Five Simple Ways We Can Stop Using Single-Use Plastics That Will Make Mother Earth Happy and Our Homes Healthier

There seems to be a consensus among many that Mother Earth is using 2020 to put us in a global time-out.  To think about our actions and how we’ve been (mis)treating her.  Between the quarantine and the smoke-laden air from the fires here in California, many of us haven’t been leaving our homes much at all lately.  This has been mentally and emotionally taxing, and has gotten me thinking even more about steps we can take in our own home to reduce our environmental footprint. 

According to Live Science, in 2017, a paltry 8.4% of plastic waste that people attempted to recycle got recycled (see https://www.livescience.com/how-much-plastic-recycling.html).  Over 90% ended up in a landfill even when we thought we were recycling! And that was before China’s National Sword Act enacted in January 2018, which banned the import of most plastics and other recyclables into China from the rest of the world.  Prior to its policy change, China paid for nearly half of the world’s recyclable waste.  But since 2018, countries, including the United States, have had to struggle with a far less profitable recyclables industry, and trying to figure out solutions for the massive amounts of waste that can no longer be shipped to someone else’s backyard.  While it may ultimately force us to find sustainable, long-term solutions to recycling domestically, it’s causing a recycling crisis right now.  Our landfills are filling to the brim, and oceans are getting increasingly contaminated, killing our beautiful marine life, and poisoning us with chemicals when we consume fish.

But we all know the real crisis doesn’t lie with our recycling industry’s woefully inadequate systems (or lack thereof) for handling our waste.  The real crisis is how we live on a daily basis without considering the serious impacts of our consumption choices.  In short, we need to make serious, concerted efforts to stop using single-use plastics (think plastic bags, plastic wrap, plastic straws, cleaning containers, food containers).  And when we do pick up something plastic, we can look on the bottom for a number that indicates how likely that particular type of plastic is to be recycled.  The numbers range from 1-7, with 1 and 2 being the most recyclable, and numbers beyond that being generally difficult (and indeed many jurisdictions have said they will not even try to recycle plastics numbered above 2).  But while it may initially make me feel better to see that my plastic ketchup bottle has a 1, when I remember that under 10% of anything I try to recycle actually gets recycled anyway, it doesn’t make me feel much better at all.

The bottom line is we—all of us, together—must make changes.  Here are a few super easy things we can do in our own homes, starting right now.

1.  Zero-Waste Laundry

Until recently, I always used liquid laundry detergent that comes in the jugs we all know so well.  I thought I was doing a good job choosing natural, chlorine- and bleach-free brands without chemical scents, and then letting my kiddos use the jugs afterward in their “science lab.”  But knowing that 9 out of 10 of these jugs will be piled onto a landfill, it was clear I needed to do better.  When I looked into zero-waste laundry, I was pleasantly surprised by the array of choices.  I like these Well Earth Goods laundry detergent strips, which are cruelty-free, vegan, non-toxic, palm oil free, ethically sourced, and have waste-free, compostable packaging.  They are literally just strips of paper you throw into your washing machine.  It’s genius.  And Well Earth Goods (wellearthgoods.com) also has a ton of other eco-friendly products, like produce bags, a plastic-free toilet brush and stand, and biodegradable, plastic-free hair ties (things I have never even thought about!).  I love the idea of revolutionizing my home with plastic-free materials! Also check out this link at sustainablejungle.com, which lists 10 other zero-waste laundry detergent options for you to investigate and decide for yourself!  Imagine the impact this could have, even in just one community.  We use probably one jug of laundry detergent a month, which would mean 240 jugs over the next 20 years for just our family.  If only 1000 of us made the choice to make this super easy switch, we would be sparing our environment of nearly 24,000 of these jugs in just two decades.  Wow.  Seems like a no-brainer.

** On a side note, wellearthgoods.com also has a link (here) through which you can donate to wildfire relief, and 100% of donations go directly to immediate needs.  Well Earth Goods is based in Oregon, which is, as we all know, an area hard hit by these fires just like we are in California. 

2.   Zero-Waste Grocery Shopping

Thankfully, in California, I haven’t seen many plastic grocery bags in years.  But this isn’t the case in so many other states, like our neighbor Arizona.  But even in California, we need to bag our produce, and we often use individual plastic bags to do that, which we throw away right when we get home.  So, in addition to bringing reusable grocery bags, we can all make the really easy switch to reusable produce bags.  I’ve been using these for years, and I love them.  Easily washable, and secure.  Again, no-brainer.

3.  Say No To Ziploc

Ziploc is a household name.  We should make that a thing of the past.  Yes, I occasionally, very occasionally, run into a situation where I feel like a need a Ziploc bag, but that’s maybe twice a year.  In general, there is a way to store almost everything in a plastic-free way.  As for food on the go, I love these Stasher reusable bags.  I’ve tried other similar bags, but I find these to be the easiest to seal and unseal for little hands, and they’re thick and don’t tend to stain.  They also have a cool one that is wider on the bottom, called a stand-up bag, so it stores bulkier snacks like grapes, and can stand up on its own, and a mini bag that I like to use to store things like crayons in my purse.  You can basically use them for anything, food-related or not.  And as for refrigerator storage, we don’t need to be putting leftover pizza into plastic bags.  There are a ton of glass food storage containers out there.  Let’s make the switch.

4.  Eco-Friendly Cleaning

I’ve mentioned Blueland (https://www.blueland.com/) cleaning products in a prior post, but I think they’re worth mentioning again.  Blueland (and other companies like them) offers cleaning products that don’t come in single-use plastic containers.  Instead, you purchase your glass bottles, which are beautifully labeled, drop a tablet of cleaning powder into water, and voila!  I’m working through our current stockpile of cleaning products with the goal of ending up with one set of these simple bottles.  No toxins and no waste.  Yes, please.

5.  NO MORE PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES!

I had to put this one in all-caps.  I have to admit I am shocked at the number of plastic water bottles I still see in use notwithstanding the common knowledge about the waste they create, and notwithstanding that, absent water emergency purposes, there is really no need for them.  So, maybe keep a few water bottles in an emergency pack, but otherwise, for the sake of our earth, let’s make all plastic water bottles (and other plastic drink bottles, like sodas or sports drinks) a thing of the past.  Maybe Mother Earth will let us out of time-out if we do.

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These are just five simple (but truly impactful) ways we can reduce our household footprints.  There are so many more, and if you have ideas, please share them in the comments!  If we all took a few simple steps to reduce our footprints, we would go such a long way to reducing waste and slowing (and hopefully someday reversing) the climate change that is literally fueling these fires, and so many other increasingly intense natural disasters around the globe.  Let’s take this time-out to make an actual change instead of going back to exactly how we were living before 2020.