To compound matters, I also bought fish at the fish market and that was put into a new plastic bag. Then there is the hydroponic lettuce we purchase, which is plastic bag free, but it comes with a plastic wrap built into the base of it.

There has been a positive side though.

What I Have Changed
I have said ‘no’ to countless plastic shopping bags at the supermarket. Instead, I have made sure I always have a bag or two with me. In one instance, I didn’t have any bags, so I didn’t go to the supermarket as I didn’t have anything to carry my goods in.

I have said ‘no’ to the lady at the local store where I buy my sourdough bread. In one case, the bread was already tied up in a plastic bag, so I simply untied it, handed it back and said ‘I don’t use plastic bags’. The bread travels fine in my moped’s front basket without any type of bag.

I have stopped buying mixed bags of lettuce leaves, as these come in a plastic bag. Instead I buy a head of hydroponic lettuce, though this comes with a plastic wrapper built into the base. Given the lack of lettuce suppliers in Rarotonga, I’m not sure how I am going to get around that, unless I stop eating lettuce.

I have stopped using a plastic bag as a bin liner. We compost our food scraps and that cuts down on waste from the get-go. Now we just have dry rubbish and that is put inside our bin in the kitchen without a plastic bag liner. As for our larger garbage bin which we put out on the road for garbage collection, I found some heavy duty paper bag liners. We buy these now and put them inside our outside garbage bin. On average we produce one standard plastic shopping bag of garbage a week that isn’t recycled. Our aim is to reduce this further.

Where I’ve Failed
On one occasion I ended up with one new shopping plastic bag. It just sort of happened and I didn’t have the heart to say no. A moment of weakness.

I have purchased fish from the fish monger and this came in a plastic bag. I need to find an alternative.

The Lessons
At the Supermarket / Corner Store:
- Always carry a spare bag.
- Try and buy products which are plastic bag free (lettuce head instead of a mixed bag of lettuce, for example).
- Just say ‘no’ to plastic bags at the checkout. It is that easy.

Household Rubbish Bin:
- Compost food matter as this removes most of your wet rubbish from general rubbish.
- Split out recyclable rubbish.
- Put non-recyclable rubbish straight into the bin without a plastic bag liner.
- If you need a bag liner for the bin you put out onto the street, source a large paper bag liner and put this in your street side rubbish bin.

Change Is Happening In Australia…
Northern Territory Australia Plastic Bag Ban Commences September 1st 2011.
South Australia Plastic Bag Ban Commences 4th May 2009.

Related Posts:
Plastic Bags

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Screen grab from the Apple Asia Environment Page

I switched to Mac computers when I retrained into photography a few years ago at photography school. The reason was simple – the computer lab was fully equipped with Mac computers, so I decided to switch.

In 2007, two years after I’d switched to Mac computers, Greenpeace nailed Apple with Greenpeace’s ‘Green My Apple’ campaign. The campaign focused on how harmful the materials were in Mac computers and how little Apple was doing to make a more environmentally friendly product.

I have to be honest – I had no idea how harmful my Mac was to the environment and how little of an environmental policy Apple had.

Not long after the Green My Apple campaign came out, I was in the MagnumMac Christchurch shop and I decided to ask the guy behind the counter how I could recycle my Mac. Not only didn’t he know, he didn’t even seem that interested in finding out for me.

Nine months after the Green My Apple campaign started, Apple pulled their finger out and announced a totally revamped environmental policy and more environmentally friendly Mac products. The Apple and the Environment page was linked to from the Apple home page and more importantly, Apple had some reasonably detailed information on what they were doing environmentally and how their product life cycle had been changed to become a more environmentally friendly product etc..

Fast forward to October 2010. I have a 5 year / 9 month old Apple Powerbook G4, which I need to get rid of. My G4 is not only worn out, it won’t run any of the latest software versions that I use regularly for my work.

As such, I decided to go to the Apple site and find out how I could recycle my Mac. What follows is the start of my experience trying to do this one, simple task.

- Go to the www.apple.com site.

- As I’m based in Thailand, I select Thailand as my country and am redirected to www.apple.com/asia site.

- There I click on ‘Environment’ and am taken to the Apple & The Environment page. I scroll down and find the Apple Recycling program information, which states:

Apple has instituted recycling programs in 95 percent of the countries where our products are sold, diverting more than 83 million pounds of equipment from landfills since 1994.

Great. Now I’m getting somewhere.

- I then click on the Get Started with the Apple Recycling Program link, which takes me to a page listing the following Asian countries: China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

Problem Number 1 – Thailand isn’t listed. Does this mean Thailand is in the 5 percent of countries where Apple products are sold, but there is no recycling program? Given how shopping crazy people are in Thailand, I can’t believe that Apple doesn’t have a recycling program for Apple consumers’ in this country.

- I click on Malaysia, as it is pretty close to Thailand. I then hit the link to Li Tong Recycling, which takes me to the Li Tong Recycling page for Apple computers.

- Start completing the relevant information; fill out my address and then I go to select my country. Mmm…Thailand isn’t listed.

- I then go back to the Apple Asia site and try and find an email address I can contact in relation to Apple’s Environmental Recycling Program.

Two minutes later I’m on Apple’s How To Contact Us page. I scan the headings – Product Purchasing & Inquiries; Sales Support and Technical Support. Seeing no way to contact anyone at Apple about Apple’s Recycling Program, I see the Website Feedback in the bottom right of the How to Contact us page. I click on that, but unless I have a technical issue to report, I’m simply redirected to the online support forums for Product Support & Feedback.

Time elapsed – about 15-minutes. Just quietly, I’m wondering why this simple process, should be so complicated. I’m also beginning to question Apple’s commitment to their recycling program, if Apple users such as myself can’t recycle our Mac products in Thailand.

Where to from here?

- I sent an email to Li Tong Recycling asking if I could send my Mac to them for inclusion in the Apple Recycling program, despite the fact I’m based in Thailand. When I receive a response, I’ll update everyone with my next installment.

If you have a similar experience with Apple trying to recycle your Apple products, I’d love to hear about them. Please contact me with your story at info [at] thomaspickard [dot] com

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“If the world finds out what we do here, we will be shut down”

From the Oscar award winning documentary, The Cove

I could say so many things about The Cove after watching it. All you really need to know is this: see it.

Then get involved in some way, shape or form.

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“Why not have surf breaks, famous, great breaks like Jeffery’s Bay, Rincon and Malibu as [UNESCO] World Heritage Sites so that the whole world sees their value and wants to protect them?”

Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia founder and Save the Waves supporter, via Save the Wave Coalition.

I have been involved with the ocean through surfing since I was a teenager. I can still remember epic surf sessions I had twenty years ago on empty beaches on the North Coast of New South Wales, Australia. Those sessions are as clear to me as more recent surfing sessions in the Maldives. For some, surfing may be seen as someone merely riding a wave. For me, surfing goes far beyond that.

Surfing is about watching the first rays of light hit the ocean surface as I’m paddling out for my first wave of the day; it is about sitting on my board chatting with fellow surfers between waves; it is about watching a pod of dolphins ride an empty wave and at times, it is about getting dragged across a coral reef and being reminded about the sheer power of the ocean.

Surfing and the ocean rejuvenates me. The simple act of surfing connects me to a part of the natural world that I love – ocean’s and coastlines.

Like many things of value, famous and not so famous surf breaks are often threatened by our development and an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach to the environment.

As individuals’ our voices are often lost in the crowd. As a united group we can influence and affect change.

If you are a surfer, an ocean swimmer or even a person that regularly visits your local beach, then I encourage you to become a member of Save the Wave Coalition, a body that is helping fight the good fight for threatened surf breaks around the world. Check out their Campaign page to find out how you can get involved in your local area.

Patagonia, a supporter of Save The Waves, has just released their 2010 Surfing Catalogue online. While the catalogue has some of the best surfing photos you can imagine, it also has a focus on Save the Waves. Well worth a look.

Patagonia Surfing Catalogue

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Thomas Pickard / Aurora Photos

Earlier this month I wrote a blog post titled Southern Thailand Photo Assignment. At the time I couldn’t divulge the client or even what the shoot was about. Today though I can.

The client was Ocean Conservancy and the job was to document the International Coastal Clean up Day in Thailand. The job was arranged through the assignment division of Aurora Photos, Aurora Select. Ocean Conservancy teamed up with Aurora to provide 25 photographers around the globe to document the clean up as it happened.

It was a great job, in part because as a surfer and sea kayaker I am passionate about the health of our oceans. Having spent a great deal of my life in and around the water, it breaks my heart to see so much rubbish dumped in our oceans and waterways. Sometimes I can’t help but think that there are too many people with an ‘out of sight, out of mind attitude’ in this world.

What really surprised me at the Thailand clean up, was just how much tiny plastic was pulled off the beach we were at. A vast majority of it was plastic bottle tops – the perfect size for a turtle to mistake for food and to swallow.

To learn more about the current state of our oceans, I encourage you to have a look at some of the photos from the International Coastal Clean Up Day that was on Saturday the 19th September.

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