An estimated 79% of the plastic that has ever been created is still here in our environment. So there is a lot of ways to reduce pollution. Those examples are just a little bit of all pollution but when you use an alternative it helps the environment a lot.

The packages

     The packaging of the food can represent up to 80% of the weight of the finished products. It sometimes constitutes more than 65% of the price. In addition to being a waste of money, the environment is being affected. More than 40% of the packaging ends up in landfills, is burned, or left in the wild. 

     An alternative: you could try to buy as much in bulk. You can also use reusable bags or your own containers to transport your food, some stores accept containers and others don’t, instead of taking the food that is already wrapped. When you compare similar items from different brands, choose the brand with less packaging.

Plastic Straws

     The straws are in the top ten objects picked up on the beach. When there are cleaning campaigns, they are the 3rd most seen objects on the beach. In Belgium, they don’t use a lot of plastic straws but the American uses around 500 millions of them each day. Those straws will be seen on the beach in the summer.

     An alternative: We could easily take reusable straws or disposable biodegradable paper straws. We could also just sip out of the cup or any other thing you are drinking instead of taking straws and in a restaurant, you can refuse single-use straws. They are only used for around 5 minutes but are in the environment indefinitely.

Cotton Swabs

     In France, they decided to ban the cotton swabs because the little sticks are the second biggest enemy of the aquatic environment. A lot of time the cotton swabs are thrown in the toilet instead of the garbage can and those are polluting the beaches and the ocean. By the shape of it, they can cause intestinal obstruction or perforate the organs of the animals that swallow the cotton swabs.1.5 million disposable swabs are produced every single day.

     An alternative: the ears are “self-cleaning”. A lot of healthcare will suggest you use a towel instead of cotton swabs because they repel more than they remove earwax. With the towel, you just need to clean the visible parts of your ears without getting too deep in the ear canal. Cotton swabs are also polluting the ocean and a lot of animals can eat them thinking it’s food.