Welcome to your first blog post of The Mini Guide: Low-Waste Living

Today we are going to look at some facts and figures relating to the global plastic addicition. Along this course, we are aiming to educate in mulitple different ways. We believe that diversity is key when it comes to having an impact.

According to National Geographic, 73% of all beach litter is plastic.

The Begining

Plastic first came on the sceen in 1907, just over 100 years ago. It didn’t however become largley used until the 1960’s, at which point it became incorporated into a lot of everyday essentials, such a dispoisable razors and tupperware. It very quickly creapt into all aspectes of our lives. By 1979 plastic bags were at a large majority of USA supermarket checkouts, taking over from the brown paper bags. Since then around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.

Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.

1961: The non-profit organization ‘Keep America Beautiful’ joins forces with the Ad Council to create a series of anti-littering commercials - even then, single-use plastic was an issue!

2008: The world’s population discarded approximately over 3.5 million tons of plastic bags - the same as 700,000 Asian Elephants!

2012: San Francisco places ban on plastic bags. They are the first city in the United States to do this. - since then many countries have started to make single-use plastic illegal

Did you know:

Only about 1 percent of styrofoam is recycled

What’s The Issue?

What’s the issue, you may be wondering? Well the issue is that we are repeatitivly making plastic but yet it NEVER FULLY DISINTERGRATES. It is litering our beaches, killing our sealife animals, and suffocating our oceans. It is ending up in our food chain, which in turn could potentially be very toxic to humans. We know that when heated, plastic become carcinogenic, so what happens if it can pass into the human blood stream?

The smallest particles can also pass into the bloodstream and cause cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, induce cancer and affect the human immune and nervous system.

It Isn’t All Bad

Plastic may be having a negative effect on the planet, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It is our everyday addiction to plastic that is have this catastropic effect. Plastic has been used through the medical industry to reduce the risk of infection. It has been used in the food industry to cut down on waste. It has also been used throughout the world to build clean water ways.

There a many positives that can come from plastic being used in positive ways. Where the issue lies is mainly with single-use plastic. 50% of plastic is only used once and that is where our issues lie.

This mini guide is here to teach you to cut down on your everyday use of plastic so that it can be used for good and not always seen as bad

Annie xxx

@ethicallyso