Making peace with plastic. Is it possible?
We have been consciously plastic-free for 3 years. But we still hate it, so we are curious if there is a way to make peace with plastic.
When we first started with avoiding spending money on plastic, we had really no idea that it could really stick on us. But luckily it did. I can still clearly remember the first months of being plastic-free. How I was in a panic looking for items in tin cans, glass or cardboard. It almost seemed like a fun, but still difficult game. I didn’t want plastic, and I had very negative feelings toward plastic. The same applies today, but I started thinking maybe this hatred towards the god of the materials is unnecessary. Below is what helped me to decide.
Cry in the desert?
Being plastic-free only brings peace of mind to the one who practises it. Their contribution to avoiding it doesn’t really bring much change. It does if it is possible to cut down the fee of the container waste removal. But most of the time even that is not possible. Perhaps it makes a friend or two think about plastic and its nasty ways as well. But besides all that this is, is a cry in the desert.
Perhaps that cry in the desert is what one needs. Knowing that no money has been exchanged for the very expensive packaging, gives peace of mind. The material is actually cheap while offering a temporary home for the food items we are paying money for to bring home. What makes plastic expensive is its environmental impact. Another thing is plastic is not healthy. So yes, keep using your reusable drinking or coffee cup, ditch the plastic straws, and buy into your own container if possible. If making you feel better is the only thing, then sure continue with it.
This great little table at Chariot Energy’s website is sharing the estimated decomposition of various plastic items:
| Material | Estimated Decomposition |
|---|---|
| Cigarette butts | 5 years |
| Plastic bags | 20 years |
| Plastic-lined coffee cups | 30 years |
| Plastic straws | 200 years |
| Soda can rings | 400 years |
| Plastic bottles | 450 years |
| Toothbrushes | 500 years |
| Disposable diapers | 500 years |
| Styrofoam | 500 years |
| Fishing line | 600 years |
| Glass | Unknown |
Crazy stuff, eh? No wonder it makes one feel good not to participate in that. Even though while we are voting during buying, we do not stand an option of closing down any hundreds of plastic factories in the world. What would help us making peace with plastic is hope for a novel, environmental-friendly materials. Also, more bans at the country-level definitely would help to shake the situation.
What is really happening with the plastic?
According to packaging giant Tetra Pak, here are some really frightening facts about plastic. We may think that if we sort the garbage, put recyclable items in the box, then we are good to go. As all plastic gets recycled and we have done our good deed.
- Fossil-based plastic production is growing – and only 9% of total plastic is recycled
- 32% of all plastic packaging is not collected and plastic can take hundreds of years to degrade
- Plastic production, fueled by fossil fuels, reached 359 million metric tonnes in 2018
- Packaging made from aluminum is energy intensive to produce
- Paper-based packaging is catching high industry interest
- Plant-based materials are renewable and better for the environment
Imagine that only 9% of total plastic is recycled! This completely blew my mind! If current trends continue, roughly 12 billion metric tons of plastic waste will be in landfills or the natural environment by 2050. Twelve billion metric tons is about 35,000 times as heavy as the Empire State Building. Imagine the pollution of the plastic to the groundwater, flora, and fauna, not to mention our oceans. Actually, it poses the biggest threat to the oceans.
What the world is doing to ditch plastic?
Actually, a lot is happening, though we are drowning in plastic, the world is making some direct changes towards using plastic. Governments in at least 32 countries have banned plastic bags altogether and at least 127 countries have implemented policies regulating plastic bags according to the United Nations. Many countries around the globe are implementing plastic bans and encouraging consumers to replace plastic with alternative materials including biodegradable single-use items and eco-friendly reusable products.
Forbes.com shares lots of information on the company’s promise to cut down on plastic waste. Seems like big-name brands such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Henkel, Kimberly-Clark, Tetra Pak, and so on, are actually working hard on ditching the poisonous and annoying plastic. Why there is so much talk about packaging this year? Due to Covid-19 people got into ordering in and buying online, which probably made the plastic consumption 100 x higher than it has ever been. Results of such destroying behaviour don’t go unnoticed, hence many businesses have sustainable packaging on their agendas. 2021 is shaping up to be the year that packaging transforms from wrecking our environment with excess waste to making the planet environmentally wonderful.
One of our favourite Instagram accounts Live Kindly has put together a nice article on what the world has been doing to ban plastic. Reading this article gives hope, as more countries are banning single-use items, such as plastic bags, straws, plates, cups, etc. This gives us hope and makes us think of perhaps one day there is a way of making peace with plastic.
Conclusion
It has been relatively easy for us to ditch plastic. Being vegan, we do not buy food items, which are coming in plastic packaging. If we crave something such as cream cheese, for example, we make our own using cashews. You can get these in bulk or in no plastic container. Even though we are not giving our money for plastic, it still finds its way to our home. We are blessed to receive food donations for our volunteering gigs from many kind people. And have a good friend who is always sharing her surplus with us. So she kind of keeps our recycling box filled. While we take it out, we from now on think that only 9% of plastic gets recycled. And we get mad again. There is no making peace with plastic. Not at least in 2021!
The header photo is taken by Volodymyr Hryshchenko. We are very thankful for him sharing his creations for free with the world.