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THE GREEN KEYS TOUR – Visionary Eco-Pianist FRANK HORVAT Live

July 22, 2013

10 April 2010 — Life Without Plastic is thrilled to be a sponsor for virtuoso eco-musician Frank Horvat‘s Green Keys Tourof solo piano performances across Canada. And what makes an ‘eco-musician’, you ask? According to Frank it means the musician is carrying on their professional activities in a sustainable way and minimizing their carbon footprint. Take a look at all the ways Frank is doing this on The Green(ing) Musician page of his website. The tour will raise funds for the Earth and promote Frank’s latest CD – A Little Dark Music – of original piano compositions, which explore “real world themes like the environment, poverty and Sept 11. Despite the somewhat sombre and serious subject matter, A Little Dark Music attempts to bring peace, joy and contentment to its listeners.

website preview

The Plastic Industry is Rejoicing Over Its Conquest of our Daily Lives

July 22, 2013

Check out this post on a website called “World Plastic Industry”. It describes how plastic has become indispensable in our daily lives… starting with your mobile phone and alarm clock, it goes through everything we use on a daily basis including packaging and building materials. It makes me feel so sad to realize that we have been won over with subtle but durable changes to our lifestyles that now seem irreversible.  Irreversible because in some cases, we have completely lost the incentives to create non-plastic alternatives because the whole infrastructure has changed to accommodate plastic-based solutions. One good example comes from the packaging industry.  Plastic is now being recognized as the only “hygienic” way of packaging take-out food. When I approached a local restaurant in my town to offer some reusable stainless steel containers for take out food, they decided to pass because they could not be certain people will clean their containers properly, and they do not want to take responsibility for bacteria that could eventually contaminate the food.

Plastic — A Key Ingredient to Product Obsolescence

July 16, 2013

2 August 2009 — Have you seen The Story of Stuff? It is a powerful website with a very simple message about reducing our consumption. One part that struck me the most is when Annie Leonard talks about how obsolescence is purposely inserted into the design of products so that they break quickly and you have to buy a new one within a few years. Remember your grand-mother’s blender that would not break, or that heavy fridge that lasted forever? Soon corporations realized that it was not a good long term strategy to build products to last, they needed their customers to keep buying. There needed to be some weaker parts inserted into the design to make the product break after a set number of years, thereby re-starting the consumption wheel.  Plastic plays that role… 

Help Stop Plastic in the Sea – Support the Algalita JUNKride

July 16, 2013

12 April 2009 — It outnumbers surface plankton by 6 to 1 in parts of the world’s oceans, including the North Pacific.  It suffocates sea turtles from the inside out after they have ingested it thinking it is food.  It releases numerous toxic synthetic chemicals into the oceans.  Yes, plastic. 

If plastic pollution in the oceans is an issue that interests you or one you don’t know anything about, I would strongly suggest checking out the website of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation based in Long Beach, California.  The innovative studies being done by Captain Charles Moore and his committed team place them at the vanguard of marine pollution research – and the results they regularly document are alarmingly eye-opening. 

Our Plastic Bag Free Town Initiative Getting some Local Attention

July 16, 2013

20 March 2009 — I have already mentioned that our little village of Wakefield Quebec started a community-based group to try and eliminate the use of plastic bags. Our goal is to launch a pilot project in May that would involve generating a lot of information aimed at customers to encourage them to reduce their consumption of plastic bags. We want the movement to come from customers rather than retailers who would have to force consumers into paying for the bags. So our town newspaper just published an article featuring us on the cover page, arm wrestling over plastic and paper bags.

Think Beyond Plastic 2013: Innovation and Beyond in Berkeley

July 14, 2013

24 June 2013 — What is innovation? To me it’s all about creative new change – creating an idea or product or process that changes and enhances the world in a new way. I think of it instinctively with a positive, world-bettering filter. Innovation is important because it can lead to new, positive, disruptive change. Fast. And in the world of plastic pollution – i.e., our shared world, because the plastic waste is now everywhere – new, positive, disruptive change cannot come fast enough.

Just over a week ago, I had the opportunity and privilege to attend the inaugural – and now to be annual – Think Beyond Plastic (TBP) Innovation Competition and Conference, held in Berkeley, California at the gorgeous and green David Brower Center on June 13-14, 2013. That coloured light bulb to my right is the TBP logo symbol, and is itself a visually delightful and innovative take on the light bulb – a perfect representation of the new rays of light and ideas unveiled last week and now radiating all over the world. The purpose of the competition and conference was to find and highlight disruptive solutions to the global plastic pollution crisis. Life Without Plastic was honoured to be a sponsor and enthusiastic supporter of TBP.

pile of plastic bags

Green Festival Fun and Connections

July 3, 2013

I’m now back in Wakefield and very much into the swing of daily life after an invigorating few days in San Francisco for the Green America Green Business Conference and Green Festival. I love the laid back and friendly energy of San Fran. Heck, I think I even left some of my heart there.

In my previous blog posts about this trip I’ve talked a bit about my travels to the city, the city itself, a few of the neat folks and companies I met, and some tidbits from conference presentations. In this final trip missive, I need to tell you about the fun fun time I had on my final day while taking in the Green Festival.