Reduce Your Plastic Use - One Room At a Time

Reduce Your Plastic Use - One Room At a Time

It is affordable, it’s multipurpose, and, it’s an element that few people can live without. Though these elements designed to throw after a single use, this element doesn’t go away. Guess what is it? It’s our beloved plastic!

There’s no second thought regarding the excellent use of plastic products that have made our life easy. Products like helmets, car seats and medical equipment (just to name a few) are essential items which not only enhance, however, saves our life. We can call them a “good plastic”.

The plastic I am going to talk about today is Superfluous plastic. As you are reading this article, chances are huge that it is present nearby you! Turn right, then left, do you see any pen, food container? No? Try that again! Now, do you see a computer or mobile? Maybe mouse or keyboard? I think the answer is obvious now. So where I am going with this? The answer is pretty much obvious. Bad plastics are everywhere! It’s like watching your own nose every single day. Though you watch it every moment, however, like your own body you also tend to ignore this bad plastic.

Considering no one (even me. I can’t lose my job!) going to stop using a cell phone or computer, I will go room by room through the home highlighting what throwaway plastic can be found and I will definitely offer some solution (practiced by me) to reduce the use of it.

Plastic Containers: Let’s start with the kitchen. Everyone has nowadays owned a microwave-friendly plastic container to save their leftover food. Without any doubt, saving food is good and the container works the way it should be. However, there’s catch, the lifespan of this container is quite short in accordance with the usability. When the times come, once your beloved container gets cracked and broken then without any second thought you threw them into the bin. And there goes your US $10 for eternity within a month!

Not only these containers are pretty easy to break, it is also causing many several health hazards as well. When you keep your food in the plastic container, plastic release unhealthy chemical toxin in the food. Keep using this plastic container and I am certain within months you have to go doctors. Trust me, I was there too!

What should you do? Let me tell you what I did! After getting back from doctors, I went to the supermarket and bought food grade steel container. They cost me a bit more and it would you as well, however, they are robust and not as flimsy as a plastic container. They are super easy to clean, I can easily put them in the freezer. I have been using them for almost a year now and I think I will be able to gift them to my grandkids as well! Although it’s not possible to use them inside a microwave, however, it’s quite easy to transfer the food into a serving plate/ bowl before reheating.

Food Packaging: We have all got to eat, however, sometimes it’s quite impossible to keep a good distance between plastic packaging. When I go to groceries sometimes I stare at the foods and think “ Food producers are might be obsessed with single-use packaging!”. Yeah, it would be a great idea for everyone to just go to local farmer’s shop and buy foods and vegetables covered in mud in a jute bag. However, most of us live in the city and to buy from the farmer’s market we have to travel even miles. If you are okay and excited about that, I would say “Don’t”. Since the air pollution can be as bad as plastic pollution itself. In this situation, you may use your free right of speech against over packaging.

You can also do something what I usually do. After completing the transaction, you can remove the plastic and throw them in the bin in front of an authorized person. This is a good way to promote a non- violent protest against over packaging.

Cleaning Products: This one is pretty frustrating- cleaning products generally come inside a bottle and you obviously can not make your own Eco- friendly bottle. However, there’s a way. Have you ever heard of Ecover? If you haven’t, you can use our good old internet to gather information! They are pretty much a trend nowadays. You can find them in almost in every supermarket. What is so great about it? Well, they are committed in use of 100% renewable material and this helps a lot in building a healthy and green future.

So there you have it - just three suggestions of how you can conquer the throwaway plastic in your kitchen. I’ll be back next week with ideas to lessen the plastic devil in other parts of the home.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic