Ducks 4 in '24

[ducks4you]

Amen to that!

 

[Phaedra]

My limited understanding is that many plastics are difficult/expensive to recycle into useful plastic.

Recycling as waste to fuel seems like it would be more preferable than landfills. The plastic replaces fuel that would otherwise be collected and burned to produce electricity. I have read that plastic can also be burned in steel production.

There are also developing uses in paving roads, replacing or supplementing asphalt.

Steve

True, so far, the recycle program has a very limited outcome. As @digitS' said, 'useful' is the tricky part. Some of them became construction materials, but a lot of them were in fact transferred to other countries and become landfills there. When I visited the plastic and rubber exhibition 2022 in Germany (one of the three major exhibitions), it was a trendy topic, but the supply (recycled plastic) is far more than the demand (what exactly to produce from those recycled plastics - the procedures to remove the 'contaminations' would consume resources and create pollutions, too.)

Plastics are used very widely in all kinds of application. I am not a proponent for plastic, either. However, other alternatives are not necessarily that available, functional, cost-effective enough so we can stop using them. What we can do at the individual level might be constraint, but I believe every effort counts.

 

[ducks4you]

@heirloomgal , I think I should start bringing in my reusable bags when I grocery store shop. I still see many shoppers doing this. It was a "thing" for awhile and it seemed like everybody was doing it.
Now, not so much.
I am sorry that your ALDI's don't stock the same in Canada as they do here. I can buy organic vegetables at mine, and, since Champaign/Urbana/Savoy have now become sister cities, we have 3 ALDI's. I usually hit all 3 when I am looking for Christmas presents like their great Advent Wine Calendar--Advent Beer Calendar is actually more popular, though I have never bought one.
They often have an aisle with seasonal items and I only found one set of canvas baskets that nest, which I gave to middle DD, SIL and GS for Christmas.
THIS Is the closest picture I could find:

ALDI carries cool stuff once...then it's gone! I found ONE set of three canvas baskets, with different evergreen designs on them. IF they carry this again, I will buy a set for myself.
I should have checked right before Halloween, bc that's when they ship.
BTW, I had to tell SIL to NOT buy me the SAMS CLUB Advent hard liquor calendar again, the one with the little bottles people used to get on an airplane. I hate gin, don't like tequila, and the vodka was better off used to strip paint!
ANYWAY, I love canvas, but I don't want to use it outside.

 

[ducks4you]

True, so far, the recycle program has a very limited outcome. As @digitS' said, 'useful' is the tricky part. Some of them became construction materials, but a lot of them were in fact transferred to other countries and become landfills there. When I visited the plastic and rubber exhibition 2022 in Germany (one of the three major exhibitions), it was a trendy topic, but the supply (recycled plastic) is far more than the demand (what exactly to produce from those recycled plastics - the procedures to remove the 'contaminations' would consume resources and create pollutions, too.)

Plastics are used very widely in all kinds of application. I am not a proponent for plastic, either. However, other alternatives are not necessarily that available, functional, cost-effective enough so we can stop using them. What we can do at the individual level might be constraint, but I believe every effort counts.

I would like to know MORE about the efficacy of using recycled plastics! The only application I have seen/heard of, was to be a premolded floor for a shower.
So what IS the truth about what plastics we can recycle. I cheat bc I could just Call my recycler, since I'd be taking them there!

 

[Zeedman]

I hand out a $20 to whatever poor soul is standing at the exit to the supermarket parkinglot, but I know it's a drop in the bucket.

I prefer to hand out food, rather than money which might be spent on drugs or alcohol. In winter weather, I sometimes give someone a hot meal from a fast food place across the street. I don't wish to inadvertently enable or support self-destructive behavior. Sadly, that is often the reason that apparently fit individuals are panhandling, rather than working... and why some homeless will always be homeless.

Plastic grocery bags are admittedly a problem for the environment; but there really are no good options, other than for everyone to use cloth bags. Even then, many of the reusable bags I see are synthetic, and will just take a little longer to break down. Paper bags are problematic (as anyone knows who has ever attempted to carry them to the car in the rain). IMO only reusable, washable cotton cloth bags are a good solution. (Cue "then I have to choose between buying bags, and buying food" )

And of course, choosing between plastic & paper means choosing between killing trees, and killing sea turtles.

But all the hoopla over plastic bags overlooks the real problem - which is the prevalence of plastic in food packaging. Much (or at least some) of that could be replaced by more easily recyclable glass or metal... at greater cost to the consumer. But shrink wrappings have so improved food safety that I don't presently see a good alternative to that. Even cans often have a plastic lining to prevent rust.

All that plastic exposure (literally from cradle to grave) exposes us to chemicals which are absorbed into our bodies. The full health ramifications of that long-term exposure may never be fully understood, and will likely be attributed to other factors... as will other aspects of living in a technological society, such as our constantly-increasing RF exposure.

During my years as a mariner, I observed that nearly all ships at sea just dump their trash over the side, plastic & all. But worse than that, some coastal cities (which I initially typed as 'coastal cuties'

) place trash on barges, which are then dumped far out to sea. The ocean does not discriminate between borders, and it will take a level of international cooperation to solve that pollution which is, IMO, unlikely to happen in today's contentious world.

 

[Zeedman]

Hey, maybe we could solve the plastic bag issue by getting all hotels & institutions to donate their old pillow cases. Bet I could fit a lot of groceries into one of those! Maybe too much (grunt, oh my back).

 

[ducks4you]

BACK TO PLANTS.....PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
I am writing this to myself, you see. Pretty cruel, since I started the useless side quests here!
MY winter houseplants are overwintering in the house, kinda like monarch butterflies move to Mexico, until our weather gets better.
Chrysanthemums last about 3 years in my beds, then they die. I have discovered that you can pick up chrysanthemum plants pretty cheap on clearance, late October, early November, and I bought a yellow, a lavendar, and a brick red chrysanthemum for $1,50/each this Fall.
They were about 5 inches tall and severely potbound. I transplanted all 3 of them, and they were living on the enclosed porch AND doing quite well. I discovered that the yellow one was dried out, so I took a chance, brought it into the kitchen, and kept it well watered. It recovered!
MIL, was passed away in 1998, kept the family aloe plant. It ended up with me and I was keeping it in an upstairs bedroom. It was severely dried out, so I moved it the dining room and kept it on top of a DVD cabinet. It survived but didn't really get enought light.
I moved it last summer to the glass table on the porch and it got sunburned.
Finally, I moved it into the kitchen. I lost a LOT of the original plant, but I think I'll keep it here until the summer.

 

[SPedigrees]

NO, this isn't ME!!!!
I liked this article, and the author reminds us that you need browns to compost in the winter and we don't always add enough.

10 Clever Ideas For Repurposing an Old Christmas Tree

What to do with an old Christmas tree? Anything BUT throw it out. Even though the holidays are over, your tree still has some life left in it. These 10 clever ideas will have you scheming new ways of repurposing a dead or dying Christmas tree for countless uses around your home and garden.

www.gardenbetty.com

I haul my Christmas tree up into our woods and lean it up in a thicket of 3 trees with bird and rodent treats on or around it. In the spring I toss it on one of the many brush piles. Soon the entire little forest will become one big brush pile when the larger of the dying white pines begin to fall. I'll probably hire someone with a chain saw to re-open or keep open my walking path through there.

 

[SPedigrees]

BACK TO PLANTS.....PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!
I am writing this to myself, you see. Pretty cruel, since I started the useless side quests here!
MY winter houseplants are overwintering in the house, kinda like monarch butterflies move to Mexico, until our weather gets better.
Chrysanthemums last about 3 years in my beds, then they die. I have discovered that you can pick up chrysanthemum plants pretty cheap on clearance, late October, early November, and I bought a yellow, a lavendar, and a brick red chrysanthemum for $1,50/each this Fall.
They were about 5 inches tall and severely potbound. I transplanted all 3 of them, and they were living on the enclosed porch AND doing quite well. I discovered that the yellow one was dried out, so I took a chance, brought it into the kitchen, and kept it well watered. It recovered!
MIL, was passed away in 1998, kept the family aloe plant. It ended up with me and I was keeping it in an upstairs bedroom. It was severely dried out, so I moved it the dining room and kept it on top of a DVD cabinet. It survived but didn't really get enought light.
I moved it last summer to the glass table on the porch and it got sunburned.
Finally, I moved it into the kitchen. I lost a LOT of the original plant, but I think I'll keep it here until the summer.View attachment 63229View attachment 63230

The only indoor plants that do well in my house in winter are my rubber tree plant and geraniums rooted in autumn from slips taken from my outdoor plants. The rubber tree is the oldest living thing I own, sort of. What I have now are two clones from clone from clones... from the original plant bought back in 1969. I like to grow a coleus or polkadot plant as a house plant, but I think my house is just too dark and cold for them in winter. They only thrive in summer when I have more sunlight and resulting solar heat.

 

[ducks4you]

I think the only house plant that I can recommend is the snake plant aka mother in law's tongue.
It will clean your air and is a practically care free succulent.