Single-use, disposable plastic is one of the biggest environmental problems we face today. Here are 10 easy ways to make a big difference:
Every bit of plastic ever created still exists. It’s toxic, never goes away, and is piling up in our landfills and oceans. So the less we can use, the better.
Here are 10 easy ways to make a big difference:
1. Cloth Grocery Bags or Baskets
Plastic bags are typically used no more than an hour or two and then sit in landfills for hundreds of years. They are the epitome of consumerism and wastefulness, along with plastic water bottles.
2. Metal Water Bottles
It takes 450 years for a plastic water bottle to breakdown into microscopic pieces. It will never fully biodegrade. They can’t actually be recycled, only down-cycled. They are easily replaced:
3. Metal Lunch boxes
In stead of packing your kid’s lunch (or yours) with a bunch of plastic baggies, get one of these metal boxes with compartments:
4. Skip Plastic Produce Bags
There’s no need for the plastic produce bags. Just put your produce all together in a big basket or bag. Or if you’re really neurotic, you can buy these:
5. Just Say No to Plastic Cutlery and Straws
Disposable cutlery and straws are among the worst plastic pollution culprits. Like plastic bags and bottles, they’re used just once, for a few minutes, and then thrown away.
Keep metal or wooden utensils set in your purse or travel pack.
6. Carry Your Own Cup
Americans throw away 25 billion styrofoam coffee cups each year. Even the paper cups are lined with plastic. A growing number of eco-friendly coffee shops now offering discounts for bringing your own cup.
7. Dine In When You Go Out
Do we have to eat everything on the go? If we go out to eat, can’t we just sit down and enjoy it? If not, try finding a restaurant that will let you bring your own reusable to-go container.
8. Glassware for Leftovers
Replace Ziplock bags and plastic Gladware with glassware or mason jars for storing leftover food at home.
9. Cloth or Paper Diapers
Most diapers are made with plastic and are loading up landfills by the ton. Here are a couple of alternatives:
10. Buy Your Shampoo and Soap in Bars
Shampoo bars are healthier for your hair and the planet. And there’s really no reason to buy liquid soap.
RELATED: Time for a Global Ban on Disposable Plastic?
Comments
8 responses to “Top 10 Tips for Using Less Plastic”
If everyone just told 1 friend to do at least 1 of these, that would really help!
Grocery stores and their plastic bags make me crazy….
Thank you for this article! I will share share share!
I am so buying some today. I have been looking and looking for something like this for a very long time. No chemicals is fantastic and no more feelng qulity for washing my hair…
What a wonderful site. My husband and I are happy to say we do all of the above and encourage others to do the same. We travel frequently and always take our own silverware, bowl’s and cups to use at the hotel.
This would make a massive impact. Definitely sharing this in New Zealand!!
Convenience and carelessness both need to to be replaced by resourcefulness and mindfulness. Plastic in supermarkets will only disappear after massive consumer rejection and or legislation. A few clever countries as showing the way. De-normalizing plastic is a war in which we are all soldiers. Our weapons are made of metal, wood and organic materials!
COme on people. End out addiction to plastic/ It’s seriously killing our planet. Care enough to Rock the REusable/ there’s no excuse for single use.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1549048159/boie-usa-the-toothbrush-of-the-future?ref=profile_starred
A toothbrush that actually cleans your teeth. The head can be replaced at intervals, decreasing plastic waste of an entire toothbrush (and works better than the “clean” bamboo brushes).
Do all of these that even apply!