Throughout our journey with Edamame Pod we went through many stages and iterations of it. What we always knew from the beginning was that we wanted to help our planet in some way. We decided to take the sustainable approach. Something simple as our plastic use in everyday life.
Since the UK is trying to fight plastic waste, we looked at what we could do to help with this. We started researching and some facts really amazed us.
Every year an estimated 4.5 billion plastic bags are given away by UK supermarkets. 13 billion plastic carrier bags are used in the UK each year. Shoppers worldwide are using approximately 500 billion single-use plastic bags per year. The amount of plastic waste generated annually in the UK is estimated to be nearly 5 million tonnes. (WRAP) Plastic bags and other plastic rubbish kill thousands of animals every year. Plastic can take up to 500 years to decompose.
And many more… It really is affecting our environment and our animals.
Another interesting fact is that the UK has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic to China to recycle it but this arrangement has been stopped. Now the UK is still figuring out a solution to this.
This is just one concern over what we are doing to our planet. But if we think about it, it is almost impossible to avoid it. We go to the supermarket and we buy containers and bags and everything has plastic in some way. But we can do something.We can start to reduce the amount of plastic we use. We can reuse bags we already have and avoid buying new ones.
Of course the ideal solution would be for governments to implement policies that deal with this cause. We also need to teach children about this issue so they learn from a young age to pay attention to their habits. But the best thing we can do is to set the example ourselves. And with one change of habit at a time we can make an improvement in the long run.
There are websites that sell sustainable products and by just going and reading about it we can learn so much about small things we can do to change. And maybe things we don’t even think are harming or we are not aware of.
The next video is a great story of a woman who is completely “zero waste”. It’s not easy but we can start incorporating small things into our everyday life.
Some tips I am trying to help reduce my environmental footprint:
Start by looking at your trash and see what you are wasting. See if there is something you can change about it.
Start using reusable bags and stop buying plastic bags. I always have a foldable reusable bag in my purse or backpack, just in case I need it, I have it at hand.
Buy produce in bulk. I love going to the organic store or the market and buying directly from the suppliers. It is fresh and it tastes so much better. I am lucky to have a market just a few blocks from where I live but you can set a day in the week to the market. And it is much more fun than the supermarkets.
I don’t buy water bottles. I hate having so many bottles at the end of the week, and it really makes me feel bad. So instead I use reusable bottles. I have a few in different sizes so I can take a small one with me and have bigger ones for home. The UK is actually trying to reduce the use of plastic bottles so they are setting water fountains around the city for you to refill them.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any more easy ideas to reduce your environmental footprint and help our dear planet.
References:
BBC (2017). Seven charts that explain the plastic pollution problem. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-42264788 (Accessed: 24 April 2018)
Harrabin, R. (2018) UK faces build-up of plastic waste. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42455378 (Accessed: 24 April 2018)
Plastic Free UK (2018) Available at: http://plasticfree.co.uk/plastic-stats/ (Accessed: 24 April 2018)
Stories (2015). You Can Live Without Producing Trash. Available at: https://youtu.be/nYDQcBQUDpw (Accessed: 24 April 2018)