I was in Athens, Georgia last weekend for a University of Georgia alumni event. One fun thing about being in a college town is shopping for items unavailable elsewhere. (Metro D.C. is — what? — thirty times the size, but it’s easier to get beer-making supplies in Athens, for instance.)

One such product line is green office supplies, or rather school supplies. I was taken with the recycled paper blue books — dubbed and colored as “green books” — plus recycled-plastic-content pens (I prefer my fountain pen) and corrugated-cardboard ring binders. There was even a aluminum-cased USB stick in all-cardboard packaging. Other things — one I bought and will describe later — too.

Some were marginally more than their non-recycled-content companions; others, like that USB stick, were quite a bit more. Bit it’s nice to have the options and I saw it at every bookstore I visited.

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The District of Columbia and surrounding area is digging out from a pair of blizzards the likes of which have not seen around here in living memory.

Bread was one of the first commodities to disappear — this is a well-known phenomenon, even for modest snows — and the snowfall prevented trucks from restocking. We, however, did not do without. (Indeed, I think we may have had too much, but that’s a problem for another blog.)

In short, I had a nice hand-me-down bread maker and made five two-pound loaves over the course of the blizzards. My recipe uses bread flour, water, powdered milk, wheat gluten, white sugar, salt, oil and yeast.

Water comes from the tap. The flour, milk, sugar and salt come from paper or cardboard packaging. The wheat gluten comes packaged in plastic film within a cardboard box; I suppose I could do without it. The yeast — a bulk package, normally for commercial bakers; I’ve had it for ages in the fridge, transfered to a glass jar — came in a mylar-foil brick, like mass-market coffee. Oil comes in a plastic bottle, though I’m looking to start with canned oil after I’m done.

Really not too much plastic per loaf. Sorry I can’t say the same about calories!

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A truly paperless office, even if desirable, is very hard to organize. Paper is just too useful a product and paper printed quickly becomes paper stored. There are many metal filing tools for those who want to avoid plastic, but these are often packed in plastic or are simply too large or unwieldy for the task.

For this middle ground, I like the cool aesthetics and fiber and metal construction of Hollinger boxes. To me, they’re the visual language of archives, and thus research and storage. They even have boxes for human remains — think archaeology — so one might also be my final, er, storage place.

Until then, I keep manila folders full of files in flip-top boxes. Attractive enough to keep out, and no plastic. I keep rare books and papers in a lidded variety. I’ve had mine for years, but I recall them being shipped in cardboard cartons with kraft paper packing. (And D.C.-ites, one of their two factories is in Fredericksburg, Va. Loco-storage?)

Order them online here.

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The District of Columbia law requiring a fee for disposable bags in food and liquor businesses is reducing the demand for thee bags, even if it irritates some locals.

No official reports yet, but shopkeepers report half the use of disposable bags — quite an accomplishment — per this January 23 article in the Washington Post. Of course, there are naysayers and complainers. But I have a hard time thinking too much D.C. grocery and liquor shopping will move to Maryland or Virginia. Particularly the latter which has a food tax that D.C. doesn’t. And if you can’t remember to bring a bag to pick up your lunch — or eat it on-site — and won’t pay for a bag, then I feel no sympathy when it lands on the sidewalk. Twice. How embarrassing, so much so when adding meaningless “big government” sloganeering to counter it. (Nobody complains about “big government” when the city shuts down a rat-infested eatery, for instance. Why shouldn’t I have the option!)

On the other hand, it’s now psychologically and socially easier to bring my bag — I keep one rolled up in my satchel almost all of the time — to a take-out restaurant (I have featured one in the article as they use sugarcane fiber boxes and biodegradable forks and spoons) or a liquor store.

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Watching NHK World, the Japanese state broadcaster, in English tonight and a news segment noted Takuzo Aida of the University of Tokyo announcing a possible replacement for plastics made mostly of water, clay and organic materials. Potential uses include surgical implants.

New Scientist has details “Smart mud could be the new plastic“

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Today, NPR had a segment (“The Phone Book’s Days Appear Numbered”) about a California bill to make white page directories opt-in, the problems associated with their production and disposal and about the overall decline of the utility of phonebooks. (These are, of course, mostly paper — a valuable resource in its own right — but sometimes they’ve wrapped in plastic.)

A phone book trade group obviously sensing pressure — other state bill have failed, but for how long I wonder — have created an opt-out service. Not so useful, but worth promoting if your goal is to reduce useless giveaways. (Catalog Choice is another.)

Go to www.yellowpagesoptout.com for details.

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I’ve been thinking about reducing plastic use in the office which — after home — is the place it makes the most sense for me and for many others.

I want to point out the obvious: rubber bands are really handy. I use them to bundle papers, including files. I use them to cinch cables — plastic-covered! — to protect them from wear. I use them to affix a note to an odd-sized object. I even use one in place of a wallet.

Being made of rubber, they biodegrade — indeed, how many times have we run across one that’s brittle and about to crack? And they can even be had without plastic packaging. Some are boxed, true, but I get mine from the letter carrier, holding together mail. But I only keep as many as I use. The rest I collect and return. Better, after all to reuse than recycle.

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There’s a touch of heresy floating around the double-edge-blade shaving web: you don’t really need lather to shave. It’s relevant here because double-edge blades can be had without plastic.

Heresy because some of the cachet to double-edge shaving is the equipment — the obvious, but also brushes, mugs, soap, lotions and mirrors — that makes it something of a hobby rather than a dreary daily requisite. And a cozy, masculine indulgence. And the quality of the shave is, in my experience, better than what I used to have with plastic cartridges and canned foam. (Yes, I have a beard but I have an equal surface area that does need shaving: neck and upper cheeks.)

I used to use a (plastic) bottled shaving soap, but wanted to phase that out. Most commercial bar (disc?) shaving soaps are overperfumed or leave me feeling greasy in D.C.’s hard water. Ordinary bar soap is too drying.

Folk legend suggests — I have no reliable citation — Albert Einstein used nothing but water because that — and not the foam — softens whiskers. That’s right. I shave right out of the shower, or in a pinch after softening my face with a hot towel. I use the washcloth to keep my face wet and rinse my blade frequently. I cut myself no more than before (that is, infrequently) and clean up is, of course, much easier.

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The District of Columbia’s shopping bag law begins today, and I’ve already been out to pick up a few necessities, cloth bags in tow.

Since I’ve heard some misinformation, I thought I would share some details about the new law.

• The financial impact statement for the bill compares Washington, D.C. to Seattle, Washington, which went though a similar process. From their stats, D.C. uses about 360 million plastic bags a year — in a jurisdiction of about 600,000 people — with about three-quarters being used in the stores affected by this law. The statement projects that by fiscal year 2013, there should be a 80% reduction in disposable bag use.
• This law effects the approximately 4,000 D.C. food retail establishments, which includes groceries, liquor and drug stores.
• Disposable paper bags used in restaurants are exempt from the legislation.
• There is, alas, only one enforcement officer budgeted for the law. The first offense fine is probably $100.
• It was passed by the D.C. Council unanimously.
• If you carry your own bag, not only will you not be charged the fee, but D.C. gives retailers an incentive to offer you a nickle rebate.

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Surely someone will call the five-cent fee on disposable bags a Bagocolypse, but I think it’s a great policy for the environment and against waste. And it starts January 1.

Intrepid local affairs and government blogger David Alpert has written today about the policy and where free reusable bags may be had.

More about this topic later.

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