Reduce Plastic and Help Save the Environment

From drink and deli meat containers to razor blade and DVD packaging, plastic can be found everywhere. It’s even on our beaches, in our oceans and in the stomachs of animals — and it will be in landfills hundreds of years from now. The world has an estimated 6.3 billion tons of plastic waste that isn’t being recycled, with millions of tons being added every year. And it’s exclusively harmful.

Plastic’s prevalence is mostly due to people’s preference for it over glass jars, aluminum cans and paper bags because it’s lighter, takes up less space, requires less fuel for transportation and costs less to manufacture. However, the environmentally hazardous way plastic is produced, its incredibly long decomposition time, its frighteningly low recycling rate and its toxicity doom our planet.

Plastic’s Negative Effects on the Environment

Plastic is damaging even before it’s produced because most plastic is man-made with crude oil, natural gas or coal. All these materials must be drilled and extracted, which is a process with a large carbon footprint, making it very harmful and disruptive to the environment. After plastic is used, it is thrown in the garbage, tossed out as litter or recycled. But since only 9 percent of plastic in the U.S. is recycled (with a similarly low worldwide recycle rate), the majority of our plastic ends up in landfills or as litter on the ground or in bodies of water.

Wherever the plastic finds its final resting place, it will then take more than 450 years to disintegrate. Other estimates say 1,000 years, while some scientists question if plastic will ever decompose, especially in landfills. Since plastic has been mass produced only since the 1950s, there is no way to tell for sure. Yikes.

Even when, or if, plastic decomposes into the ground or warm ocean water, the toxic chemicals in plastic (such as bisphenol A, also known as BPA, and estrogen-like chemicals) leach into the soil, water or organs of animals that mistakenly view the plastic as food. Studies have also found that plastic in the oceans, where approximately more than 5 trillion pieces of plastic are found, eventually breaks down into what is called microplastics, which may be eaten by fish or wash up on beaches as sand. Ironically, this means that humans are also likely to come into contact with these microplastics and leached toxins. Eat seafood? It’s estimated that more than a quarter of all fish have plastic contents inside them.

Ways to Reduce Plastic Use

More people need to break their habit of buying plastic as well as enhance their recycling practices. Here are some easy ways to reduce plastic use:

• Buy products packaged in cardboard boxes instead of plastic.
• Invest in reusable water bottles and coffee cups.
• Avoid buying frozen foods.
• Purchase fruit and make homemade juices instead of buying them.
• Don’t buy or use plastic straws or plastic cutlery.
• Stop chewing gum, because it contains plastic.
• Don’t buy products that come in single-serving plastic containers (such as fruit cups).
• Use canvas bags instead of plastic grocery bags.
• Buy produce from farmers markets that don’t use plastic containers or that allow consumers to reuse them.
• Use glass containers for leftovers instead of plastic zipper bags or plastic wrap.
• Opt for matches or refillable lighters instead of plastic lighters.
• Avoid disposable razors.
• Stop purchasing face care products with microbeads.

If plastic must be used, thoroughly clean it after use so that it can be properly recycled.

Did you know?

• More than 40 percent of all plastic is used only one time and then thrown away.
• 73 percent of litter on beaches across the world is plastic.
• Approximately 700 different species of marine wildlife have been found to eat or get tangled in plastic.
• Biodegradable plastic doesn’t work, not even in the oceans.
• Some companies are discovering unique solutions to the world’s plastic problem. Florida’s Saltwater Brewery innovated edible six-pack rings for their beer cans. The rings are 100 percent biodegradable and edible for birds, fish, turtles or other animals that come across them.

While the human population and the number of manufactured products continue to rise, so must mankind’s research and development for safer, eco-friendly, biodegradable plastic alternatives and packaging materials. Until a “new and improved” plastic alternative is created, it’s best for everyone to drop plastic use to a bare minimum.