A big movement of late is to ban the plastic straw. This is an awesome campaign to get the everyday person to realize that we have a very large problem with plastic single use items, however we need to use this movement to go one step further. 

No one knows exactly how many plastic straws we use per day. It is estimated that in the US alone 500 million straws are used daily. According the US Environmental Protection Agency the US produces 30 million metric tonnes of plastic waste every year.

Now this is really important….

500 million plastic straws = 182.5 billion straws per year. A plastic straw weighs 0.4 of a gram which means per year in the US 73,000 metric tonnes of plastic straws are used.

That means that plastic straws only make up 0.2% of all the plastic waste used per year in the US.

We need to keep the movement of plastic straws going…. However, it cannot end there. Once Starbucks and McDonalds and your local pub stop using straws the movement can’t stop there. 

It is estimated that 8.8 million tonnes of plastic makes its way into the ocean every year. Consider the explosion of plastic bottles to really understand how big the plastic problem is.

Again this is really important….

In 2017 there were 494 billion plastic bottles manufactured. That means 1.35 billion plastic bottles every single day. Manufacturers must take responsibility for their products full life cycle and must be held responsible for the recycling of their products packaging.

So what can I do?

If you have read this far fantastic….. I have decided to do more than just talk about it. I have decided to donate funds from my Instructor candidate course fees to help fight the plastic pollution we have. I donate AUD$100 per candidate to an organisation of their choice. Click the button to find out more

I don’t have the answers…. But I know that doing all or some of these will reduce the amount of plastic out there:

• Buying bottled water is just ridiculous! Get a water bottle and refill it.

• I love my coffee just like the next person. Get a travel mug!

• Take your bags to the supermarket

• Don’t buy plastic wrapped bananas, cucumbers, corn, apples, tomatoes and the list goes on and on and on.

• Buy the drink in a can rather than in a plastic bottle.

• Don’t use plastic takeaway knives and forks

• Say no to the straw

• Do recycle

DON’T BUY PLASTIC WRAPPED FOOD ITEMS

A visit to my local supermarket shows these items next to one another. Why do we need to wrap them in plastic?