Plastics – Stop the Madness – Make Great Choices

Long time “No Plastics” advocates know that change doesn’t come easy. Much like changing habits within holistic health, change for the better of our environment takes paying attention. It involves a shift in mindset. Our environments play a large part in our holistic health. We must put attention on all environmental toxins and waste such as plastics and so much more. It is imperative that we pay attention to every single time we employ them.

In truth, writing on plastics decades after first learning to bring our own mugs to the coffee shop feels futile. But continually raising awareness is simply what we must do.

Spending a lot of time in the oceans and mountains, as the decades go by, we have unfortunately seen an intense rise in the appearance of plastics in our great outdoors. From surfing amongst plastic grocery bags in the waters of Southern California, to hiking trails and happening upon plastic silverware and water bottles left in the backcountry of Wyoming, it has become more and more common. Witnessing a party balloon while backcountry skiing and plastic at the bottom of a pristine lake in British Columbia, it seems plastics, single-use and otherwise, are literally everywhere. Over the past couple decades, the increase has been nothing but painfully obvious.

And this is only what we actually see with our own eyes.

We have all heard about plastic buildups the size of small countries in the vast waters of Mother Earth’s oceans, tormenting and killing wildlife, not to mention polluting our human bodies and brains.

As we travel spreading our passion for holistic health, our desire to better our environments for our families, teams and everyone we come in contact with, is exponential. Third world countries and first world countries alike, due to lack of education, seem to still have no idea what is happening. We witness triple-bagging those six-packs of bottled water in grocery stores from Oregon to the Virgin Islands. Let’s please stop this madness. Still experiencing this mindless offering of plastic bags is downright ignorant. We all know this. We have known we need to shift this thing for decades.

But even when we are mindful, the potential for using more plastics when we travel – especially of the single-use variety – goes sky high. 
Here is a brief list on how to Say No to Plastics & Stop the Madness. 

~ Avoid grocery items in hard plastic containers.

~ Avoid grocery items wrapped in soft plastics of any kind.

~ Bring your own grocery bag to the market.

~ Forgot your own grocery bag? Oops guess you should purchase another one.

~ Ask your local grocery to discontinue use of plastic bags. (This may take years as experienced in Jackson Hole, WY.)

~ Boycott grocery stores that ignore this request.

~ Call and write your government officials regarding plastic grocery bags. Start local. For example, the city of Los Angeles banned the plastic bag several years ago. If a major U.S. city can make it happen, your city or town can, too.

~ Look for food items in glass instead of plastic – often they are available. But it’s not the brand you love? Write the brand you love and ask them to end use of plastics.

~ Reuse those same glass jars and containers.

~ If you must buy hummus or yogurt in plastic, reuse plastic until it falls apart. (Yeah it probably won’t for a long long time.)

~ Support your local farmer’s market. Plastic-sightings? Pretty much never.

~ Travel with your own coffee mug that can double as a water bottle.

~ Travel with your own silverware so that you never have to use plastic to-go ware.

~ Own a coffee shop? Offer a monetary return for customers to bring back mugs versus offering to-go cups of any kind.

~ Avoid plastic straws all of the time.

~ Ask restaurants that automatically serve plastic straws to please ask customers first if they want straws. Even better, ask them to please stop offering plastic of any kind.

~ Avoid purchasing water in plastic bottles – your personal health and the environment’s depends on it.

~ Next time you lose your plastic water bottle, replace it with a bottle made with a more sustainable material. Drinking out of plastic is not good for us anyway.

Even for experienced environmental activists, it’s easy to get lazy. We all occasionally forget our grocery bags at home. No one is perfect. But paying attention and making an effort toward becoming more mindful is the only way.

We would not be here without this beautiful environment we have been gifted.

Let’s make great choices and stop the plastic madness.