January 3, 2021

by drplasticpicker

Please forgive me dear reader because I did not meet the monthly bag picking total this month. I usually set out to do at least 20 bags but this month picked up 12 bags. It was December and my need to get outside and reconnect was less this month, because I was reconnecting with the Broca and Wernicke’s area of my brain that controls the Korean language part. I pretty much binge-watched all the relevant Korean dramas on netflix and I’m done now. Yes, I can be a bit obsessive. But I think it’s because my Broca and Wernicke’s area of my brain were on fire. I was even picking up some North Korean words from “Crash Landing On You.” Really good drama, Korean or otherwise, by the way. If you love good love stories without the gratuitious stuff and more of the emotional scaffolidng and traditional values, I highly recommend it. Plus the North Korean captain who multiple time sacrifices everything for the South Korean cosmetic CEO who mistakenly lands over on the North Korean side of the DMZ zone via a freak Wizard of Oz-esque toronado during a paragliding trip is really handsome. Just a big sigh when you think about him, and her, and their entire improbable romance.

And with these far-fetched stories that stretch over at least 15 hour long episodes, one has to suspend belief. So many of the situations are improbable. But you believe in the characters and you believe in their bond, and that makes one continue coming back. Not only did I suspend belief this last month as I was binge-watching netflix, I also suspending some of my plastic picking endeavors. The environmental work continued, but oh dear reader – I needed it. I sometimes sit and daydream about the different characters and their lives and their happiness, just like I daydream about a liveable planet.

So these are my excuses. I still showed up to work. I still continued to battle for my soul during middle management meetings and interactions, and survived to live another day. I still am mostly drinking my matcha green tea soy latte. And I was still parenting my children, who are ever more ambitious that I ever was. Our daughter wants to be a lawyer now in the vein of RBG, and I fully support that. Our son says he may become a psychiatrist. Honestly my entire ambition in life when I was young was really to marry Mr. Plastic Picker and have a dozen plastic picker children. But we ended up with our two, and hence my accidental voyage into full-time work and my bruised and battered leadership journey and my wondrous discovery of climate and health work.

I still discovered so much about myself this month, and many of those moments were on those reflective plastic picking walks. We also discovered that since both our children want to go to graduate school, we need to keep on plugging along and working our normal jobs in addition to trying to save the earth. I like to have a reason to keep on working, and my children’s education and donations to the earth are a great motivater. So I’m still here! I’m still making it at work and middle management and I thank you for your support.

So here are the plastic picking totals for December 2021.

Drum Roll! 12 bags of plastic pollution and 29 salvaged items. In total lifetime 608 Bags of Ocean Bound Plastic Diverted, 1839 Items Salvaged.

Click here to see the plastic picking totals since I started plogging – https://drplasticpicker.com/plastic-picking-round-up/

Here is the monthly table!!! The most interesting items were the nice salvaged pieces of wood from my first and maybe last dumpster dive! LOL. https://drplasticpicker.com/no-dr-plastic-picker-you-did-not-dumpster-dive-the-problem-with-our-wasteful-culture-all-we-need-is-in-front-of-us/

December 2021 Plastic Picking Totals! 12 bags and 29 items!

Object	Total	Fate
Aluminum Cans	7	Recycled
Plastic Bottles	5	Recycled
Sand Toys	0
Flip Flops	0
Clothing Items	0
Toys	0
Glass Containers	1	Recycled
Hats	0
Tennis Balls	0
Swim Goggles	0
Office Supply Items	4	Upcycled