Bottled water in plastic bottles line the shelves of a New Orleans grocery store Wednesday, April 17, 2024. People are increasingly breathing, eating and drinking tiny particles of plastic, but there are some simple things people can do at the grocery store. They want to use less plastic. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Single-use plastics have become a staple of convenience, and nowhere is this more evident than in the modern home kitchen. From the time groceries enter your home to the time they leave your home, the average consumer relies heavily on the convenience of single-use plastics for packaging, storage, and meal preparation.
With plastic pollution clogging waterways and harming wildlife, it's clear that we need to change our kitchen habits. Moving away from single-use plastic in your kitchen may seem like a huge burden, but it doesn't require a complete lifestyle overhaul. Simple swaps and small strategic changes to reduce, reuse, and recycle can go a long way in creating a big impact this Earth Day.
Why is it important to eliminate single-use plastics?
Health is the biggest driver of moving away from single-use plastics, the health of our planet and the health of the people who live here. Understanding how these plastics affect people can help motivate change.
Environmental impact of plastic waste
The production of plastics is resource-intensive and highly dependent on fossil fuels, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Once used, most plastic waste ends up in landfills, where it can take centuries to decompose.
What doesn't end up in landfills clogs waterways and pollutes the oceans. When single-use plastics break down in the ocean, they turn into tiny pieces known as microplastics and nanoplastics, which are ingested by fish, disrupting the food chain and threatening wildlife.
Health concerns and microplastics
The same microplastics found in the ocean are also appearing in humans. These tiny particles are ingested by eating contaminated fish or simply drinking water. Experts speculate that if these particles accumulate in humans over time, they will have negative health effects, but the full extent of their effects is not yet known.
Considering all these negative aspects surrounding the excessive use of plastic, there is no time like now to start making prudent choices to adopt environmentally friendly changes. A small change now can have a big impact later.
Reduce, reuse, recycle in that order
The words reduce, reuse and recycle are synonymous with creating a more sustainable way of life. However, most people are not aware that these words are in that particular order. Because they have the greatest impact when used in that order. Too often, people do what's convenient and skip over recycling. “Wish Cycling” Alternatively, you can put the trash you want to recycle into the recycling bin.
Every home kitchen has the same essential purpose. That means you need to efficiently provide nutritious, delicious, and accessible food to the people in your home, regardless of their abilities. These same feeding requirements guide people's choices when deciding which single-use plastic is most convenient. Therefore, choosing how to implement the concepts of reduce, reuse and recycle will be different for each home.
Making radical changes is difficult to achieve and even more difficult to sustain, but radical change is not necessary to have a significant and lasting impact. Instead, it's better to know where to reduce, when to reuse, and recycle what you can. Putting it all together shows that making small changes can create a big impact. For that, it's best to start from the beginning.
Reduce consumption
The most effective way to reduce your environmental impact is to buy fewer things that need to be disposed of. The less trash you put into your home, the less you will have to go out. However, most people cannot stop feeding themselves and their families. Food has to be purchased and is usually provided in single-use plastic packaging, making it very difficult to reduce.
Instead of looking at your entire food supply, start with one single-use plastic item and choose not to buy it again. One person may refuse to use plastic shopping bags, another may decide to never buy food in a plastic clamshell again, and another may never buy plastic wrap again. Maybe not.
To achieve this, you may need to change your shopping habits. You may have to choose between buying filets for tonight's rockfish recipe wrapped in paper at your local fish store, or incorporating seasonal foods by shopping at your local farmers' market. Choose one, get comfortable with it, then choose another one. Start with something simple and work your way up to something more complex.
Reuse existing materials
The second thing that makes a huge impact is reusing or repurposing items you already have at home. As well as reduction, we don't buy anything new or send it to the landfill. Reuse occurs in parallel with reduction. This is because it provides a great opportunity to find existing replacements for items that you refuse to purchase in disposable form.
Do this by remembering to bring your reusable shopping bags to the store, carrying one of the many reusable water bottles to work, or doing what grandma did and drinking leftover Guinness gravy. It could be something as simple as storing the sauce in an old plastic butter or yogurt container. It may seem easier than removing something from your life, but it takes time to form new habits, so keep at it until it sticks.
Recycling unnecessary items
The final piece of the reduce, reuse, recycle puzzle is something that should be used most sparingly: recycling. The purpose of recycling is to prevent things that are no longer needed from being thrown into landfills. But not everything can be recycled in every community, and sending non-recyclable items to recycling facilities can do more harm than good.
Recycle mark or resin identification code
Created for the first Earth Day in 1970, the chasing arrow recycling symbol is a well-known symbol encouraging people to recycle items made from recyclable materials such as paper, metal, glass, and some plastics. symbol. The idea is that these items can be sent to recycling facilities where they can be processed into new items made from paper, metal, glass and plastic.
The resin identification code, on the other hand, has the same Chasing Arrow emblem and is engraved with numbers 1 to 7 on the inside. These numbers indicate the materials used to create the product and whether the product is recyclable. In most areas, items marked number 1 and 2 can be recycled through in-store recycling programs. Items marked 3-7 can only be recycled through specialized programs in communities where appropriate facilities exist.
Although the recycling mark and resin identification code may look similar, they are not the same thing. According to the Consumer Brands Association, 92% of Americans couldn't tell the difference, so if you don't know, you're in good company.
If you are purchasing an item that you will only use once or for a short period of time, choose items that are actually made from recyclable materials. This includes choosing jumbo pasta shells and eggs wrapped in cardboard instead of plastic, and checking resin codes carefully and only buying those with one or two markings. may occur.
Eliminate single-use plastics by reducing, reusing and recycling
By adopting the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle, everyone, regardless of age, income or ability, can make small, meaningful swaps to minimize plastic usage and make a big difference. can.
Renee N. Gardner is the creative mastermind behind Renee Nicole's Kitchen, a recipe blog based on seasonal ingredients.
