When we talk about single-use plastics, most of us think about those ubiquitous water bottles and grocery store sacks. We recognize the environmental nightmare the use of these convenience products has caused and we want to do something about it. Several countries have banned the use of plastic grocery sacks outright and some U.S. cities have followed suit. California may soon become the first state to ban plastic bags; a bill to that effect having passed the Assembly on June 3.
According to Earth911 Americans buy an estimated 29.8 billion water bottles annually and only two out of every ten are recycled. The rest are simply tossed away and not always into the landfill. We see them along the roads, in parks and floating on the waterways, add grocery store sacks snagged in every other tree and it’s a mess out there.
The problems created by water bottles and plastic store sacks have been widely publicized and a lot of people have given up the use of both. It’s a wonderful thing to see people bringing their own bags to the store and using their own reusable water bottles but is it enough?
I haven’t bought a bottle of water or accepted a plastic store sack in a long time but I’m not sure I’m doing all that well in the war on single-use plastics. A trip to the recycling center this week opened my eyes to my own ineffectiveness. At least 60% of my recycling consisted of plastics. Yogurt containers, produce containers, shampoo bottles; my recycling bin was full of them. These items are also single-use plastics and I don’t think we’re making much headway getting them under control.
Recycling is a good thing but not purchasing the product at all is what we should be seeking to achieve. Unfortunately, not that many options are out there. I love berries and buy a lot of them this time of year. Farmer’s markets or pick-your-own farms are possible alternatives to those plastic clamshell containers at the grocery store but are they really practical for a large number of people? I don’t think so. We could make our own yogurt and perhaps even brew up our own shampoos and cosmetics but that’s not very practical either.
Every little bit helps but we need to be focusing on each plastic-encased product we buy and trying to determine if there are alternatives. Yes, we need to recycle what we do buy but realistically, the war on single use plastics is not going to be won in individual households unless we vote with our dollars. New, environmentally safer containers need to be developed and used on a large scale. That won’t happen unless companies realize that money can be made by offering their products in environmentally friendly packaging. A lot of finger pointing and name-calling is going on lately on the subject of the economic debt we may be creating for our grandchildren; I believe the environmental debt will be much more far reaching.
Where do you stand on the issue of single-use plastics? Have you made some changes in your household? Do you recycle? Have you made any headway in reducing the amount of single-use plastic encased products you buy? How are you doing it?
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4 comments:
Good article Mary. We all feel good about being so conscientious in our recycling, but a bin full of plastic is actually underlining the real problem; everything comes in plastic.
An interesting thing to consider is that it doesn't even take "new" environmentally safe containers. In most cases in would only require something as simple as going back to the old containers. What did our food come in before plastic? Wax coated paper. Remember all the square milk cartons? Why do so many things come in plastic instead of cardboard? From a manufacturing standpoint plastics are a better option because of cost per unti, durability and product protection. Would we all be willing to pay a few cents more for the things we buy if they came in environmentally friendly packaging? I would, and that's a message that needs to get to manufacturers. What's ironic is that it was the environmental "save the trees" movement that helped lead us away from paper and cardboard. People need to understand that the wood used today to make paper products is fast growing longleaf pine that is raised specifcially for paper production. It's a crop just like corn or wheat.
When we were in Paris we had yogurt for breakfast every morning. It came in a little glass jar (like a baby food jar) and was deeeelicious. Why can't we go back to using glass? It seems like it would be less expensive in the long-run.
Right on!
What does it take to package yoghurt in waxed paper cartons or glass?
Okay, glass is expensive and it takes up space in the landfill. But the stuff they use for milk cartons can't possibly cost that much and it will eventually biodegrade.
What really jangles my bell is the pervasive overpackaging. How is it necessary for EVERYTHING to be sealed with plastic tape and then wrapped inside plastic and then wrapped again inside more plastic? Or boxed inside a box inside a box?
The invention of plastic seems to have amounted to an invitation to overpackage.
I think about plastics too, but the ones that bother me are the plastics that food comes in. I don't drink water out of a bottle, so no issue there. And I reuse the plastic grocery bags for garbage; otherwise, I'd just be using a newly-purchased plastic garbage bag for the same use. What gets me is all the plastic containers that refrigerated and frozen food comes in. I have no reuse for them and I hate seeing them go in the garbage. If the manufacturers could come up with a way to package food in something biodegradable, I wouldn't feel so bad every time I see them go in the garbage.
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