Category: Plastic Picking Totals

by drplasticpicker

Even green “friends” can be unkind. What does it mean when someone tells you “You clearly have energy” with a certain tone of voice and expression? I was at an HMO Green Team meeting and I heard those words. I know we have competing pressures on our time, but my friends and I were there essentially on our free time. This is not one of our paid positions. And this particular person is paid to do this. It’s part of their job description. Does it mean “you clearly have energy, but lack clarity.” “You clearly have energy, but lack authority.” “You clearly have energy, buy lack direction.” “You clearly have energy, but are unable to articulate.” I know in my heart that is not what that person meant, but in my mind knowing that comment was directed at me who was the most senior woman leader there in that particular tone of voice – affected me. It’s funny how these running dialouges we probably all have in our head and we all bring our own particular histories to these make-believe scripts.

But my friends were there, and the meeting was productive and I’ve know been able to vent some of my frustrations here on the blog. Meetings and committees are all difficult. But we moved the work forward by stating our case that we needed some help, and we’ll move forward with the other person assigned to our work.

So here I am back on the blog, and dear reader – thank you. I haven’t posted as much the last month but the traffic has been steadily rising still. I can’t believe I’m at 596 bags of plastic pollution averted! Salvaged 1810 items from landfill. Click here to see my totals page! https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/

November 2021 Plastic Picking Totals! 21 bags and 46 items!

Honestly every month I come back to the blog and I know I’ve trudged forward. I’ve trudged forward toward my goal of 1000 bags (wow 596 bags is a lot!). And I’m trudged forward in my efforts to save the planet. I irritated some people yesterday at a meeting, and they irritated me back. But I know they are green friends and even green friends that say non-ideal things want to save this earth. And then I had a fun and very impactful meeting with AAP Climate Change and Health friends from our new super-cool committee (State Government Affairs!!!) and we discussed some upcoming legislative stances we want to take. We divided up the work and went forward on more climate work.

It’s so important to fill up your earth-agent/green super hero tank with goodness. yesterday was watching some K-dramas and practicing my Korean. It was silly but fun. I’m drinking matcha green tea soy latte, and I’m looking outside our wet backyard with the rainbarrels having caught as much rain from the sky as possible. I’m happy this morning because mother nature watered the urban rooftop garden, watered the backyard container garden, watered our front garden, watered the HMO parking garage succulent garden, and she’s working so hard. She’s working to cleanse the world and heal. For me this is a spiritual journey as well as a practical one. It’s practical because I want a liveable planet for all our children. But it’s spiritual because I know we are part of this larger cosmic battle between inaction and action, hopelessness and hope, disinterest and attention, fatigue and energy, good and evil. You have to choose which side you will be on. I choose the light. I choose hope. I choose action. So maybe when that person said “You clearly have energy” she saw my light. Please dear readers and go forth and be part of the light. The darkness is coming. It threatens to overwhelm us, but you can choose the light.

November 14, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m still not sure how and why it all happened. I haven’t let my virtual and real friends in California know yet, but I will soon. I did tell my friends at the office and the Rady’s residents who were rotating with us. When a big climate and health responsibility and opportunity descends upon me, my automatic reaction is to reach out for help. I reach out to those I think can help me complete the task the best, and those that I can trust. I’ve reached out already to one of the upcoming Rady’s chief residents, and she has agreed to help and is uniquely qualified. I know I can reach out to my friend Dr. Dan Spencer, and I think he will likely be the other person who can help. But I’m just letting it soak in and trying to sort out how I’m going to make sure I give this opportunity/responsibility that has been entrusted to me – and do what is best for the earth and for the children that we are responsible for. Because all of this is for them. We want to give our children and our grandchildren a shot at a liveable planet. The stakes have never been so high.

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November 3, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I’m really at bag 575, but by the time I give the above presentation with my best Green Friends Drs. Dave Neison and Rachel Abbot, I should be at bag #590. I thought the slide was really pretty! Power point is an environmentalists (especially and climate and health advocates) best tool. You can do so much with powerpoint???!!! Remember, my graphic of the propellar planes f@rting lead particles on the children of clairemont and affecting their neurodevelopment? I took that down from Instagram because I didn’t want to rile up too many people. But here on theis irreverent blog? I think it’s okay. It’s a way for me to blow off steam about the state of the earth.

But what is the state of my plastic picking goals???!! 15 bags this month! And in total I’m at bag 575 lifetime. Please click here to see my lifetime totals running page. Just in case you need proof. https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/ And in total I’ve salvaged 1745 things from the earth and 45 things this month and reployed them into human circulation. Really interesting things this month. A nice wooden pole, a garden hedge clipper thing I found in Del Mar cleaning the wetlands there, and always MONEY! A quarter this month.

I try to get 20 bags a month, but this month got 15. I took a few jogs and walks without getting trash, because I really feel there was less around. I’m also trying to jog more and get more cardio in. Next month I should be back to my 20 a month. My goal is 1000 bags of trash!

I have been so grateful for this journey and each bag of trash has led me to new adventures literally and metaphorically. I’m in conversation with other climate and health friends about the Pediatric Academic Societies meeting. I’m planning of presenting two posters there, since I have to do one for work and the other is the aVgas project. I’m making myself available to help with a panel and climate and health. If my friends need me, then I’ll be there. If they don’t need me, Dr. Plastic Picker can always find things to do. Indeed, I’m really excited if for the scenario that they don’t need me. I’m super creative, and I have all sorts of ideas of how to me impactful at the meeting in recruiting more like-minded pediatricians to help save the world.

Just chuckling to myself at all my ideas. It’s like this book at Emerson that I haven’t yet finished, my mind is on fire. And it’s on fire for the earth. I’ve recovered from my bout of lactose intolerance. Please don’t offer me sour cream or any dairy. It’s all plant-based milks for me now. Sending me plant-based hugs, yours truly Dr. Plastic Picker!

October 16, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I was driving from a particularly long and grueling Friday clinic day yesterday. Finished late but I’m used to later, but it had been busy. I emailed the leadership team which I am a part of my dissatisfaction with the current scheduling changes. It’s best to be honest, and I had very little to do with the initiation and implementation with the scheduling changes. Partly because in my quest for wellness the entire thing was giving me a headache from the get-go and the entire conversation surrounding it during meetings seemed nonsensical. I think the entire thing started with someone up in the LA region and then kind of spread like a fad thing to other areas, and then somehow our department got swept up in it. It’s no one’s fault but it’s a hot hot mess and I was not pleased yesterday. I was tired and irritable, and my well-meaning lovely clinic tried to have me celebrate my birthday but we fueled ourselves on really unhealthy food. I happily ate but I worry about them. I eat so much plant-based and home-made food now that one day of salt and pepper chicken wings, chow-mein, and cake is fine – but that is not the case for most of our clinic. I mentioned to my lovely friends that maybe we should take birthday walks together instead and enjoy cake outside and some matcha green tea soy latte. Indeed, I’m pretty good at whisking the soy milk now so I’m volunteering to make it for everyone. I want us to heal and to be healthy, and work can absolutely be a place of healing.

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October 15, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Happy Friday morning! I tried a few new things recently. Yesterday I had old mushy bananas again, but there are only so many banana bread muffins and variations on almost vegan banana breads that my family and the clinic can eat! I’ve done banana/mango bread. I’ve done banana coconut bread. I’ve varied that recipe so much, that it was time for something new. So I just Ecosia searched “what to do with mushy bananas” and a banana pancake recipe came up. I’ve heard about banana pancakes before, and I’ve made several variations which were okay. I’m not sure why yesterday worked so well, but yesterday I made 2 batches of banana peanut butter pancakes and varied the recipe yesterday and they were 100% out of this world. My in-laws, the kids, and Dr. Dear Friend were in complete agreement. They didn’t look perfect, but they tasted great. I even used the last remaining bits of my home-made vanilla flavored peanut butter. Maybe that’s why they turned out so well? I checked back at our clinic lunchroom and the banana pancakes were gone. Now that is testiment that they were good. And the interesting thing is that honestly, yesterday was a combination of ingredients and circumstances that those pancakes will never really exist again. I’ll try to replicate but I kind of made them by feel. I ommited the oil. I added more soymilk. I added a bit less flour. I didn’t even take a picture of the pancakes, but the memory of their fluffiness and how it paired so well with the matcha green tea soy latte that Dr. Dear Friend kindly bought for me at Starbucks, will be a memory that I will revist when I revisit this blogpost.

With that, I did want to stay true to the entire purpose of this particular blog and my adventures. The entire point is that I’m supposed to pick up plastic (which I did last month almost 30 bags! – but I do owe you a blogpost update) and also to make secondary environmental changes in my life. We live a pretty sustainable life now after I started this blog several years ago. We compost almost all of our green waste and thanks to the amazing combination of forces that are the bunnies that we love, and their poop – our Aerobin400 churns out this magical organic compost that fuels our garden. We eat mostly plant-based and not that much meat. Although yesterday we had just boxed frozen shrimp and tater-tots, but that is honestly once every 4 months or so! We consume less of earth’s resources. Yesterday was the first time in a long time we went to Target, and we went it to get what we needed and left with what we needed which was hopefully more sustainable gifts for our teen daughter’s friend and our daughter’s first real bathing suit. She looked so cute in the two she picked, and I’m so proud of how I’ve raised her to have a positive body image and to love and appreciate herself. This blog has helped me figure that part of my life out, and helped me be a better mother to my duaghter.

It was a magical day yesterday. I watched an exciting school volleyball match with our kids’ school’s rival. Our team lost, but it was such an exciting and well played game. They forced them into the third set, and it was very close. Our daughter was all over the court and communicating, and playing assertively but together with her team.

We had so many environmental wins last week, and the warm glow of knowing what collectively we did is really amazing. Several friends that I “activated” into climate and health activists, are working on their projects including various writing projects and presentations. I’ve cheerleading them from the sidelines and making small and helpful suggestions. Our big two projects are the Rewild Mission Bay work still with a local advocacy meeting soon in November and a blog piece coming out on the Climate for Helath Blog.

But here is why I started writing today. Just 10 secondary environmental changes I did specifically because I knew I had to be accountable to this blog’s readership.

10 Secondary Environmental Net Positives Due to Being DR PLASTIC PICKER!!!

• 12 showers averted (that’s on average 240 gallons of water)
• 1 bag of bad produce from the lunchroom fridge brought home to compost
• 9 coffee grounds containers from friends that I collected to compost
• 1 bucket of compost gifted to a friend for his fig tree
• 1 rug/mat salvaged and cleaned from when we did the Coastal Clean Up at the Chula Vista Boat Launch
• many many succulents that I’ve propogated planted at the HMO parking structure and at my brother’s office in North Park
• 1 yearly planner purchased that is all of recycled content. This is one of the most important things I do personally. I like this planner as it’s functional and I can find it at my local staples and its made of recycled paper and plastic. It’s more expensive but its one of the few things I go out of my way to purchase and wait for. All the fancy planners made of virgin paper and fossil fuels? I laugh at you! New I will not buy! I support the circular economy.
• 5 succulents I gifted to children which kind of inspired our San Diego wide Great Succulent Give Away!
• 1 car trip averted from my clinic office to the sister clinic office, because I didn’t have time and I didn’t need to rush, instead I gave the plants that needed to be gifted to Dr. Dear Friend. It didn’t make sense to spew the carbon since she was there anyway.
• 1 climate friend I’m trying to help breastfeed her first child. Its a small but important thing for us to support eachother.

Well, thank you for reading and helping me stay accountable. Last blog in this series was in July. Click here if you want to see what I did! https://drplasticpicker.com/secondary-environmental-changes-july-2021/

September 7, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I don’t know if people are listening. I don’t know if anyone cares about the planet. Sometimes I get so sad. The news is dire but we knew that. Wildfires throughout the west and the Mediterranean. Catastrophic hurricanes displaced Mr. Plastic Picker’s family on Long Island. It’s here. The future we had predicted. Are people acting? I have to believe they are. I have to believe that I am a very ordinary pediatrician who is trying to do my part in making the planet livable and that I’m not that special and others aren’t that selfish. Knowing how ordinary I am gives me hope, because it’s ordinary people like me who can help stop this climate crisis.

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August 5, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Last month I didn’t get my act together to post the June 2021 Plastic Picker Totals, but I was still cleaning our community and removing plastic. Despite my Star Trek tangents https://drplasticpicker.com/the-star-trek-enterprise-romance-of-tpol-and-trip-im-going-to-give-them-the-ending-they-deserve/ (which remains my most visited blog post!!!) and middle management ramblings, I started this blog to keep track of my efforts to try to save the earth through small but meaningful acts. It turned into an entire soon to be official non-profit https://sdpediatriciansforcleanair.com/ and a recently published journal article https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/childrenatrisk/vol12/iss1/1/. But this blog is about me being an eco-avatar and picking up litter, and I have remained true despite not posting last month. So here are the June and July totals, plus a two month average for fun! In total I’ve collected now 511 bags of trash, and salvaged 1665 items from the ocean or landfill to be deployed into our not quite circular economy (mostly donations to Goodwill and recycling) https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/. My hobby doesn’t cost me much, gets me outside and exercising, and I’m helping the earth. It’s a win (wink) win situation.

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July 14, 2021

by drplasticpicker

I started this blog and the different “blog series” on Dr. Plastic Picker on a lark. I had always wanted to be a blogger, and this blog gave me an off-beat irreverent creative outlet. I wanted to document my eco-avatar environmental journey, and maybe inspire others to take that next step. I understand that we need systems change, but systems change can only happen if there is an upswelling in public support and sentiment. And that is where I come in. My half-arsed middle-management career was part of my journey to burn-out and back, and now integral to how I plan to help save the earth. Being in middle-management and I think an effective physician middle-manager made me realize that it’s literally easier to save the earth and change people’s hearts, than it is to “solve” certain middle-management issues.

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June 5, 2021

by drplasticpicker

It’s 5AM and I had a slight headache waking up this morning. It’s because of this cheesy broccoli processed mix that was part of a disaster survival kit. Someone gave it to my mother-in-law and she put it in the pantry. We are all about averting food waste and random kind people drop off things at our house. It’s kind of all parts hilarious and most of it we do eat. Usually it’s home-grown food and good things like bagged lentils or split peas. But the disaster dehydrated food packets? I should have known. The ingredient list was unreadable and it had MSG. But I made it and added some eggland, mushrooms, and chicken. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. The kids thought it was okay, but I could taste the preservatives and it was too salty. The first time in a long time I wanted to throw it all away to become methane in the landfill. That is what I’m blaming my morning headache on, that bad dinner. I’m taking all those disaster kits and going to donate it to the food bank. I think they will throw it away also, but it makes me feel less guilty. I usually donate things that I think will be useful, but this was passed on to us by someone else. If there is a disaster, I’ll be up in Oregon on our farm eating rainbow trout from the the nearby reservoir and eating organic eggs from our chickens – not that cr@p.

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June 1, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Wow. How did it become June already? I think I’ll post my monthly bag totals later this week. I did make it to 20 bags and have in total collected 464 bags and salvaged 1617 items. I’ve added a new category called “organics” when I find fallen fruit or the odd banana peel, and if it inspires me – I’ll bring it home and throw it into the composter. Yesterday was a large bread bag full of plastic waste along Tourmaline to La Jolla, and mostly plastic bags that floated back onto shore. I noticed so many little crabs yesterday along the rocks. The cactus that sits framing the view of the cove along the outlook was blooming yesterday. I’ve never seen those cacti bloom. I wonder if it has to do with climate change?

It’s funny how the math works out, and how life has a rhythm to it. In about 2 months right at my 2 year blogging anniversary I’ll about reach bag 500. My goal is to blog for at least another 2 years, and get to bag 1000 while still working and living life. The plastic picking and ocean cleaning and the blogging, is about giving me time to reflect and write about silly things for fun. Often times the blogging has been painful but necessary, and I thank you for following along this journey. At some point I’ll take it all down from the internet and sort and choose what to put in a book. Then keep those special pieces just for myself. For now, I’m living this journey out loud in hopes that it helps my fellow physicians and also the earth.

It was another beautiful 20 bags. I have to believe each bag makes a difference. I saw someone yesterday also cleaning the beach in my remote corner in the early morning, and it was such a beautiful sight. I waved to him. He waved back and had a Gold Retriever with him. His bag was green.