Seven Easy Ways to Use Less Plastic   

Have you ever thought about all the items we buy in stores or shop for online and how so many are either made of plastic or packaged in plastic?  Not blaming the stores, they stock what we buy.  But there’s the vision of all these items overloading our landfills and slowly degrading into endocrine disruptors such as toxins that can cause cancers and alter the development of our children.  Currently, every year, humans produce about 400 million tons of plastic waste (we recycle about 2 million).  In the U.S., we average about 300 pounds a year per person.  What can we do about that?

 

We can start at home.  In 2024 let’s learn ways to use less plastic, even if it’s less convenient.

 

1. Skip single use plastic utensils. Stainless steel portable cutlery under $15 is easy to find.
2. Choose compostable or metal straws. I keep a few in my car, because you just never know when they’ll throw a plastic straw at you. 
3. Store food in compostable, reclosable bags. Cleanomic sells various sizes of zip-close bags for around $12 a box.   Cleanomic | Planet-Friendly Cleaning Product for the Entire Home
4. Bag your fleece. Turns out that fleece (your beloved ones made from recycled bottles) can shed hundreds of thousands of microfibers every wash.  One answer?  A Guppyfriend Washing Bag that captures those tiny bits before they get into our rivers and oceans. https://zerowastestore.com/
5. Try Earth Breeze (Laundry Detergent ECO SHEETS) or Sheets LaundryClub. Zero plastic waste. Buy online: https://www.earthbreeze.com/  or Laundry Sheets & Cleaning Supplies | Sheets Laundry Club
6. Drink from metal water bottles. Try to REFUSE/ or at least REDUCE use of single use plastic water bottles.  Enough said!
7. Choose restaurants that use paper or cardboard takeout containers. (PLEASE – AT LEAST NO STYROFOAM – ASK FOR AN ALTERNATIVE/ OR OTHER OPTIONS. Customers letting their preferences be known will perhaps encourage restaurants (their owners) to move towards these eco-friendly options.

 

IF WE DEMAND IT.  COMPANIES WILL RESPOND.  VOTE WITH YOUR WALLET.  BE WILLING TO TRY SOMETHING NEW.  JOIN YOUR SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE IN LESSENING OUR PERSONAL PLASTIC WASTE IN 2024.

 

(Parts of this article were edited from the Healthy Planet – January 2024 with their approval)