Category: Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

July 24, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I have been busy this week completing the on-line virtual Climate Reality Training. It’s been a big committment especially since I am working full time. Every evening I have had 1-2 hours of additional lecture or on-line work. But I have done it with joy. This is the last weekend and I feel accomplished that I will fulfill the requirements.

(more…)

July 9, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I brought my cold brew coffee concentrate to the office yesterday. I reused a sauce jar and made sure it did not have any pungent smells in it, but the lid was not the tightest fit. So I carefully put it in my lunchbag but had to make sure to carry it the right way so it would not spill. It made it to clinic and I put my repurposed glass jar in the office fridge. We have a new office fridge. The old fridge had been there since the clinic’s opening over 20 years ago.

(more…)

July 1, 2020

by drplasticpicker

There is always a bright side in life!!! We may be in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. I may have been fielding irate phone calls from frustrated front-line providers who feel they do not have adequate PPE. As parents we are all worried about whether school commences in September, and even if it does- will it fuel the spread of COVID-19? But it is the first day of July 2020 and it’s designated Plastic-Free July!!! Did you even know that such a wonderful month existed? Well I am Dr. Plastic Picker and this is going to be a fun month for me, filled with moments of trying to move my life to less plastic. I’m telling you, when I attended a talk on the Science of Happiness and Gratitude at one of our HMO Regional meetings and they said 50% of happiness is genetic, I know they were speaking to me! And Dr. Plastic Picker is so happy that it’s Plastic Free July!

(more…)

June 11, 2020

by drplasticpicker

The beach was a mess with morning. I had not been out near our stretch of Pacific coast for a few weeks. When our city lifted some of the COVID-19 restrictions, the beach was flooded even in the early mornings. Since I still have to work in patient care, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to expose myself. I have been doing litterpicks around my neighborhood instead. I’ve wandered over to the elementary school and the Mormon Temple which is a good hike from our house when I was looking for adventure. I started traveling to find certain flowers like the fried-egg poppy as a destination for my litter picking walks https://drplasticpicker.com/dr-plastic-pickers-thoughts-the-age-of-in-betweenness/. I have noticed more backyard birds like the Yellow Warbler or it may have been a lesser finch perched high on the electrical wires with a beautiful blaze of yellow against the blue sky. I was walking with Mr. Plastic Picker at the time.

(more…)

It is just past 5am, and I am sitting in our kitchen in the dark except for the light of this laptop. There was also a small flame from the stove and it’s brief illumination, because my father-in-law made his cup of morning coffee. He heats the water on our gas stove in a small pot. He has gone back to his room now, and it’s just me with this laptop and my coffee and minimal light. I used to turn on the small overhead light above our coffee area, but I worry about the insect apocolypse and artificial human light disrupting insect circadian rhythm. So I type in the dark with minimal light.

I can hear the crickets outside our screen door. I know my makeshift birdhouse made from an old shoebox is just outside as well. It’s a funny little thing covered in small round plastic images of past presidents, that I cut and glued on from my favorite mousepad cover that Mr. Plastic Picker wanted to throw away. Now I get to look at those presidents still when I check my upcycled birdhouse. For some reason that birdhouse brings me so much amusement. Mr. Plastic Picker bought the premium birdseed for $20 and the actual birdhouse is made from things that were about to be discarded, a broken hanger, a cardboard shoe box, the plastic mousepad cover, a cardboard image of a Kodiak bear that adorns our pancake mix all hot glue gunned together. When I first sprinkled birdseed on top and then inside the birdhouse, I was unsure if any birds would come to my Upcycled Presidential Bird House (Feeder).

(more…)

April 12, 2020

by drplasticpicker

It has been a wet spring in Southern California, and our rain barrels have been overflowing. The country is still under COVID-19 quarantine orders, but I have been gratified that this blog has seen an uptick in traffic – hopefully providing everyone with some entertainment. This has motivated me to keep on writing. Anyway, our rain barrel makeshift collection system caught 395 gallons of water yesterday. My mother-in-law will use it over the course of the next few weeks to water her garden. Her garden is truly a work of wonder where in the normal sized front yard she is able to yield enormous amounts of lettuce, kale, onions, tomatoes, lemons, and different varieties of squash.

(more…)

January 30, 2020

by drplasticpicker

I am so happy this morning. I was feeling a bit overwhelmed last night. Many things are happening and I am trying to help the earth, but suddenly I have this opportunity to interact and help amazing pediatricians who were environmentalist and have some real-effect on carbon emissions. As I was going to bed, I sent off one last email to a medical mission trip that needs a pediatrician to go to Mexico. But there are plenty of folks who love and need to do that work. It will energize their souls like it did mine when I went to Peru to do similar work. I offered names of some of my colleagues who are looking for that opportunity and want to go on that specific trip. There is an infinite amount of work that needs to be done, but I have never been one to need to be front and center and if someone else wants to do it – why not? I am hoping they will let her go. If not, I will go. But I have so much to do for the earth. And right now not many pediatricians want to pick up ocean plastic. So I feel the calling to focus on this plastic picking work. But I think my new hobby is going to become super popular!!! Here is why.

(more…)

January 2, 2020

by drplasticpicker

October 5, 2019 I found a pair of round aviator like sunglasses that were in good condition. Just a bit of rust on the side that was easily cleaned off. Our middle school daughter used them for her WWII-era pilot costume. The rest of her Halloween costume was clothing we had at home, mostly her grandmother’s, and Goodwill Finds. She used the glasses three times for Halloween themed events, and then deposited them into my glasses donation bag.

(more…)

December 31, 2019

by drplasticpicker

Today I had great fun subbing in at one of our other pediatric clinics. Someone needed to be on sick leave, and I moved myself from my home clinic to our “sister” clinic. It usually does not make sense to move a paneled doctor to another clinic, because a paneled doctor has their 2000 patients to care for. But in this case, we were stealing from Peter to pay Paul and evened out the staffing numbers. One of my patients found me but otherwise I was seeing other people’s patients. I don’t mind so much because I need to check in with the other physicians and nursing staff as a middle manager. It’s fun once in a while to sit at someone else’s desk and have a different lunch routine.

(more…)

December 29, 2019

by drplasticpicker

It has been hard to silence the siren call of consumerism during the holidays. But on December 7, I declared on this blog “My plans to have a GREENER Christmas season,” and listed concrete actions we were planning on taking https://drplasticpicker.com/drplasticpicker-is-not-judging-anyone-my-plans-to-have-a-greener-christmas-season-just-do-what-you-can/ So how did our family do? The above picture is of a garbage bin I snapped while Mr. Plastic Picker was driving around lost. I only picked up 5 plastic bottles and 2 aluminum cans during our Christmas vacation trip. I focused mostly on reducing our trash footprint while we were is Utah’s beautiful aspen forests. It is so easy to be wasteful on vacations. We tried to treat this vacation destination like our own home and continued our waste reduction efforts.

(more…)