STOP the plastic insanity!
Fact: If you’re STILL buying plastic water bottles and plastic/produce bags, you are the cause for our issues.
Only 9% of the plastic waste generated in Canada is actually recycled. We just don’t have the capacity to do anything with this huge amount of plastic anymore. And water bottles are only the beginning.
People continue to buy plastic bags at the grocery store, pick up on average 6 produce plastic bags per shopping trip, and buy plastic bottles filled with water, iced tea, and pop. This plastic insanity has become a global issue and if you’re participating in it – YOU are the problem.
Plastic production is projected to increase 3 fold by 2050. If recycling efforts can’t keep up with today’s plastic over-production, imagine where we’ll be in 30 years.
RECYCLING IS NOT THE SOLUTION, as plastic can only be recycled so many times anyway, then what? The Blue Box program has been going for 30 years in Canada, and yet we can’t handle the amount of plastics produced.
We’ve been now told we can recycle our plastic bags, but THIS IS JUST NOT TRUE, as we can’t handle the capacity for actually recycling anything anymore. This was a big mistake, as people are picking up plastic bags thinking they will later recycle them anyway! DO NOT buy into this, you can’t buy anything that’s in plastic thinking it will be eventually recycled!
YOU can make an immediate difference:
Stop buying and accepting plastic bags. This is for much more than at the market too – it’s every time you buy a fast food item, a pair of pants, or soap at the grocery store. Nobody should EVER be accepting plastic bags, and walking out of a store with one is an embarrassment. Stop now!
Bring your own bags, baskets, bins. Crumple one up inside a purse or a jacket pocket, this way you can’t “forget them every time”.
Use the brown paper bags at the grocery store for smaller items like mushrooms, green beans and limes. They’re free, and YES they are reusable.
Place larger produce items directly inside your cart – oranges don’t need a bag to be weighed at the cash register (and you’ll be washing items at home anyway, yes?)
If you managed carrying clothing inside the store, you can manage carrying it to the car. No plastic bag needed!
Ladies: Get a larger purse. It comes in handy for everything you need – from trips to the drug store to buy makeup, to dollar store visits.
The best way to cut down on resources? Don’t buy or use unnecessary items in the first place: Remember, it reduces first, then reuse, and recycle last!
Sew the neck and sleeve holes in a few old t-shirts to make washable, reusable shopping bags – plus you’ll be saving old clothing from going into landfill! (See our website for step-by-step instructions on how to make a sew-free one!)
Remember to say “NO” to a straw, every single time you visit a restaurant and order your drinks. Every time. Many restaurants haven’t got the drift yet, and they’re still automatically giving patrons a straw... even for water! If you have an issue with the glass being dirty then you shouldn’t be eating at that establishment anyway. •
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