People Don't Always see Eye to Eye

Being in college, I have always had to live with roommates.  It can be much cheaper, and it's always nice to live with your friends and have the company.  It is a lot harder to find one bedroom apartments lower than $600 or so. 

With that, I find it really hard to try and live the way I want to live.  I want to be completely environmentally friendly, well as much as I can be.  But, not having people that live with you feel the same way, makes it really hard to do.  I just try the best that I can think of.  If I see biodegradable trash bags, I will buy those voluntarily.

One think that I insist on doing is having recycling bins in our apartment.  I tell my roommates that I want to set them out and that I will always take them to the bins on campus, as long as you put the stuff in there. 

This year, I actually bought bins to put out! 

Yay! :)

Forgetfullness...

I have two cloth bags that I like to take when I go to the grocery store.

I try to keep them in my car at all times, but you know, after you come home and unload all your groceries for some reason I don't want to just take the few steps out to my car to put them in there.  I end up putting them in my room somewhere.  In doing so, I forget WAY too many times to bring them with me when I go to the store.

I also don't think about bringing them to any other store but the grocery store.  Shouldn't I be bringing them in every single store with me? Such as when I go clothes shopping? or even just to Walgreens to pick up something? Yes, I think so!

So, yesterday, when I went to Walmart, it didn't hit me until mid-shopping that I had forgot to bring my cloth bags! I was so distraught, I ended up just buying another one to use haha.

I am going to try an make it a point to REMEMBER to always keep them in my car and use them.

It starts with changing your habits!

Fast food and plastic go hand-in-hand

Basic Fact:
Single Use plastics and Disposable plastics are the main source of plastic pollution
Consumption of single use and disposable plastics has spiraled out of control.  They are used for seconds, hours, or days, but their remains will last hundreds of years.
(plasticpollutioncoalition)


 This fact I think about ALL the time.  I work in fast food.  More specifically, I work at Taco Bell.  My new found awareness for our "plastic" world, makes me cringe whenever I am working.  Plastic bags are the number one necessity used in the store, besides food, of course.  I work on a drive-thru a lot and what is the number one thing we use? Plastic bags! Sometimes a customer might get three of them in one order! Not only do we use plastic bags though, we also give out plastic sporks and knives.  Even the sauce packets come in plastic packaging.   Not only are the sporks and knives plastic, but they come in plastic packaging as well! UGH the list is ENDLESS!   Not to mention plastic lids for the cups, in which every time I accidentally drop one and have to throw it away...a little part of me dies inside.   


It is tough because it is my job, and there is really not much I can do, unless I want to get fired.  I can't just be handing tacos out to people one by one, but the only thing that made me happy was the fact that the kids meal bags were changed to paper.  Someone had a great idea doing that. 


So, my thought was, why don't I right to Taco Bell? To give them a piece of my mind about this plastic overindulgence.  I go the to Taco Bell website and I can't say anything to the company unless it is food related from a specific Taco Bell store.  I can talk to a representative, but I know that would never get me anywhere.  So then I thought, well maybe I need to go higher up, to Yum Brands.  I encounter this http://www.yum.com/responsibility/environment.asp  Really? Your not being responsible with your plastic usage obviously.  But there is no contact information at all!! Interesting...

I'm going to keep looking and hopefully, I can find a contact to write to.

Peace and Love

Mistake

Basic Fact:
Plastic is forever
Plastic is a material that the Earth cannot digest. Every bit of plastic that has ever been created still exists, except the small amount that has been incinerated, and has become toxic air and particulate pollution. (plasticpollutioncoalition)

Plastic is FOREVER! It doesn't just go away ever.  And where it goes away? Do you ever wonder were it goes? It's easy to not think about it because it is not right in front of you.  But really plastic pollution is in everything.  Each day I will try to share a little fact at the beginning of my blog.

Yesterday, I decided I wanted to go to Dairy Queen to get a quick snack.  My favorite thing there is the mint oreo blizzard and I always get extra oreos in it.  But I was going through drive-thru and remembered that the blizzards are always handed out with a plastic spoons.  In my efforts to reduce my plastic, I told the woman at the drive-thru that I did not need a spoon.  She looked at me like I was crazy, as if she were thinking, how can she eat her ice-cream with her spoon??  I explained to her that I was just going home anyways. Then she asked, well would you like a lid for it then?  Without thinking, I said yes and then instantly regretted it because I knew the lid would be plastic! In the end it was plastic, but when I got home, I just put it in the recycling bin.   See how much you have to be aware?  

It's never too late...

I am hoping by starting this blog that I can help myself become better at reducing plastic in my life and maybe inspire others to do so.

I like to say that it is never too late to change your lifestyle.  

This group has really helped me find ways to start reducing use of plastic!
http://plasticpollutioncoalition.org/

Please check it out! Take the pledge!  This is your starting point and mine.