“Its only one straw said 8 billion people” – Author Unknown
It is estimated that 2.5 billion single-use coffee cups are discarded globally every year. This equates to a staggering 5000 every minute. If a person throws away one coffee cup per day, that adds up to 23 lbs of waste per year. YIKES!!!!
Not sure which statistic is more frightening but lets start with a whopping 38 million plastic water bottles go to a landfill every year! Plastic bottles take roughly 450 years to dissolve. Sadly, 80% of plastic bottles never get recycled!
In the U.S. millions of straws are used daily. During a 5-year clean up 7.5 million plastic straws were found on U.S. coastlines, if you extrapolate those numbers thats roughly 8 billion straws on the world’s coastlines! Bring your own straw if you truly need one!
Every minute of everyday a truckload of plastic is dumped into the ocean =(
3 simple tasks to reduce your daily waste:
- Make coffee at home! Not only will you save money but you will cut out a lot of the sugary crap, and truly reduce the amount of daily waste you create. This is easier said than done, and if you really crave that special big box store coffee then bring your own cup! Most shops will fill up your personal cup! Stay tuned for my steps on how to make zero waste coffee at home!
- STOP DRINKING OUT OF PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES! SERIOUSLY! Really any drinks in plastic for that matter, opt for cans where possible they are much easier to recycle. Honestly, drinking out of plastic water bottles couldn’t get any worse. First of all, who knows how long that water has been siting in that plastic container, in the back of a hot truck -YUCK! Micro plastics are literally just leaching into your water and then you drink them. Moreover is the fact of how much waste is created from plastic bottles on this planet. Remember, bring your reusable water bottle with you every where! Fill it up before you leave the house, and you can always refill it on the go!
- Skip the Straw! When out in public kindly ask for no straw and bring your own reusable one! Straws are truly horrible for the planet. On a quick stroll along Fort Lauderdale beach and you can quite literally collect 30 straws in less than 5 minutes. Straws are to only horrible for the environment specifically for marine life but again, they are shedding micro plastics into your drinks and then into your body! Just say no!
As consumers, we have so much power to change the world by being careful in what we buy -Emma Watson
Liz Dutra 