Find It! Episode 2

**Contest deadline extended to 11:59, Friday, June 26 (International Human Rights Day! Totally unrelated...)**

It's a happy post tonight. :)

So, way back when, I promised that if I posted a "Find It! Episode 1," it would be followed by an "Episode 2." It's time for that episode.

You know the drill: Open the pictures, save them on your computer. Use some nifty program to draw circles around the plastic lurking in these gorgeous Grecian landscapes. Email the answers to theunplasticlife@gmail.com. Win a cool un-plastic prize (details TBD, but it'll be good!). Contest closes at 11:59 pm EST on Friday (June 26, 2009).

Just four of them this time (I'm so easy on you!):
1.

2.

3.

4.

Also, congrats, dear readers, you've gotten us over 1,000 page views since May 14! Nice work! Keep it up!

When in Athens, Do as the Athenians Do

You may remember one very excited post from Day 1 in Athens. I was pumped that, as soon as we stepped off the bus and into the city center (Syntagma), we saw awesome recycling centers. And awesome Athenians using them. It was pretty great.

Well, my parents and I carefully saved all recyclables and deposited them appropriately ourselves. Despite some eyerolling at the start of the trip, by the end of it they were almost more into this stuff than I was! They were seeing plastic everywhere, avoiding it like pro's, and hoarding recyclables with the best of them. Way to go, Mom and Dad!

So, here we are, recycling away.
Dad recycles:


Mom recycles:


And I recycle:


Afterall, it's what the Athenians do! Oh, and what do you get for recycling? Coupons for money off at Carrefour (a European supermarket)! The Greeks totally live right!

Find it! Episode 1 answers and Congratulations, Leah!

Thanks for your hard work! Congrats to Leah (and her son) who won this contest! Leah, I'll be in touch about getting your prize to you.

Here are the ANSWERS. If you have trouble seeing any answer, click on the picture and it will expand:
1.


2.


3.


4.


5.




More exciting Greece trip stories coming soon. Including my very own recycling adventures and in-flight plastic issues.

Have a delightful, un-plastic day!

Find it! Episode 1

This post is a game -- AND a contest. I know some of you readers are parents, and this game can be played with your children too! It's pretty simple:

I'm going to post some pictures, each of which has plastic in it somewhere. These are all photos from Spetses, one of the beautiful places I visited in Greece. Your job is to find that plastic. To enter the contest, copy the photo into Painter or whatever program you like and put a big red circle around the plastic item in the picture. Then, email it to me at theunplasticlife@gmail.com. The first correct email will win a gift card to Target, where you can purchase one of these adorable Terracycle CapriSun bags (or some other UNPLASTIC item for your family). See my post on Terracycle for more.

Let's try an easy one for example:

Do you see it?

What in this picture just doesn't belong?

What plastic is messing up this beautiful picture of nature?

I bet you've got it!

ANSWER:

There it is!

Here's a close-up:


So, you get the idea. You get to look at some of my pictures from Greece AND think about plastic! You can thank me later.

Ok, now for the rest. I'll post the answers tomorrow at 9 am. Hopefully, I'll also have a winner to announce. If you're really lucky, we might even get to play again. The title of this post does say "Episode 1," afterall. Some are easy and others are harder. AND there is one trick -- one of these photos has two pieces of plastic in it. Be sure to find both. Good luck!
1.

2.


3.


4.


5.

See, the thing is, that this POST is a game, but this IDEA is not. Plastic is everywhere. And that's why it's important to use less!

**Just to be clear, this post isn't meant to make Greece seem extra-plastic-y. And don't imagine that I missed the beauty of the place looking for plastic. It's just that, once you start noticing plastic, you see it wherever you go. Plus, this makes for a fun game, right? :)

There is no Planet B

Greece. Is. Beautiful. Don't believe me? Check out these:



I literally don't even know where to start with Greece. I seriously have so much to say! I'll spread it out over a few blog posts so that you don't get bored. But I can sum it up in just a few words: Greece was incredible! If you've never been there, put it high on your bucket list. No one should die without seeing it.

The trip to Greece went a long way on the "unplastic life" thing. You know, the existential part of my anti-plastic campaign. Life is definitely NOT plastic in Greece. And, despite our initial inclination to serially sight-see (run from important place to important place like headless chickens), we managed to chill out and adopt Greek speed.

I spent a lot of time doing this:


while staring out at this:

Mom and I even fell asleep, lulled by the perfect weather, amazing view, and relaxed pace.

Granted, while I was there, there was some kind of spat that resulted in police walking around in riot gear with tear gas, but fortunately the actual "incident" happened when I was blissfully off on Spetses.

And Greek drivers aren't exactly relaxed, given that they tend to park like this:

But I didn't have to drive, so I just found it amusing.

Afterall, when you're literally wandering around where Socrates walked

it's harder to worry about the little things. Something about the history of a place like that makes me feel like, whatever the concern, it will melt away eventually. Plus, I took lots of time to look at and smell these (it really does help!):

Greeks, like many Europeans, take the time to enjoy life. They walk a little more slowly. They savor meals. They make things look pretty. They prioritize things other than expedience, so often the culprit of plastic in American life.

That said, I did see plastic everywhere. I mean, I see plastic everywhere HERE, so it's no special issue with Greece. Though it is somehow more jarring when you're at ruins of buildings that have been around for 3,000 years and see plastic lying around. More posts on the ubiquity of the plastic later.

For now, I want to introduce you to two people I met in Greece.

1. Meet Olga Kaertidou. She's an Athenian who was on weekend holiday to Spetses on Saturday. When she walked by us carrying this awesome bag, my dad kindly chased her down and photographed the great message. We chatted with Olga and her friends for a bit and learned that they were wandering around the island collecting recyclables! That made me smile a lot!! Thanks, Olga, for putting up with us and allowing me to post you and your bag on my blog!

2. On Friday night, we had dinner at this fantastic little restaurant called Hatzi's on Spetses. The chef's daughter is an economics Ph.D. student at George Washington University, so we bonded over studying in DC. And the food was delightful.

But the best part of the night came when we started chatting with the French family seated at the table behind us. They had adorable twin three-year-olds, which started the conversation. Eventually, it wound its way around to occupations. It turned out that the father makes recycling centers that are used all around Europe, including in Greece! You know, like these. I felt like I was in the presence of a celebrity. I was so star-struck (and the kids were so sleepy) that I didn't manage to ask for a picture. But I was pretty thrilled.

So, yes, wandering around ancient ruins and staring out at the Mediterranean Sea did me good. Deep-in-the-bones good. I love Greece! And my generally peaceful attitude as a result of visiting a beautiful place just makes me that much more committed to ensuring that these beautiful places survive. Because, you know, there is no Planet B.

(Photo credits to my awesome parents.)

Not Me! Monday...er, Wednesday -- All the way from ATHENS!

Ok, so it's not Monday.

But, to be fair, I spent most of Monday in airports and/or wandering the truly delicious streets of Athens. (Well, they are mostly delicious. My beloved parents somehow booked a hotel in the drug/prostitute section of Athens. Seriously, sketched me out more than the area where I volunteer does. Actual hair-standing-on-end kind of sketched out. The hotel was totally fine, but the neighborhood was not. We checked out after one night. But other than that, the streets are delicious. You are very likely to look over your shoulder and see ruins that are several thousands of years old. It's, um, kind of amazing.)

Tuesday was spent racing around Athens until we found a MUCH NICER (albeit more expensive) hotel. After we found the hotel, we went to the Acropolis and then dinner. I was waaaayyyyy too exhausted for blogging!

Then Wednesday included a very early morning trip to the Ancient Agora (seriously, the actual place where Socrates hung out and where, much later, St. Paul tried to convert people. SO COOL) followed by a bus trip up to Delphi (aka, my favorite place in the universe). So, you can understand that it took me awhile to get to my Not Me! Monday post.

So, anyway, this is my Not Me! Wednesday post (if you must know, yes, it is THURSDAY in Athens, and yes it is the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT in Athens, but here I am. um, yeah).

I definitely DID NOT purchase lots of travel plastic.

I definitely did NOT pause to locate all the plastic in the Ancient Ruins sites. Like the Ancient Agora. Or Delphi. Even if it WAS in trash cans, I obviously would NEVER be repulsed!

(Seen here: Amazing Delphi. Close-up of the trash can and its plastic contents.)


(Seen here: A trash can STUFFED full of plastic. Next to, you know, the most well-preserved temple in all of Greece.)


I absolutely, positively would NEVER use silverware wrapped in plastic at a nice! restaurant. (I am weak. I wanted the napkin.)

I definitely did NOT covertly snap this photo of a man carrying plastic silverware in his pocket. My dad was definitely NOT chatting him up (as he does most strangers) at the archaelogical site in Delphi. I was definitely totally UN-impressed by his anti-plastic precision.

I absolutely did NOT dive into the drink-the-Athens-tap-water phenomenon. The books definitely DIDN'T say it's ok. So I certainly did NOT fill up my Sigg.

Today, I certainly DIDN'T purchase a can of Pringles for the trip back from Delphi to Athens. It definitely WASN'T because we utterly failed to find a single open restaurant (our timing was off -- we needed food at a time they don't really serve it). Pringles don't have a ton of plastic on them, but they are by NO MEANS an un-plastic treat.

And I absolutely, positively didn't write a Not Me! Monday post on Wednesday (Thursday). No! Not me! Never.

Recycling in Athens

I'm in Athens, where plastic does abound. More on that later. However, I do have good news about recycling. Athenians have these lovely recycling centers around the city. It seems like they get paid for this recycling. LOVE IT!


We had a great evening last night with delicious Greek food at a taverna just under the Acropolis. It was beautiful! We're off to explore now, but I'll update when I can (or when I get back).

I'm Back!

So, I realize I've been a little MIA. The last semester of grad school will do that...studying, working, and searching for a job have definitely distracted me.

But I do love blogging about plastic. Obviously. There's always a story because plastic is EVERYWHERE!

Here are a few observations:
1. I am convinced that population density and difficulty in avoiding plastic increase together. I was in NYC for the weekend, and I found it so challenging to avoid plastic. It gave me a whole new respect for my friends at plasticisforever.blogspot.com who live in LA and NYC respectively. It's also possible that the added challenge stems from travel/being out of a routine.

2. I'm yearning for a less "disposable life." That is, after all, why I started this crazy journey. Yes, it's about plastic, but it's also about lifestyle. However, given the aforementioned "busy-ness factors," my life has been all too disposable lately. Even if it's disposable paper, I need to be reducing. My friend Monica made good arguments about the rainforest recently. Plus, I keep hearing about how much energy it takes to produce assorted types of disposable containers. I think cooking for myself and visiting farmers' markets are crucial parts of this process.

3. I get distressed by all those things that are mostly paper/glass but part plastic. For example, kitty litter containers. All paper except for that handle at the top. Or cat food bags. Paper, but coated in plastic. Or iced tea in a glass bottle -- not even a plastic ring around the top (yay!) -- but with a plastic label.

Plastic is a huge challenge.