As an individual you can choose to be part of the problem, or part of the solution!
On our ‘waste less’ journey, we made A LOT of mistakes and learned what works for our family. In honor of Plastic Free July, I wanted to share my mistakes with you & some common things people think that may not be entirely true.
The point of this post isn’t to make you feel guilty, but to help make you aware & encourage you to decrease your plastic usage for you, your family, and the environment.
Single Stream Recycling
So your city takes all plastics, how great! If you have a single stream system, you probably throw in your metal, glass, and paper with your plastics too. The only problem is, they may not actually be recycling it all. Cities find that when they agree to accept all plastics, the participation rate increases due to user ease. When the plastic gets to the recycling facility, there are people who pick out the plastics that actually can’t be recycled there.
If you’re like me, you may think, well I have this plastic bag full of recyclables, I’ll just throw it in the bin. But this is almost a guarantee that your recycling gets thrown in the landfill or incinerator. Those plastic bags can clog up machines and all those different types of plastics cant be sorted in the bag.
What You Can Do: Contact your city to see what exactly can be recycled. Here, we can recycle almond milk jugs but I know we’ve lived places where these cannot be recycled. If they don’t take things, write to them about why they should take them!
Resource Requirements
One thing I never thought about was that recycling requires resources. Yes, recycling requires less energy & water and produces less emissions, but plastic cannot be recycled indefinitely. So, unlike glass or metal which can be recycled again and again, it will end up in a landfill. It’ll far outlive you on this earth.
Another problem with recycling plastics is that, as the price of oil fluctuates, so does the price of plastic. If oil is cheap, then making virgin plastics will be cheaper than recycling. Although we all know this is horrible for our health and the environment, the reality is, if it’s not financially sustainable, people cannot do it.
What You Can Do: Be a conscious consumer. Processed foods tend to be what are wrapped in plastics, so avoid them. They aren’t good for your health anyway! Buy loose produce. If you don’t have a bag, then just throw them in your cart or look into cloth bags, such as bento bags from Marley’s Monsters.
Tips to Decrease Your Plastic Usage
- BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag): You don’t have to go out and buy new bags. Look around your home. I’m sure you’ve received free bags at events you can use or an old backpack laying around. If you do buy new ones, be mindful of what they’re made of and opt for natural fibers instead of plastic ones! I’ve even seen up cycled shirts people made bags out of!
- Ditch convenience foods: They’re usually not good for you anyway, so do yourself and the environment a favor and avoid them. If you know you’re going to be out and about, prepare yourself snacks. Take some trail mix or grab a banana. I almost always have mixed nuts in my car for when I or the kids need a snack!
- Invest in stainless or glass food ware. If you feel comfortable using your plastic ware, then totally go for it. But when you’re having to buy new things, look into stainless or glass. I prefer glass, but a few have been broken so I may need to start looking into the stainless ones. You can even bring these to restaurants & put your take out or leftovers in. Just make sure you give them your containers!
- Bring utensils! Buy a bamboo or stainless fork, spoon, and knife. Keep it with that reusable straw you have. Make sure they have a pouch so you can throw them in your bag, purse, or pocket. Once you get into the habit of bringing them it’ll be second nature.
- Cloth diaper your babies! Did you know it can take up to 500 years for a diaper to biodegrade? The inner lining is probably a petroleum based plastic or plastic treated material. Looking back I still can’t believe all the negative things people told us about cloth. We love them and are using the same diapers on baby #3 that we used on baby #1!
- Look for stores that sell in bulk. Find a place where you can bring your own glass jars or reuse baggies. Make sure if you’re using glass jars that aren’t the same (ie mason jars) that you can weigh the jar beforehand and write the weight on it so you don’t get charged! Have a place that doesn’t allow you to bring you own for bulk? Write what you put in the plastic bag and continue to use that baggie for that food.
- Shop at your local farmer’s market. Not only are you saving resources, but you are avoiding those little plastic stickers that cover most of our produce. Many vendors encourage you to bring your own or bring back cartons for them to reuse.
- Start using a safety razor. This is what Justin actually switched to before me. You can recycle the metal razors after & keep your razor forever! I get a better shave with less chances of razor burn. I even use a soap bar as my shave soap now, meaning I have less in my shower and things to buy.
- Eat your ice cream with a cone. Now that it’s summer, ice cream is a great treat to cool off. But when you go, make sure to ask for a cone. Then, you avoid the plastic spoon and plastic covered cup.
- Take your containers to the butcher. If you can’t cut out meat, ask the butcher to weight your container and subtract it from the meat or cheese weight. Then, you aren’t having to take it wrapped in a bunch of plastic!
- Buy fresh bread. It tastes better, has less additives, and then you can throw it in your cloth bag and tie it up. I love all the fresh bread I can find in the grocery store or bakeries in Germany!
- If you drink milk, look for glass containers that you can return to the store to be reused. Usually this is a local dairy, so it’s a win win!
- Recycle things you didn’t know you could! Brita gives you a free shipping label for when you’ve collected 5 lbs of filters to mail to them. HP has a recycle, trade in, & return for cash option on their items. So you can recycle ink cartridges or trade in some electronics! If you use Tom’s of Maine toothpaste, you can also return the tubes to be recycled!
What will you do to decrease your plastic? Are you planning to participate in Plastic Free July with me? Let me know!
Thanks again for reading! I really appreciate you coming here. Until next time! Tschüss
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