Of the many important reasons why you should give up plastic straws, should wrinkles be one of them?

According to skin care expert, Renée Rouleau, if you want to avoid getting wrinkles around your mouth, you need to skip plastic straws (and other straws, too).

Evidently, the sipping action breaks down the skin’s collagen and elasticity. The result? Wrinkly “smoker’s lines” around your lips. Yuck.

Even without anti-aging mania, I’ve been on something of a personal rampage against plastic straws.

What a Waste!

One thing that bugs me about plastic straws is how wasteful they are. Whether I’m sitting in a four-star restaurant, a diner or a dive, my glass of water usually comes served with a straw. My martini doesn’t come with a straw. No one would think of handing me a straw with my beer. But water? Or soda? The server doesn’t even ask.

This boiled to a head for me a couple of weeks ago. I was in a snazzy new eatery in snazzy Bethesda, MD and ordered an appetizer and a drink. The server showed up with glasses of water that already had straws in them. I was annoyed. I guess I should have immediately said “No straw, please,” when I ordered, but I forgot.

So there it sat in my glass, a stupid plastic straw.

Shortly thereafter, the owner of the restaurant dropped by my table to say hello and ask how we liked his place.

Before anyone could say anything, I said, “So far, not so good. Why are you serving drinking straws? Do you know what chemicals are in plastic? And that it’s going to take 10,000 years for this one straw to break down? And how much micro-pollution is in the ocean? And…and…”

Yes, I was ranting. But I made my point that the menu brags about how sustainable the food is, but if he really wanted to run an environmentally responsible establishment, he needed to stop automatically handing out straws.

On the spot, he promised to do so.

I sure wish it was that easy to eradicate straws globally. Ecocycle reports that 500 million straws are used in the U.S. daily.

That’s enough to fill over 127 school buses each day, more than 46,400 buses every year. If we don’t stop using plastic straws, Ecocycle projects that every American will use approximately 38,000 or more straws between the ages of 5 and 65.

Mind boggling!

Even when you think a straw is being thrown “away,” there are good chances the straw will end up as roadside litter or disintegrate into tiny pieces called microplastic.

This microplastic eventuallys find its way into our rivers, lakes, seas and bodies.

In fact, microplastic pollution is becoming one of the most insidious forms of ocean contamination we’re trying to eradicate.

Don’t Miss: Fish Don’t Want to Eat Your Plastic Microbeads Facewash 

Plastic straws harm wildlife, too. Look at this video of a poor sea turtle with a straw stuck up its nose. Terrible!

Manufacturing plastic also pollutes the air. Notes plastic-free activist Beth Terry, most plastic is made from fossil fuels like oil and natural gas.

The toxic emissions from using these fuels can include benzene, toluene, xylene, carbon monoxide, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds that “affect the health of everyone within breathing distance.”

How to Avoid Plastic Straws in Restaurants and When You Buy Fast Food

Plastic straws are useless to me and to most people. I never use straws at home, so avoiding them when I’m out is the key for me to stop using them completely. How?

⇒Tell servers in restaurants to skip the straw as soon as they offer to bring your water.

⇒Make it a habit to encourage any restaurant you patronize to ask their customers if they want a straw before automatically bringing one.

⇒The same goes for fast food. When you get a shake or soda to go, order without the straw.

If You Want a Straw, or Need One For Your Child, What Plastic-Free Options Do You Have?

If you have kids who will spill their drinks unless they use straws, you still have a couple of options.

One, take your own stainless steel straws for them to use (see below).

Two, take sippy cups with you to a restaurant and ask their drinks to be served in your cups.

Here are some eco-friendly alternatives to plastic straws.

The best is a reusable straw. You can get them in glass, stainless steel, and even bamboo. I’m partial to stainless steel.

Stainless Steel Drinking Straws – These straws fit in a tall glass or in a reusable tumbler. They won’t break, and they come with thin bristle brushes so it’s easy to keep them clean.

Stainless Steel Smoothie Straws – These are wider straws for smoothies and shakes.

Stainless Steel Sippy Cups – These cups come with or without their own straws.

LifeWithoutPlastic.com sells straws made from bamboo, glass, and stainless steel that come with their own convenient carrying cases so you can keep them in your purse, backpack, or brief case without worrying they’ll break.

Pledge to Stop Using Throwaway Plastic Straws

It’s probably too late for me to worry about wrinkles, but at least I can take the No Straw Please Pledge organized by the Plastic Pollution Coalition and the Last Plastic Straw campaign. You can join me here.

NOTE: This article originally appeared at MomsCleanAirForce.org, a terrific activist organization one million moms strong. Please check them out!

The post Why I Ditched Plastic Straws and You Should Too! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

But let’s back up a minute, to the original question. How much money do you waste buying plastic every year? I’ve written about why using less plastic matters here. In short, the stuff is made from oil and other toxic chemicals, can make us sick if we’re repeatedly exposed to those chemicals, and wreaks havoc on wildlife and the environment.

If you’ve given up buying bottled water, use your own reusable cloth shopping bag and maybe grow some (or most) of your own food, your automatic response might be: “Almost none. I don’t buy plastic.”

But chances are, you’re still subsidizing the use of a fair amount of plastic, since almost everything anyone buys these days comes either shrink-wrapped, padded in plastic balls or peanuts (yes, polystyrene is a form of plastic), encased in a plastic package of some sort, or wrapped in paper that’s been coated with a plastic film so thin you don’t even notice it.

One area where I’ve become particularly aware of how much plastic I consume is in the bathroom. Even though I don’t use a lot of cosmetics and follow a mostly “natural” hygiene regimen, now that I’m paying attention, I’m appalled at how many of my personal care products come packaged in plastic. I’ve switched to bar soap that’s sold either wrapper free or wrapped in paper, my face cream comes in glass jars, and my hand salve comes in metal tins. I use wash cloths instead of disposable wipes to remove dirt and make-up, and a crystal for deodorant. But my shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, toothpaste, sunscreen, and mouthwash? They’re all packaged in plastic. Ditto for the blush, mascara and lip gloss I apply.

The kicker is, I’m not buying a lot of conventional products. What I buy is always free of parabens, phthalates, synthetic fragrances, and triclosan, as well as many other questionnable chemicals I’d rather not put on my body or wash down the drain. Because most of these items come in jars and tubes made from recycled plastic, I used to think that was good enough, since I can easily recycle them in my city’s curbside recycling program.

Beth, whose expertise I admire enormously, has done the research, and she says that, in most cases, the best plastic is no plastic at all, recycled or not. I recommend you read her book yourself to understand why. Let me just say that I’ve been so persuaded by her reporting that I’ve decided to embark on an effort to try many of the plastic-free alternatives she suggests, including several of her make-it-yourself recipes.  (Come back soon to see how her home-made shampoo and conditioner recipes did on my hair.)

At Big Green Purse, we recommend shifting your spending to the safest, greenest products available as the fastest, easiest way to protect yourself and your family while giving manufacturers real marketplace incentives to do better, too. (Read this post about how Beth shifted more than $1,000 to all kinds of great green goods as part of our One in a Million campaign!).

How big an impact can you have, if you just focused on beauty products? According to the YWCA report “Beauty at Any Cost,” five years’ worth of beauty products costs about $6,423 on average. One full year of college tuition and fees at a public in-state college is $6,185! Neither I nor Beth are recommending you stop using any of these products at all. But if you spend over $1,000 a year on personal care products, think of the impact you can have by shifting your spending to products packaged in glass or paper, or by making your own rather than buying so much. Whether you shift a dime or a dollar, you can make a difference.

I hope you’ll read this book, and not just because of what you do in your bathroom. Beth examined her entire lifestyle to figure out where she was using plastic and how she could cut back. The results are incredibly inspiring. “In the years since my plastic awakening,” she writes, “ I’ve gone from personally generating almost four pounds of plastic waste per month to a little over two pounds per year (the average American generates between 88 and 120 pounds per year), and I am continuing the downward trend. While I’ve learned many facts about plastic—how it’s made, which types leach toxic chemicals into our food, why plastic recycling is actually “down- cycling,” and the many ways in which it’s both helpful and harmful—the biggest lessons have been personal rather than factual.”

She acknowledges that “It’s nearly impossible to eliminate plastic from our lives entirely. And, unlike me, you may not even want to try. That’s OK. This isn’t a competition, and I don’t hold myself up as an ideal.”

Here’s what I especially like about Beth’s philosophy:  “The goal is to be aware and responsible,” she says without the least bit of preachiness. “You might find yourself saying, “I know this is plastic and bad for the environment (and for my health), but I really need it or want it right now.” You think about the consequences, weigh your options, and make a decision. Other times, you may say to yourself, “It might be nice to have this, but it just isn’t worth the pollution and health risks. I can do without it.” Perhaps you will set a goal—to reduce your plastic consumption by a certain percentage or keep it under a certain amount per month. Or you might define what constitutes an emergency situation for you, and save plastic for those times. Whatever you do, it will be your choice.” What a great attitude!

JUST FOR FUN!

In addition to all the great background information and straightforward action checklists, Beth provides some surprising insights into the ways she’s had fun going plastic-free. I love her suggestion for a “make your own” iPod cover:

“What do you do when your iPod cover cracks and you need a new one and all you can find to buy are covers made out of plastic or handmade covers from Etsy that just don’t fit your lifestyle and the way you want to use your device? This might seem like a silly concern when the mp3 player itself is made from plastic, but my plastic-free life is not about deprivation but finding creative ways to enjoy the possessions I already have without buying new plastic.

“So one night, when I was supposed to be working on a million other things, I entertained myself by devising my perfect knitted iPod cover, complete with holes for the power cord and headphone jack and openings for viewing the screen and accessing the click wheel. I felt pretty tickled with myself, and even more so a year later when the foam pads on a couple pairs of headphones wore out and I taught myself to crochet in order to make some plastic-free replacements out of wool. I feel a real connection to and appreciation for items I’ve spent hours making myself. I also feel much more motivated to take care of them properly. Whenever I need something new, I check Google first to see if someone has come up with a handmade version or instructions for doing it myself. I’m not always willing to take the time, but when I do, it’s always worth it.”

BUY NOW!

Beth is selling signed copies of her book through her blog to benefit the Plastic Pollution Coalition. Plus, any copies Beth sends out or that are purchased via BuyGreen.com are guaranteed to ship without plastic packaging. Get a copy for yourself, for your friends, and for community leaders who think there’s no way to live without plastic. Beth’s book proves them wrong from the very first page to the last.

The post Want a Plastic-Free Life? Buy This Book ASAP! appeared first on Big Green Purse.

Not so. Just ask Beth Terry, an almost plastic-free diva who made headlines with her blog FakePlasticFish.com last year when she forced the mega-company Brita to agree to recycle its plastic water filters. Beth continues to amaze anyone who drops by her blog with her tactics for eliminating new plastic from her life – even when it means giving up her favorite cheese. Read my interview with Beth, and be inspired!

Where did the idea of Fake Plastic Fish come from? “The name of the blog was inspired by the Radiohead song, “Fake Plastic Trees,” actually. It’s a melancholic song that matched my feeling of deep sadness on first seeing a photo of a dead albatross chick filled with plastic. I substituted “fish” for “trees” to suggest that if we don’t figure out solutions to our plastic pollution problems, fake plastic fish may be the only kind we have left in our oceans.”

Is plastic really so much worse than other “no-no’s” we have to deal with, like synthetic fibers, conventionally grown food, Hummers? “Not worse. But plastic is unique in that it encompasses so many of the environmental problems we have to deal with:

resource depletion (made from fossil fuels);
waste (will not biodegrade & really only downcyclable);
litter (nearly all litter on our beaches is plastic);
harm to wildlife (starving albatross chicks with bellies full of plastic, sea turtles choking on plastic bags, fish swallowing toxic nurdles);
air pollution (toxic fumes from PVC factories & dioxin released when buildings burn);
toxicity issues (leaching chemicals such as BPA, phthalates, styrene, antimony, etc. as well as bioaccumulation in the marine environment that makes its way up the food chain.)

“Because plastic is so fraught, it’s a good place to start, no matter what your main environmental interest, from toy and foodware safety to climate change concerns to wildlife protection. And as individuals start limiting the amount of plastic in their lives, other steps often follow. For example, once I was in the habit of bringing my own bags, bottles, and containers to avoid disposable plastic packaging, it was easy to add a cloth napkin to save paper. These steps go together.

“My definition of plastic, by the way, includes synthetic fibers. If a jacket can be made out of recycled water bottles, it’s plastic!”

What’s the most effective way to encourage people to use less plastic? “Education is key. Through Fake Plastic Fish as well as Green Sangha’s Rethinking Plastics presentations, I hope to give people the opportunity to have the same kind of “Aha!” moment I did the first time I read about the devastating effects of plastics on birds, fish, and other wildlife out in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and realized that my own actions had repercussions thousands of miles away.

“Once folks have the desire to change, we should ask them to start wherever they are. Drastic changes usually lead to burnout and failure. In interviewing other plastic-free bloggers for Fake Plastic Fish, I’ve learned that what motivates each of us to act is very personal. A mom concerned about child safety might start by replacing plastic foodware with glass or stainless steel. Another person frustrated by waste and litter might begin by eliminating plastic bags and bottles and opting for reusables as much as possible. Someone concerned about climate change may want to find alternatives to products made from fossil fuels and may be interested to learn that wasting has a direct connection to greenhouse gas emissions.”

What makes choosing alternatives so difficult? “Plastic is cheap. Just look at all the cheap plastic crap we import every year. And plastic is convenient. Disposable plastic packaging and containers make our fast-paced lifestyle possible. Until our values shift as a society away from rampant consumerism and things that are quick and disposable, manufacturers will have no reason to stop producing plastic products and shipping them in plastic packaging.

“Our government ultimately will need to get involved to make some of these changes happen, like bans and taxes on disposable bags, for example. But let’s also remember that we are the government. First, we need to change our own behavior and then let both our elected officials and the companies that produce the products we rely on know what we want. (DM Note: One alternative to plastic bags: mesh produce bags like those pictured here).

“I love that Big Green Purse is a terrific resource, providing government and company contact information to those who want to take the next step and speak out.

Thanks for the nod to Big Green Purse! What product or service has been hardest to give up because you want to avoid plastic? What’s been surprisingly easy? These are the same questions I ask other plastic-free bloggers in my Voices of the Plastic-Free Blogosphere series! I’d say the very easiest change of all was switching from liquid soap to bar soap. Simple simple. My local Whole Foods Market has a huge selection of bar soaps that come wrapped in only a tiny bit of cardboard.

“The hardest thing for me personally has been cheese. I could go to the cheese shop or deli and ask for cheese to be sliced and put into my own container. But the large blocks and wheels of cheese are either already wrapped in plastic to begin with or must be wrapped in plastic as soon as they are cut. So I just skip it. I did make homemade paneer today. And I can buy fresh mozzarella in bulk. But it’s just not the same as sharp, aged cheddar or gruyere. Not the same at all.

“Another ongoing snag is plastic-free cat litter. The one brand that’s both biodegradable and plastic-free (SwheatScoop) is a complete turnoff to my cats, who would rather use the floor. *Sigh*”

Does it cost more money to live plastic-free? “First, let me clarify that my life is not entirely plastic-free. My main goal is to stop buying any new plastic.

“To answer your question, some things cost more, but overall, I’ve saved a lot of money. I buy fewer new things in general and find ways to borrow, repair what I have, or obtain secondhand through Freecycle, Craigslist, or thrift shops. We got our kitties’ plastic litter boxes and carrier boxes that way. And when my computer monitor died and couldn’t be repaired, I found a used one through Craigslist that cost much less.

“Avoiding new plastic means jumping off of the hamster wheel of consumerism: compulsively needing the newest gadget, having to own every CD or DVD, engaging in mindless sport shopping and retail therapy.

“I may spend more for fresh plastic-free bread from the bakery or fresh chicken in my own container at the butcher shop, but think about how much I’m saving on things like bottled water by filling my own Klean Kanteen with tap water or on sparkling water by using my soda maker instead.”

You had a big victory with the Brita filters campaign (please explain). Who or what is your next target? “Take Back The Filter collected over 16,000 signatures and over 600 used Brita water filter cartridges to demonstrate to Clorox (owner of Brita in North America) that consumers who opt for filtered tap water instead of bottled water want a way to recycle the filter cartridges. We were thrilled when Clorox announced its partnership with Preserve and Whole Foods to take back and recycle the pitcher filters.

“But Brita pitcher filters, while the #1 filter method in North America, are still only a fraction of the market. We’d like to see other water filter companies follow Clorox’s lead. And we’d like Clorox to continue to research a way to recycle its faucet-type filters.

“I don’t currently have any other company to target. These days, I’m more interested in motivating others to speak out for the things they want. I was thrilled when one of my readers contacted me about recycling plastic gift cards, and as a result of our brief conversation, was able to convince her local drugstore to begin a collection/recycling program.”

You said you are learning to sing! Are you learning punk rock, American ballads, or opera? I love La Boheme! “When I was in Junior High, I dreamed of being Pat Benatar. (That gives away my age, huh?) Rent is about as close as I get to La Boheme! I performed a couple of fierce Evanescence songs during my last karaoke night, if I do say so myself. But that could just be the plastic-free martinis talking.”

Want to know more? Check back with Beth and FakePlasticFish.com Monday, April 6. Beth is hosting the Green Moms Carnival. Topic? Plastic, of course.

The post FakePlasticFish.com Shows It Really Is Possible to Live Almost Plastic-Free appeared first on Big Green Purse.