In this post, we will talk about 3 Things You Can Easily Do To Help the Earth and ourselves. In honor of Earth Day on April 22nd, here are three things made with plastic you can easily stop using now to improve our environment, help wildlife, and reduce our exposure to toxic chemicals.
Plastics contain many toxic chemicals and endocrine disruptors, including BPA and Phthalates, which scientists are saying are harmful to humans, especially children. The good news is as a consumer, you have the power to make a difference!
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3 Things You Can Easily Do To Help the Earth
1. Stop Using Products with Microbeads
Microbeads are microscopic particles of plastic that are used as exfoliators in many products, including some toothpaste, lotions, face and body exfoliators, and hand soaps. These polyethylene plastic beads do not biodegrade or disintegrate and are now flooding our waterways and oceans.
According to the Huffington Post an estimate of ‘about 8 trillion beads, enough to cover more than 300 tennis courts – end up in waterways across the United States every day!’
This is just in the United States alone, which is really quite shocking! These beads end up being ingested by fish, which humans are now consuming in the fish we eat!
You can check products that you currently use or products you are considering buying at Beat the Microbead. The ingredients you need to look for include, but are not limited to: Polyethylene (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and Nylon (PA).
Microbeads have been banned in some products in the US, but because of a loophole, some cosmetic and industrial cleaner companies are still using them in their products.
What you can use instead!
Here is a list of microbead-free products from Beat the Microbead! You could also try making your own microbead free exfoliating products at home with coconut oil and sugar!
2. Stop using Disposable Plastic Straws
As with microbeads, straws are filling our waterways and oceans. In the U.S. alone, 500 million straws are used each year! Many of these straws end up in the ocean, where they can harm wildlife.
I recently watched a heart-wrenching video of a screaming sea turtle with a straw stuck up its nostril! It’s incredibly sad and really so unnecessary.
Why should animals go through so much pain, just so we can sip a drink through a straw? It really doesn’t seem fair, luckily there are better, reusable alternatives!!
What you can use instead!
If you really just can’t do without a straw, fortunately, there are amazingly cool reusable silicone straw alternatives! You can also find reusable straws made out of bamboo and other non-plastic materials. Also, when you visit a restaurant, make sure you say, ‘No straw, please,’ before they bring your drink!
3. Stop Buying Cotton Swabs or Cotton Buds with Plastic
Another plastic that is destroying our beautiful oceans and harming wildlife are cotton swabs and buds with plastic stems These things get into our oceans through being flushed down the toilet, that’s right anything you flush down your toilet can end up in our oceans!
These swabs get stuck inside fish, birds, turtles and other animals causing serious injury or death. It is SO sad to read about this and see the pictures too 🙁
If consumers stop buying these things, companies will get the message and go back to natural materials. Johnson & Johnson has fortunately decided to stop using plastic in their cotton swabs, so the pressure from consumers is working! Yaay!!
What you can use instead!
A good alternative is buying a cotton swab made without plastic, like these.
By doing these three simple things, you can help the earth and our wildlife too! I hope you enjoyed my post about the 3 Things You Can Easily Do To Help the Earth!
What ways do you try to help take care of the earth? Please let me know in the comments below!
tat2gurlzrock says
Great tips! Happy Earth Day Kim!
Kim Delatorre says
You too! 🙂