The Great Plastic Vortex in Our Souls!

There is a terrible place in the ocean. A place where all the trash from all over the world is collected by the currents and floats there killing ocean life and poisoning the food chain. As the above drawing depicts, plastic out numbers plankton and sea life in our oceans by 6:1 in some areas. Plastic is toxic and takes centuries to break down (if ever...)

The exact size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is unknown, but it is estimated to be as small as Texas and as large as the continental United States and contains approximately 3.5 million tons of trash. Not surprising given that the average American produces around 4.4lbs of trash per day! (And after seeing the amount of plastic packaging produced in Asia, I don't even want to know what the average is there!)

There are a handful of research groups out there trying to solve the problem of clean-up and reusing the plastic like Project Kensai, the Environmental Cleanup Coalition, the Ocean Conservancy, the JUNK raft project, among others. But the only real solution is to stop the contamination at the source...stop using and buying and making plastic!! OMG!! This is probably the most depressing thing I have ever heard in my life. Not to mention the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that is said to be much worse than the Exxon Valdez. At least with the oil spill we can look to the large oil companies to blame, but this Great Floating Island of Waste is all OUR fault!

But How??

Every time we litter, every time we don't recycle, every time we purchase something plastic, or use a plastic bag instead of a reusable one, we are contributing to this massive gyre of trash growing and killing in the ocean. Recently, it was discovered that there is another Plastic Patch in the Atlantic Ocean. And who knows how many more??

What can we do? We can think about what we buy and think about what we throw away, maybe we can all bring our waste rate down to zero.

Below is a video about the Pacific Plastic Patch. It's depressing and eye-opening. I hope you will watch it.

There are some solutions and I think that we can follow them and help decrease the surplus plastic population!

Ideas from this website.

1. Go to any store and try to buy only products that are not made from, packaged with, or labeled with any kind of plastic. Most plastics do not have a recovery plan.

Our idea: We are saving all non-recoverable plastic over the next few weeks or months and using it to make a huge environmental art project. That includes bottle caps, thin plastic wrap, plastic packaging from fruits and veggies, etc.

2. Bring your own containers. Do not use plastic cups, bottles, bags, etc if you have your own reusable items. Just carry around a reusable bag with reusable items--even silverware/chopsticks, etc and inspire others to do the same.

3. Seek legislation to ban or put fees on these dangerous and deadly products. Current recovery and recycling methods are inadequate, but think about where we were even ten or twenty years ago, now most cities have a required recycling program. If companies are forced to take responsibility for recovering and reusing products from consumers after use (through bans and fees) they will make more durable products, create less waste, and reduce the financial burden on cities and taxpayers paying to reduce that waste. Why should we pay for the mess that these companies make??

Example: Concord, MA has placed a ban on bottled water starting in 2011. Reducing the amount of plastic we consume also reduces the amount of oil we consume. We have all seen the catastrophic effects of off-shore drilling. Imagine a world where oil drilling was rendered unnecessary.

4. Invent new products and cultivate an attitude to work toward a more sustainable world and support communities that demand better alternatives to waste. The effort leads to a society where the concept of waste has no place.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. And the solutions proposed are some things we can actually do to reduce waste.

Here are some original illustrations by Cloud expressing our feelings about the Great Plastic Vortex:

Peace,

Phoenix and Cloud

Our All Knowing, All Seeing Compost Heap!

We are starting a garden in our luscious backyard! We've already got pots and pots of seedlings sitting around the house and soon they will fill the yard and then later our bellies with the yummy veggies and fruits that we can grow!

We are also making our own soil from the compost we collect in our kitchen. We are sort of learning as we go, but here's what I know so far:

Use kitchen debris like fruits, veggies, egg shells, coffee grounds, napkins, tissue, small bits of paper, hair, sawdust, flowers, and tea bags.

Avoid things like cooked or baked food, oil, rice, pasta, bread, plastic stickers on fruit and veggie labels, tea bag staples.

Make a big pile and add some dirt or grass clippings, sawdust, wood chips, or manure and turn every three to four days. We keep adding more kitchen goo, so we have yet to make use of the soil, but we plan to make another pile so we can make sure one will turn to soil faster while the other pile can keep growing.

If the pile gets too dry, we add water, manure, or other high-nitrogen materials. If the pile gets to wet, we add more shredded paper, sawdust, or other high-carbon materials.

As long as we keep meat and baked food out of the pile animals will not visit. The bugs that visit are helping with the decomposition. We've even had a few worms join in the decomposing party.

Unfortunately, compost stinks (especially when it first gets started) and the neighbors are not very nice about it...though I believe they can't really smell it except when they pass our yard to get to the gated parking lot next door. One evil neighbor went so far as to pour paint into our compost heap one night after I told him we weren't going to move it away from the fence. What a jerk! Fortunately, the paint did not get into the main part of the compost and we ended up moving it out of paint's reach just in case.

So, once the weather gets consistently nice, we will begin our outside planting projects and hopefully by then we will have some compost that has turned to good planting soil. YAY!

What is a Freegan?

A lot of people ask me: What is it like to be a freegan? And I would have to say, I really don't know. I am not a true freegan, though I do believe in many of the principles of freeganism. For me, getting things for free is not only a matter of principle but of necessity. And now that I have tasted the sweet freegan life, I don't think I can ever go back.

According to wikipedia, Freeganism is an anti-consumerist lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on "limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources."

And this is from an article called "How Freegans Work":

Freegans are Dumpster divers who rescue furniture, clothes, household items and even food cast off by others. Freegans aren't homeless; in fact, most could easily afford to buy their own food. They've instead chosen to live what they believe is an ethical, unadulterated lifestyle and disassociate themselves from capitalism and consumerism.

The word freegan is a combination of "free" -- as in it's free because you found it in a dumpster -- and vegan "one who abstains from all animal products." Not all freegans are strict vegans or vegetarians, however. Some would rather eat found meat, dairy and eggs than let food go to waste.

For us here at the Alamo, we rescue food, furniture, bikes, granny carts, books, and other household items from dumpsters, curbsides, and off craigslist free listings. All these things we reuse and recycle. Some of it we even sell back into the free market! Crazy, huh?

Personally, I don't even know how much I have saved by not buying groceries for the past four months--perhaps hundreds of dollars. And I believe that there is really no point in buying things when there is perfectly good stuff sitting right there in the dumpsters just waiting to sit an a landfill forever.

With all the waste that Americans produce, I see freeganism as a great way to make a tiny dent in the massive mess we are getting ourselves into for the environment. It's also a great way to save money on things you would normally have to buy. And now you can use that money to do cooler things like travel or go see a play, or something.

I'm not as hardcore as some of the freegans I've met, but it's been a dream of mine ever since I first heard the word and read the wiki-article about four years ago, to dig through trash. And now, my dreams have come true. Thanks New York!

Chai of the Tiger

This morning instead of my usual coffee boost, I decided to get Chai-ed up! I have recently purchased some very expensive tea. It's the sort of thing you can do when you get 99% of your groceries for free. I have been search for ways to make the perfect cup of chai tea and I think I finally may have arrived.

2 pinches of Mandarin Chai Tea (or a tea bag full of your favorite chai blend)

2 cloves

2 big dashes of black pepper

2 big dashes of cayenne pepper

a splash of milk (soy, almond, cow, whatever)

a splash of sweetener (stevia, agave, honey, or as a last resort, sugar)

Boil the water in a tea pot or other pot. Put the tea plus spices in the cup. Pour the boiling water in the cup and let steep for 3-4 minutes. Take out the tea bag/leaves and add the milk and sweetener. Enjoy. It's soooooo goood!

We also enjoyed a cup of ginger tea today as well.

Take a chuck of fresh, peeled ginger and boil it in a pot of water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze some fresh lemon juice and add a dash of cayenne pepper and a good bit of honey and you've got yourself a great drink for fighting the colds that come with this insane "spring" weather.

The Phoenix and the Catweazle

Last night I had my first true bohemian NYC experience. The Catweazle Club holds bi-weekly evenings of open mic for local folk music, art, poetry, and more at a Lower East Village gallery, A Gathering of the Tribes. The Catweazle Club was founded in Oxford, England about 15 years ago and features local talent and a friendly audience. It has been aired on the BBC for years as well and has even started up in London. This year marks the club's NYC debut and last night was the 4th ever Catweazle NYC event.

Phoenix and Cloud were there to enjoy the magic, music, and cheap beer. Performers get in for free so I dusted off my un-calloused guitar fingers and pulled out the only song I still have memorized from my former coffeehouse days. I was a little intimidated by the talent, but decided to toss my hat in the ring anyway. Who knows, maybe this will finally get me to play the guitar again...

The hosts were generous and kind. The gallery curator made a compelling speech for the importance of local art in the community and the music spoke for itself, really. In fact, listening to that kind of music while sitting on the floor in an art gallery in the Lower East Village of NYC, really makes you think that you can change the world with music. Not one of the performers lacked heart, soul, or talent. There is something to be said for a group that truly fosters local folk talent and community in a giant metropolis like New York.

There were many talented acts from Dave Matthews Band types to Bob Dylan types to that girl who wrote the songs for Juno-types, brother and sister duos, twelve string guitar fingerpicking to die for, and some of the best folk artists in the world sitting together and enjoying music and each other. Below is just a taste of what the evening was like.

This is me playing at the open mic portion of the show. I borrowed the guitar and haven't played in public for about three years!! But performers get in for free...w00t!

This is Chris (one of the hosts) and some other girl named Anna. They were really good. Chris lives in Cloud's former house.

The second of the ukelelers. I liked her more than the first. She played and sang with Cal (the other host) in a song that I am not quite sure of the words...Sealion??

These guys were the headliners of the evening--and rightfully so. They were AWESOME!!

Papa-Pa-Papaya!

Last night we gleaned from the dumpsters of love and today we taste the fruits of our efforts--literally! Papaya salad!! Yum! Yum! YUM!

Ingredients:

1/2 large Papaya
1 Valencia Orange
5 big Strawberries
fresh squeezed lemon and lime juice (1/2 of each)
dash of Cayenne pepper
splash of grapeseed oil
lightly roasted raw sesame seeds

Then we made a Pineapple/Papaya/Pomegranate Smoothie!!

1/2 large Pineapple
1/2 large Papaya
1/2 banana
1 large strawberry
handful of Pomegranate seeds
handful Maca Powder
pinch of sesame seeds
splash of flaxseed oil
handful of local bee pollen
splash of Agave nectar (to sweeten)
dash of sea salt
2 dashes of ground Cayenne pepper

SCOBY Doobie doo! Kombucha!

Here at the Alamo, we are making Kombucha tea which is (according to Wikipedia) "a fermented tea that is imbibed for medicinal purposes."

Basically, you take a big mushroom pancake known by the acronym: SCOBY (Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) and drop it in a vat of cold brewed tea (any flavor) and leave it in a dark, musty place (our pantry) for about a month. The original SCOBY, or Mother Mushroom, ferments the tea and gives birth to a "baby SCOBY" which you can then use to make a new batch of Kombucha.

In Chinese, Kombucha is called hongchajun 红茶菌 (literally: "red tea fungus/mushroom"), hongchagu 红茶菇 ("red tea mushroom"), or chameijun 茶霉菌 ("tea mold"). Sounds delicious right??

Well, it tastes like vinegar, but is strangely addictive... AND it has all kinds of medicinal properties (not approved by the FDA). In fact, during the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) it was thought to be "a beverage with magical powers enabling people to live forever". So hopefully, that works out for us...

Actual health benefits are disputable but some claims include: cancer-curing, increased energy, sharper eyesight, better skin, and liver detox. Our first batch was ready to drink last night so here we have pictures of the process of taking the baby from the Mother Mushroom and making more magical mold tea!

You'll notice that Lemur is wearing an "Ironman" mask. That is not to protect his identity, it's just something we do here at the Alamo.

Peace,
Phoenix and Cloud