Could you go one month without single use plastic? How about one week? One day? Take the Plastic Free July Challenge with me and find out.
Junkyard Planet
I recently read the book Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter and it’s once again inspired me to take a hard look at all my stuff. In the book Adam describes the billion dollar junk trade, specifically metal scrap and what happens to America’s cars, appliances and even Christmas tree lights once we’re all done with them.
Junkyard Planet is a fascinating book that taught me about the jobs and markets surrounding scarp metal and gave me hope for the future of metal recycling across the world. It also reminded me just how difficult it is to recycle plastic and electronics safely. Although written in 2013, it had some excellent, relevant info on just what happens to our junk once it leaves our homes.
Many Americans think recycling is the answer to all of the earth’s global warming woes, but in reality we should remember that Recycle is the last of those three Rs we all repeat every Earth Day.
Reduce, Reuse, THEN Recycle
We’ve all heard the adage Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but it wasn’t until I read Junkyard Planet and that I realized there’s a very specific order to those three Rs. Reduce comes first. And for good reason.
In our highly commercialized world, consumerism is the norm. Economies and societies are based on consumption, yet how often do we consume without thought to the resources that go into each item we buy?
Take clothes for instance. It takes water, land and fertilizer to grow cotton, not to mention people and machines to pick it, process it, dye it and turn it into cloth. Once we buy that shirt, how often do we wear it? How much do we appreciate the effort that went into it? What happens to it when we’re done with it?
In this funny episode of Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act show he discusses fast fashion and answers the question many Americans never think to ask. Where do my clothes come from and what happens to them when I throw them out?
Instead of taxing the natural resources of our planet by demanding a constant stream of more clothes than we realistically can wear, we should REDUCE our consumption and REUSE what we already have.
The Problem with Plastic
Recycling is especially problematic when it comes to plastic. While convenient, items made of plastic are harder to reuse AND recycle. Single use items like straws, grocery bags, water bottles and throw-away food containers, are typically made from lower-grade plastics (not numbered 1 or 2) which are not recycled as easily if at all.
Plastic pollution in our oceans is out of control. This article from the International Union of Conservation of Nature explains that 8 million tons of plastic end up in our oceans every year, most of it waste from average consumer. Animals ingest or are entangled in the plastic, leading to severe injury, death and food supply contamination.
So what is an eco-conscious, nature-loving person supposed to do? If you can’t recycle or reuse single-use plastic (it’s right there in the name) the only option left is to REDUCE.
What does reducing plastic have to do with helping families explore outdoors? Well if we want to have an ocean worth looking at, swimming in, or exploring (not to mention fish to eat and animals to marvel at) we’ve got to stop making and tossing so much plastic!
Plastic Free July
July 2020 I’m joining millions of people in an anti-plastic campaign called Plastic Free July. I’ve experimented with many different ways of reducing my plastic use over the years (get the whole list of 50 Ways to Go Green that I’ve Personally Tried in the box after this list) including:
- Grow my own food to avoid packaging and shipping environmental costs (and gardening is fun)
- Bring reuseable bags, including produce bags, to the grocery store
- Refill insulated water bottles like these instead of buying plastic water bottles
- Reusing plastic food containers from yogurt or sour cream like tupperware
- Drink without a straw or use a reuseable straw
- Avoid plastic plates, cups and silverware by either bringing my own or washing a plate at a family function.
- Teach my kids by my example
To celebrate Plastic Free July, I’ve partnered with the US-based small family-owned business Lotus Trolley Bag to offer a GIVEAWAY of a complete trolley bag system. These reuseable bags rest in your cart as you grocery shop so you can sort your items directly. There’s a pocket for breakable items like eggs and Lotus also offers produce bags (which I love).
Shopping with reuseable bags was my first step to reducing plastic waste. Maybe it can be yours too! But first you’ll need some reuseable bags of your own.
To enter to win your own set of Lotus Trolley Bags, all you have to do is go Plastic Free for a day. Each day you avoid single use plastic items (plastic straws, grocery bags, water bottles, etc.) you can earn an entry for this awesome giveaway.
So don’t wait! I really hope you’ll join me in going plastic free. And if it’s past July 2020 when you read this, no worries, the world will appreciate your efforts even if you can’t win a prize for them.
See you in the outdoors!
~Mountain Mom
PS – You might also like this post 50 Ways to Go Green That I’ve Personally Tried
