Recently Jeff and I watched a documentary called "Bag It!" (very good, you should certainly check it out). We were both ashamed to admit we had no idea how terrible plastic is for the earth and your body. I was also appalled to learn about the many ways that plastic bottles and plastic bags have an immense impact on our environment. It really got us thinking about the types of things we buy and how we take the earth for granted.
We really want to protect the earth for our children's children and many generations to come. I am disgusted with myself for not further researching the consequences of plastic on our surroundings. This has led us to try and "de-plastic" our existence. It is merely impossible for us to irradiate plastic 100% but there are a few things we have done to make our lives a little less...cluttered with plastic!
The first major change we made was investing in reusable material grocery bags. We have finally said "good-bye" to plastic grocery bags forever. We have learned that most plastic grocery bags are not recyclable at all. This means that even though we have been throwing countless bags in our recycle bin, it still ends up in the landfill. The bags are just sitting around with other non bio-degradable items. This means that we are directly polluting our earth without a care in the world. Our abandoned plastic bags get picked up by the wind and end up floating around in the air until they hit a river or the woods. Animals get trapped in plastic bags daily. Don't believe me? Google images contains thousands of images of every-day animals (including cats and dogs) trapped in plastic bags that have been picked up by the wind and dropped in the areas they live. The re-usable bags cost us $1. Upon further research I was excited to learn that one cloth bag equals the same amount of energy to produce as about 28 grocery shopping or eight paper bags! I also found this quote online somewhere (and I don't have a link so please don't bite my head off for this) "An unpublished report from the UK's Environment Agency found that when compared to a traditional plastic bad, a canvas or cotton reusable bag would have to be reused a total of 171 times to offset the higher carbon emissions". Sounds like a lot, but 171 times isn't much. Especially if you use it for clothes shopping, book shopping, picnics and grocery shopping.
The next major change we made is ridding our lives of plastic bottles (soda and water)forever. Plastic bottles are a huge culprit in pollution to the ocean. I had no idea that many dead sea creatures, including my beloved whales, dolphins and sharks, have stomachs loaded with pieces of broken plastic. We bought some aluminium water bottles that we can re-fill at water fountains should we need more water. My heart breaks thinking about dolphins that may confuse a piece of broken plastic as a fish. Not yummy, and not good for him at all. Some of the plastic that ends up in the oceans is recyclable. I'd like to encourage you all to learn about the many ways you can use, re-use and recycle plastic. Don't be one of those people that assumes that trash just "goes away" and you never have to deal with it again. At some point, whether it be in your future or your children's lifetime, someone you are related to will indeed have to address the issue of mountains of plastic that had been carelessly thrown to the wind.
Here is a picture of the contents of a whales stomach. After the majority of the krill had decomposed this is what was left - tons of tiny pieces of plastic!
The last major change may be the hardest for us. We are going to try our hardest not to buy any food in a single-serving plastic bag. What a waste of plastic and a waste of energy to create said plastic. We have decided that it is impossible to stick to this 100%, but we are going to try and invest in food that isn't just for one use etc. It is quite hard to distinguish between what a "single-serving plastic container/bag" could be. For example the only organic iceberg lettuce our Walmart has is in a plastic wrapping. Would you consider this to be a single-serving bag? Let me know what you think, because quite honestly I have no idea. One would think that it's not, mainly because you can use the lettuce for several different meals throughout the week. The reason I am torn with this particular item is that it ends up in a ziplock bag in the fridge! Regardless, we are going to try harder to make smarter choices with food packaging.
It's nice to know that we are doing our part, even if it's not the biggest step we could take. As a family on a budget with very little money to spend, we are trying to make it work the best we can. Every day we take steps towards a healthier, greener and natural lifestyle. I am so proud of how far we've come in the last four years. Things we used to take for granted previously are now being respectfully addressed. This earth is not just for us, it's for our children and our children's children and for the hundreds of thousands of animals who's species were here long before humans. I refuse to sit back and carelessly pollute our Environment all because we were too inconsiderate to fully think about the impact our lifestyle would have?! No thanks, I'd rather create a good habit now, so our children will understand and will teach generations of our family how to respect the earth we live on.
No comments:
Post a Comment