think you could do it?

A month without plastic. A year without waste. Banning food that travels more than 100 miles. Read about some brave people who've done it and get inspired...

A reporter for the Chicago Tribune - plus her husband, 3-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy - try to live without plastic for a week. From paper diapers to shampoo pucks, she learns that it's best to take this one step at a time.

If you can't imagine having no coffee, tea, chocolate, olive oil, or even sugar in your diet for 100 days, watch the The 100-Mile Challenge, premiering April 5 on Food Network Canada.

Inspired by the best-selling book The 100-Mile Diet by James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, the series follows six British Columbian families who make the difficult, but rewarding, commitment to consume only food and drink produced within a 100-mile radius for 100-days.

And if you need more inspiration, The Story of Stuff is a good place to start.

how old is that apple core?

One of our favourite sites - Ideal Bite - has a tip on taking a load off our landfills.

Did you know that regular plastic bags not only take ages to decompose, but that they actually PRESERVE what's inside?

Ideal Bite advocates the switch to biodegradable bags, which cost a little more, but are just as strong, and biodegrade in as little as 10 days -- finally allowing those food scraps to decompose!

For all you Canadians, Grassroots sells BioBag kitchen bags on their site, which are certified 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable bags made from corn.

toronto to recycle plastic bags and polystyrene

Happily, the City of Toronto has added certain kinds of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers that it had always rejected before; the new additions can go to the curb beginning next Tuesday.

Plastic retail and grocery bags can go in, same goes for the hard, white foam packaging, cups, takeout containers, and egg cartons.

But packing peanuts, and anything made from hard plastic, like plates, glass, cutlery, clear egg cartons, plastic models and CD and DVD cases cannot.

Confused? You can find the new rules at www.toronto.ca

LCBO to discontinue use of plastic bags

Another one bites the dust.

LCBO has recently announced that plastic bags will no longer be offered at their stores and that existing supplies will be used until stocks are depleted. It's expected to save some 80 million bags annually. Paper bags and boxes will be used, along with BYOB - Bring Your Own Bag!

LCBO's plans have sparked some opposition from the plastics industry. "We have some concerns about that because all along we've said bans send out the wrong signal. You've got to have people changing their own way of doing things," said Serge Lavoie, president and chief executive of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association.

The way I see it, while many people are making efforts to be more eco-minded, there's nothing wrong with a little helpful push in the right direction. Especially with something as seemingly simple as the issue of plastic bags.

Joanne St. Godard, executive director of the Recycling Council of Ontario says "It's about eliminating a package altogether by supporting reuse."

And that is essentially what it comes down to.

Full story here

another blow to plastic bags

Poor plastic bags. Whole Foods Market - uber grocer of natural and organic foods - will stop handing out disposable plastic grocery bags in all of its 270 stores by this coming Earth Day (April 22). Whole Foods has six stores across Canada.

Over the next three months, stores will reduce plastic bag inventories and increase the selection of reusable bags for purchase.

"More and more cities and countries are beginning to place serious restrictions on single-use plastic shopping bags since they don't break down in our landfills, can harm nature by clogging waterways and endangering wildlife, and litter our roadsides,” said A.C. Gallo, co-president and chief operating officer.

Before Whole Foods decided to do away with the bags, they ran tests at several stores, including Toronto. The response was overwhelmingly positive. They estimate they will keep 100 million new plastic grocery bags out of our environment between Earth Day and the end of this year alone.

If you forget to bring your bag, Whole Foods will still offer a way to leave with your pesticide-free soybeans: 100 percent recycled paper grocery bags, which also are completely recyclable.

Kudos. Read more at wholefoodsmarket.com. (And instead of starting the whole “paper vs. plastic” debate, why not just reuse?)