13 Useful Tips How You Can Reduce Plastic Right Now
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Avoid or reduce plastic. Here are useful tips.
We all should avoid and reduce plastic waste. As a vegan, we are usually not only animal lovers but also interested in the environment and nature.
If you refrain from using animal products in your diet, you may also do so to avoid animal suffering and harm the environment less. However, vegans also deal with an environmentally harmful problem in our society – waste production, especially plastic.
How plastic enters the natural environment and what it does are not always obvious. But one thing is certain: the problematic plastic cycle begins with us humans. We need to reduce plastic.
Carelessly thrown into nature.
Carelessly thrown into nature, large plastic parts flush into rivers and get into the sea. Tiny plastic particles from detergents, cosmetics, and industry enter our rivers and seas because sewage treatment plants cannot filter them out. In the sea, the small plastic particles bind pollutants, and shells or algae filter them out of the water. These land directly on our plates.
If you value a healthy and sustainable diet, you can not close your eyes to the plastic problem. In addition, microplastics from synthetic garments can be absorbed through the skin or ingested directly from food packaged in plastic. The result is that we humans take in tiny plastic particles that can harm the body.
But even though plastic is almost everywhere these days, there are more and more ways to avoid and reduce plastic.
All types of plastic are a risk to our health and the environment.
Conventional plastic is not biodegradable and can remain in the environment for centuries. The huge amounts of plastic in the sea prove it tragically.
Each of us is constantly in contact with plastic. If we learn to be conscious, we can avoid much of the plastic we use. We use many things in everyday life that contain plastic without realizing it.
Avoiding plastic is not easy. We should really make sure to avoid and reduce plastic use
13 Useful Tips for How You Can Reduce Plastic Right Now
Reduce Plastic and avoid it in everyday life:
Plastic bags and bottles: Leave them in the store! Here are tips for plastic reduction when shopping.
1. Shopping:
Take big shopping bags, cotton vegetable nets, and 1-2 snack boxes with you. Also, containers such as jars. Buy unpackaged! Good open food sources include farmers’ markets, health food, and bulk stores.
Glass instead of plastic! For drinks, it is relatively easy to dispense with plastic containers: Buy beer, juice & wine ideally in reusable or returnable bottles.
Also, things like ketchup, mustard, agave syrup, spreads, pickled legumes, vegetable broth, soy sauce, vinegar, oil, chocolate cream, tomato sauce, applesauce, and compote you can buy in screw jars.
Some of these things are reusable, like the empty screw jars, which are perfect for storing leftover food or for homemade delicacies such as pesto, jam, and more.
Buy paper-packaged rice, pasta, flakes, sugar & Co. You usually have the choice and can easily find these things in paper packs.
Do it yourself or cook! Avoid finished products whenever possible. Use fresh instead of frozen vegetables. Make dairy-free milk drinks yourself,
2. Plastic kettle:
When heated, plasticizers and other substances dissolve much faster and thus enter the water. Buy a glass or a stainless steel.
3. Packaged meals
should not be heated in plastic wraps. Here, too, harmful substances can enter the food. Some delivery services already use plastic-free packaging. The best is to avoid processed food.
4. Plastic foil and plastic bags:
Using glass containers and sandwich paper to cover bowls or plates is an alternative to plastic.
5. Food in tin cans:
Many preserves are coated internally with plastic, a health-threatening additive. If the can is damaged, aluminum components can enter the food, which is also harmful to health. Cooking and using mason jars are easy and cheap alternatives.
6. Styrofoam:
Some foods are packed in styrofoam trays, like Sprouts and packaged fruit. Also, some coffee or soup cups for takeout are made of this material. Heating can release toxic gases, so you should avoid this material.
7. Non-stick cookware;
Some contain a layer of plastic to help prevent food from sticking. This anti-adhesion coating often dissolves after repeated use and thus gets into the food. Alternatives are uncoated pans and pots, like stainless steel, ceramic coatings, or cast iron
8. Microplastics in cosmetics:
Any cosmetics containing polyethylene should be avoided.
9. Chewing gums
They are made of plastic and should be avoided, but luckily, there are natural alternatives.
10. Water cans
Like water dispensers in offices. These are easy to replace with glass canisters.
11. Baby bottles
And also, children ‘s toys should be plastic-free.
12. Plastic shoes:
These may contain organotin compounds. The tiny amount of highly toxic tributyltin (TBT) that is in some flip-flops damages the immune and endocrine systems.
13. Clothes made of plastic,
such as polyester, polyacrylic, or fleece. Simply by washing a fleece pullover, up to 2,000 microplastic fibers enter the wastewater.
Reduce Plastic – is a plastic-free life possible?
As you realize, living plastic-free in the plastic age is not so easy.
Our society has become accustomed to the benefits of plastic consumption, but unfortunately, too often, we forget the disadvantages and risks of plastic. But if you made it to this article, you are one of those who are aware of the danger and want to avoid and reduce plastic. Zero Waste is a smart lifestyle. Just put these tips for everyday life without plastic to work. Just tell others and make them aware of “How You Can Reduce Plastic Right Now”.
Watch > The great recycling LIE (what really happens to plastic)
Together, we can make a difference!
See also Kitchen Hacks How To Make Zero Waste In The Kitchen.
See also > Microplastics inside us: What can we do?
