Did you go grocery shopping last week?
There’s a high probability you contributed to the 100,000 sea turtles who died of starvation, mistakenly feeling full after swallowing plastic debris.
Sadly, it’s not just turtles.
It’s seabirds, marine life, our Earth, and us that are hurting from all the plastic waste generated all over the world.
I remember as a child living in India, my dad would take me to the river and tell me “You know, one day this river used to be clean and now, it’s filled with waste. I wish you could’ve seen it.” Yeah, I wish I could’ve seen it too.
Reality check
We’re suffocating the air we breathe every day. Food Democracy says “more than 1.7 billion – not million – BILLION tons of crude oil is burned each year to produce plastic bags alone.” The burning of oil emits fossil fuels, increasing pollution and our carbon footprint.
Not only are we harming our planet by purchasing plastic bags every time we go to a retail store (and wasting money *cough cough*), but we’re also killing animal life and destroying the planet’s ecosystem.
The government is putting their foot down for good
Annually, Canada disposes of over “3 million tons of plastic waste alone.”
After this unfortunate and honestly embarrassing discovery, the country has decided to “ban single-use plastics as early as 2021.”
About damn time.
The problem is infectious across the globe. It looks like India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is hopping on the green train. With “5.6 million tons of plastic waste” generated annually, Modi also decided to “phase out single-use plastics by 2022.”
The fight for a green future doesn’t seem important anymore and we’re not talking about it enough. But next to those numbers, it is our personal duty and responsibility to accept what we have caused and rise together to try and breathe cleaner air and – NOT to kill baby sea turtles.
So why do I care?
Even if you’re not a tree hugger, I know you care about trees – you know that green paper you buy your phone, computer, and clothes with?
Well so far, the continuous manufacturing of plastic bags has wasted $8 billion. Every year. By improving how we manage plastic waste and investing in innovative solutions, we can reduce 1.8 million tonnes of carbon pollution, generate billions of dollars in revenue, and create approximately 42,000 jobs.
Yea, but can’t I just recycle?
Sure, but will you? Only 9% of plastic is actually recycled in Canada alone. We need to do better than this.
Despite good intentions, recycling is very energy intensive. We simply don’t have the automated technology yet to sort through different grades of plastic.
So what can you do?
Well considering you won’t be able to rely on non-renewable resources in 2-3 years from now, let’s make some new habits:
Buy reusable bags
It seems silly how simple it is and absurd we haven’t done it sooner.
But wait…is that all there really is to it? Yup, it’s really just that simple and effective.
You can toss it in the washing machine when it’s dirty, fit it in your smallest purse or have it sitting in the back of your car for the next time you need to make a run to the store.
They are re-washable, durable, and cheaper. By purchasing a single reusable bag, you are saving, on average, 500 plastic bags annually. Any action we take contributes to our collective environmental responsibility to save the one Earth we call our home.
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