When people go to convenient stores they take plastic bags by habit. They don\’t stop to think about them or anything, and this is normal. If we would stop and think about every action we do during the day, we\’d lose so much time. However, there are cotton bags, which are both eco friendly, reusable, and nice looking. You can buy them at a reasonable price, and take them with you whenever you go shopping.

When and if you want to get rid of plastic in your life, you\’ll also need to change some of your life style. People who eat organic food had to make huge changes, which start paying off immediately. For instance, if you buy organic food, avoid it if it\’s packed in plastic. For instance, don\’t buy organic mayonnaise in plastic bottles, it kind of defeats the purpose. Find a recipe for home made mayo, and start making your own, which you\’ll keep in glass bottles.

Until a while a go, you could advertize whatever you wanted, whether it was good for people or not. Well, okay, you couldn\’t advertize drugs per se, but tobacco industry had strong marketing experts, and tobacco isn\’t illegal anywhere in the world, although everyone knows how bad its effects are on both smokers and non smokers. Packaging is the only thing that is left to tobacco producers that can make it popular. Tobacco packs usually look fancy, and they are, believe it or not, part of smokers\’ clothing. This isn\’t true for a single country, but for the trade all around the world.

Plastic food containers are excellent for storing food. They come in all shapes and sizes, and they retain heat, and have a high tolerance for it. However, they are not healthy to use. When you use a glass bottle again and again, its condition does not change, but this is not true for plastic. It retains smells and little pieces of food, and even though the containers are cheap and practical, they should be avoided almost at all costs. There are padded cases which can easily hold glass bottles and jars for food, so you don\’t have to carry a plastic container to school or work.

There are many alternatives to plastic, and if you don\’t know why you should kick plastic out of your life, think about this information. The world uses from 500 billion to one trillion of plastic bags per year. Out of this, only a really insignificant amount is recycled. One plastic bag has a life span of 1000 years. Most of them end up out of dumps, literally killing animals and plants. Next time someone offers you a plastic bag, say no.

Daniel is a research scientist and engineer with a NGO in Sweden. His research is targeted at making Plastic Container environmentally friendly.

Alternatives To Plastic is a post from: Finance Marketing Business