It’s difficult though - buying some fruits, they are wrapped up, if the veg is loose I keep it loose and not use a plastic bag. But then there’s the sticker for the bar code - more waste.
I take my own cup to the cafe, after realising how many take away cups I used - it was horrific. And they don’t break down either. Plastic cup then plastic straw.
I watch people at Hawker stalls - polystyrene cup, plastic bag to hold it in and a straw - all thrown away. And a polystyrene tray in a plastic bag, with plastic knives and forks - binned.
Why is it so hard for us to not do this. Have a life of a little less convenience but more consideration.
I was running down the park and kept seeing bottles and started to pick them up and throw away. One stretch of the beach was awful so I got a bag and filled it. Does this get washed up, or discarded by BBQers or campers? And again - why? Why is it difficult to leave a place tidy and not take rubbish away?
The problem is twofold, the amount we use and then how we leave it.
As we enter the silly season of gift giving - do you need that carrier bag?? Card writing - I just wrote my envelopes in pencil so they can be reused…. and wrapping presents - how about old magazines or newspaper? It is easy to get totally carried away and not see how much waste we produce. I am not saying to not do it, not at all - but possibly with a little more thought behind the why….
The photo shoot took place down at the beach in a quietish area, and I dumped by plastic all around and then lay in it. It was quite eye opening to be surrounded by it all - and to think that is how some people in the world live. It made me stop and think more about my usage and what can I about it? I wish I had more solutions than I do…. As I wandered into the water, there was something yellow floating at the bottom - the sign I am holding. What an amazing coincidence - mother Earth with me that day…
After the shoot, we packed it all up, collected what I had taken and as much else as we could from the area - shoes, ice lolly plastic things, polystyrene trays, knives forks, and those little plastic drink things that you pop a straw through the top…. So many of them and so much waste.
My aim is to be more mindful myself of what I use, do the best I can. I use too much paper I know that, the cards I make are on recycled or FSC paper - but otherwise I know I use more than I need and is good for the planet. It goes on and on, the impact of everything we do, but if we do our utmost to minimise wherever we can - those small things do add up and can create a huge impact.
Please share this, think more about your own consumption, play your part in leaving this planet more beautiful than when you arrived for future generations.
Thank you
Some statistics.
UK : The number of disposable cups thrown away has exploded to an estimated 2.5 billion a year, or around 5,000 every minute. 5000 EVERY MINUTE….
4 Billion Starbucks To-Go Cups Thrown Away Each Year
Australians use an estimated 1 billion cups each year
And that’s just cups let alone, straws, supermarket plastic waste and on and on….
About 300 million tons of plastic is produced globally each year. Only about 10 percent of that is recycled. Of the plastic that is simply trashed, an estimated seven million tons ends up in the sea each year.
It takes up to 500 years to decompose plastic items in landfills.
Different kinds of plastic can degrade at different times, but the average time for a plastic bottle to completely degrade is at least 450 years. It can even take some bottles 1000 years to biodegrade! That's a long time for even the smallest bottle.
One out of every ten items picked up in an International Coastal Cleanup in 2009 was a plastic bag. And this makes plastic bags the second most common kind of waste item found in that coastal cleanup.
Almost 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the world's oceans annually.
The plastic waste that is thrown away into seas every year can kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures.