Lenten Discipline: Plastic Utensils

How many times have you eaten at or gotten take-out from a restaurant and been handed a straw and a plastic-wrapped packet of plastic utensils?  Did you actually need them?

Plastic forks, knives, spoons and straws may be convenient, but they’re wreaking havoc on our environment, especially our oceans. In fact, six million tons of non-durable plastics are discarded every year and only 15% of it is recycled. The rest ends up in landfills, or worse, in our oceans, where it threatens over 700 marine species with dangers such as entanglement, pollution, and ingestion.  The unfortunate truth is that, even if many more of us recycled plastics, especially the non-durable kind, it would not be enough. In order to solve the non-durable plastic conundrum, a major reduction of our consumption needs to happen, and soon.  “By taking steps to minimize everyday plastics in our lives, we can crush plastic at the source and give marine life a fighting chance,” says Nil Zacharias, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of One Green Planet.

So what specifically can we do? Before heading out the door, we can grab a metal or other reusable knife, fork or spoon for our purse or briefcase. Some companies even make compact utensil sets and reusable straws to carry around. It’s that easy! By bringing our own utensils and/or straws, we can refuse the ubiquitous plastic ones. And if anyone questions why we have a fork in your bag, just tell them it’s to save the lives of millions of marine animals. Maybe they’ll even be inspired to do the same!

Adapted from: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/how-you-can-stop-single-use-plastic-waste/