Plastic Free Challenge - Day 17
Today's challenge is to "bring your own reusable cutlery set with you". Cutlery is also known as utensils - in this case we are talking about forks, knives, spoons, chopsticks (or anything you use to eat with that would be given out as single-use plastic).
It is estimated that close to 40 billion individual plastic utensils/cutlery items are produced each year, and with such low rates of reuse and recycling, most of them end up in our landfills, beaches and oceans. They are likely to remain there for hundreds of thousands of years. Among the items most often found in the sea and in landfills around the world are plastic utensils/cutlery. These astounding figures give businesses an easy opportunity to show their customers they authentically care about the environment by doing away with these unnecessary pollutants and replacing them with environmentally friendly utensils.
However it also puts the onus on us to refuse these items, and bring our own reusable cutlery with us. Small daily actions done consistently add up over time and your enthusiasm for making a difference is contagious. Others will start to question their own actions and will begin to make changes as well. You can show your support to those who have made the switch, for example Juice Co offers compostable cutlery made from plants.
Every time you buy most takeout foods, or get an in-store sample of yogurt or soft ice cream, plastic utensils are provided. Spoons used to taste products in supermarkets are immediately discarded. They are given to customers freely at restaurants, fast food stands and food trucks - and are usually stacked in bins at the condiment counter for customers to take as many as they want. Plastic spoons are often used to measure teaspoons of sugar and then to stir tea or coffee and then they are immediately tossed into the trash.
So take a moment today to go out and get a reusable cutlery set and take it with you in your bag, or leave it at your workplace, and remember to take it with you when you travel so you never end up in a situation where you have to do without because you didn't want to use the single-use plastic cutlery.
I love this idea from Marc Gagnon (photo shared via Twitter), he went out to a thrift shop and bought a fork for 25 cents and he always has it on hand. Daniel Cousins also went to a thrift shop and bought a fork, spoon and knife and then he made a little cloth carry bag so that he could take the cutlery with him everywhere he went.
It is estimated that close to 40 billion individual plastic utensils/cutlery items are produced each year, and with such low rates of reuse and recycling, most of them end up in our landfills, beaches and oceans. They are likely to remain there for hundreds of thousands of years. Among the items most often found in the sea and in landfills around the world are plastic utensils/cutlery. These astounding figures give businesses an easy opportunity to show their customers they authentically care about the environment by doing away with these unnecessary pollutants and replacing them with environmentally friendly utensils.
However it also puts the onus on us to refuse these items, and bring our own reusable cutlery with us. Small daily actions done consistently add up over time and your enthusiasm for making a difference is contagious. Others will start to question their own actions and will begin to make changes as well. You can show your support to those who have made the switch, for example Juice Co offers compostable cutlery made from plants.
Every time you buy most takeout foods, or get an in-store sample of yogurt or soft ice cream, plastic utensils are provided. Spoons used to taste products in supermarkets are immediately discarded. They are given to customers freely at restaurants, fast food stands and food trucks - and are usually stacked in bins at the condiment counter for customers to take as many as they want. Plastic spoons are often used to measure teaspoons of sugar and then to stir tea or coffee and then they are immediately tossed into the trash.
So take a moment today to go out and get a reusable cutlery set and take it with you in your bag, or leave it at your workplace, and remember to take it with you when you travel so you never end up in a situation where you have to do without because you didn't want to use the single-use plastic cutlery.
I love this idea from Marc Gagnon (photo shared via Twitter), he went out to a thrift shop and bought a fork for 25 cents and he always has it on hand. Daniel Cousins also went to a thrift shop and bought a fork, spoon and knife and then he made a little cloth carry bag so that he could take the cutlery with him everywhere he went.
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