5 Easy Habits You Can Change Today
Most of us will have watched or read news of plastic killing our planet and watched the frightening scenes of growing landfills and fish swimming in a sea of plastic.
Here is a quick recap of the numbers to refresh you on the damage plastic is doing to our environment:
- Plastic is found in every beach and tropical island around the world.
- Approximately 8 million pieces of plastic make its way into our oceans every.single.day.
- It takes 10 to 20 years for a plastic bag to break down.
- Every minute, 1 million plastic bottles are purchased.
- It takes 450 years for a plastic bottle and a disposable nappy to break down.
- Every day more than 1.5 Million households in New Zealand alone use, and eventually dispose of, synthetic plastic-wrapped dishcloths bought in local supermarkets.
If those numbers jolted you into changing your habits and mindset around plastic then read on.
From the numbers above it is easy to see that plastic is one of the biggest environmental problems of the world today.
Every plastic you see hanging around will end up clogging our landfills, sewage tunnels, polluting our oceans, and wreaking havoc on the world.
We want to encourage mindfulness on your plastic consumption.
It can have a tremendous effect on your eco-footprint and help you prepare to eventually remove plastic from your life.
So what to do or where to start?
If you are completely new to this then it is best to focus on the the things you can easily replace without compromising on convenience or budget – straws, plastic bags, plastic bottles, coffee cups, and of course dish cloths.
Here are the 5 easy things you can change today - and make a difference:
- Say no to single-use plastic water bottles this month and always have a reusable water bottle in your hand bag.
- Coffee run? Bring your reusable coffee cup everywhere!
- How do you store food?
- Bring a reusable container with you to your favourite food outlet to put your takeaway in - just try it for the fun of it this month.
- Instead of using plastic bags for sandwiches and lunch boxes opt for reusable options such as food containers or beeswax wraps.
- Say to no plastic straws and drink straight from the cup or use reusable stainless steel straws. Those refreshments would taste just the same.
- Ditch your bright-coloured synthetic plastic-packaged cleaning sponges and switch to a compostable eco cloth.
Before you know it, you have completely revamped your habits concerning plastic usage, and made a small change, a good change.
