Plastics surround us every single minute of every singe day. Plastic is a norm in our society and daily lives. For example, right now I am typing on a computer with a plastic cover, plastic keys and tons of other plastic pieces, and I am jamming to The Lumineers through plastic headphones. Take a second to look up and notice the amount of plastic around you right now.
Now consider all of the harmful chemicals inside of that plastic, like BPA (bisphenol A) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride). These chemicals are believed to cause cancer and other health defects. We are all exposed to these dangerous chemicals, whether we are aware of it or not. We are literally drowning in a sea of plastic throughout our everyday lives.
Now ponder the environmental effects of plastics, and the fact that every single piece of plastic that has ever been made still exists. It takes about 500-1,000 years for plastic to actually biodegrade. Where does all of that plastic go? Americans use 30 million tons of plastic every year. 33 percent is only used once, and only 8 percent is recycled. The problem is that plastic material is made to last forever, but we aren’t treating it that way. Tons of plastic ends up in landfills or incinerators. Way too often, plastic washes off of landfills and ends up in the ocean. There are currently 46,000 pieces of plastic per square mile of ocean. Take the Pacific Garbage Gyre for example. It is a giant collection of trash, mostly plastic, that has been pushed together by currents and is currently floating around the ocean, wreaking havoc on the marine ecosystems. It's also roughly twice the size of Texas.
The average American creates about 185 pounds of plastic trash every year. It is absolutely unbelievable that we use that much plastic in our everyday lives without thinking twice about what it is doing to our health and environment.
Here is where you come in. If you care about this, even just a little bit, you can make a change. Some feasible ways to do that are:
Refuse plastic shopping bags.
You really don’t need a plastic bag to carry one grocery item to your car. Buy reusable shopping bags! They really aren’t expensive, and some grocery stores will give you a small discount if you bring in your grocery totes! You can take it a step further and purchase reusable cloth produce bags, instead of tearing off a few plastic bags from that giant roll next to the produce isle. Every minute, over 1 million plastic bags are used worldwide. Over 500 billion are used annually. Don’t be part of that statistic!
Don’t drink bottled water.
Bottled water companies, like Nestlé, are some of the most profitable companies in the world. Besides the fact that they are destroying communities and ecosystems, the plastic bottles they come in are horrible! Some bottles may have a nice little green leaf, or be labeled as an ‘eco-bottle,’ but there is nothing green about them! This is a marketing strategy, and those bottles are some of the biggest culprits of plastic pollution. Buy a reusable water bottle and carry it with you to school, work, wherever!
Refuse the excess and be more aware as a consumer.
Ask the waiter to hold the straw, refuse plastic utensils and containers and think twice about buying that single use plastic. Educate yourself as a consumer, and keep in mind that every little bit counts.
Recycle
If refusing the single use plastic isn’t an option, recycle!
Spread the word!
Encourage your friends and family to be more aware of their plastic consumption. Spread the word in your community! If your school or workplace doesn’t recycle, check into getting recycle bins!
If you found any of this interesting, check out:
http://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
Watch Plastic Paradise–it’s on Netflix, and it is really worth the watch!
I’d like to close with one of my favorite quotes, just as a reminder that everyone can make a change:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
