Choose to Refuse Single-use Plastics • askHRgreen.org

Our lives tend to revolve around plastic these days. Our morning cup of joe comes equipped with a plastic lid and stopper. We eat our take-out from plastic containers with disposable utensils. We even use plastic bags to carry our plastic tubs of yogurt, butter, tomatoes, and detergent bottles home from the grocery store. Single-use plastics are the plastic items we encounter every day that are meant to be used just once before being thrown away. That includes plastic grocery bags, straws, coffee stirrers, most food packaging, Styrofoam, and much, much more.

Our “throwaway” culture is tough on the planet because plastics don’t really ever go away. Almost all plastic products today are made from fossil fuels and they don’t decompose like paper or other natural fibers. Instead, they take hundreds to thousands of years to break down. Some plastics can be recycled, but there are limits on what can be accepted here in Hampton Roads, and many single-use plastics like Styrofoam and straws can’t be recycled at all.

[growNglow]

I have just made a video about plastic cup use in gardening.