10 tips to reduce your plastic use
Want to save the Earth and its oceans? Eat ice cream in a cone! Seriously, single-use plastic items like ice cream spoons account for more than 40 percent of plastic waste, and each year about 8.8 million tons of plastic trash flows into the ocean. And that waste endangers wildlife. But solving the plastic problem can be as easy as getting your sweet treat in a cone. Check out our top 10 quick tips to reduce your single-use plastic pollution today!
Say no to straws
Animals can get sick after mistaking them for food. Instead, carry your own paper straw or reusable version. Learn how to make your own paper straw!
Fill up at a fountain
Drink out of a reusable water bottle instead of a plastic version. That way you won’t be buying one of the nearly one million plastic drink bottles sold every minute around the world.
Make a better bag
Pack sandwiches and snacks in reusable containers or cloth sacks instead of plastic bags. Here’s how to make your own!
Snack on fruit
Pack an apple, banana, or orange instead of snack packs. Fruit fills you up in a healthy way, plus there’s no extra packaging. (Save the core, peels, and rinds for your compost bin.)
Build a good goodie bag
Don’t fill your birthday goodie bags with plastic yo-yos and other trinkets for your friends. Instead, give them homemade treats or coupons to a local bakery.
Go for the cone
No matter your favorite ice-cream flavor, always choose to have it in a cone. Who needs plastic spoons and cups when you can eat the bowl?
Buy in bulk
Encourage your family to shop for snacks, cereal, and pasta in the bulk section of your grocery store or natural food shop to avoid waste from plastic packaging. Then store it all in reusable glass jars.
Ditch microbeads
Don't use face wash or toothpaste with microbeads. (If the ingredients label lists polyethylene or polypropylene, the item likely contains microbeads.) These tiny plastic beads go down the drain, eventually flowing to rivers, lakes, and the ocean. There they can be mistaken for food by fish and sea turtles—a dish that could be deadly.
Never litter
Hey, sometimes you have to use plastic, and that's OK! But always recycle the plastic that you can, and never leave it in the environment. Trash left on the ground often blows into creeks and rivers, eventually making its way to the ocean.
Pick up what you can
Grab a parent and pick up the trash that you find in your local creek or river. But be careful: Never grab anything that looks sharp or dangerous. Here's how to host your own neighborhood cleanup.
PHOTO CREDITS: STRAW: KANITTHA BOON, SHUTTERSTOCK; ICE CREAM: KERDKANNO, SHUTTERSTOCK; CLEAN UP: FUSE, GETTY IMAGES