This month marks an amazing step forward in conserving our oceans. McDonald's announced their goal to phase out plastic straws by 2025. And just this week, Starbucks also announced it’s plan to eliminate plastic straws in all of their stores by 2020.
Plastic straws are one of this biggest offenders when it comes to plastic trash in our oceans. Cutting out their use by two of the largest chain eateries in the world is nothing short than amazing for our oceans. But you don’t have to wait years for this to happen to start making a positive impact on the health of our planet. Here we will list 10 ways that you can cut out single-use plastics from your everyday life NOW. TODAY. And they are way easier than you think!
10 WAYS TO USE LESS PLASTIC:
#1. Bring your own straw
More and more people are joining the BYOS movement by purchasing their own glass or stainless-steel reusable straws and carrying them around with them. Many of them come in their own nice little carry bag. Here are our favorites: https://www.ecoatheart.com and https://simplystraws.com/collections/shop-collection
#2. STOP using bottled water
With the wide variety of reusable glass, aluminum, and stainless-steel water bottles on the market today there really is no excuse for using plastic, single-use bottled water. Yes, it may take a little pre-planning to use your reusable bottle but the long-lasting effects on our environment are priceless!
#3. Bring your own cup
You can take using a reusable water bottle one step further by bringing your own cup when ordering to-go drinks at any eatery. A little pre-planning and grabbing that re-usable Starbucks cup with the built-in straw or your to-go coffee mug will cut down on so much of our single-use daily trash.
#4. Bring your own bag
Bringing your own canvas grocery bags has become the norm over the last decade but what if you took it a step further and carried your own canvas bag even when you go shopping at the mall? Other stores still give out plastic bags too and your prior planning can help curb the use of more than just grocery bags.
#5. Give up zip-lock bags
This can be a hard one for the typical American; we've been using them our entire lives. There are some great alternatives, however. You can now buy velcro reusable sandwich bags. Or for an even tighter seal, you can get reusable baggies that have closures similar to the typical zip-lock bag.
#6. Eat out less
You may be thinking “how can eating out less reduce my single-use plastic use." Well, think of all of those to-go containers or take-home containers. They are almost always plastic.
#7. Use razors with disposable blades
The typical disposable razor is made entirely of plastic. Try investing in a razor that only needs the blades changed out from time to time. The initial investment may be more but will pay off in the long run.
#8. Give up gum
Gum? Yes, most major gum brands are actually partly made with synthetic plastic. Ew!
#9. Meet Baking Soda and Vinegar
Baking soda and vinegar will become your new household best friends. You can clean just about anything with these two cheap ingredients! Pinterest is full of DIY cleaning ideas centered around these two ingredients. Not only do you significantly reduce plastic waste from buying household cleaners at the store, but you'll be cutting your exposure to toxins, which is always a good thing!
#10. Pack your own lunch
This goes along with eating out less. Lunch on the go usually comes from a fast-food type restaurant which packages your food in a lot of single-use plastics whether you dine in or not. By packing your lunch at home you can go virtually single-use plastic free!
We could go on and on with many more ways to reduce your use of single-use plastics in your everyday life. Change is never easy so we hope that by giving you our top 10 you'll be motivated to start today. Just remember...one person CAN make a difference!
