Reducing Our Recycling
More recycling isn’t the answer to a garbage-free planet.
You may have a sense of satisfaction when dropping off items into the blue bins at the recycle center–a feeling of saving the planet from your waste.
We used to, too.
In reality, recycling gives you no guarantee items will get used again–especially plastics.
Marketing convinces us that it’s a green thing to do. Promoted as a way to be friendlier to the earth. That even if we use a lot of plastic, it’s ok, because it will get used again to make something else.
A whopping 91% of plastic isn't recycled.
Why we’re giving up single-use plastics.
From our research, plastics are very finicky when it comes to recycling them and we’ve found many reasons to avoid buying and using them altogether.
Plastics don’t have an endless lifespan. Unlike glass, which is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity, plastic can only be recycled so many times and loses quality as it is made into another product. This is called down cycling. For example, a plastic water bottle isn’t recycled into another water bottle, but used to make a product that will eventually end up in a landfill.
Not all plastics are recyclable. The triangle symbol with a number inside doesn’t automatically mean it can be recycled in your city. You would have to check with your local recycling center for their list of accepted plastics.
Plastic types are difficult to sort. With all the types of plastic out there and many products using multiple types (like a toothbrush), recycling becomes that much more difficult. If they can’t be sorted, they’re likely sent to the landfill.
Plastics are easily contaminated. If we don’t make sure to wash all the food waste or remnants out of containers, they can contaminate the entire batch, sending them to the landfill. Learn more about what contaminates recycling.
Fossil fuels are used to recycle plastics and pollution is created from melting it down. Enough said.
As consumers, buying with the intention of recycling is far from eco-friendly and garbage-free. For us, our solution is to stop buying and using unnecessary plastics whenever possible. Of course we’re not perfect, but we’re learning and growing as we go!
How can you reduce your plastic consumption?
Once you start to realize plastic is everywhere it can seem overwhelming–we thought the same. Start small at first with reducing single-use plastics. (Think straws, grocery bags, to-go coffee mugs, or plastic water bottles.) Each of these has simple alternatives that are friendlier to the earth:
Swap a plastic straw for a metal or bamboo one. Or, avoid them altogether. We realized that we don’t ever need to use one.
Swap plastic grocery bags for reusable ones. No need to buy anything fancy, even a backpack will work!
Swap a to-go coffee mug or plastic water bottle for a reusable one.
Every little change makes a difference. Once you’ve mastered the small stuff, it’s a fun creative challenge to see how many more plastic items you can remove from your life. :)
“Single-use plastics that take five seconds to produce, are used for five minutes, then take 500 years to break down again.”
–Frans Timmermans, vice-president of the European Commission
