More and more these days we are living in a throw away society because somewhere along the line as a society we decided it was easier to throw something out and buy a new one than use something over and over. There are some products that we use and throw out at least once a day and that can add up to a lot of garbage, not to mention the wasted energy that goes into production and manufacturing of these products. This is a list of things we use every day that can be re-used, replaced with something longer lasting, or as a last resort recycled.
· Disposable coffee cups are one of the biggest wastes of materials and money that we can buy, yet many of us purchase one or more of these a day and throw them out when we are done. Instead of throwing them out we could buy re-usable travel mugs for our morning coffee fix. A lot of coffee shops even take some money off the price of the coffee if you bring your own cup and refills are often very cheap. If you have more than one cup a day even just re-using your first paper cup could end up saving millions of trees over your life and tonnes of waste from entering the landfill. Styrofoam cups can take 50 years or more to decompose and they are not bio-degradable meaning even when they do finally decompose they are harmful to the planet.
· Tinfoil, plastic wrap, and Ziploc bags are all disposable items that can be reused if treated gently. Ziploc bags are simple to wash out and use again, but very few people actually do it. Tinfoil especially has a large impact on the environment because of the lengthy process of mining and manufacturing aluminum and should be kept and reused whenever possible, or not used at all. Finally plastic wrap can easily be replaced by using washable containers to store food. If you are using plastic wrap to cover dishes with food in them you will have to wash the dish anyways, so you aren’t actually saving any time or effort by using it.
· Non-rechargeable batteries are a form of hazardous and toxic waste and end up costing way more in the long run than the re-chargeable ones. These should be avoided and if used they need to be disposed of properly.
· Money is another disposable item that we don’t often think about because we don’t dispose of it. Once paper bank notes become worn out they are removed from circulation and destroyed so using debit cards as much as possible instead of carrying cash can save a lot of paper since bank notes become worn down much quicker than plastic cards.
· Plastic bottles and containers can be reused easily, but are usually tossed after the first use. Consider buying things like hand soap, shampoo, and lotion in bulk size and simply re-filling your old small bottles for convenience. Hand soap dispensers often come with larger refill bottles which save a lot of plastic and money if you buy them instead of a new dispenser every time.
· Fast food restaurants offer nothing reusable. This is just one of many reasons to avoid fast food and pack your own lunch.
· Old clothing can easily be reused to make new clothing, or dish rags, or funky home décor crafts, or just about anything you can think of that involves fabric and a little imagination. Even old socks can be tied together to make a new toy for the dog or cat to play with, since they probably chew on your socks anyways.
The whole point of disposable items is to get consumers into a cycle of buying more and more of the same product that could easily be reused or replaced with something that is reusable. Take disposable brooms and mops that claim to do a better job cleaning and are tossed out after every use for example. It doesn’t save you time or money to buy these products, yet they’re marketed as more convenient. Products that you have to constantly keep buying are only convenient for the companies producing them and are only contributing to a faster destruction of resources, clean water, clean air, and sustainable land use.
