By Eileen Connors
Having a society based on disposable products is the single most environmentally abusive thing humans do. We are convenienc-ing ourselves out of a livable planet.
Disposable products spend more time being manufactured, packaged and transported than they do being used. This endless cycle of manufacturing to dispose requires processes that pollute and emit greenhouse gasses, and doesn’t follow the environmental hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle.
This destructive cycle produces waste problems and contributes to oil demand: The main ingredient in plastic is oil, including all the one-time use plastic people discard every day. We throw plastic soda and water bottles, plates and packaging into plastic garbage bags, increasing oil demand.
While today there is a lot of talk about reducing oil demand, no one is talking about the one way to immediately reduce it, which is to stop using disposable plastic, or disposables, period. If we used fewer garbage bags, we’d produce fewer.
Our disposable society basically got its start with the first fast food chain restaurant, and spiraled from there. We all have the ability to never use a disposable product again, starting right now.
So, be a good global citizen, and don’t do disposable.
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