The LoWaste Life is bringing back some old fashioned sustainability. Somewhere along the way, we lost the plot of what matters. Marketers and corporations lulled us into feeling alright about the staggering amount of single-use plastics moving through our lives every day. Happy meals, big plastic jugs of everything; don’t worry, they said, you can recycle it and feel fine.
The truth is much less pleasant to swallow. Less than 10% of all plastics produced are actually recycled. Even though we’ve tossed them out of our lives, there’s no such thing as “away”. The vast majority of all plastics ever produced are somewhere: a landfill, the ocean, breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic, working their way back into our lives.
The good news is that many of us are ready for change, and are willing to start with our own choices. It can feel overwhelming to know where to start. The big producers of plastic need to be held accountable by governments and the financial institutions that fund them. As consumers, we can also demand more and send a message with the businesses we support. Let’s reject what is being presented as normal, and choose something better.