Five Ways to Reduce Plastic in Your Life

Everywhere you turn in the media, there are more articles and stories about the dangers of plastic, both to the environment and to people's health. The environmental damage is clear: over 97% of all of the plastic ever produced on the planet is still around in one form or another. While plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller bits, it does not biodegrade. We are filling the planet with plastic that we are running out of room for. Some remote parts of our oceans are filled with "plastic soup", small beads of plastic originally from factories and from consumer use. The fish you eat eat plastic. Migratory birds eat plastic. We even eat plastic ourselves in some processed foods.

Health studies continue to point to chemical leaching from plastics into our foods, especially when plastic is heated in a microwave. But plastic is everywhere. How can we start reducing the amount of plastic that we are contributing to the planet? Here are five easy ways to reduce your plastic footprint:

1. Ditch the plastic shopping bags.

This is the easiest way to get disposable plastic out of your life. And many countries and states are now willing to help you do it by either banning the bags outright or charging for them. There are approximately one trillion disposable plastic shopping bags used each year. It is estimated that plastic bags that end up in the landfill (as more than 90% do) can take an estimated 1,000 years to break down into smaller bits- as close as it will ever come to biodegrading.

Great alternatives to plastic shopping bags now exist, including bags made from canvas, recycled plastic, and mesh. Keep one in your car's glove box so that you always have at least one reusable bag with you when you need to stop at the store.

2. Stop drinking bottled water.

Bottled water is another huge contributor to the growing plastic dilemma. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, 2,480,000 tons of plastic bottles and jars were thrown away in 2008 along. The Container Recycling Institute reports that 60 billion PET beverage bottles were bought up to the end of 2006, and 45 billion of those were discarded rather than recycled.

Drinking filtered tap water is a more than adequate solution to drinking bottled water. Although most filters are made from plastic, it is at least a reusable plastic. Tap water is often subject to more restrictions and testing than bottled water, so the old myth that bottled water is somehow "purer" is just that; a myth.

3. Take your own take out containers to restaurants.

Styrofoam is a type of plastic that is rarely recyclable and is prevalent in the food service industry. Styrofoam is used for both hot and cold foods and beverages. One way to use less Styrofoam is to take your own take out containers when you go to a restaurant. You can get all stainless steel or steel with glass lids. They are sturdy and will last many years.

4. Choose glass leftover dishes over Tupperware.

There are many plastic leftover containers on the market these days including Gladware and the original Tupperware. They are convenient to store leftovers in and some even claim that they can be used in the microwave for reheating. Studies are now showing that volatile compounds in these dishes break down in the presence of heat and we end up ingesting them.

Glass leftover containers made by manufacturers like Anchor Hocking can go in the freezer, the oven, the refrigerator and the microwave. They can also go on the bottom rack of the dishwasher unlike their plastic counterparts.

5. Buy veggies and fruit from farmers markets.

If you take a good look around the produce section of your local grocery store, you are likely to find a sea of plastic. Most fruits and vegetables today are pre-washed, pre-portioned and pre-wrapped in plastic. Tomatoes and cucumbers are shrink-wrapped and salad greens come ready to eat in their plastic bags.

To get this plastic out of your life, go to your local farmer's market instead where you can find vegetables and fruit the way they were meant to be- sans plastic. Take your reusable bags with you to avoid having to use produce bags. For smaller items, take a mesh onion bag along with you to keep them separate from the larger items in the bag.