How To Save The Earth From Plastic Packaging?
We inherited predatory civilization that was enjoyed by many for at least 200 years. We are left with seriously damaged natural environment and technology that in many areas still depends on exploiting and otherwise eroding the Earth. What can we do to stop it?
How can YOU save the Earth from plastic packaging?
Don’t buy plastic containers, don’t own plastic containers, don’t use plastic containers! Yes, plastic water bottles are also plastic containers. The worst offenders are single-use plastic containers, like yogurt cups, milk bottles, etc. (Plastic includes straws and Styrofoam.)
I just looked at my keyboard, monitor and TV set: REDUCE your use of plastic in general as much as possible! (We don’t have good substitutes for plastic for some goods, yet. But the massive amount of plastic trash doesn’t come from TV sets or computers we buy every couple of years, but from plastic containers, plastic water bottles and plastic packaging we throw out, daily.)
Plastic is not bio-degradable; it lives forever. Plastic is bad for your health. (Among health problems associated with ingestion of microscopic particles of plastic – like those from plastic water bottles, food stored or microwaved in plastic containers – are female thyroid issues and males’ inability to sire a child.) The manufacture of plastic contributes to toxic pollution and water contamination. Plastic litter is accumulating in landfills and contaminating ground water. Plastic refuse shipped off abroad is littering oceans and killing marine life. The ocean fish we eat contains microscopic pieces of plastic.
If you happen to be a scientist, chemist, inventor or a chef, invent a plastic-substitute that’s either natural or bio-degradable. (Yes, plastic provides many conveniences. However, its current chemical makeup makes it a huge ecological liability; the overall cost of plastic as it is today doesn’t justify the damage it causes.)
Participate in community clean up efforts! Volunteer for beach cleanups! Take an interest in trash disposal; are you still being told that plastic is recyclable? Give it some thought.
How can WE save the Earth from plastic packaging?
Our civilization is powered by profit. Inventions that can’t be sold get eliminated and forgotten. As individuals and even groups of them, we don’t have either legislative or executive power. But we have “consumer power”.
The way we spend our money shapes industries, or more accurately: keeps them in business, forces them to accommodate our demands or puts them out of business. Dollars talk!
Photo by Brian Yurasits on Unsplash
Our government, the way it is, won’t listen to our demands for a change. The manufacturers who live and die by our dollars will have to.
Notice what products you’re buying frequently are packaged in plastic or Styrofoam. Write down the names of the manufacturers and / or outlets that use / sell them. Write a letter to the manufacturers praising their product and asking them for a different (bio-degradable!) packaging. Send the letter and then again, similar letter one month later. After 3 months without a change in packaging, send the third letter, this time threatening to boycott their products. “Unless you stop using environmentally-unfriendly packaging, I, my family and everyone I know will stop buying your products.” If nothing changes still, stop buying the products. (When it comes to the outlets that use or sell products in plastic or Styrofoam packaging, talk to them and urge them to switch!)
You may try the same approach of writing letters to manufacturers using plastic packaging with a larger group you belong to, be it your workplace, church or another organization you’re a member of.
Public pressure – backed up by consumers’ money – works! Click To Tweet
Fun fact: did you know that in the “olden days”, milk was sold in glass bottles? The consumers washed and reused the bottles or had to pay for new ones. (Glass is recyclable!) Compare this approach with the plastic milk bottles of today. We’ve made “progress” from zero waste to the throw-away plastic we are now drowning in!
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Check out the links below.
There are plenty of opportunities to learn, pitch in and make a difference!
https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
https://www.surfrider.org/campaigns
https://oceanconservancy.org/trash-free-seas/international-coastal-cleanup/
https://www.5gyres.org/faq/
https://oceana.org/
https://www.lonelywhale.org/home-1
https://www.parley.tv/oceanplastic/#parleyair
