I was restocking the silverware at work. We go through hundreds of plastic forks and spoons a day. At work, we also go through thousands of plastic straws that come in little plastic wrappers. Grab a yogurt in a plastic cup. Grab a plastic spoon. Grab a Vitamin Water in a plastic bottle, or maybe an iced coffee in a plastic up. When you are done, maybe you recycle. In my county, they accept plastics numbered 1, 2, 4 & 5. There are seven in total. Most places take less. In Alabama they only took 1 and 2. They also didn't do curbside pickup, so most people didn't even try to recycle. Don't just assume by putting it in recycling that it wont end up in a landfill somewhere. Make sure you check what your county is able to recycle and stop buying plastics as much as possible. Plastic is made with such a strong chemical composition that it doesn't break down, and therefore, is non biodegradable. It doesn't go away. It might break down into smaller and smaller fragments, but it's still there. There is a good documentary about plastic that is on Netflix, called Plastic Paradise. I encourage you to look up information on your own. But if you are the kind of person who likes to eat out a lot then there are lots of ways to stop using needless plastic. Bring your own beverage and food containers. There are bamboo utensil sets out there that you can buy. There are also glass straws. I'm getting wooden case for mine, because I don't necessarily trust that it's "unbreakable". So there are ways to avoid it. It just takes a bit of conscientiousness. Seeing that I am broke, my first step towards a plastic free existence was purchasing one of those glass straws. We will see how that goes. If it actually lasts over time. Until then I'm just trying to use as little plastic as possible. I didn't buy shampoo the other day because I'm going to order a bar shampoo instead of buying the plastic bottles full.
trying something new,
Mav
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