6 Simple Ways To Reduce Your Plastics Footprint

As you may or may not know, June 8th is World Oceans Day, and one of the greatest threats to the oceans these days are plastics. Humans produce a ton of plastics (literally and figuratively), which take forever to break down, leech chemicals into water supplies, and entangle our aquatic friends. What's more, even citizens who try their best to recycle plastics are only making a small dent in the problem, as many cities around the U.S. are cancelling their recycling programs due to high costs.

What can you do? Here are a few baby-steps you can take to help reduce your plastics footprint:

1. Buy drinks in cans instead of plastic bottles.

Did you know that only about 23% of plastic bottles in the U.S. are recycled? Did you know that studies have shown that plastic particles are found in over 90% of bottled water? You can avoid both of these issues by switching to cans. The EPA says 55% of aluminum drink cans are recycled, plus they are far less likely to be contaminated with bits of plastic. Just make sure to cut up the six-pack rings that often come with cans, which animals can get caught in.

2. Swap your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo one.

Dentists recommend using a new toothbrush every 3 months. This means in a decade, the 7.7 billion people living on Earth should have disposed of a whopping 231 billion toothbrushes. And since plastics can take up to a millenia to break down, this means archaeologists could be looking at 23,100 billion of our old, mucky toothbrushes a thousand years from now. Bamboo toothbrushes are relatively inexpensive, work the exact same way, can be composted, and are easily ordered on Amazon.

3. Use plastic shopping bags as trash bags.

If you can't easily recycle something, you should reduce or reuse when possible. If you've already brought the plastic bags home, reusing them as trash bags gives their existance slightly more meaning. Plus, using them for garbage reduces the number of plastic trash bags you use, reducing the amount of plastic you leave behind. Reducing and reusing: it's a two-fer!

4. Use bars soaps instead of liquids.

Liquid soaps come in plastic bottles, while bar soaps have far less plastic packaging--some come in cardboard boxes only, resulting in no plastics at all. Anyways, liquid soap is basically just watered down bar soap--that's why it's a liquid and not a solid after all. 

5. Buy a reusable straw.

Metal, glass, silicon, bamboo--the choices for non-plastic straws are endless and affordable.


6. Ban balloons at your next birthday.

Sure they're pretty--but did you know that the world's largest balloon release is responsible for the deaths of two people? Your birthday balloons probably won't cause that much damage, but animals do eat them and get tangled in their ribbons, which isn't good for them. Plus, balloons truly are destined for the dustbin, and as far as useless objects go can anyone really say they need them? You know what is way more fun and chic now, anyways? Foam balloons.