This week's challenge: Plastic awareness.

I was going to post about something else tonight but in the last few hours, I’ve gotten excessively antsy about plastic. You may have noticed that my blog lacks the usual abundant and frightening amount of statistics that comes with most environmentally-related information.
The usual tactic: scare and then encourage (change).
My approach is rather: awareness (which you do yourself) and then change. I’m not going to fill this post up with scary statistics about plastic and waste, I’ll limit myself to one fact okay, two facts, and a challenge. So here goes…

Plastic facts:
1. Plastic cannot be recycled, it can only be downcycled. [Want to know more about downcylcing? Click here.] So all the plastic that is produced will eventually end up in landfills.
2. Just like the tobacco and alcohol industry, the plastic industry has lawyers and individuals who lobby the government in order to ensure themselves a profitable future. [This to say that we can’t rely on the government to pass laws. We need to start changing our habits and asking governments to change these laws.]

This mid-week’s challenge:
Observe, or if you’re motivated enough keep a list, of all the plastic in your life. Look around your home, the grocery store (warning: that’s the scariest part), at work, at school, at restaurants and where ever else.

My own on-going exploration with awareness brought me to realize that the products I use in my bathroom need improvement…


I look forward to your comments, realizations and even pictures!