Are you conscience of your impact on the Earth? Do you know how our daily use of plastic is destroying our Planet? According to Earth Day Network, 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown in the ocean annually. Imagine, the amount of plastic between Hawaii and California represents the size of the state of Texas. Actions need to be taken and you can make a difference by at least starting using these 5 tips to reduce your daily plastic use.
Bring your reusable bag when you shop
In some countries and stores, plastic bags are still given freely to people during their shopping time. As a result, billions of plastic bags are produced every day. So next time during your grocery shopping or shopping in a mall, bring your own reusable bag and refuse all plastic ones.
Stop using or accepting plastic straws
Every day million of plastic straws are used to drink sodas, smoothies and water. They increase our pollution and most of the time end up in our oceans. We don’t need a straw to drink our coffee in a restaurant so why would we need one to drink water? If you want a straw or you need one, great alternatives exist such as bamboo, steel and glass which you can easily carry in your bag.
Avoid plastic water bottle
Nowadays there is no good reasons to continue to use plastic water bottles. Many companies already sell their bottles in various sizes, shapes and materials than plastic. So stop using plastic water bottles in your daily life and you will save as much as 170 bottles of plastic a year (4Ocean). Instead use reusable glass bottles or a water filter if you want to filter your tap water. There are plenty of ways!
Use glass containers instead of plastic
Plastic pollutes, so if you can choose pick glass for the environment. Moreover a big reason of choosing glass containers over plastic is for your personal health. Some plastics used for containers are not safe for your health. Underneath every container it should have a number from 1 to 7 in a triangle which represent the type of plastic used. The safest choice for food are the numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5.
For further information about the type of plastic click here.
Use a bamboo toothbrush
We need to realize that every toothbrush we buy is affecting the environment. Toothbrushes are supposed to be changed every 3 months of usage and then are thrown in the trash. The problem is that a plastic toothbrush will never biodegrade itself however a bamboo toothbrush will take around 6 months. It is not perfect for our planet but it would still make a big difference.
CONCLUSION
If we don’t reduce or stop our plastic waste, the plastic in the ocean should increase tenfold by 2020 (Earth Day Network). Small actions in your daily life can make a difference for the environment, for the wild life and for your personal health. Plastic is bad and we have enough evolved to replace it in many other ways.
Save the planet to save lives.