It isn't too late at all! Put down your paper and plastic and protect your Earth today!
Facts About Plastic Bottles
It’s a hot summer day, and you’re enjoying a nice, cool bottle of water. As you walk through your local park, you reach out and throw your empty bottle into the trash can. So, what are the repercussions of these actions?
- Americans buy an estimated 29.8 billion plastic water bottles every year.
- Nearly eight out of every 10 bottles will end up in a landfill.
- It is estimated that the production of plastics accounts for 4 percent of the energy consumption in the U.S.
- HDPE and PET bottles showed the highest recycling rates of any plastic bottles types, at 27.1 and 23.1 percent, respectively.
- Less than 1 percent of all plastics is recycled. Therefore, almost all plastics are incinerated or end up in a landfill.
- Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60-watt light bulb for up to six hours.
- Recycled plastic bottles can be made into products such as clothing, carpeting, detergent bottles and lumber for outdoor decking.
- More than 80 percent of U.S. households have access to a plastics recycling program through curbside or community drop-off centers.
- Producing new plastic products from recycled materials uses two-thirds less energy than required to make products from raw (virgin) materials. It also reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Why is stainless steel better than plastic?
Although the process to make stainless steel requires extractive practices, which overall is not best for the environment, it should be noted that the intensive extractive process is offset by the fact that stainless steel, by its very nature, is 100% recyclable. Therefore, given the lifecycle of s/s products as compared to plastics and compostables (both of which are extremely resource intensive to manufacture in relation to the amount of time they are actually used before being thrown away), it is felt that the intensiveness at the manufacturing stage was far outweighed by the extensive lifecycle and reduced overall environmental impact of our products. Additionally, because of its hygienic quality, stainless steel does not require harsh cleaners or a seal or finish applied to make it safe – adding additional health and environmental benefits to using stainless for food storage and transport.
Why We Should Stop Using Plastic Bottles (PET)
Getting 64 oz of water a day is good for you, but using four disposable bottles to do it? Not so much. Grab a reusable water bottle, and you'll be on your way to a healthy body and a healthy planet. Not to mention the money you'll save!
In the United States, 50 billion disposable water bottles are consumed per year. 137 thousand per day. 1585 per second.
Reasons to Stop Using Plastic Sandwich/Snack Bags, Disposable Lunch Bags and Shopping Bags
Food for thought: We each spend about $2,350 a year on takeout lunches. That's a lot of cash, and a lot of trash. Packing your lunch puts the dough back in your pocket and keeps 1.8 million tons of packaging out of landfills. Plus, you're more likely to make healthier food choices!
Lunch Statistic for One Person - On average, 1 person will use 120 baggies every three months. That number includes packing a sandwich and a snack 5 days a week. If you pack a lunch with two snacks, you use up to 180 bags.
According to the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), the average American makes 2.3 trips to the grocery store each week. Walk away with five to 10 bags each time (not hard to do if you're feeding a family of four) and that's between 600 and 1,200 bags per shopper each year. Or 40 billion grocery bags each year!
View a study done by ECO-Lunchbox
Even MORE Reasons to Use Reusable Bags
A plastic shopping bag can take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to decompose. In a compressed landfill, deprived of atmosphere to help them biodegrade, paper bags don't fare much better.
Plastic bags don't biodegrade, but are at risk for photo degradation, light exposure dissolving them into toxic polymer particles. Most often, when this happens, it happens in the ocean.
The cost to recycle plastic bags so outweighs their value that most recycling facilities will not take them, leading more and more to just be thrown out with the rest of the trash.
According to the Wall Street Journal, only 1% of plastic bags are recycled world-wide; the rest are left to live on indefinitely in landfills.
The United States alone uses approximately 100 billion new plastic bags per year - the average person goes through between 350 and 500.
Thanks to their light weight, plastic bags are the debris most likely to fly away from landfills, settling instead in trees, storm drains, beaches, and the ocean.
Plastic bags make up over 10% of washed-up debris polluting the US coastline.
An estimated one million birds and 100,000 turtles and other sea animals die of starvation each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags which block their digestive tracks.
Made from petroleum products and natural gas, plastic bags utilize nonrenewable resources, ultimately helping to drive up fuel prices.
It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the amount of plastic bags the US uses per year.
Think paper bags are better? The United States cuts down 14 million trees per year simply to supply the demand for paper shopping bags.
It requires 13% more energy to produce one single paper bag than to produce two plastic bags.
Made with chemicals processed at high temperatures, paper bag production releases many toxins into the atmosphere at much the same rate as plastic production.
Paper bags weigh nearly ten times their counterparts in plastic, requiring more fuel to ship them out to stores.
Despite their high recyclability factor, research shows that only 20% of paper bags end up recycled while the rest share a fate with their plastic brethrens.
In landfills, paper bags produce over twice as much atmospheric waste as plastic, making them questionable at best as the superior choice for the environment.
In the past five years, over a dozen countries have banned or put a tax on disposable bags.
In New York City, one less grocery bag per person would reduce waste by 5 million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs.
Some grocery stores even offer discounts for customers who bring their own bags - now that's incentive!
The average reusable bag has the lifespan of over seven hundred disposable plastic bags.
Over a lifetime, use of reusable bags by just one person would save over 22,000 plastic bags. Isn't that even better incentive?
Reusable bags come in all sorts of smart and stylish shapes and prints, making your shopping trips a little less routine and a little more fun.
This post is the third out of four parts to my “Why Go Green” series. These posts include information plus links that were shared on my e-commerce, My Baby's Green, that I wanted to share on my blog as well.
Have any to share? Please do so below so others can benefit as well!
I've stopped using a plastic water bottle. I now have a glass one. While it is heavier to carry around, I know I'm drinking out of a safe container. It's also easier to clean. I'm in the process of switching over plastic eating containers. I've bought a few, but do still have some plastic. The boy's no longer eat on plastic child plates. I did like plastic for a while because in their younger years they would throw their plates every so often. Metal I know would be better, but it's hard to find.
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