Step #4 - Rationalize your plastic consumption

The average time for a plastic bottle to biodegrade fully is approximately 450 years. There are many different kinds of plastic in the world, which will all take different amounts of times to biodegrade. However I think we all agree that it takes a long time for plastic to biodegrade. The main reason of why plastics are almost non-biodegradeable is because the polymers (chains of molecules that make up plastics) are too long and the bonds between the molecules are very strong to be broken down. Although today there are some “better” plastics, they are becoming most of the pollution we are putting into our planet, especially in the oceans, where the plastics break down and it’s eaten by fish (which by the way we might eat afterwards through our food chain)

Photo taken from coastalcare.org

According to coastalcare.org 260 million tons per year is our estimated plastic consumption. Our voracious appetite for plastics, coupled with a culture of discarding products that we have chosen for their inherent longevity, is a combination of lethal nature for our environment.

The ultimate symbol of our throwaway lifestyle is the plastic bag: 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags is the number consumed annually, which is about a million a minute (A MILLION PLASTIC BAGS A MINUTE!!!).

What can we do to reduce our plastic consumption?

• Do you drink bottled water? Think twice. Drink more from the tap. Make sure your home tap water is drinkable. If you are concerned about the germs, boil it. If you are concerned about dirt, filter it. Water bottles are one of the main plastic users and also one of the main plastic garbage producers. Corporations are taking over town aquifersand selling it back to the people for $2 (or more) per bottle. Shipping one bottle of water costs about 1/3 bottle of fuel. It is best to filter or distill your own water and use metal or glass containers.
• Use reusable plastic containers (or even glass or regular plates) to store your food and avoid disposable plastic wrap or bags.
• Use Cloth Grocery Bags instead of plastic bags. If that’s impossible (and make sure it’s really impossible for you) then use as few bags as possible.
• Avoid plastic lids and straws when you buy drinks at fast food restaurants (or any restaurant for that matter). Let’s face it: you are not going to spill (unless you are putting your drink in the car and driving), so why put a lid on the drink?
• Recycle. Many of the plastics are recyclable, but today only 20% of them are actually recycled by users. The other 80% ends up on garbage land fills. Make sure you put all recyclable plastics on the recycle bin.
• Refer to my previous post on reduce garbage. That has more tips on how to reduce plastic consumption.

Sources:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_will_it_take_for_a_plastic_bottle_to_biodegrade

http://www.blurtit.com/q120742.html
http://coastalcare.org/2009/11/plastic-pollution/
http://thegoodhuman.com/2008/10/21/ten-ways-to-reduce-plastic-consumption/