Reduce Plastic Waste

Your 5 Simple Tips To Reduce Plastic Waste

Reduce Plastic Waste: An invention of mankind that needs no introduction – the ever so present, Plastic! Wherever you are, there’s a 99% chance, you are surrounded by at least a few, if not too many, plastic. And that applies even if you are at the bottom of the ocean! Here’s an eye-opener in case you are too surprised – Trash In Marianas Trench: The World’s Deepest Garbage Destination

Well, with close to 8-10 million tons of plastic being dumped into the ocean every year, such catastrophic levels of pollution are to be expected. And why do we have so much plastic, are you wondering? Look around you, in your house, on you! It’s a plastic takeover – from the food we eat to the water we drink, our clothes, shoes, electronic items, the list is literally endless. Our entire lifestyle is wrapped in plastic!

Sure, it’s cheap. And durable. That makes it a convenient choice to purchase, and also for the very same reason, easy to discard.

It’s the lure of cheap convenience that led to the birth of the sub-monster called single-use plastic.

Single-use plastic items such as the plastic bag are used, barely for 12 minutes, before being tossed away. Although we use it rather casually, that flimsy bag takes 500-1000 years to decompose. With a million plastic bags being used every minute and then discarded a few minutes later, it’s no surprise, albeit a sad reality, that millions of marine animals and sea-birds have become fatal victims of our discarded convenience.

Although plastic may seem like a formidable enemy, it all finally boils down to the choices of the common people – the primary consumer of plastic. If your conscious has been tickled to do something about it, here are 5 Simple Tips to Reduce Plastic Waste from your daily life:

Reduce Plastic Waste Tip #1 – Bring along your own Reusable Bag.

Every year the world produces 5 trillion plastic bags. If you kept each of these bags side-by-side, it would go around the planet 7 times! Such high demand comes from the fact that plastic is incredibly cheap to manufacture. And that is why most of the shops and convenience stores around the world hand out free single-use plastic shopping bag to every customer. Discarded minutes later, millions of this flimsy plastic, end up choking our waterways, seabirds, marine animals and polluting our environment.

Of all the habits and routines we are accustomed to, breaking out of the grab-a-plastic-bag habit is probably one of the easiest. There are plenty of options out there for shopping bags made of environment-friendly materials. The iBan Plastic Reusable Shopping Bag is one such option available on our eco shop. The many alternatives available to the plastic bag is not expensive either – nothing close to what plastic costs the planet! And compared to those cheap plastic bags, using a reusable organic cotton bag is not just a much better-looking alternative, but it also makes a statement regarding your concern for our beautiful planet.

Reduce Plastic Waste Tip #2 – Loose Fruits & Vegetables are just as Good.

This here is one more example were plastic has sneaked into our lives, seemingly quite harmless, yet with dire consequences to the environment. Behold, the plastic packaging industry. To get some insight into how the fine plastic wrapping our food items had us fooled, read this – New Study Reveals: Plastic Packaging, A Disastrous Attempt At Curbing Food Wastage Issue

Nature did its job quite well giving us our fruits and vegetables. There was no need to go overboard and wrap it in plastic. The study mentioned above shows how there is no extra benefit, but rather a few harmful consequences to buying food items packed in plastic. So the next time you go shopping for groceries, prefer to pick up loose fruits and vegetables and toss them into your reusable bag. You could also use these Reusable Produce Bags to store them later.

Reduce Plastic Waste Tip #3 – Don’t Buy Water in Plastic Bottles.

The plastic used for most bottled water is of very low quality, posing the risk of, over time, leaching out toxic chemicals. The bottles discarded, once used, can take 500-1000 years to decompose, all the while polluting the landfills or the ocean. Why would you want to pay for this, when if you just carry your own reusable bottle, you could get water for free – like how its meant to be! Here’s a good option available on our eco-shop: Stainless Steel Water Bottle.

On a similar note, if you need to have that coffee on the go, a much healthier option is to carry your own reusable cup. For one, it definitely tastes better, probably cheaper, and mainly doesn’t leak chemicals into your caffeine fix. Here’s a Reusable Coffee Travel Mug you could try. If you don’t have a cup a with you, why not give yourself a 10-minute break and enjoy those morning sips, at the cafe itself. But if you must go, can you at least skip on the plastic lid?

Reduce Plastic Waste Tip #4 – Use an Organic Toothbrush to Brush your Teeth.

Plastic has managed to enter every nook and corner of our lives. That piece of plastic we reach out for every day and put in our mouth to clean ends up leaving a mess behind our backs. Here’s something to gulp down – Cleanse The Mouth, But Dirty The Planet? Here’s Why You Should Ditch That Plastic Toothbrush.

Little changes and habits are significant, to eventually bring about a complete change in lifestyle, that does not depend on plastic. Eco-friendly options such as this Natural Bamboo Toothbrush is a much healthier way to start your day with a healthy and clear conscience.

Reduce Plastic Waste Tip #5 – Join the Movement, Sign the Petition.

And last but not the least is to make the corporate businesses and the government to acknowledge and take action to address your and our planet’s plight. A handy way to do this is to gather community support. Signing a petition that addresses the issue of single-use plastic pollution and lending your voice and support to the cause can force the governments to pass legislation that curbs the spread of single-use plastic. The ibanplastic Petition is one such endeavour that aims to force convenient stores to stop giving out single-use plastic items to each and every customer.

If you feel inspired and motivated enough to take it up a notch, join a local clean-up group and put in a community effort on cleaning up our plastic mess that ends up dirtying and polluting our otherwise beautiful beaches, parks and neighbourhood. Clean The Beach Boot Camp was one such initiative that started as a small activity in Phuket, Thailand and went on to become a worldwide movement.

First, it must start with you. Then be an example and reach out to fellow community members to join in on the cause. If you believe that containing the enormous amount of plastic floating around is the need of the hour, then share this article and help us spread the word. If you have your own take on how you’ve managed to reduce the plastic in your daily life, feel free to use the comment section below and inspire others to try the same.