With Your Host Burbanmom
After a relatively mild winter cold season, it seems that the Dap-inator has been hit with good one. She spent all day yesterday on the couch with a fever and a nose that was running faster than Marion Jones on crack.
Anyhoo, that puts me on extra-super-deluxe-hover-like-a-hummingbee-Mommy-nurse-duty, which, as you can imagine, leaves little or no time to blog. So rather than stay up past my bedtime (10pm) to write a post, I'm gonna leave it all up to you. I'll give you a topic:
You have recently decided to give up your non-stick dishes due to the health risk they pose. Knowing these risks, do you give them to someone else to use or toss them in the landfill?
I'm assuming there will be two basic schools of thought here:
1. You give them away because someone out there will take them either: due to ignorance; not believing/caring about the PFOAs; or just having an absolute need for something to cook in. You assume that by allowing them to be purchased used, you will be decreasing the demand for new non-stick products.
2. You landfill them because you can't stand the thought of someone else being exposed to toxic fumes due to your actions. And because PFOA will last only +-50 years you assume leaching into groundwater won't be an issue.
1. You give them away because someone out there will take them either: due to ignorance; not believing/caring about the PFOAs; or just having an absolute need for something to cook in. You assume that by allowing them to be purchased used, you will be decreasing the demand for new non-stick products.
2. You landfill them because you can't stand the thought of someone else being exposed to toxic fumes due to your actions. And because PFOA will last only +-50 years you assume leaching into groundwater won't be an issue.
If you do give them away, to whom would you give them? Would you want to give them to someone in your family? Your friends? Your neighbors? Or just someone you don't know?
If you do give them away, would you tell the recipient what you know about PFOA? Even if you freecycled them, garage saled them or Goodwilled them?
So there's your topic for today. Discuss amongst yourselves. I'm gonna go snuggle my little one.
8 comments:
Weelllll, in the case of bad plastic, you could just stick it all in a closet bz you were paralyzed by exactly those choices. *Or* you could post a very long freecycle entry, as I did, noting the health concerns of said item and asking if anyone wants the item anyways (I did this for some new-in-the-box pacifiers that I suspected had bpa in the shields). Then they are fully forewarned. I think full disclosure and then be prepared to face the landfill. Lots of people are still using/don't care about Teflon (or bpa for that matter) so you might as well try to let someone else 'benefit' from them. I'm pretty sure we all have a cumulative chemical burden anyways, and altho its clear that using teflon's not great for you it's unclear just how bad it is (kind of like with bpa). And maybe someone could really use the pans? ymmv, just my vote...
I am replacing my (in some cases formerly) teflon-coated pans one at a time starting with the ones that are missing parts of the non-stick surface. On one such pan, the coating is all but gone, which means it's somewhere I don't want to think about. I will be tossing them in the trash.
If I knew of a place to recycle them - at least the metal portions, I would do that, but I don't.
Any ideas?
Freecycle 'em. If they ask why you're giving them up, tell them...if they still want them and think you are a freak then so be it. If they don't ask, they probably don't care...
It's a fine line to have to walk actually...some people view sharing knowledge as lecturing, hippy weirdness, condescension or helpful. You just never know how they will perceive it. Freecycling keeps it out of your family--family get togethers will just bring the PFOAs back around to you. Freecycling it also allows for some kind of dialog to take place if the receiver wishes. Goodwill/Salvation Army doesn't allow for that...nor does a garage sale (for the most part)...donating to a shelter doesn't allow for it either. Freecycling gives the receiver an opportunity to inquire why you are getting rid of it..and you won't be a making money/tax deduction off of the PFOAs.
It's easy to "overthink" this one...at some point there has to be a cut-off of your responsibility. Otherwise it would be really easy to make yourself responsible for tons and tons of crap...like how many sea turtles you've killed by the bags you threw away before going green or the ground water you've tainted by the trash you've previously disposed of...
I don't know...these are just my random thoughts/opinions...feel free to disagree...
Give them away with full disclosure is my vote. Other people can make their own choice. You never know what people might find a use for. Piddle bucket anyone? or... Ma could sure use an easy to clean chaw spittoon. Obviously people still want them because they are still selling. Landfill is always the last possible option.
WWFPFD?
Check this out:
http://www.recyclethis.co.uk/index.php?s=teflon&submit=Search
Some of the better ideas:
Double boiler (if you spend much time melting chocolate)
As "shop" organizers to store misc. hardware
If you think it's worth it, you can have them re-coated by http://www.frypanman.com/
Art - some great ideas out there online
Hope Dipper gets better soon!!!
Ship them back to Dow Chem? They made the stuff; let them figure it out.
Or full-disclosure FreeCycle.
We have a scrap-metal recycling place here that would be glad to take them. For heaven's sake don't put perfectly goo metal in the landfill!
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