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Have you ever stopped to think about the amount of plastic that we use in our everyday existence? The average American throws away 185 pounds of plastic a year.  Plastic is not biodegradable and thus is ruining our planet. If this continues, life as we know it will cease to exist.

From Plastic Island to our everyday consumption of products stored in plastic containers, we are destroying the earth piece by piece.  Our ocean life is in danger, as is the future of our planet. It is imperative that we find alternative products to save the Earth. Read ahead to find out what steps we can take to protect our future and reduce the amount of plastic waste.

Plastic Island

You’ve probably never heard of Midway Atoll, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, but its inhabitants, mostly wildlife, are familiar with the ways of our world. Our obsession with plastic is very apparent on this tiny island. Unfortunately, it does not biodegrade and never disappears. So if you miss the trash can, or are careless about tossing something out, it will be clogging the planet for a long time.  CNN wrote an article about this particular island, dubbed “Plastic Island ” because plastic from the U.S. and China has accumulated upon its shores. Along with the increase in it, it’s become a death sentence for albatross who unwittingly eat the plastic and then feed it to their young. The animals can’t tell the plastic is not food, so they eat it thinking they are satisfied, but wind up dying of starvation because of lack of nutrients.

Ways To Stop The Plastic Pollution

If you don’t like hearing about animals dying because of plastic consumption, then there are things we can all do to consume it less and thereby reduce its waste.

Green Education Foundation provides a list of 17 different things we can do to reduce our use of it and help to produce less pollution worldwide. Some of the suggestions include: using reusable cloth bags when grocery shopping, using cloth diapers instead of disposable diapers which create a lot of waste, and don’t use straws in a restaurant or at all since they are all made with it. Basically, if an item is made of it, either don’t use it or use it often so that you are not wasting it. Utensils and bowls made from it should be reused instead of thrown away to help reduce the waste from it.

Products We Love that Replace It

Let’s face it, we have become used to and spoiled by the comforts of plastic in our everyday lives. However, there are some non-plastic substitutes for items we use on a regular basis. Popular Science has provided a list of 14 items available for sale that will help replace and reduce the amount of its usage in your daily life. These products can help you reduce overall waste because they are reusable and will help you move toward a sustainable future.

Plastic makes up the majority of our landfills and dumps. Because unlike the food and paper trash we throw out, plastic will be around for a long time. Most people do not consider this, and the majority of plastic goes unrecycled. Please use the tips above to reduce the amount of it you use. OPTOFF.

 

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