Plastics Crisis – Miscellaneous thoughts

There is a lot about microplastics in the news; I’ve added some of the articles to my Gleanings posts. Microplastics are an overwhelming challenge to every living thing…and thus an overwhelming challenge to us. It is hard to find truly effective means to do something about them – to reduce their prevalence in our lives and in our broader environment. The actions I have taken so far seem small but maybe they are a place to start….there need to be bigger actions to make a difference. In this post I in including some of my thoughts over the past few weeks…as I search for the path beyond changes I can make to reduce microplastics (somewhat) in my own life.

• Plastics are not part of any heritage…they are too new for that. They are damaging our environment in ways that degrades our health slowly. By the time we think of plastics as part of our heritage, it might be too late to stop our decline as a species.  

• It is time that we realize that there is a price for plastics’ convenience in our lives that we are just now beginning to pay.

• Hotels use plastic glasses in their rooms now….wrapped in more plastic. Not that long ago they were glass. Ice buckets are plastic and there is a plastic bag liner. We assume that the plastic makes it ‘clean’ but is that true?

• The plastic pots the small plants were purchased in were very flimsy. They cracked as I flexed them to get the plants out as I planted the seedlings into my yard. They are another source of single use plastic.

• Spaghetti sauce is easy to find in glass jars…unlike a lot of other foods. It seems not that long ago that it was easy to find mustard and lemon juice in glass. Not anymore.

• Why aren’t cosmetic companies advertising products that are free of microplastics/endocrine disruptors?

• Why aren’t retailers demanding less plastic packaging particularly when it adds little or no value. For example: multiple plastic layers around larger packages of toilet paper, the plastic insert in tissue boxes that has to be removed before the cardboard can be recycled, and the little window in paper bags of cookies that makes that bag unrecyclable.

When I bring up microplastics in conversation, everyone seems somewhat aware of the problem, and many are as alarmed as I am. At the same time, everyone seems to be anxious but doesn’t know what to do. There appears to be no leadership from any level of government. Maybe the pervasiveness of microplastics puts them into a new category of issues that our modern cultures do not know how to address…and that is resulting in no action. Climate change is another such issue and the experience to date has been frustrating to everyone. Again – the default seems to be to forge ahead toward a dystopian future because the magnitude of the issue is too overwhelming.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

Transition Trips to Carrollton TX

I’ve now made two trips to Texas since the beginning of the year and am planning a third. They are very different than before my parents moved to an assisted living group home.

• I am not staying at their home. On the first trip, I stayed at a hotel relatively close to their group home. The second trip I stayed with my niece. The hotel turned out to be high stress because the deadbolt on my room was jammed (i.e. the chain was the only extra locking on the door). Staying with my niece was low stress for me but probably high stress for her.

• Visits with my parents were short…not 24/7 like previously. I anticipated that change…but it still feels odd…like I am missing a lot. At the same time, I am much less anxious about how they are doing when me or my sisters are not there.

• My sisters and I worked to get the house cleaned out and listed for sale. This is the first time I’ve been guiding the sale of a house that is not my own…and I am glad that the technology is there to allow for me to do part of it remotely. We got 2 full price offers on the 1st day it was on the market and have accepted one of them. We still have the garage and storage sheds to clear. We have the milestone of the closing by the end of the month. There is still the physical and emotional work of cleaning out items collected over my parents’ lives that they no longer need. The unseasonably warm weather has helped.

• I stopped at Hagerman once…went to Josey Ranch twice…but didn’t spend as much time there. I stopped at a greenway park I hadn’t noticed before on the second trip. The places I get out into nature in Texas are going to be changing to parks closer to where my parents are living now…in Dallas rather than Carrollton.

• We had joked about observing the 4/8 eclipse from my parents’ driveway…but the house will that theirs by that time. I am realizing how many family events centered on the location over the past 30+ years. It will feel strange to not go there anymore.

The transition is happening so quickly with their move to assisted living in early January and the sale of their home finalized at the end of February. It is hard emotionally and physically, but it is also not a prolonged agony. My sisters and I are looking forward to a new normal in March!

Anticipated Changes in 2024

I don’t make resolutions anymore – but I do think about what I anticipate being different in the coming year.

Some changes are anticipated by situations I already recognize:

My parents are now in an assisted living group home rather than their own home. I will still travel to the Dallas are visit them at least monthly as I have for the past few years, but the trips will take 2 days rather than 8.

There will be a flurry of activity to see the total eclipse on April 8th. It could be a day trip if the weather is good or a three-day trip to someplace where the skies are clear.

My husband and I are ready to start attending birding festivals again…secure enough in the mostly outdoor venues and able to mask for the short times in crowded/enclosed spaces. We’ve registered for one in February already (the one we registered for last December was overcome by my need to stay in Carrollton).

A flurry of appointments with various doctors since I put off appointments for the last months of 2023.

Memberships to the zoo and a big cat sanctuary we got as gifts….motivating us to visit those places more frequently.

Other changes are about intention…and have the closest relationship to annual ‘resolutions:’

I intend to get intensity minutes (as measured by my Garmin watch) from ‘power walking’ in my neighborhood during the times I am not mowing the yard (and getting intensity minutes that way).

My husband suggested some core strengthening exercises to help my back (which aches too often). Maybe it will help me ‘shape up’ in other ways too.

I will donate, recycle, or trash items that I don’t need. Moving my parents to assisted living has prompted me to downsize stuff more than ever before! I am thinking more about what I truly need and/or value rather than just letting items accumulate over time.