When doing anything, I think of the plastic. On days that I listen to NPR, I tend to avoid buying some favorite foods – like Seaweed Snacks – because those fragile sheets of salty heaven are wrapped up like gold in a plastic Fort Knox. And for what? Give me flattened low calorie snackables and save the plastic for peaches and newborns and other bruising fleshy stuff.
I have a friend who is really nice (really really). You will stay on her sweet side so easily ย if you avoid two things: dreads on white people (cultural appropriation) and single-use plastics. Do not give this grrl a plastic fork with her pad thai. Do not give her a straw with her whisky soda. Do not offer her a plastic bag for her Homies. It is for her and the dolphins (and the sea turtles) that I make an effort to minimize the use of plastics in my tattooย kits.ย The bags that contain my medical supplies – nitrile gloves and petri dish are “Greenline Biodegradable” meaning under certain Anaerobic conditions, they will biodegrade to nothing PRIOR to reaching the pacific trash island (that our kid’s kids will be vacationing on to get away from the post-apocalypictally fit, Cockroaches).
[With a little research, I see that this plastics testing appears to be up in the air.]
I do have other plastics in my kit – the nitrile gloves are non-latex and they are also not biodegradable. I found GreenDex’s new line of gloves that I will buy for the next batch of kits. The petri dish is sterilized plastic (inside) but not biodegradable. 1 point Cockroaches. However, my box and shipping bag are paper and they might even degrade on the way to your door (if it’s raining)! 1 point Dolphins. The needles are encased in plastic and that is just plain unavoidable to keep the sterile. There is no alternative and that is the same with the packaging of other sterile stuff (Aquaphor, witch-hazel). Bandaids are fabric with paper tabs and wrapping. Woot!
If you live in the Bay Area, your kit will arrive via bike power rather than plane, train and automobile. 2 points.
It is for humanity+Dolphins that I will keep searching for ways to green stick and poke.
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