4 Simple ways to reduce our plastic waste and help the planet
Plastic is everywhere! but it’s 2018 and by now we know better than to rely on our “miracle” plastic products. While they might be convenient for us, that is about where the benefits of these products end.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in one year alone, the U.S. produces a staggering 32 million tons of plastic waste and only around nine percent is recovered for recycling. While we might understand that plastic pollution in the world’s oceans is not a good thing, we are only just beginning to realize the impact that plastics have on marine ecosystems.
Here are 5 ways you can reduce the amount of plastic waste you produce on a daily basis:
1. Ditch the plastic and use reusable items
Every piece of plastic you throw out has the potential to wind up in the ocean. What’s worse is that plastic items can take up to hundreds of years to disintegrate or breakdown! Now imagine all the single use plastic items that we use every day.
It’s as simple as taking your own coffee cup to your favorite coffee shop instead of using their plastic to-go cups, asking restaurants to avoid giving you plastic cutlery when ordering food to-go, changing your plastic tupperware for glass tupperware, reusing plastic containers that would usually be quickly thrown out for storing food, using paper plates for parties or events instead of plastic plates, and getting your own reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic bottles every time you are thirsty.
2. Buy in Bulk
Buying in bulk is an eco-friendly choice for several reasons. First, you create less waste by using less packaging, which results in using less resources and less energy. Furthermore, by using less packaging more product can be shipped in the same amount of space, reducing carbon emissions. These eco advantages really add up to huge savings in terms of natural resources and personal savings.
3. Take your own bags to the supermarket
Up to 1 million birds, 100,000 turtles and many other sea animals die annually from ingesting plastic bags. Animals can confuse floating bags with sea life, such as plankton and jellyfish. Once they eat it, the plastic clogs up their digestive tract. The animals typically starve to death. Other animals may drown after they are entangled in plastic bags.
Cloth bags are a great option to fight this problem. Reusable bags are strong and can be used for many years’ worth of shopping trips. They also can carry far more weight than plastic bags. You can use your cloth shopping bags for years and never throw them away. When they get dirty, it is simple to wash them and keep on using them.
Some estimates suggest that purchasing a single set of reusable shopping bags and using them every time you go shopping could eliminate the disposal of as many as 20,000 disposable plastic bags.
4. Stop using straws
In USA alone, 500 million straws are used every single day. We use straws for around twenty minutes before we toss them away, which is an astonishingly quick lifespan for an item that will be on the planet forever. Straws also contain BPA, and can't be recycled.
The simplest way you can eradicate straws from your life is to just stop using them at home. It's as easy as that. You can also get steel straws that will last you a very long time.
When you're out and about, things can get a little trickier. Always request the waitress/bartender to hold the straw. You might be met with a quizzical expression, but this is a great way to strike up a conversation with someone who might not be aware of the impact plastic straws have on the environment.
We care about our environment
At Paradise Catamarans we are invested in making our services as eco-friendly as possible. We take care of the environment as much as we take care of our customers. As part of our commitment to conserve and preserve our environment, we now use Greenware's eco-friendly disposable cups and plates made from plants.
