Two small things to write about.

The first are microplastics, something I only recently had the mind space to think about. I say this because the world of plastic is a lot to take in. The vast number of problems and pitfalls, and then how to begin eliminating them from every facet of your life. Enough to fill a brain space and drive you bonkers.

Going on year 4 I’ve finally started to deal with clothing. Because 1) I said I would, 2) wearing plastic seems off when natural materials feel smell and look better, 3) my drooly new human sucks on my clothing when I hold him, and 4) because poly materials shed mini mini threads of plastic into our waters via laundry water. Someone recently told me that >1900 micro threads are released with each load of laundry.

Gross you say, but so what?! Well, do you eat e.g. shellfish? The little buggers filter feed and hence suck up all the micro bits around them. Then we eat them and said bits. It’s not just laundry bits of course, but other microplastics from various other sources. Mega gross, which is one reason I avoid shellfish. This my friends breaks my heart because the seas’ bounty is of utmost value to our stupid species.

“What, why don’t you like upcycling Taina?!” We’ll it’s all fine and dandy but don’t view it as the ultimate solution. Take fleece made of plastic bottles. It all ends up in the sea, you see. But you don’t, ’cause they’re so small.

I mentioned the other small thing already. It is my 3 month old son-love-of-my-life. People always warned me plastic free would be difficult with a wee one. So far, it is not. I’m not perfect but what I can say is that simple works. All these crazy baby products, accessories, gidgets and gadgets totally unnecessary! They are just marketed to us up the ying yang before the guy even comes out of there. I almost succumbed myself walking into a baby store and had to check myself. No, he does not need the poly-everything cutesy owl hangy thing, when he is just as entertained by a homemade jellyfish mobile made of wool and sticks, which used to have whales until the dogs ate half of it, and which still didn’t seem to lose its entertainment value. Because I don’t want my son to eventually call me a bunk enviromom, I did recently splurge on an organic teddy made of cotton and wool. No noxious contents and the wool retains the smell of home hence soothing the baby.

You’d be surprised how many “organic” or “all natural” stuffies are filled with plastic. Just read the labels carefully. While most gifts we’ve received have been well researched, we did get one dog stuffed with…NURDLES!! Ie pre production plastic pellets that litter every beach out there. Horror. There is nothing cute or cuddly about plastic.

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