Home Objects That Pollute the Most, Part 3

Home+Objects+That+Pollute+the+Most%2C+Part+3

Mélodie Lévesque

     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.

 

Cling film

     Each person makes more than 400kg of household waste. Cling Film is really popular in the United States, one industry research group found that in 6 months nearly 80 million Americans had used at least one roll of plastic wrap. The worst is that more than 5 million Americans had gone through more than 10 million boxes. “If you look back to the 1950s when we didn’t have as effective food storage as we do now, you can see why it was so popular,” said Leah Bendell, a marine ecotoxicologist from Simon Fraser University.

     An Alternative: There are a lot of alternatives for the cling film. The first one is beeswax wraBeeswax Wrap Comes In a Giant Roll Now | Epicuriousps. They are one of the easiest cling wrap swaps and all you need to do is rinse them and wipe clean and you can reuse them. They can last for about 12 months if you can take care of them properly. You can find beeswax wraps on amazon or Walmart can have some. Other options include food cover sets, reusable silicone food wraps, silicon pouch, and more options.

 

Makeup remover cotton

     On average, women use around 6 cottons each day and they are very pollutant. In a year, there is at least 2,160 cotton that women use to take care of their skin and just go in the garbage to pollute the Earth. According to research by Mintel, 47% of make-up wearers use single-use face wipes and cotton pads. The majority of single-use cotton is non-biodegradable and virtually indestructible.

     An alternative: There are a lot of options instead of taking single-use cotton. The first thing is a makeup eraser, you can use them for up to 3 to 5 years just by putting them in the washer. If you want to use them more than once each night, you could run them under hot water. You could also use the face halo reusable makeup remover pads up to 500 times before using another one. The easy thing about it is you just need to pass it underwater.

 

Traditional toothbrush

     1 billion toothbrushes are thrown away in the U.S.A. every year and that is enough to stretch around the Earth 4 times. Also, 50 million toothbrushes are ending up in the landfills annually. Toothbrushes can also be mistaken for food by animals, recently, a female Albatros was seen trying to feed her chick a plastic toothbrush. Manual toothbrushes are made with polypropylene plastic and nylon and those two are non-reusable fossil fuels. “I like to ask people, what’s the first thing you touch in the morning? It’s probably your toothbrush,” says Pacarro. “Do you want the first thing you touch every day to be plastic?”

     An alternative: The easiest solution right now, is to use bamboo toothbrushes.  You could also use a toothbrush with silicone instead of plastic. What is different between silicone and plastic is that silicone can be converted back into inorganic, harmless ingredients, so it doesn’t make too much pollution.