November 2, 2019

by drplasticpicker

It has been a busy few days with being out of town and catching up with normal work and family responsibilities, but I took a vacation day since the kids were off due to one of those random Professional Developmental Days. I was able to leave for my quick jog to the shore, and spent 45 minutes wandering along the coastline since there was no drop-off this morning. Midway along my walk with only 1/3 bag full, I spied something I had never seen before!

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October 31, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I wanted to explain the reasoning for this series of post on product reviews. Sometimes in this crazy world of rising emissions and big money politics, even a pediatrician feels powerless. Well now as drplasticpicker I’m taking my power back! I can choose to spend my leisure time helping the environment by picking up plastic. And also I can choose how I spend money. We all spend money. I choose to spend less, but I figure every dollar I deploy into the economy I can either lessen my environmental impact or make a positive environmental impact. Case in point was Halloween. I chose to deploy $37 to our local Goodwill buying reused rather than new low quality plastic costumes at the local Halloween Spirit Store. I imagine myself as an invisible drplasticpicker carbon sink – sucking up the carbon in the air and freeing the earth and her children!

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October 30, 2019

by drplasticpicker

It’s a scary time of year tomorrow! It’s scary for children’s teeth from the sugar, for their circadian rhythms due to staying up late trick-o-treating, and for the earth! Most Halloween candy comes wrapped in plastic, and many new Halloween costumes are made of plastic.  This is my attempt to reduce the plastic consumption this Halloween.  I have 5 things that are under my semi-control this Halloween. Those 5 things are: what kind of treats we are handing out, what my contribution to the office party will be, my costume, my middle-schooler’s costume, and my high school son’s costume.  This is so far how we have done.

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October 29, 2019

by drplasticpicker

Hello dear friends! Drplasticpicker and Dr. Dear Friend spent our last evening in New Orleans walking along the banks of the great Mississippi River. As you know, the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference is in New Orleans this year. We had finished attending at least 6 hours of lectures, so we meandered from the New Orleans Convention Center to Jackson Square and the famous Cafe Du Monde. We were looking for beignets and chicory coffee!

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October 27, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I am lucky to be part of a fun office with like-minded pediatricians, nurses and back-office support staff. We work together. Share meals together. Celebrate birthdays and each others’ big milestones. Drplasticpicker’s office friends wanted to do an ocean beach cleanup in order to bond and help the earth together! I am excited about posting the results of our group clean-up which will be next weekend.

In this blog post, I will describe the 10 steps it took to organize the office beach clean up.

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October 27, 2019

by drplasticpicker

I am having a wonderful time at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition 2019 which is in New Orleans. This is proof that drplasticpicker is a real-life board certified pediatrician and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. But as drplasticpicker, how can I participate in these conferences and still try to use less plastic? I am traveling with my 3 clinic friends, and they are on board to try to reduce our plastic use while learning and having a good time eating in New Orleans.

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October 26, 2019

by drplasticpicker

One of the benefits of my new hobby, is that single use plastic bags are slowly disappearing around me!  I am not a purist by any measure. I spend about anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour a day either thinking about the environment or plastic picking.  It is possible to do beach clean-ups zero-waste with gardening gloves and large plastic buckets.  Maybe at some point I will get there.  But right now I need to make it easy and part of my day. I also need to make sure I don’t get sick from picking up these items. 

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