Reducing our Daily Use of Plastic

Posted by: Eileen Flynn // Student

Plastic is something we come into contact with multiple times a day, whether it’s when we order our coffee in the morning, pack our lunch for work or pick-up take out from our favorite restaurant for dinner. It’s too normal for us to use a plastic container and expose of it after one use and not think anything of it. Plastics do not biodegrade and could exist in the environment for decades and decades of time. Too many of us see the consequences of the trash left over at our favorite beach or on the side of the road. So what can we do to lessen the plastic waste? Stop using plastic, throw-away containers when we can. Dominique Mosbergen from Huffington Post writes in her article, “9 Life Hacks to Help You Break Up with Plastics”, about the daily tricks she uses to fight back against plastic. She lists her top five hacks as follows: 1. Carry a reusable coffee cup (Bonus: The insulated containers will keep your iced coffee cold for hours)) 2. Bring a reusable water bottle - everywhere 3. Carry reusable tote bags - in purses, briefcases, drawers and the car, so there’ll always be one handy 4. Carry snacks in reusable steel containers 5. Keep a set of metal cutlery for on the go and/or at work Dominique’s hints to lessening the plastic waste in our community are everyday decisions that we can all make. Dominique writes about her decision to go plastic-free for a whole month. She set strict guidelines for herself and was determined to go the whole month refusing plastic. After 30 days, she writes she was “both aghast and encouraged” by the amounts of personal-waste she reduced, which includes an estimate of 34 plastic cups, 38 plastic straws, 24 plastic bags, 19 plastic-to-go containers and 30 plastic bottles. Though difficult at times Dominique was “surprised at how easy the transition has been” which makes this challenge more appealing for the rest of us. If everyone was aware of the plastic waste we could avoid daily, our environment would be much better off. For more information on Dominique’s story visit this site: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reduce-plastic-use-water-pollution_us_590816f6e4b05c397681f20b?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004 For more information on plastic waste visit these sites: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/climate/recycling-landfills-plastic-papers.html https://www.nrdc.org/stories/10-ways-reduce-plastic-pollution