Keepin' it glassy (Week 36)
"I've got one word for you, Benjamin: plastics." Even way back in 1967, when Mr. Maguire pulled Benjamin Braddock aside and shared his famous wisdom in The Graduate, plastics already had a bad rap. It was codespeak for easy, lazy access to wealth - and also to the kind of people Dustin Hoffman's character was trying desperately to avoid. Fast forward 52 years, and plastic is now Public Enemy #1. We shoulda seen it coming. We shoulda known it would overwhelm our landfills, clog our oceans and strangle baby dolphins. Scientists now say that, within 5 years, there could be 1 ton of plastic for every 3 tons of fish in the ocean. We all share the collective guilt of that, and I am no better than the next guy. So here we are, in a world filled to bursting with this lousy stuff. But just trying doing without it. Try going a full week with not a scrap of it. I did! Here in Victoria, we tried to ban single-use plastic shopping bags, but that attempt failed in court...