Plastic Free July
Beside being non-biodegradable materials, plastics present many environmental problems. I’m sure you are quite familiar with marine plastic pollution but have you ever heard of more than 100 species of marine creatures had mistaken plastic debris for their regular food? Now that this issue turns into a nightmare, let’s contribute to save our mother earth by participating in Plastic Free July challenge!
1. Bring a reusable shopping bag
image: Huffington Post
As you may have read and heard a gazillion times before, bring your own reusable shopping bag! Choose the ones with decent materials such as cotton or nylon which can carry many times their own weight, but please remove paper bag from your list.
What many people mistakenly believe is, since paper is reusable material then paper bag makes a great fit for their reusable shopping bag. In fact, too many trees being cut down to produce reams of paper. Thus, from the solid waste perspective, plastic bags are more environmentally friendly than those of the paper-based reusable bags!
2. Getting rid of plastic straws
image: topontiki.gr
Why don’t take the lesson from the American coffee retail giant Starbucks in getting rid of plastic straws to protect the environment? Yup, by 2020 Starbucks will ditch the single-use plastic straws in all of its stores worldwide. Some might argue that quitting single-use straws will not starkly help reduce marine plastic pollution but as its name indicates, plastic straws are used only once since all of us might always have had our last straws before we throw them away. Follow the hype, bring your own stainless steel straws!
3. Carry reusable water bottles
image: mirror.co.uk
For the (same) aforementioned reasons, carry your own reusable water bottles.
4. Bento box over plastic wrapped food
image: Kidspot
Always choose bento box instead of plastic wrapped food! Next time you want to store your food in the fridge or package your leftover, opt for a jar or other disposable food containers.
5. Bar soap is way better than liquid soap
image: HowStuffWorks
Pay attention to the tiniest details of your daily products. Bar soap is way better than liquid soap due to the smaller amount of energy it needs during the production phase. Also, buy everything in bulk especially when it comes to food purchases, only then we can lessen our daily disposable troubles.
Sources:
- https://www.nurdlehunt.org.uk/whats-the-problem/eaten-by-animals.html
- http://www.plasticfreejuly.org
- http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html
- https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17488336/starbucks-plastic-straw-ban-ocean-pollution
- http://www.conservationmagazine.org/2013/05/bar-soap-vs-liquid-soap/