or “What Kind of Maple Syrup is This?
by Nancy DeLucrezia

I was shopping with my friend, Stew, the other day and I saw this pretty young woman load three large cases of small plastic bottles of drinking water onto the lower deck of her shopping cart as she chatted playfully with her little girl, sitting in the front of the cart. I wanted to say something but what does one say in that situation, “Excuse me, but do you have any idea how reckless it is to so blatantly contribute to the destruction of our beautiful planet, not to mention doing it in right front of your daughter?” OK – probably not so appropriate, and yet how appropriate is it for us to continue going through 1,500 plastic water bottles PER SECOND (in the U.S. alone) – even many of us who know better, or should know better, or might know better (help me here) – what the (@*#$*@#$ are we thinking?

I recently returned from Out-to-lunchville about this enough to ask the students at my school not to bring plastic water bottles into the building anymore, and figured I would at least put together a cohesive list of reasons that might inspire them to join me in an effort to contribute to the solution rather than the problem. I don’t personally drink water from plastic bottles because I don’t particularly care for the taste of plastic and I’m not fond of thinking about it floating around and accumulating in my system. A friend once told me that he boiled down water from plastic bottles for a few days like maple syrup and ended up with a sheet of plastic in the bottom of the pan that was thick enough to play Frisbee with (oh, what we do with our spare time). There’s currently, for those of you who don’t know, a growing “garbage patch” of plastic estimated to be more than twice the size of Texas floating in the North Pacific Ocean. Hello!!! How is that OK?

One new student came to enroll the other day and I drafted him a program-contract to take home and review. As he was leaving I pointed to the plastic water bottle in his hand and gently mentioned that he would not be allowed to bring it into the school once he enrolled and gave him a copy of my handout. He was very cool about it and explained that his girlfriend was trying to get him to drink more water. When he came back the next day to sign his contract he thanked me for mentioning it saying that he had taken my handout back to his girlfriend along with a beautiful reusable travel bottle he had bought her as a gift, and that she converted with less resistance than he expected.

“See that,” I said, “ I wake up and decide to create a handout, I give it to you, you give it to your girlfriend…”
“I guess that’s how it happens,” he answered.

Yes, indeed, that IS how it happens!

And while we’re at it, how hard is it to throw a couple of reusable shopping bags in the back seat of the car rather than participate in the practice of handing out plastic one’s at the checkout like tissues at an Italian funeral?

OK – I’m not a rapper but I just channeled this the other night at 2 a.m.:

Yo! Check out our handout.
Download and pass it out.
There isn’t any doubt
that we can live without

all of this plastic.
It’s gotten drastic.
It might sound bombastic
but we’re just enthusiastic!

Try and be a role model.
Don’t use that plastic bottle
Do’n what we’ve been’l just
get us in a boondoggle.

Bring your own shopping bag.
Plastic’s just a major plague.
It might be convenient but
it carries such a jank price tag!

The trouble is, if we wait
it might just become too late.
Doom is banging at our gate
Join us now and CHOOSE your fate!

OK – I have to get a band and make a music video out of this – watch for it, I’m serious!
OK – PLEASE DOWNLOAD THIS PDF about “What it Means That We Are Using Plastic Bottles & Bags!” READ IT! COPY IT! DISTRIBUTE IT!
PDF Handout About Plastic

Peace & Love!

Nancy DeLucrezia is the Director, Academic Programs & Development at the Kali Institute for Massage & Somatic Therapies.

Nancy developed [birthed] and writes for the Alignment Matrix website.