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