Our Trash is Killing Us

Small Steps Make A Big Change

7 Ways to make a positive environmental impact

                              Our culture has become a disposable one. When something’s broken, we get a new one. Our food is shipped from across the country wrapped in plastic that’s disposable. The thing about this disposable plastic is that it’s meant to last forever. This plastic is harming our world more than we could fathom. It’s polluting our water ways, killing our fish, leaching chemicals into our soil, and killing birds. Humans have created 900 million tons of plastic waste. This isn’t decomposing. This is a one of the big problems facing our generation. So, what can we do? A lot of things. I have compiled a list of videos that I love, infographics that can help explain what we’re doing to this planet, and my own observations. I hope that it can help someone make a change in their daily lifestyle. 

Plastic Bags are Hurting More The Environment

Flip Flops are Polluting Our Ocean
Plastic free products can be hard to find or expensive, but lots of companies are taking the initiative to package items with less harmful plastics. These are a few of my favorites though.

I live in a small town in Missouri. We have three grocery stores; one ma & pop legacy store, one discount store, and Walmart. This doesn’t leave me with a whole lot of options when it comes to natural or recyclable materials. I was still able to find two options when it comes to garbage bags. Walmart has a line of bags made of recyclable plastic and my discount store sells these wonderful Full Circle brand that decomposes faster than most. 

Good "Plastic" Bags

Reusable products           

                              I am guilty of drinking a fountain soda from a gas station every day. The amount of plastic straws and Styrofoam cups that I have contributed to this planet’s problems, sickens me. This is a solvable problem though. Reusable cups! The Queen of England has realized that this a serious problem and has banned all plastic straws and Styrofoam cups from palace grounds.

                              Reusable shopping bags are a very easy way to assist in limiting the amount of plastic produced. I’ve been regularly using mine for years. I was still irked though by the fact that I had to use plastic bags for my produce. When I stumbled upon these at Target, I was so happy. I have gotten so many compliments on them too. It gets people to think about how they can make an impact as well.

I’m not perfect. Sometimes I forget my trustee totes at home and have to use plastic bags. If you’re trying to make a positive impact, don’t beat yourself up when you have to do this as well. Having some plastic bags around the house is a good thing sometimes. Reusing them gives them another life and keeps them out of the landfill for a little while. I use mine for poop patrol of my two large dogs.

Ok, so you can’t recycle or reuse every single plastic thing in your home. So what can you do to lessen your trash impact on our Earth? I use mine to fill the bottoms of my planters. Styrofoam cups, plastic fruit containers, etc. You can get creative with your uses too. Below are just a few that I found on Pinterest.

Humans Have Made 9 Billion Tons of Plastic

Another huge way our trash is hurting the planet is food waste. Food waste is another huge issue hurting our environment. 1.3 Billion tons of food waste go into landfills each year. The average American wastes 254 pounds of edible food every year. In 2010, Americans threw away enough food to fill the Empire State Building 91 times. That’s 33.79 million tons of food. 40% of landfills are taken up by food that could be decaying in a compost bin. 25% of all water consumed every year, goes to producing food that ends up in the landfill.  

 



Recycling Food Waste at Home

Put Food Waste to Work For You

I didn’t even know what a big problem it was when I first started researching compost. I was living with my parents and sister. So, four adults and one child. We were creating so much food waste that it was making me sick. I researched what you could compost, how it worked, what kind of bin you needed. I had my heart set on a pretty little DIY number. After I realized though, that I’m kind of shit when it comes to building things, I decided to go another route and look at bins you could buy. As a single mother, living at her parent’s house, I thought my parents would think I was crazy. I kept all my research to myself and held onto it for the right moment. About a year later, my mom mentioned in passing that she wished we had a compost bin because of all of our food waste. I sprang into action! “We can mom! And there’s a really good bin at Menards for $50.00. If you’re ok with it, I’ll go get it now.” I was in the car before she said yes. I brought it home, put it together, put a year’s worth of food in there, and let it sit. It has been full for almost a year, so we are expecting to get our first batch of compost this summer. About a year ago, I moved from Chicagoland to Missouri. When I got settled in, I bought the same bin. It is easy to set up, use, and everything. What I do, is keep a paper grocery bag in my fridge and throw in any fruit or veggie scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, yard scraps, etc. When it’s full, I take it out to my bin and throw it in. This bin says it doesn’t need to be mixed due to the air holes all around it. Since I use the bags though, I have a “garden knife” that I stab the bags with every month or so. It’s a really good anger release method. I just stab like crazy to let the air in.
My Favorite Compost bin               

                            

Climate Change and Human Health

The connection between the changing climate and negative health impacts is undeniable. Everyone on the planet will be affected either directly or indirectly. The visuals below will explain what to expect in regards to your health and changes in the climate. However, there are steps we can take in our daily lives that will not only positively affect our health, but result in a positive affect on the environment.

Gardening for your health and the planet

Gardening is one of the biggest ways to impact your health and the environment in a positive way.

Gardening can be a huge boost for both of these things. Planting a vegetable garden, using native landscaping, or simply planting a few trees can have a huge impact. Gardening can address the three problems listed in the infographic above.

Food -

Growing your own food will provide your family with healthy options, as well as cut down on the cost of groceries. Even non-edible plants are beneficial because they are utilized by pollinators to help other plants grow.

Air -

Trees and plants contribute to helping reduce pollution, purifying the air we breath, preventing some natural disasters, and contributing to soil health. Gardening also helps reduce waste, which helps reduce greenhouse gases that are released into the atmosphere. 

Water - 

Different native plant groupings can be arranged to deal with runoff or water areas that are flood-prone. Using rain barrels in your garden is another great way to help the planet and save you money. I have two rain barrels. I don't have them hooked up to downspouts, but they collect rain water and are attached to drip hoses to water the garden. 

Honoring Earth Day

Terrestrial Podcast

Listening to the podcast Terrestrial is the first time I heard the term ecoanxiety. What I was hearing was like a revelation though. For months and months, I have had this feeling about the world in general that I couldn’t put my finger on. Like when I’d be at a BBQ and see the host not even making an attempt to recycle beer cans and bottles. I’d see something like that and it would bother me because it felt like all my small actions to reduce my environmental footprint would constantly be cancelled out. It also made me more vigilant too. It made me realize I was not insane for feeling this hard to describe feeling. Every summer I go to a music festival with my sister and our friends. It is five days of beer, camping, and good friends. In years past, I had seen a disturbing amount of recyclable material being thrown in the trash. This past year, when describing where our campsite was, all we had to say was, “it’s the one with big blue recycle bin on the road/path.” I put it in the perfect spot. Not only did my campsites use it, but so did our neighbors and people walking by who finished a beer. It was an awesome feeling to know that I had saved a full bin of cans from the trash every day. I also exchanged my cans for $$$$ and put the $5 I usually get in my son’s piggy bank. That month, I was able to take us out to dinner with the amount of cans that I turned in. Another bonus!

Anyways, I do not want to scare any of you. I just wanted to let people know that if they are feeling similar feelings, they are not alone. In honor of Earth Day this month, I thought this would be a good time to explore some of the things I’m most scared of, the steps we can take to protect the Earth, and how the Earth’s health impacts us. So, what scares me? Well, besides everything, the biggest thing is that people don’t realize how much of an impact humans are having on the environment and they don’t realize the small changes we could make in our every day lives to help. That’s what I’m hoping to change with these blog post. I’m hoping that at least one person will be inspired to make one little change to their lives to do something that has a positive impact on the Earth we live in.

Week 2: Healthy Earth = Healthy Humans

Week 3: Small Steps to Big Change

Week 4: Resources