4/16/23
With global warming getting worse and worse the world is finally beginning to take action on how to prevent it before it becomes irreversible. With companies making more water bottles made out of cardboard boxes and car manufacturers switching to electric vehicles, these steps are creating a better future. But even if people are willing to drink box water and drive electric vehicles on the road, climate change will still be a critical problem if other major issues that affect the climate do not change. One of the biggest problems is the usage of plastic utensils, cups and bottles, leading to drastic amounts of landfill waste.
The amount of plastic utensils the world uses is absurd. According to the Plastic Pollution Coalition, more than 561 billion individual plastic utensils are used by Americans every year. Plastic utensils greatly impact the environment, but it can be reduced in a couple of ways. For starters, every time you pick up some food from any restaurant and they ask “Do you need utensils with that?”, ask yourself, do you really need those utensils? Assuming that you are eating back at your home, there should be no reason why you are using plastic utensils. It does not make any sense to use plastic utensils or any sort of plastic cups when you are at home because you have perfectly beautiful metal and reusable utensils waiting in the kitchen. Yet, a person still uses plastic utensils at home because it’s “more convenient” and they are too lazy to wash their utensils. Obviously, plastic utensils would be ideal when you are eating at the park or somewhere other than your home, but that can still be easily fixed. Simply just bring your own reusable utensils, and do not say that’s absurd when elementary kids bring their own utensils to lunch everyday at school. If a little child can do it, so can you.
Furthermore, the entire human population can drastically improve the environment by reducing the usage of plastic bottles and cups. Plastic bottles are also one of the largest factors that impacts climate change, but again, it can be reduced. In fact, a company known as boxed water is already attempting to reduce climate change. With their box being 92% renewable, being 100% recyclable and reducing their carbon footprint by 36% is a big step in helping the environment. Now I am not saying that everyone has to drink from this company specifically, but if water companies were to focus on something similar like the boxed water company, climate change can drastically be reduced. Even with plastic utensils and water bottles being one of the biggest factors, there are still others to help the environment. Beach cleaning or reducing any sorts of plastic can truly help, and if you think that’s inconvenient for you, wait to watch how inconvenient it will be when the planet is on fire.