Environ|Mental is a series of posts regarding changing your mentality about the environment.
Adjust your environmentality!
What? Don’t recycle plastic? A website promoting greener living telling you not to recycle?
Kind of… but not really. Read on!
Actually, I’m telling you to think about not even needing to recycle plastic — that is, when possible, avoid using plastic altogether.
Don’t let plastic into your life!
Plastic is difficult and costly to recycle, it degrades each time that it is recycled, and it takes many lifetimes to break down. So, when you can, stop using it! Just cut it out of your life! Use metal, use wood, don’t use it at all! Don’t buy that gadget. Don’t pull that plastic bag off the roll. Give handmade gifts from sites like Etsy!
Beyond difficulty to recycle, studies increasingly link plastics to health problems, they take up space in landfills, or, even worse, make their way as litter into our soils or into our bodies of water, (and on wikipedia) killing much wildlife.
Don’t “cycle” plastic at all!
A lot is written here on EAS regarding less consumption, reusing things, and greener living habits, and I got to thinking about this today as a different mindset after a special someone (she knows who she is) emailed me a story regarding shampoo use from NPR. Her friend’s blog, Life Less Plastic, features a writer’s journey toward a life with less plastic. This blog embodies an approach of not using plastic in the first place (when possible).
The writer cites both the health concerns regarding plastics as well as the environmental concerns and her blog concentrates on ways in which readers can reduce their plastic use and consumption. She was featured in the story regarding frequency of shampoo use on NPR in large part because she has chronicled her own vacation from shampoo.
A different environ|mentality… Keep Plastic Out of the cycle!
You have to read Life Less Plastic to fully appreciate the many steps this writer has taken (and champions to her readers!). Some are simple, such as bringing your own mug to a coffee shop in order to avoid the plastic lid and the wasted disposable cup. Others, like transforming shampooing habits, may seem extreme to some — but it’s all in a day’s (green) work. And as you move forward with greening your life, one change in your life can easily inspire others.
Reading through the site today, I found myself thinking about this writer’s mentality. She has taken it upon herself to change a great many of her habits to reduce the amount of plastic she consumes both for environmental and health reasons. So many choices in our lives involve plastics — just look at the packaging of most items in any given store — this is very significant change in one’s thinking about purchases. Even more durable goods, like electronics and furniture, even our clothing, either has, or is completely made of, plastic.
We can all take a page from this book and attempt to adopt a new environ|mentality of using less plastic, buying less plastic, and reducing plastic in our lives.
If you do, you’ll find yourself not (re)cycling nearly as much plastic!
Related posts:
- Environ|Mental: Getting Over Eco-Doubt This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series...
- Environ|Mental This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series...
- Environ|Mental This entry is part 8 of 9 in the series...
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:28 am
Wesley, I think that this makes a lot of sense. Maybe ditching shampoo is a little extreme because honestly you probably only go through 3-4 bottles a year anyways. It’s not that much plastic compared to the amount that people go through with their daily bottle of water, which is probably between 300-700 per year in many cases.
I think we should put together a top 10 list of plastic things you can get out of your life that fit 2 criteria: 1) Are relatively easy or at very small opportunity cost to the individual and 2) Reduce an area where a very significant amount of plastic is used (plastic water bottles vs. shampoo for example)
Maybe too we could have a calculator that would show just how many pounds of plastic you would be preventing from ending up in landfills!
March 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 am
Oh and I originally meant to say that I’m sure there are people out there that recycle their plastic water bottles every day but they’re really just kidding themselves. Ditch that thing and never have to recycle it in the first place!
March 22nd, 2009 at 11:44 am
I see what you mean; a few plastic shampoo bottles pales in comparison to the hundreds of plastic water bottles one might go through in a year, and like I said above, it might seem extreme to some. But, the point here is a change in our environ|mentality — a shift to focus on removing plastic whenever possible — including places where it might seem extreme. It includes places large and small, like a few shampoo bottles or tiny mixer straws you might get in your cocktails.
For example, I don’t carry a set of silverware or a reusable mug in my bag — but maybe I’ll start in order to cut down on my plastic consumption at restaurants that use plastic items in these products’ stead. Seem extreme? Maybe to some, but for me, it’s a small thing I can do in order to cut down on waste. I’ll probably also take the advice from Life Less Plastic and ask waiters/waitresses to not put a straw in my drinks.
The shampoo decision (like any of these) is a personal one. I’m considering switching over to a bar of shampoo as is mentioned on Life Less Plastic as an option. Perhaps it’ll be wrapped in plastic film or (hopefully) in paper, which is more easily recycled. Either way, it’ll be less plastic than the shampoo bottles I currently use, which, as I have mentioned, are energy-intensive to recycle and plastic cannot forever be recycled over and over as say, metal, can be. Eventually, we have to concede that all of that plastic garbage we create through our mass consumption makes its way into a landfill — and sits there for hundreds of years before breaking down. I feel responsible for my share and hope to take steps to reduce it.
I also don’t think that people recycling plastic water bottles are, “kidding themselves,” so much as unaware — someone else is kidding them — that recycling plastic, while better than just tossing it into the garbage, is not a long-term solution. Reusable water bottles ARE the way to go — I would agree with you there!