According to Wikipedia, plastic pollution is, “Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth’s environment that adversely affects wildlife, wildlife habitat, and humans.” Unfortunately, many of us have been living in a society where items are disposed very quickly, from fast fashion to fast food. What can we do to combat this plastic problem?
1) “Approximately 51 trillion microscopic pieces of plastic, weighing 269,000 tons,” is a lot of …plastic pieces floating in in our beautiful ocean waters.
2) 44 percent of the world’s plastics have been manufactured since 2000. Considering that plastics began production in the 1950’s, that means that majority of the plastics appeared in the last five decade!
3) In United States, shoppers use, on average, one plastic shopping bag a day. There are 329,000,000 residents in the United States and increasing, according to the Census.
4) There are lots of addictives in plastics to make them stronger and more durable. As they slowly breakdown, these addictives also become pollutants themselves.
5) Microplastics are a huge problem as they get into our drinking water supply. They become so microscopic that we are also breathing them in too!
How To Combat Plastic Pollution
1) Bring your own reusable shopping bags: Besides bringing those large shopping bags, you need to bring some lightweight, mesh produce bags for carrying your apples and broccoli, instead of using the single-use plastic bags at the supermarket.
2) Avoid the prepackaged fruits and vegetables: Pick your own produce and avoid those that are wrapped in plastic wrap.
3) Avoid buying those single-use water bottles and don’t reuse those single-use bottles: These bottles are not meant to be reused and can leak chemicals as you continue to reuse them.
4) If the equipment doesn’t work, try to fix it first: Try to fix things that malfunctioned, instead of throwing it away. If all else fails, take it to the recycling depot or try to repurpose the item.
5) Try your very best: Remember that having everyone do a little bit is better than just having one person doing it perfectly.
Great info! Thanks for sharing!