diff --git a/src/Plots.jl b/src/Plots.jl
index 729d8f92..1f16e68c 100644
--- a/src/Plots.jl
+++ b/src/Plots.jl
@@ -243,7 +243,9 @@ function __init__()
     setup_atom()
 
     if haskey(ENV, "PLOTS_DEFAULTS")
-        default(; ENV["PLOTS_DEFAULTS"]...)
+        for (k,v) in eval(parse(ENV["PLOTS_DEFAULTS"]))
+            default(k, v)
+        end
     end
 end
 
diff --git a/src/backends/pyplot.jl b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
index 7144b468..baeb7d21 100644
--- a/src/backends/pyplot.jl
+++ b/src/backends/pyplot.jl
@@ -341,8 +341,9 @@ function _create_backend_figure(plt::Plot{PyPlotBackend})
     fig = if plt[:overwrite_figure]
         PyPlot.gcf()
     else
-        PyPlot.figure()
-        finalizer(fig, close)
+        fig = PyPlot.figure()
+        # finalizer(fig, close)
+        fig
     end
 
     # clear the figure