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Zero Waste | 4 Easy Tricks For Quitting Plastic Bottles

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#GoneGreen2016 ❈ DAY 1 / 365
Drinks housed in plastic, are bad.

I am as guilty as any other for partaking in porting these plastic polluters around, blissfully ignorant to the harms I was causing myself and the planet. I knew plastic was bad, but I didn’t understand, beyond the tales of plastic piled up in landfills, how truly damaging my old habit had been.

Then I watched the documentary TAPPED, and started reading up on the issues surrounding bottled water and other bottled things.


4 REASONS TO QUIT PLASTIC BOTTLES

Here are (some of the many) problems I found, coalesced into neat notes to make the reading go swiftly:

One. PLASTIC BOTTLES MIGHT CAUSE YOU CANCER 
… this included Baby Bottles for all the parents out there … 
A chemical called Bisphenol A (BPA) is one (of many) chemicals found in plastic bottles recently. It mimics estrogens (female hormones) and has been linked to breast, prostate and ovarian cancers, cardiovascular disease, miscarriages, decreased birth weight, altered immune system activity, metabolic problems AND cognitive and behavioral childhoood developmental problems. It is also linked to the Handmaid’s Tale-esque reality that men are loosing their fertility. 
Two. PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES ARE EVIL 
… even when recycled
❈ The manufacturing process contributes to global warming and the depletion of energy resources.
❈ Even recycling plastics produces pollution (it wastes energy to recycle, not all plastics are recyclable)
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Three. THE POLLUTION FROM PLASTICS AFFECTS EVERYTHING NEGATIVELY 
❈ If they end up in landfills and get incinerated, the plastic releases toxic chemicals into the air.
❈ Plastic that stays on land can take hundreds of years to break down, even then, it isn’t biodegradable.
❈ Plastics that end up in the Ocean, which is about 10% of all plastics produced, keep breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces which are eaten by marine life, animals and birds which poison and eventually kill them.
❈ Enough plastic is thrown away each year to circle the earth four times.
Four. YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT 10 FOLD
Bottled water is just tap water, bottled, and sold back to you at 2,900x the price. Guess what Evian spelled backwards is? That’s right, Naive …


SIMPLE SOLUTIONS

One. DON’T BUY ANYTHING HOUSED IN PLASTIC
Unless you absolutely have to. Try to take notice of what plastic you are using in your life and find sustainable solutions to replace it. See this video HERE for ideas on plastic reduction.

Two. INVEST IN A REUSABLE WATER BOTTLE (and use it)
Reusable water bottles are the ultimate replacement item for reusable plastic bottles. Ideally you want to go for steel or glass, but BPA free plastic also gets the job done. When you are out and about, ask a restaurant or cafe to fill it for you, they always will (it is illegal for them not to). If you’re worried about the quality of the tap water, invest in a LIFE STRAW bottle, they have them for KIDS too.

Here are nine of my favourite reusable water bottle brands:

1) LIFE STRAW

3) YUHME
4) SIGG
5) SOMA
Three. DRINK TAP WATER
If you’re worried about chlorine in your drinking water put it in a pitcher and let it stand overnight to let the chlorine evaporate or buy a carbon activated filter for your tap. You can also place charcoal in your water, as my friend Kate does, or consider buying a biodegradable filter, like SOMA or TAPP to get your tap water on point.
Four. MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE FOR THE KIDS
Teach your children about the affects of bottled drinks by not buying them beverages in plastic bottles and explaining to them how buying plastic bottles hurts the planet, as well as her inhabitants including humans, animals, plants and fish. Try to relate this information to something your children can identify with, for example their favourite animal, or favourite movie (Finding Nemo!). There is a five time award winning film by EcoTales called “Gloop” which is a fairy-tale about plastic.

zero waste, why to go zero waste, how to go zero waste, minimal waste, first step for zero waste, zero waste living, green living, how to live sustainably, plastic pollution, climate action, how to quit plastic bottles, why to quit plastic bottles, how to live zero waste, easy steps for living zero waste, green living, conscious living, sustainable living, ethical living, vegan living, plastic free, say no to plastic

Images: Food 52
Recommended Reading/Watching: Tapped

Sources: NPR, David Suzuki, National Geographic, Greenpeace, Breast Cancer Fund, Eco Watch, List Verse, Discover


Photos: 1, 2, 3


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