The adventure continues. Don't miss the the introduction, day one, or day two of plastic-free-ness.

On Wednesday morning, I woke up a few minutes earlier than usual, in time to have a (ceramic) cup of coffee at home. (Yes, the bright-yellow lid of my tin of Café Bustelo is plastic. One slap on the wrist for me.) I’m enjoying this two-day-old habit, though. It’s nicer to drink it at home than try to balance a paper cup or travel mug while walking down the street.

Lunch and Compost

I arrived at work with my new accoutrements: a ceramic bowl and a full set of silverware. They will live in the filing cabinet at my work station. I like having them here; it makes me feel more dignified, more Euro. I also brought snacks in my new mason jars. They look adorable—like baby food for grown-ups. Which kind of goes against the “dignified” thing, but whatever. The squat, wide-mouthed mason jar is just right for a side dish-sized portion.

Ta-da! I was meeting an out-of-town friend for lunch. We hit up the ‘Wichcraft stand in Bryant Park. I was hoping for only paper packaging and luckily, my hopes were not thwarted. I opted for nothing to drink but had I been thirstier, Limonata was available in an aluminum can. My friend and I talked about, what else, plastic and garbage. He lives in the mythical land of the Bay Area, where San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom signed a mandatory composting provision for homes and businesses into law this June. “Not every restaurant has a composting bin,” my friend said, “but usually if you walk down the street, you’ll be able to find one.” This sounded absolutely delightful to me.

The compost issue came up in the context of bio-plastic, which intrigues me. Every now and then I am served something in a plastic-looking cup that, upon closer inspection, claims to be made of corn or something similar. I’ve read, though, that bio-plastic only biodegrades under certain conditions, such as ample exposure to light or water, which it is unlikely to encounter in a landfill (see this article on Slate for a good discussion of bio-plastic and biodegradation). The upshot may be that if you throw a bio-plastic cup into the regular garbage and it ends up in a landfill, it’s not likely to break down much more than a regular plastic cup (newspapers and even heads of lettuce tend not to break down in landfills, either—they’re too dark and dry. Despite knowing this, I stubbornly still feel better about bio-plastic than regular plastic).

But in the context of a set-up like San Francisco’s, where trash is composted, bio-plastic cups and other items make good sense. I’m trying to imagine now how publicly-available composting could fit into the fabric of New York City. (There are those who point out that composting releases the carbon that’s sequestered in the things composted, and that it’s not therefore a carbon-neutral activity. I think that’s an interesting point, and yet I’m far from convinced that it’s better to tuck garbage away in a landfill than it is to let it rot, particularly if the resulting compost would be used for something. Any environmental scientists in the house who care to chime in?)

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