Saying ‘No’ Saves a Lot
Look around you – how many of the things you do every day generate rubbish? Refusing is the best way to help is to prevent waste in the first place.
Saying “no” to plastic straws, takeaway cups, plastic bags and other unnecessary packaging is a powerful choice – you are pushing away waste being pushed on you, most of which is not recyclable.
By saying “no” to straws, plastic bags and excessive packaging, you are refusing to take on the responsibility of waste. You only want the product, not the silly packaging.
When a plastic bag blowing around on the beach ends up in the ocean, it often ends up killing the sea life. It’s easy to bring your own bag to the shops – you can even make your own tote bag with a cool old t-shirt!
It’s easy to say no to a plastic straw. Plastic straws are rarely recycled because they require special facilities. So they end up in landfills or the ocean where the straw breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces.
So many products we buy come in too much packaging. Look closely at how things are packaged and skip anything unnecessarily wrapped in plastic, such as shrink-wrapped veggies at the grocery store.
Did you know…
- Only 14% of the world’s plastic packaging is collected for recycling.
- Most of the plastic we use can’t be recycled at all.
- If we don’t change our habits, 30 years from now there will be more plastic by weight in the ocean than fish.
