Some Plastics are Just Too Ridiculous

A shocking 91% of all plastics – including 80% of all plastic bottles – are never recycled. (See “The Truth About Recycling” under Climate on the menu at right.) The plastics industry actually wants you to throw plastic bottles away… and feel of about it, believing it will be recycled. They truth is they will take an estimated 450 years to break down in a landfill. In the ocean, the estimated time is hundreds of years.

Some use of plastic is more egregious than others like itsy-bitsy 8-ounce bottles – exactly one measuring cup or 5-6 generous gulps of water.

The average person drinks from an 8 ounce for 5-10 minutes. That bottle will remain on earth for half a millennium.

Besides the half-millennium price for 10 minutes of convenience, it’s estimated that a a single half-quart plastic water bottle has a total carbon footprint equal to about 3 ounces of carbon dioxide.

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Why Buy Plastic Net Bags…

… when they are free at the grocery store? All sorts of produce comes prepackaged in mesh bags, which are made of plastic. Why throw them away. And then, perhaps, buy more?

They are fairly durable, more so than the plastic produce bags on rolls, so they can be reused for quite a long time before they end up in the landfill. (NO, they are not recyclable.)

Please see “EcoCool Kids” under “Topics” on the menu at right for a fun project that will keep little hands busy stringing a drawstring through the netting for a pretty reusable bag. No little hands? Simply drop the empty net bags into your shopping bags and use them with twisty ties at the store, instead of one-use plastic bags.

The bottom line? Do Not “Add to Cart”! Save yourself some money and the planet some pain.