Dear Unconscious Consumer

Dear Unconscious Consumer:

It is December 19th and Milwaukee enjoyed an unusual temperature of 48 degrees today. I headed to South Shore to get in a winter #CatchOfTheDayMKE. I decided to hit the beach South of my usual spot knowing there would be an opportunity for a bigger catch in a concentrated area and I only had a couple hours to spare.

My bucket in hand and stocked with several bags I made my way down the path to the shore. As soon as my feet hit the sand the dance began. Now mind you, throughout the summer I have spent a total of 34 days (an average of 2.5 hours each of those days) picking up plastic from this shore line in Bay View. I knew what I was in for, or so I thought.

Today, after bending and squatting for about an hour I started to feel a heaviness inside. I stood there looking over the shore and felt a tear roll down my cheek. I couldn’t get the image of the crying Indian out of my head – the one that was in the Keep America Beautiful PSA that aired in the early 1970’s. Then suddenly I just had to release some obscenities. I was angry and disappointed. Letting off
some steam was not only a relief, it also made me more determined. I spent a total of 2.5 hours picking up plastic today. I could have spent the entire day and not even cleaned half of the small stretch of shoreline I was on.

The photos in this blog are from today. THIS…America….is YOUR backyard. This is what has permeated our landfills, is swimming in our waterways and choking its inhabitants and slowly poisoning us. This is what unconscious consumerism has created.

The majority of plastic I find is single use plastic. Items that were created for convenience…YOUR convenience. Our world is all about supply and demand. If you do not use this, there would be no need to manufacture it.

You may not personally relate to this, you may not see how you contribute to this (i.e. unconscious consumer). Once you know the information I am sharing you can’t un-know it. Once you see what I picked up from the shore in only 2.5 hours you can’t un-see it. So, sit back, get comfortable, grab a cup of your favorite cold or hot beverage because here is where I bore you with some facts. If your beverage of choice is a cold one it most likely came with a plastic straw that you didn’t even have to ask for, how convenient! That plastic straw you just used for a few minutes will now be in the environment for millions of years. The world uses one billion unrecyclable plastic straws a day.

Starbucks uses about 2 billion plastic straws each year. Or maybe your cold beverage came in a nice convenient plastic bottle. 1,000,000 plastic drink bottles are bought every minute. 480 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in 2016; 110 billion of those were sold by Coca Cola.  Ah ha, you say, but my plastic beverage bottle is recyclable and I always recycle (such a good consumer!) A recent Greenpeace report found six of the largest soft drink
companies, excluding Coca-Cola, use a combined average of just 6.6% of recycled plastic globally (Coca-Cola uses 7%). Rather than being recycled into new bottles, the vast majority of beverage bottles are exported to plastic manufacturers in emerging markets and used to make synthetic fabrics for clothing. Yes America, the clothes you are wearing are now made from plastic bottles. The U.S. exports one third of its recycling and nearly half of it goes to China. Effective January 2018 there will be even less plastic recycled because China (our largest purchaser of recyclable plastic bottles) will no longer accept our plastic.

Think about this..read more here: 

 http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/every-single-piece-of-plastic-ever-made-still-exists/blog/58440/

Well maybe the beverage you are enjoying right now is a hot beverage. Brewing at home with a coffee pod brewer? Almost 10 billion individual coffee pods (k-cups) were sold in the last year and that number continues to rise. Even their inventor, John Sylvan regrets creating them (we should ship all the used ones to his house). Some of the newer generation k-cups are recyclable, but you have to take them apart and separate the plastic, compost the coffee grounds and dispose of the top. So much for your quick convenience. Getting your hot beverage from a coffee shop? Styrofoam cups are not recyclable and many plastic lids are made of polystyrene, a Grade 6 plastic which is the denser form of Styrofoam, also not recyclable. Starbucks goes through 4 billion to-go cups annually but most of them end up in the landfill. Why? Even though these cups are mostly made of paper, these single-use items are almost never recycled or composted because they are lined with plastic.

So maybe you already have an awareness of the problems with plastic and so you look for companies that use disposable ‘green’ items. You see them as compostable or biodegradable cups or straws. This too can be misleading because many of these green products need specific conditions to break down naturally like being heated to over 120 degrees and in landfills there is not enough oxygen for them to break down fully. Disposable green items that we use once and throw away are not the answer – we have to use less plastic.

It is estimated that 8.3 billion tons of virgin plastic has been produced to date. With current production 12 billion tons will be in landfills/environment by 2050. Plastic is in our life and it is here to stay. The majority of plastic waste is throwaway or single use items.

With all that liquid you’ve been drinking to get to this point, you probably need to take a break and run to the bathroom. While you are in there…check to see how much single use plastic you have. Look at those cotton swabs with the plastic stick – they were originally designed with paper sticks…why not switch back to those? How about that toothbrush that the ADA (American Dental Association) recommends you change every 3 months? Tampons with plastic applicators? (the original applicator was also paper) How about your dental floss? Did some smart advertising agency convince you that dental floss was just not efficient enough so you switched to the individual plastic dental floss picks that you now have to purchase more often and spend more money on? How about all those beauty products in plastic tubes, jars and bottles you have been programmed to believe you need?

Okay, by now I am sure you have to go check on the kids…it got a little quiet in their room didn’t it? Never a good sign. While you are checking in on them take a look at all the plastic toys they have. Where will they all end up in 6 months when they lose interest in them?


With everything we have covered so far, it can be draining and by now I am sure you are getting a little hungry so go ahead and grab a snack to hold you over while I finish this up. It sure is convenient having all those individually wrapped snacks for a quick grab and go!

Dear Conscious Consumer:

Well hello….so glad you crossed over from the dark side of plastic. Welcome to the new enlightened side of living. And now that I have your awareness, let me share some simple changes you can make so I can return to lovely walks along the lake taking pictures of nature instead of this:

With all your new-found awareness you can start to save the planet by making some of these simple changes right in your own neighborhood:

• Refuse plastic bags when shopping. It is so easy to take your own shopping bags and you can get them in all kinds of fun sizes, styles and colors (or just plain ones too, if that’s your thing).

• Stop putting produce in plastic bags, its nature for heaven’s sake, you don’t have to cover them up. But if you are embarrassed by their nakedness, then get reusable produce bags.

• Buy boxes instead of bottles. Often, products like laundry detergent come in cardboard which is more easily recycled than plastic.

• Shop the bulk section, where else can you spill stuff all over the floor and not have to clean it up yourself. I bring my mason jars and fill them up!

• Use a reusable bottle or mug for your beverages, even when ordering from a to-go shop. Keep a travel mug (or two) in your car.

• Bring your own container for take-out or for your restaurant doggy-bag since many restaurants use Styrofoam. 

• Don't use plasticware at home and be sure to request restaurants do not pack them in your take-out box.

• Ask your local grocer to take your plastic containers (for berries, tomatoes, etc.) back. If you shop at a farmer’s market they can refill it for you.

• Make fresh squeezed juice or eat fruit instead of buying juice in plastic bottles. It's healthier and better for the environment.

• Pack your lunch in reusable containers and bags. Also, opt for fresh fruits and veggies and bulk items instead of products that come in single serving cups.

Still feel it is too overwhelming to change your personal convenience habits? I invite you to save the photos I have shared with you and revisit them often. Blow them up, hang them around the house, (you know you have been wanting to redecorate anyway), share them with family and friends. Examine the items in these photos and remember that in 2.5 hours this is how much of your convenience I gathered.

Well, now it must be awfully close to meal time which means you are probably losing your focus. I have one more very big favor to ask of you.

Yep, that’s right, you suck and you know it. If you change only one thing, make it this and stop sucking. Stop using plastic straws, even in restaurants. If a straw is a must, purchase a reusable stainless steel or glass straw. You have to be proactive on this one. When at a restaurant be sure to tell them no straw. Now that you have this awareness, you will be shocked at how many places automatically give you a straw. Sometimes even I am caught off guard and forget to mention it. If I am at a restaurant that gives me a straw automatically I talk to them about it or I leave one of these handy little cards with my payment:

Seattle had a very successful campaign to remove single use plastic straws and it is my intention to do the same for Milwaukee. Watch this PSA…its hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q91-23B8yCg

The following Milwaukee restaurants have already made the pledge to #stopsucking in 2018 so please support them!

207 W. Freshwater Way  ~  Milwaukee (3rd Ward)





5133 S. Lake Drive  ~  Cudahy








2473 S. Kinnickinnic Avenue  ~  Bay View






To follow my #stopsucking campaign follow me on Facebook at catchofthedayMKE


If you are a restaurant that wants to take part in the #stopsucking campaign 2018 please email me at marla_schmidt@yahoo.com

Fear/Phobia – Riding the Wave Between Them

Fear – we feel it in our lives, witness it in the lives of people we care about and hear it in the world around us. There are times fear is appropriate. It is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn't feel it we couldn't protect ourselves from legitimate threats. Fear is an emotion that comes up most frequently in sessions with clients and a topic I have written about many times. It is the emotion that keeps people stuck and/or complacent in their lives and an emotion that spawns hatred.

fear
noun - an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

pho·bi·a
noun - an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.

My own personal practice includes pushing myself beyond fear when it arises and in most cases I have had great success in conquering it rather quickly. But there is one fear that has been lingering with me as far back as I can remember. One that I now recognize as a phobia in that it is an irrational fear and it is one that is taking some time to conquer. The fear of deep water. I have always been aware of it but it wasn’t until December of 2012 that I became fully aware of how much control it had over me. I remember the day, the moment actually, as if it were yesterday. I was in Costa Rica with a friend on an epic jungle hike to the most magnificent waterfall. We hired a local guy to take us in, it was rainy but tropically warm, just as you would expect in the jungle. The treacherous trail required great focus as we wound through some sharp turns and narrow edges while mud slid beneath our feet. When we finally reached the waterfall our guide and my friend became breathless with excitement as they came closer to the turbulent waters. I came to a halt as I became breathless with fear. Before I even had time to properly assess the situation a squeaky shrill came out of my mouth “You go ahead, I will wait here”. I understood the look on their faces. After all, who

fearlessly treks into the jungle under treacherous conditions solely for the purpose of swimming beneath the waterfall to suddenly just stop short of obtaining the goal? It would be like following the rainbow to the end and walking away without the pot of gold. I stood and watched them play under the tumultuous falls and wished I could experience such joy and freedom. It was in that moment of disappointment and frustration that I said to myself “I will no longer allow this fear to control me”. I yelled to the guys that I was coming over and slow and steady like a sloth I slithered towards the waterfall, my feet grasping the rocks like suction cups. I felt the force of the falling water hit the surface with a thunderclap creating a volatile whirlpool that sucked the air from my lungs. I pushed through the turbulence and when I could no longer touch the bottom I felt her begin to swallow me. I started to hyperventilate but I was determined to make the crossing. There was nothing enjoyable about losing my dignity while haphazardly attempting to doggy paddle my way through it but there was something that happened once I reached the other side. I survived.

The trip continued to provide me with opportunities to push the limits of the phobia I have with deep water. From repelling down waterfalls (yes more than one!) to white water rafting on the Pacuare river in class V conditions (class VI is expert

rapids/waterfalls). Over the next couple years there would be a trip to Mexico where I went snorkeling in a cenote, paddle boarding in the Florida Keys, and my most recent experience of snorkeling in the ocean and spending 3 days on a catamaran sailing from Key West to Ft. Lauderdale in 6-8 foot waves.

One might think it is crazy to intentionally put yourself in situations that cause fear and panic, after all where is the joy in that? I have discovered that by allowing myself to go into a fearful state, expressing the raw emotion and listening to the ‘story’ I am telling myself about the situation I can become an observer of the fear rather than a victim of the fear. What I discover in this observer state is that my body is tense, my breathing is short and rapid and my thoughts are creating worse-case-scenarios for the situation, which means I am not in the present moment.

I am determined to release my soul from this irrational fear. Each time I put myself in an uncomfortable situation and ‘survive’ it I am rewriting the program about the experience. Like everything we learn, practice and persistence is important. Because there has been so much time between these events, each time I felt like I was starting over, each time it was just as terrifying as the last. With this most recent experience I noticed I was able to recover from the fear more quickly. A welcome sign that the rewrite is working.

Understanding what is happening in your body when you feel paralyzed by fear is helpful. Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-flight-or freeze response. The sympathetic nervous system sends out impulses to glands and smooth muscles and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) into the bloodstream. These "stress hormones" cause several changes in the body, including an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. The quickest and most efficient way I know to slow my heart rate and calm my nervous system is by controlling my breathing. As an added bonus this brings my thought process into the present moment, a place where I am actually NOT in any danger, and out of a future or past thought that has created a potential threat that does not really exist.

In the end, I may not develop a love or passion for swimming or water activity but my goal is to not have a fear of it. My goal is to freely explore any and all new experiences in my life with an open mind, open heart and open eyes that are not controlled by fear.