Plastic Not Fantastic. How full is your recycling with plastic containers? How much of this plastic waste is being recycled? What is it doing to us and our environment?
We have always "tried" to recycle as much as we can at home, but when life is extremely busy and many people in and out of the kitchen sometimes it is easy to not notice the amount of waste that goes into the bin and recycling bins.
Recently I was alone in the house for a few weeks and it was easy to manage and see the waste that I was using. I religiously composted and sorted all of the waste in the house. I became increasingly aware that the most full bin in the house was the Plastic bin. I was alarmed at the volume of milk bottles, biscuit inserts, plastic salad tray's from the supermarket and it really made me start thinking about the about of unnecessary plastics we use.
Over the last few years I have also seen snippets of stories about a Plastic Garbage Patch floating in the Pacific Ocean estimated to be the size of Texas. They estimate 6 million tonnes of rubbish is dumped into the world's oceans 80% of which is plastic.
And although it seems that we have come a long way with recycling the overall amount of plastic use continues to increase with alarming reports of plastic toxins and other negative health impacts. And although the reports may differ in severity, scientific controversies and alarm the overall feeling that our environment and our bodies are better off without excessive plastic use is becoming very clear.
How can we as consumers encourage manufacturers to stop using plastic on packaging for toys, food, appliances and every other type of unnecessary plastic use? I always feel dreadful taking the rubbish out after one my children's birthday party - the amount of waste is just not right.
So as a part of building awareness we want to explore how individually we can all improve and reduce the use of plastics. Right now most people assume if it has a Recycle symbol on the bottom that the plastic is recyclable. This is not always the case and you need a science degree to remember all the different types of plastic and which ones are recyclable. The problem is even if they do have the recycling symbol it doesn't always mean they are being recycled.
So what is the best way to reduce plastic in the environment - reduce the amount we buy every day.
Ways to help Reduce Plastic Waste
- Plastic Bags - Don't use them - always use recycled bags.
- Shopping - Be a conscious consumer. Buy where possible food and products that do not use plastics.
- Eat fresh - reduce packaged and processed food intake.
- Drink bottles - use reusable PBA free plastic or steel drink containers.
- Be organised - ensuring you have water and food can reduce the amount of packaged and processed supplies you need to buy.Avoid all use of Polystyrene foam - takeaway cups, foam meat trays etc.
- Recycle and reuse all the plastic you do use.
Take a look at My Plastiki Website and see how others are campaigning to reduce plastic use. Take a pledge to cut out necessary plastic use. http://myplastiki.com/takeaction.php
This article hasn't even began to explore the true impact that plastics are having on the environment however it all starts with awareness. The more we learn the more we will share.
Learn more at Clean Up Australia.
The Problems with Plastics Fact Sheet
Take a look at leading scientist and campaigner for change on plastic use Charles Moore.
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