8 Ways to Reduce Your Plastic Footprint
The three Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle have been preached for many years. Unfortunately, our society has a habit of focusing on the latter, recycling. While the massive 1980’s campaign launched by bottle companies might have many believing recycling is the cure-all, most of our plastic is unfortunately single-use or otherwise un-recyclable. As many experts have reiterated, we cannot recycle our way out of this ecological disaster. Consequently, we must focus on the other two Rs for maximum positive impact. My list is composed of easy changes to better reduce and reuse daily plastic waste. This list is by no means exhaustive and should be considered only the beginner’s guide to a larger environmentally conscious journey.
Reusable Water Bottle
As we understand is the case with most plastics, water bottles are resource intensive to create (with fossil fuels) and generally impossible to biodegrade. There is no need to have plastic water bottles clogging our oceans and destroying the ecosystems.
Learn more about how plastic water bottles are terrible for our environment here. An interesting takeaway from this article is that, all in all, from oil extraction to bottle creation to actually bottling the water, it is reported that this process of bottling water contributes 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide pollution per year. The bottling of water and its transport is the least efficient means of delivering water to human beings in history...and this is all before the bottle is even used…
Plastic waste, including bottles, kills an estimated 1.1 million marine animals per year.
38 billion water bottles end up in US landfills per year.
Plastics require about 700 years to dissolve, meaning they accumulate rapidly in the environment and have negative impacts for centuries.
Reusable stainless steel water bottles are durable, no toxic, and ecological friendly alternative. Additionally there are other great options like glass bottles.
Reusable shopping bags
Plastic bags are rarely ever accepted by recycling facilities. In fact, facilities actively avoid them as they are know to clog up the machinery. Instead opt for a canvas bag or other variety. There are loads of specialized bags made from various materials (cotton, hemp, jute, etc) available for things like fruits and vegetables
I highly recommend cotton/canvas bags. Be sure to use these bags hundreds of times to make it worthwhile as some of these options have quite a high carbon footprint during initial production. The up front carbon cost is a bit higher but constant use over several years will prove the bag more sustainable than single use options. Additionally, when it is retired, the bag will generally be easier to recycle or dispose of properly when compared to single use plastic bags.
If you find yourself checking out at a grocery store without your trusty reusable bags, be sure to reach for the paper bags available in most check out lines.
Glass and reusable plastic containers for meal prep
Food shipping and storage is one of the most plastic intensive industries in our modern world. Single-use plastic has many benefits for shipping tight - it’s cheap, durable, air tight, and easily disposed of. Unfortunately, most plastic used in our current food production industry is single use and consequently terrible for the environment.
Instead, opt for reusable food storage containers when shopping and storing food.
While I favor glass options such as mason jars and large airtight storage vessels (think the ones with large metal clasps on top), reusable plastic bins can also provide an airtight and incident proof (we all occasionally drop things) alternative as long as you get your use out of them.
Avoid pre-wrapped foods (and shrink wrapped veggies)
Better yet, go to a farmer’s market when possible and get everything fresh! The best food options don’t even require packaging. By design, you will end up eating healthier by avoiding all the processed junk.
Buy fresh bread that comes in paper bags (or no bags).
Whenever possible, buy foods like dry rice and beans from bulk bins rather than pre-portioned bags.
Choose fruits and vegetables without additional plastic wrapping.
Visit to the meat counter for fresh meets that aren’t plastic wrapped!
There are specialty made bags for your sustainable shopping needs as well!
Reevaluate your Hygiene Products
Use Bar Soap Instead of Bottled Soap. Bottled soap creates a large, and quickly disposed of, plastic container for landfills. Many bar soap varieties come in a cardboard package and on average have a 25% smaller carbon footprint. This applies to hand soap, body wash, and hair products. For a shampoo alternative, one of my favorites is the Trader Joe’s Peppermint & Tea Tree Shampoo Bar.
While the container may be plastic, cleansing balm can be a great alternative to single-use makeup wipes. Generally better for your skin too!
Buy toilet paper which is wrapped and shipped in sustainable paper - these companies will also often donate to conservation charities.
Use reusable cloth pads instead of cotton pads for face. These are machine washable.
Consider Eco-friendly Alternatives for the Little One
The EPA estimates that 7.6 billion pounds of disposable diapers are discarded in the US each year. Use cloth diapers to reduce your baby's carbon footprint and save money. Cloth diapers like these are ecofriendly and affordable for those looking to save the greens.
Construct a More Eco-friendly Kitchen
Use beeswax and soy wrap instead of plastic wrap.
Use powdered dishwasher detergent from a cardboard box. Even better, fill the sink with water and scrub down the dishes yourself with some homemade dish washing cleaner.
Use completely biodegradable gloves for cleaning. Standard nitrile or latex gloves can take decades, if not centuries, to biodegrade in landfills. Fortunately, Showa makes some really high quality gloves that biodegrade in no more than 5 years leaving no negative impact on the environment. Better yet, do what I do and go gloveless! You get used to it after a while.
Use natural cleaning cloths and scrubbers instead of plastic scrubbers and synthetic sponges. Standard plastic sponges leach micro-plastics into the water supply. As insult to injury, these sponges are single use, only sometimes lasting a week or so, and non-biodegradable, meaning they will essentially remain in landfills forever. Someone else already outlined the “15 Sustainable Alternatives to a plastic dish sponge” so I would highly recommend combing that article as well.
Request Zero Plastic Packaging When Ordering Online
As a starting point consider calling up your favorite stores and requesting they put a note on your account for low to no plastic used for shipping your items - with a bit of determination, this can even be possible with Amazon. Find out how here.
Additionally, remove your information from mailing lists to avoid plastic envelope windows and additional wasteful catalogues you may find in the old mailbox.
Final Thoughts
One of the biggest things you can do is buy high quality products and take care of them t reduce the plastic output and carbon footprint of newly manufactured items. While this article acts as a high-level overview, we plan to write future articles focusing on sustainable alternatives for hygiene, kitchen, clothing, and much more!
