Posted by admin | 03.21.2013 | Marine Science

Plastic Planet

The environmental problems that plague this planet range from small to large scale encompassing land, water, and air. The unfortunate part is that we, the human population, play the leading role in every major environmental aliment the earth currently suffers from.

It can be overwhelming to even make an attempt at formulating solutions to the some of the foremost environmental issues that plague the globe and the headlines. From water pollution and green house gases to arctic ice melt and mass oil spills it can be hard to feel that  a single person can make a difference.

This blog is not, however, about what we are doing wrong. It is about some of the ways we can do something right!

Change starts with you, right at home. Being self-responsible in the green movement is the easiest ways have an impact on global pollution. Taking shorter showers, carpooling, recycling, shopping with reusable bags; these are just a few changes that can be easily made in daily life.

You don’t have to be saving the last panda, taking down BP, or chaining yourself to a giant redwood to make a positive impact. All it takes are a few simple changes in your lifestyle and a conscious effort to waste less and recycle more.

Let’s take for example the plastic pollution problem. It seems like almost everything these days is made or contains some sort of plastic. Plastic is really a miracle material; however it does have a downside.

Plastic is non-disposable, yet most disposable products are made of it (think water bottles, shopping bags, food wrappers etc). Plastic waste can be found in every habitat on earth; fowling our oceans, littering our beaches, and killing the wildlife that ingest it.

So what is the solution? Beth Terry author of Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and You Can Too has some great tips on how to reduce plastic pollution by decreasing the amount of one-time-use plastic in our daily lives.

1. Carry reusable shopping bags: when those plastic shopping bags get into the ocean, sea turtles mistake them for their favorite treat, jellyfish. Once they consume the plastic they are unable to feed properly and often die of starvation.
2. Give up bottled water: a lot of energy goes into producing disposable plastic water bottles. Using a reusable water bottle saves natural resources and saves you money.
3. Shop your local farmers market: When shopping at a farmers market it is easy to avoid that plastic heavy packaging used in grocery stores.
4. Let go of frozen convenience foods: To begin with most of these “easy” dinners have little nutritional value and second there isn’t a single brand that doesn’t contain plastic in its packaging.
5. Buy stainless or glass Tupperware: Every home seems to have the dreaded Tupperware cabinet (you never can find a matching lid). Eventually these get trashed and add to the plastic pollution problem.

Imagine if every person made just a few of these changes. Then it is no longer “just one person” its millions of people fighting for a cleaner earth. Now millions, millions can make a BIG difference!

Let us become part of the solution, not remain part of the problem.

You can find many more plastic reducing tips from the author herself. Visit her website  www.myplasticfreelife.com