Sneaky Plastics
We are already five days into Plastic Free July. Many of you have picked a goal to reduce your plastic use and are exploring with plastic-free alternatives and buying in bulk. While maintaining a good plastic-free routine is not too difficult, setting yourself up for success can be challenging at first. As you begin your plastic-reduction journey, we thought we would share just a few sneaky sources of plastic pollution to look out for.
Plastic To-Go
The first sneaky source of plastic is take-out meals. Not only is there the obvious problem of single-use plastic utensils, but even if the containers themselves are made of cardboard, chances are…it’s lined with plastic. Plastic lining in coffee cups or nylon tea bags are especially troubling, because a study from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) showed that when those substances are exposed to boiling water, trillions of nanoparticles of plastic per liter are released into the beverage.
If you are a regular coffee drinker, see if your local coffee shop has a cup-swap program or bring your own clean, stainless steel travel mug to fill up. If you need to order in food, try to get take-out from restaurants that wrap food in paper or recyclable foil and skip the plastic utensils.
All That Glitters Isn’t Gold
Another sneaky source of plastic is glitter, which is almost always just cut up bits of plastic. While some avoid the kids’ craft glitter on principle, you may not realize how it is an ingredient in many cosmetics, bath bombs, body washes, and paints, including everything from nail polish to boat paint. These tiny glitter particles can easily be brushed off into the environment, ingested, or washed into the water—in other words, it gets EVERYWHERE.
The good news is, there is currently at least one brand called BioGliter (TM) that makes truly biodegradable glitter sold in many online shops, and hopefully more eco-friendly glitter brands will arise as well so we don’t have to sacrifice the sparkle.
Not So Clean Cleaning
When it comes time to wash all the glitter off, avoid artificial sponges and polyester scrubbing fabrics if possible. Otherwise…you may as well rinse that glitter straight down the sink. Synthetic sponges degrade overtime and release plastic, and even a single load of laundry alone can release 700,000 microplastic particles into the water!
For this reason, we recommend cleaning with natural sponges, bamboo-bristle scrub brushes, and cotton towels, and consider wearing more natural materials like cotton.
Avoiding plastic entirely might be impossible now that our environment is so saturated with microplastic pollution. To date, scientists are still unsure of the effects these microplastics have on humans and wildlife, but it is theorized that the particles are small enough to interfere with cell function, causing a host of issues.
We believe that enough is enough with this plague of plastic, and it is our goal to provide easy and affordable alternatives to help everyone reduce their reliance on plastic for convenience as much as possible. If we work together, we can demand change by being the change itself and forcing big companies to follow suit!