12-11-19: Five Reasons to be Hopeful

December 11, 2019

by drplasticpicker

This is the third post in this weekly series. Five reasons to be Hopeful, has become a favorite part of blogging for me. Every day brings another dire ecological warning. Then when I read other frivolous news stories, I despair thinking why are not others panicking? But then I look back at my Plastic Picking Totals https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/and Donations Page https://drplasticpicker.com/donation-round-up/– and I realize that all I can do is move forward bag by bag, day by day, blogpost by blogpost. This is how things are achieved and I have hope. Eternal hope.

Dr. Plastic Picker Celebrates 100! Our blog celebrates the 100th grocery bagful of ocean plastic pollution collected and our 100th Instagram follower. Since this is a nonmonetized blog, and I’m not interested in fake followers but real like-minded people who are passionate about plastic picking – this is HUGE.
Greta Thunberg Arrives in Madrid: Like millions of world citizens, I have been following this young climate activist and she arrived safely at COP25 Madrid and the international climate talks.
Oahu Bans Single-Use Plastics: Huffington Post reported that the Honolulu City Council passed the strictest single-use plastics ban which includes plastic straws, utensils, and containers made out of polystyrene. Everything in effect by 2022.
Dr. Plastic Picker’s Plans to decrease Mr. Plastic Picker’s Plastic Use: Today I had a management meeting cancelled and ended up working in Mr. Plastic Picker’s office. I have a half completed blogpost about today. It was a really fun day. But we had lunch together at the hospital salad bar. I used a paper plate. He used a single use plastic salad take-out container. He did use a real fork that he has from our home, and I used a plastic spoon I had brought that was reused. Mr. Plastic Picker accepted the reusable water bottle I brought, and thought it might work for his office. Also he is open to me buying a Tiffin or Reusable Salad Container since I told him our old friend Dr. Craig Canapari used one https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-craig-canapari-pediatrician-and-environmentalist-2/. I looked up a company called lunchbots on line, and I’m going to email them tonight and will see if I can’t score two in return for a blog post!
Dr. Plastic Picker Has Piqued some People’s Interest: Our blog has gained some interest among my old residency friends back in the Northeast and physician friends even outside my department. I know it seems silly, but I think I’m influencing folks. My silly-tongue-in-cheek crazy avatar drplasticpicker. I walked around and gifted an old medical school classmate Who Gives A Cr@p Toilet Paper https://drplasticpicker.com/who-gives-a-crp-toilet-paper-and-drplasticpicker-is-not-sure-if-i-got-the-toilet-paper-for-free/. If you are interested in their product, here is the link https://us.whogivesacrap.org/. I didn’t receive anything from their company except a few rolls of toilet paper. But if I can interest a family in the 1% to buy bamboo or recycled toilet paper, than that’s a huge change.

And one of the most treasured parts of this journey, is the loved ones that are going through this with me. My mother is part-proud and part-horrified at my journey. My sister says sometimes I look like a vagrant. But the above stuffed animal I found at the beach, I later rinsed and washed twice with our clothes. He was a beautiful little Beanie Boo pug. My mother, who never takes anything used, wanted it. As I left her one evening, she was holding it in her hand and gently rubbing it against her face. She said, “Do you think a dead person lost it? That would be scary.” I told her, “No. Probably a small child misplaced it, and it washed up just where I was.” With that, I left and my mother was smiling. It’s probably because I’m visiting my parents more often because at their house, I can eat without using any plastic utensils.