September 15, 2020

by drplasticpicker

Above was bag #283 and item #1050 was a flattened alumnium can on the road. I oddly really like recycling those aluminum cans because I figure no one else will. Of those items, 483 have been aluminum cans. I only did an analysis on aluminum cans called “Aluminum Cans: The High Yield Salvagable” https://drplasticpicker.com/aluminum-cans-the-high-yield-salvagable/. At that point I was only at 150 aluminum cans. But even at 150 cans, I realized how high-yield it was to pick those on my walks especially the flattened ones that probably no one else would recycle.  I have always been fascinated by the idea of efficiency. So as drplasticpicker, I want to help the earth but do it in an efficient manner. Remember of the 100 billion aluminum cans sold in the US, only half are recycled. So every year there are 50 billion aluminum cans that never make it back. Recycling one aluminum can is enough to power a television for 3 hours. Therefore 1050 aluminum cans, I could watch Star Trek Enterprise straight for 131 days. But I can watch it anyway since we have solar panels that produce double the energy we use (yes I went a bit overboard). The best thing about aluminum cans is that they are endlessly recycle them.

I think of doctors like aluminum cans. They are the high-yield salvagable. So many are burned out. There is even one that calls himself Crispy Doc https://www.crispydoc.com/ who is an ED doctor. He’s actually not burned out anymore, but he was. I sometimes feel like everyone who follows the FIRE blogs are just flattened aluminum cans, flattened by cars that just ran them over again and again and again. Those cars are hospital administrators, student debt, electroinc medical record and plastic encased food they had to eat because when does a doctor get to sit down to eat? But those cans and those doctors can be recycled.

So I tried to recycle a bunch of doctors today. Dr. McFrugal doesn’t really need to be recycled. He’s more like an organic vegetable anyway that has non-GMO seeds (his cute daughter) that will propogate into another colorful vegetable plant. I feel like all the previous FIRE bloggers I used to follow are flattened cans too. Some of the fellow physicians on various facebook groups taht I am semi-active on, are kind of beginning to flatten due to the weight of the climate crisis.

I tried to recycle them. I think I got at least two. One is a pedaitric dermatologist who is joining our AAP Climate Change and Health Committee. One is an internist hospitalist who will join Public Health Advisory Committee of Climate Actions Campaign. I even tried to work on the flattest aluminum can out there, CrispyDoc. He commented on Dr. McFrugal’s blog where he gave FISE (the phrase I coined, Financially Independent Save the Earth) a shout out https://www.drmcfrugal.com/weekend-reflections-9-13-20-fire-and-fire/. CrispyDoc commented on Dr. McFrugal’s post and he sounded kind of sad. And this was my reply to him for the whole blogsphere to see.

“I am optimistic also because bloggers are the center of large communities. They are the most natural “influences” out there, especiallly personal finance bloggers! Hey, you guys convince people how to spend or not spend their money and how to alter their career trajectory! Remember I’m just a wannabe personal finance blogger. What you both do is pretty powerful stuff. I’m just trying to get people to pick up platsic or refuse a single-use water bottle. But in all seriousness I’ve learned so much during this year 1 of my self-funded FREE environmental activism fellowship. I learned that ED doctor groups despite being the ones that are dealing with wildfire emergencies (my good friend in the climate movement is the ED wildfire guy in our HMO) are not part of the Med Society Consortium and have no statement on climate. Isn’t that crazy? The more ED doc and surgeons we get involved the better. And what amazed me is that it’s so easy. Seriously it is easy pushing for change. If you are already a talented writer and already don’t mind being up front and center, than climate advocacy you can do in your sleep. It’s much harder running a department and getting 90 pediatricians to do what I want them to do, than making changes for the earth. When we all realize that and than you actually feel good about your self (because dude advocacy and enacting change in the world is THE ANSWER TO PHYSICIAN BURN OUT), than we will move the needle on climate change. Thanks for reading. I only feel free to write this because it’s Dr. McFrugal’s blog and his daughter is so cute! She’s going to be a future AAP Climate Change and Health Intern and the Chief of Pediatrics (after my daughter of course). LOL. Hugs to you both.”

And that is it. That is what I did this morning. I tried to recycle 3 physicians into MD ECO-WARRIORS!!! Because who doesn’t want to be an eco-warrior. Come on. It’s so fun! You get so much attention and doctors we LOVE LOVE LOVE attention. Well at least I do, but only as Dr. Plastic Picker!!!