When we think about global plastic waste, we’re normally confronted with the image of empty water bottles, shopping bags, plastic cutlery, and endless packaging from food companies and postal services.
While making a conscious effort to reduce single-use plastics is whole-fully bettering our planet and its belonging beings, we may have not considered other forms of plastics in our households that we can easily avoid or replace with a biodegradable or compostable material.
Whether single or multi-use, we as a collective can function in our daily lives without plastic these days. Just being a little more knowledgeable and a little patience is key when looking for alternative products.
The items on our list of avoidable and harmful plastics include materials that will likely end up being disposed of after one or a few uses. They may take an average of 400 years to decompose.
Cotton Swabs / Ear Buds / Q-Tips
Cotton Swabs are available for purchase almost everywhere in the world. Q-Tips or Ear Buds, as they are also known, are widely used by consumers for personal hygiene in babies, children, or adults. They’re sometimes used in crafts or trade too and in medicine or laboratories.
Plastic Cotton Swabs are devastating to the world’s landfills and oceans. Imagine if every household used a packet of 50 cotton swabs every month, that’s an astonishing 600 thrown away every year!
Cotton Swabs take centuries to decompose and they are small enough to interfere with marine life and mammals often in the form of choking or tangling. This can be devastating to their well-being and likely fatal.
Take a look at this picture captured by National Geographic, it shows the devastating effect of cotton swabs in the world’s oceans today.
Biodegradable paper or wooden sticks are available as a substitute for plastic-stemmed cotton swabs.
It’s an easy replacement, the difference in product functionality isn’t obvious and most importantly the replacement will reduce plastic pollution across the world.
Tea Bags
Not many people know that popular tea brands use plastic within the teabag itself. Teabag sacks are often made of harmful microplastics which is not only damaging to the environment but they also contain toxic chemicals that can lead to health issues in humans and other life on earth.
Not only are the micro-plastics releasing a small number of toxins into your cup of tea, but it’s also incredibly long in its decomposition after it is discarded. Teabag waste can contribute to the poisoning and clogging of oceans and landfills across the world.
Multiple tea brands use non-recyclable and non-biodegradable ‘polypropylene‘, which is a plastic added like a glue to keep the tea bags from falling apart. This is more plastic pollution in compost waste as tea bags are usually accepted.
Use a metallic, BPA free tea strainer with loose tea leaves instead of disposable tea bags. It’s healthier, tastier, and better for the earth.
According to Country Living, the following tea bags do/do not contain plastic:
TEA BAGS WITH PLASTIC:
This information is based on Country Living’s research and may have changed since publication.
❗️PG Tips
❗️Tetley
❗️Twinings ‘heat-sealed’ and ‘string and tag’ ranges
❗️Yorkshire Tea
❗️Lidl own brand
TEA BAGS WITHOUT PLASTIC:
✅ Abel & Cole
✅ Clipper
✅ Co-op own brand 99
✅ Pukka Herbs
✅ Teapigs
✅ Twinings pyramid range
✅ Waitrose Duchy range
Check their post on tea here for the latest information and support the brands who are actively striving to better the environment.
Exfoliating Body Wash/Scrub
Damning evidence was brought to light in recent years regarding body scrubs and exfoliators that were using plastic microbeads. These small balls of plastic were found to be passing through sewage systems and into oceans, rivers, and lakes and they were being consumed by marine life.
An autopsy on marine life found that they had died from overconsumption of microbeads that the animals had mistaken as pieces of food.
Besides destroying the environment and animals, microbeads have also been found to be damaging to the skin. Skin Specialist, Dr. Martin Wade from the London Skin Clinic said of Microbeads “You are rubbing your face with the same plastic used to make milk bottles, natural alternatives are better.”
Dental Floss
There are many disposable tools being used for the art of flossing teeth. From conventional string to sticks with micro-brushes, almost all of the disposable options in the mainstream are made with harmful plastics.
Biodegradable Dental Floss is available to buy via outlets such as Amazon. They’re made with natural, biodegradable silk and with natural wax.
Replace your plastic dental floss with biodegradable material to help reduce your overall plastic waste.
Toothbrushes
Did You Know, a billion plastic toothbrushes end up in the world’s landfills and oceans every year from the US alone?
They remain in landfills for hundreds of years and they become a huge problem for oceans and marine life.
Toothbrushes are made with some of the strongest, thickest, and most durable plastics around and they can easily be replaced with bamboo wood which is cheap and biodegradable.
Coffee Cup Lids
When you order a coffee, ask yourself, do I really NEED a plastic lid? Are you sitting in or are you taking the cup somewhere safe to drink?
Do you work in a coffee store where you default to popping on a lid for our customers? Maybe ask your customers if they need a lid instead of providing one by default? If one customer a day decides not to have one, that’s making a difference in harmful plastic consumption.
If you visit a coffee shop, tell your barista you don’t need a plastic lid and let this decision be your good deed for the day in saving our earth’s piling landfills from even more plastic waste.
Whether dining in or drinking on the go, more coffee shops are offering biodegradable paper cups yet still stocking harmful plastic lids.
Do you really need the lid? If not then go without.
Try it once without a lid. Better still, carry your own reusable cup or bottle made with eco-friendly materials.
Most coffee shops offer significant discounts on drinks if you bring your own cup.
Toiletries and Cosmetics
Almost every single item belonging to the cosmetic or toiletries department is made out of thick, durable plastic. Most bubble baths, shower gels, handwash, foundation, shampoo, and conditioners are sold in harmful plastic. Makeup items such as mascara and lipstick are also contained in plastic.
Many eco-friendly businesses (usually small and local) are offering refills on products for a cheaper price than buying it new. Not only will refilling your cosmetics and toiletries save you money but it will also drastically reduce plastic waste and clutter in the house.
You can also find eco-friendly packaged cosmetics and toiletries online, look for ‘biodegradable’ or recyclable packaging on everything you buy.
Remember replacing just one of these products is better than replacing none!
Pens
Little is thought about disposable plastic pens and the destruction they cause to our environment.
1.6 billion disposable pens are thrown away by American’s every year and they are literally used everywhere. All schools, colleges, businesses, stores, bookmakers and lotto counters.
We would suggest buying a biodegradable pen and recycling old pens, create something wonderful with them. They can also be used around the house for DIY, gardening, and for artistic projects.
Fruit and Vegetable Bags
Fruit and Veggie bags are one of the most avoidable plastic waste items out there is the useless fruit and vegetable plastic bags.
This is one of the most habitual ways of collecting single-use toxic plastics.
Thin plastic such as those used in the fruit and vegetable aisle usually contains a toxin known as BPA. The thin plastic bags have the potential to contaminate your fruit and vegetables, particularly if they’re wet or the environment is warm.
Fruit and Vegetables have evolved into having a natural protective layer that preserves the nutrients and goodness within, also known as the skin!
Throw the fruit and veggies directly into the basket or trolly without worrying about BPA contaminants and environmental damage.
Airport Bags
When you’re passing through airport security and you’re asked to bag any sharps or liquids under 100ml, you’re offered a clear bag to put them in.
By opting for a reusable one or simply recycling your last one, you’ll be helping to protect the environment.
Another option is to make sure your liquids are stored inside your checked baggage. You’ll likely be offered a plastic airport bag as you’re in line for security at an airport, if you do accept it, try to reuse it on multiple trips.
Plastic is almost indestructible and will not be swallowed by the process of nature for centuries, so take advantage of its strength and reuse, reuse, reuse!
Yoga Mats
Some of the cheaper Yoga Mats on the market are often made with toxic non-biodegradable plastic. Considering the mass of plastic that is needed to make a yoga mat, the cheaper mats are often the worst in terms of durability, that’s a whole lot of plastic thrown away once it starts to wear!
By investing in a good biodegradable mat you’ll be eliminating toxins on the skin as well as living in a more ethical (and yogic) way.
Screen Protectors for Mobiles and Tablets
Not all mobile phone owners use screen protectors for their devices, but those who do find them beneficial to preserve the screen which is subject to scratches and cracks.
What is often overlooked is the thick plastic that is used to make them.
Some screen protectors are tossed away after acquiring a few scuffs. It’s important to remember that the longer you keep the screen protector on, the less you’ll be polluting the earth!
If you’re looking for a biodegradable screen protector for mobile phones and tablets, use tempered glass.
Glitter
Glitter is literally little pieces of colorful plastic that is not biodegradable. Small and sharp pieces of plastic are devastating to land and marine life.
They’re eaten by birds, fish, and small land mammals.
We’re starting to see progress in the world’s festivals and their efforts to ban single-use plastics. Take the Shambhala Music Festival in Canada who ban glitter due to the pollution of rivers and surrounding forests. Thankfully there is such a thing as biodegradable glitter!
Dog Toys
Plastic toys for dogs are among the densest and largest quantity of plastic waste on the list.
Playful or teething dogs will often go through hundreds of toys within their lifetime and just like children, they become bored of the same play toy every once in a while.
Imagine all of the dog toys passing through the world’s trash, the thick toxic plastic used to make them take hundreds of years to decompose.
Luckily, One Green Planet devised a list of eco-friendly dog toys!
Kids Toys
As with youthful canine, young humans also go through a lot of toys as they grow up. A lot of these toys such as dolls, cars, teething accessories, dummies, dollhouses contain a lot of harmful plastics.
Consider toys made with composable substances such as cards and fabrics. Always look for BPA-free and biodegradable on the label.
Mobile Phone Cases and Covers
Due to constant releases of new mobile phones, we as a collective tend to switch models every couple of years. We also tend to ‘treat ourselves’ to a newer case in an attempt to update our model prior to a release.
Mobile phone cases and covers are often made with durable plastic waste which is designed to be hard to break down. Imagine every person in the world who owns a mobile phone tossing away 2-3 of these a year. The landfills where they end up would struggle to break them down effectively and quickly.
Christmas Crackers
Every year at the Christmas table, we’re cracking open 4-6 Christmas crackers. Each of these crackers has a small and often useless surprise that we tend to throw away.
Imagine how many small plastic toys end up on our world’s beaches and lands every year and how many animals and curious sea creatures consume them.
Each box of Christmas crackers comes with a choking warning and it is important to remember that this does not only apply to small children but to our wildlife and earth.
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