We must face the facts – the planet Earth isn’t doing well. We’ve been neglecting it for decades now and it’s our last chance to change that. This isn’t an ominous, apocalyptic article where I tell you how the planet is going to die taking everything and everyone down with it as it crumbles into the infinite and unknown depths of the universe not giving us a chance to ruminate on our mistakes. No, this is me telling you there’s a way for us to at least start fixing what we did. And we can do that by changing some unhealthy habits. Starting with single-use plastic.
Source: Center for EcoTechnology
There are few things eviler than non-reusable plastic. Last year, more than 500 million plastic straws were used in America alone. We’ve been aware of this problem for a while now as numerous organizations, companies, and advocacy groups have been talking about it. The majority of plastic straws need almost 200 years to decompose completely. And I have even worse news for you – over 1 million marine creatures die from consuming plastic each year.
Luckily, we do have solutions and we do have alternatives. The only problem we’re still facing is how to change peoples’ habits. One way to do that is to make the alternatives to single-use plastic more appealing, more affordable, and more efficient. Simply Eco is a really good example of how to achieve that. Here’s a shortlist of things you can do to start saving the Earth.
- Stop using plastic straws and switch to eco-friendly alternatives. Metal straws are now becoming more and more popular as the awareness about detrimental human impact on the environment is growing. Restaurants and bars are now switching to metal straws as they can be washed alongside the rest of the dishes and silverware. This means that they aren’t only eco-friendly, but cost-effective as well. You can also choose a bamboo straw if you’re not a fan of metal.
- Start using reusable produce bags. Try to avoid plastic bags entirely. We often take a plastic bag to pack the product we bought, we take the product out of the bag, and we throw the bag away. That means we get to use the plastic bag for around 5 minutes. And then we wait for almost 100 years for it to decompose. We can simply carry a cotton mesh bag everywhere with us and pack everything in them. They can be washed and used millions of times. You can pack anything in them from toys and fruits to school lunches or anything you might need for a camping trip. You can choose from many different sizes of bags to fit your every need.
Source: The Southern Cross
- Use reusable cutlery set instead of the plastic one. You can buy metal or bamboo set that you’ll keep in your backpack, or you can buy the set that is the size of a lighter. The last option is available on Kickstarter and it features collapsible spoon, fork, and knife, or you can go for collapsible chopsticks.
- Get your reusable coffee cup. We throw away the coffee cup as soon as we drink our coffee. Reusable coffee cups come in all sorts of different shapes, sizes, colors, and designs so you can choose the one that you like most. Many coffee shops are more than willing to pour drinks into your cup instead of using paper or plastic ones.
- Switch to bamboo toothbrushes. You can even subscribe to have a new bamboo toothbrush delivered to your doorstep every couple of months.
