Naturally Balanced > Education and ecology > How to reduce plastic use?

How to reduce plastic use?

Published: 01/06/2022
Naturally Balanced
The Naturally Balanced team includes experts in their field who create the best content for you, collaborating on their knowledge and experience.

Date of the last update: 01.06.2022

It is painfully apparent that plastic is omnipresent in our everyday life and adversely affects the environment. In this context the increasing environmental awareness of society is a very positive phenomenon, as it helps to adopt desirable solutions step by step. It’s high time to think how we ourselves can reduce our plastic footprint on a daily basis. This article will inspire you with some simple and effective ways to achieve it.

Table of Contents:

  1. Plastic pollution – a serious problem
  2. Single-use items – a major threat
  3. Reducing your plastic footprint – what else can you do?

You can read this article in 3 minutes.

Plastic pollution – a serious problem

Researchers estimate that global plastic production has increased twenty-fold over the last 50 years! Although it’s hard to imagine, given the amount of plastic we use every day, this figure is set to quadruple by 2050. This has negative consequences for both the environment and human health. Thus, experts especially emphasise the need to reduce single-use plastic products, as they account for a significant proportion of current production. Although global corporations play a key role in this area, each of us can do our bit by changing our daily habits and choosing products whose manufacturers have an eco-friendly approach to business.

Single-use items – a major threat

Single-use plastic products and their massive use are a key problem in reducing the global plastic supply. The key action is therefore to consciously cut down on disposable items as much as possible. This includes shopping bags, meal packaging, plates and cutlery, drinking straws, beverage containers and cups and balloons. It’s worth remembering that seemingly insignificant individual actions have enormous power when taken by millions of people all over the world, and these are the trends we are currently seeing!

Reducing your plastic footprint – what else can you do?

Some easily implementable actions that can “relieve the burden” on our planet in terms of plastic consumption in our everyday life include:

  • using cotton bags,
  • using glass water bottles,
  • packing food in reusable lunchboxes,
  • buying products in cardboard, glass or metal containers,
  • replacing plastic toothbrushes with their bamboo equivalents,
  • packing fruit and vegetables in bulk, without using plastic bags,
  • buying products from companies that use recycled plastic,
  • sorting waste at home,
  • using self-made cleaning products.

The list of things you can do is much longer. But hopefully taking steps mentioned in this article will be a good start on your road to gradually giving up plastic. Especially as many of them are also ways to reduce your current expenses. Good luck!

Explore more: Ocean pollution – causes and effects

Sources:

Geyer, R., Jambeck, J.R., Law, K.L, Production, use and fate of all plastic ever made, “Science Advances”, 2017.

Jak odejść od jednorazowego plastiku? Poradnik Greenpeace [How do we move away from single-use plastic? Greenpeace guide], https://www.greenpeace.org/static/planet4-poland-stateless/2020/02/b90b92b4-jak_odejsc_od_plastiku.pdf

Naturally Balanced
The Naturally Balanced team includes experts in their field who create the best content for you, collaborating on their knowledge and experience.