Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Buy Nothing Wrapped In Plastic Week: A Change The World Wednesday Challenge (#ctww)

Bubble Stuff
A Plastic Challenge?

This week's Change the World Wednesday Challenge is going to take some preparation to succeed with:
"This week refuse to buy anything which is, or which comes in, plastic. Instead, opt for Eco-friendly items and packaging ... or do without."
This is an interesting challenge. On the face of it, it seems simple but I honestly have no idea how many things I buy typically come wrapped in plastic. Off the top of my head, yogurt would seem to be the biggest challenge, and that puzzles me; ice cream works well in coated cardboard, so why not yogurt? I'll have to check around and se what I can learn.
I'm accustomed to blogging about these challenges after I have accomplished them, but this one I'm writing about now because I need a little help in accomplishing it!
Saturday, at the Mercer Island Thrift Store, someone donated about a dozen bottles of bubble stuff. This came on a good day, because the town festival was going on, and families were coming in and out of the store: a good time to sell bubble stuff! I put a minimal price on each cap, because they weren't going to sell for very much and it was better to get them out the door for whatever revenue we could get (oddly enough, an hour later, several of them had lost their price tags and one had gained an $8 tag. It may be that someone was switching tags, but this is unlikely to work; the cashiers know that not much sells at that price.)
In the context of this challenge, the question is: how do secondhand goods fit in? Is the environmental impact of the plastic already paid for by the first purchaser, or is that rank rationalization?
I don't have a ready answer.

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