? God, that's stuoopid.
At first, I exempted myself from having to do this whole no plastic game during my tower hours.
I said a big NO at the house meeting becuz imagine yourself out in the middle of it with no stores to bumble around in to find non perishable plastic replacements at whim. My food stash is a big deal at the tower. It's lonely out there and I guess having the food I want is part of the comforts I take with me along with everything else I pack....delicious beverages, so many books, a guitar, yoga matt, hand crank radio, art supplies..to name a few.
But today, I think I felt the Drastic Plastic spirit biting at me and I said, like the rooster,
"fuck it motherfucker" .....NO PLASTIC!
I'll let you know if it sux'd at the tower without my plastic covered goodies or was no big deal.
Until then,
Jenn

drastic plastic reduction theory

Drastic Plastic Reduction is in full effect.

We recognize our lives revolve fully in both the information age & the disposable age.

As we interact with the world, most bits of data & goods fly through our lives in a split moment, barely pausing for us to take notice, rarely staying long enough to appreciate. Attachment to things, in this post-industrial United States, is a baffling dissonance. We are infinitely attached to consuming things and at the exact some moment throw out as much as possible. The cycle continues ad infinitum. Until Now.

For the next month, our five lives in this old house will intersect & deconstruct these ages. The Ramshackle rejects easy disposal, embraces information & ditches plastic. goodbye plastic & all the baggage that come with it.

Looking for a break in our ever-growing consumerism and our increasingly large garbage haul, the ramshackle is going plastic free. We’ve committed to not buy or consume any new plastic, especially not bringing plastic into the house, for the month of August.

This is a rough game and we don’t expect perfection. But we do want to take note. Our collective adventure and subsequent tales will be posted here for public consumption.

the night before

So we agreed as a house not to stock up on plastic in the days leading up to the start date. Even though some were tempted to buy a gallon tub of rainbow sherbet, we kept our heads and committed to the project.

That is until July 31st. While Trillium and I have a meeting on the front porch, Shizuko drives up to the house and unloads bags full of plastic products. Her family is coming to town tomorrow and she is preparing to feed them while they are staying with us. We knew families would be a challenge and have agreed not to utilize shame as a tool in Drastic Plastic Reduction. Shizuko decided to put us to the test in these final hours -- walking into the house with gallon plastic jugs of juice and plastic milk containers and huge blocks of plastic wrapped cheese.
Always the rebel.

So even though, I cringed and steamed at the yogurt containers and milk jugs -- families get a free pass. Visiting loved ones get a comfortable, warm, shamefree environment -- full of the plastic products that make us all feel safe, warm and at home.

my life in cellophane

August is a great month to explore lifestyle & to minimize. It's one of those rare months where not much is needed to survive and enjoy the world.
The weather is nice, the sun is shining, ice cream trucks are ding-a-linging. Gardens are exploding, lemonade is abundant & being inside of a store to shop seems anti-adventure.

This month, August 2008, the Ramshackle House will go above and beyond pure enjoyment and summer break laissez-faire. We will challenge our consumer habits, which have gotten quite serious, while proactively embodying our beliefs. We will not buy anything plastic for the entire month. This crew of five is looking to get a clear assessment of our dependence on the petroleum baby, while everyone is committed to not consuming new plastic, some folks will avoid using plastic in all reasonable ways.

As a lover of rigidity, I was originally going to pursue not using plastic at all for the month. But as I began to investigate and notice the world I live in, it became clear that I might not be able to function at the most basic level if not for plastic parts. This computer, key bike components, telephones, the soles of my shoes, light switches, the lenses of my glasses are just a few daily critical plastic pieces of my life. Pervasiveness seems to have made plastic essential, at least irreplaceable.

An even trickier reality is that the more I take in my surroundings, the more I gain clarity that plastic is not inherently a problem -- plastic provides unequaled benefits in terms of flexibility, weight, durability all rolled into one. It's monopoly & mass production that present the problem. This is where I feel uneasy and resentful toward plastic.

Plastic is not black & white, it's complicated. There are benefits at the same time that there are devastating consequences. Which is why Project Plastic has a unique appeal to me -- the nuances of tough choices, the admission of addiction, the complication of need vs distress. This is the value of Project Plastic. Let's get to the bottom of how much we rely on this unsustainable, toxic & critical substance made from petroleum and destined to outlive us all in the middle of a landfill.

The guidelines are simple -- members of the Ramshackle will not purchase anything made of plastic, containing plastic parts, plastic packaging or plastic inerds for the month of August. We won't stock up on plastic items before August but we are willing to use things that we already own that might contain plastic. Plastic is a broad term -- there are entire volumes of books dedicated to the various wonders and incarnations of man-made threaded polymer strands [aka, plastic]. For our purposes, plastic is the obvious, visual, commonly identifiable substance that takes a million different forms.

We've been collecting all of the new plastic we've brought into the house from the month of July. It's not comprehensive -- i threw away too many iced coffee cups to count. But it does give a good sense. We'll also collect all the plastic that we bring in for August to compare.

Here's the fun obstacles that we are facing with Drastic Plastic. Families are coming to town! Moms, dads, sisters and brothers and staying at our house and may or may not be excited about the idea of leaving their water bottles at the door. Many people will be gone for weeks in August, will Drastic Plastic survive on the road and over vacation? Will smokers go to great lengths to get non-plastic encased tobacco or will they be extra moody this month from severe withdrawals?

With drastic plastic there are adventures and drama ahead of us, no doubt.