News — Trash free

The 3'R have changed into the 5R's.  Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and raise awareness.  My occasional blogs are a small contribution to helping raise awareness about plastic consumption.  It's a journey down a long and twisty road, not a quick zip down a super highway.

The cool thing is once you start to raise your awareness- you find yourself making small but significant steps.  Each week I find myself making better choices and feeling proud of the progress I have made.

Here are some great places to check out to raise your plastic awareness a bit higher.

On Facebook- 

Plastic Pollution Coalition - this is such a great site for info and tips, I love it!  And they have lots of great graphics to share.

Snapshots of Simplicity- this is a reflective page with thoughtful posts including "What's in my Grocery Bag" and "Hanging Out With Seagulls".

On Instagram-

Anita Horan has a #plasticfreeproduce campaign going on right now because really there is no reason to buy bananas wrapped in plastic.  Just saying!

Justgrabbits encourages folks to grab some trash, take a snap and post.  Here is your chance to find out about trash all over the globe.

Plastic Free Mermaid-Kate Nelson is an Australian mermaid with lots of tips to switch out the plastic.

And finally on Pinterest

Monterey Bay Aquarium has an idea board for plastic free living.

Hope you are inspired and find some good online support for reducing your plastic consumption. 

Everyone knows the 3R’s- reduce, reuse and recycle but did you know the order of the R’s is important?  Reduce is the most planet friendly way to help our world and recycling is the least effective. One of the easiest ways to cut down on your plastic use is to BYOB- Bring Your Own Bags.

It’s easiest to start with your groceries and takes just a bit of organization.  Keep your weekly grocery bags handy in the car, that way they are easy to get.  One of the hardest parts for me was the quick trip for just a few items.  Now, I always have a few bags in my purse.  To keep the bulk of the bags down I love Baggu bags.  Their standard shopping bag comes in tons of cute, bright prints.  Super sturdy- they can hold a lot of groceries but have snaps and a pouch for some true space savings.  For regular grocery trips I prefer flat bottomed canvas bags- this allows for bottles and jars to stay upright.  Almost everyone knows about the importance of BYOB- find the bags you like and make a pledge to yourself to give up single use plastic grocery bags.

Once you’ve made the BYOB grocery bag commitment you will start to notice how abundant plastic is in grocery stores.  Remember, the first R is the most important- reduce.   Avoid products that are over packaged.  Once I was debating over which mix of peppers to buy.  I bought the brand I usually buy only to get home to find they had changed their packaging and added an extra plastic bit.  That was the last time I purchased that particular brand.

Shopping at Farmer’s Markets is one way to help cut down your plastic.  In general, farmers don’t over package- they want you to see and smell their wonderful offerings.  Buying from bulk bins also helps.  When you have a choice between plastic or glass- choose glass.  Find wines that still use natural corks instead of plastic corks.  Make how a product is packaged one of your buying decisions.  

It’s important to take a step- however tentative or small.  You’re going to forget and mess but once you begin your personal plastic free journey there will be no going back.  It’s worth the effort.  

Here are some resources

http://baggu.com/collections/standard-baggu

World Ocean Day is Wednesday June 8th.  The theme this year is plastic. According to http://www.worldoceansday.org/  "The ocean and its wildlife is choking on plastic and we need to not only clean it up but stop this pollution at its source."  Sadly, the source is us.

The first thing that needs to happen in reducing our plastic consumption is awareness.  Becoming aware of how much plastic you use is sobering.  In this day and age I'm not sure it's possible to completely plastic free but you can change your behavior and be single use plastic free.  Single use is any plastic used only one time- think straws.  According to Adrian Grenier, star of HBO's Entourage, "in the US we throw out about 500 million plastic straws a day." These straws break down into tiny, attractive "food" for many small sea creatures.  It's possible to buy reusable straws made out of bamboo or steel.  And you need to let food servers know that you don't want a straw or stirrer in your drink.  It sounds relatively simple, but it will take some awareness and forethought to be 100% successful.  

Another easy way to reduce your plastic use is not ever using a plastic shopping bag.  Keep a couple of spare bags in your car or purse.  Of course, it will be inconvenient- you will forget your bags and have to walk back to the car or just load your items in the shopping cart without any bags.

Sometimes when the news is so daunting it seems like there is nothing you can do.  But, every small step helps and spreading the word about our current overuse of plastic is vital.

Get outside to your nearest ocean, river, lake or stream and enjoy the beauty of water.

Here are some links for more information

http://www.worldoceansday.org/

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/05/111091/adrian-grenier-water-pollution-whales-essay

http://www.lonelywhale.org/foundation/