Plastic Pollution: On and Beyond Recycling
Warbler’s Wisdom, a weekly column by Jocelyn Hartley, our Creation and Justice Fellow from Disciples Home Mission and Green Chalice
Call to mind your morning routine. Maybe you get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, have breakfast, take the dog for a walk, take a shower, and stop by a coffee shop before finally ending up at work. Now call to mind all the items involved in your morning routine–the clothes you get into, your toothbrush and toothpaste, dog leash and dog bag, milk jug, shampoo and conditioner bottles, etc. If you’re like me, you can think of at least one plastic item associated with every step of your routine. That’s a lot of plastic!
So, what’s the big deal with all this plastic? First of all, plastic never truly biodegrades. So, pretty much every piece of plastic ever made will stay on the earth forever. Though it may be out of our sight when the trash or recycling truck comes, it’s never really gone. Second, instead of biodegrading, plastic wears down over time into teeny-tiny particles called micro- and nanoplastics. These teeny-tiny plastic particles have permeated every part of our environment, and thus every part of our lives: our food, the dust in our house, and, terrifyingly, even our bodies. Here’s a study that found microplastics in every human placenta the study tested.
That’s enough scary stuff for now. What can we do to slow the build-up of plastic in our earth and in our bodies? The answer is in a simple slogan you’ve almost certainly heard: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Though you’ve heard this phrase before, you may not have realized that these actions are ranked in terms of effectiveness. Reducing and reusing plastic are the most effective methods to combat plastic pollution. Recycling is what you do when you can’t find a way to reduce or reuse.
Some of us reading this will be expert recyclers, and others of us may not even know there are types of plastic that can’t be recycled. All of us have room to reduce our plastic use. The tips below are intended to help you take the next step towards plastic reduction no matter where you are on the spectrum of plastic use. If you never think about plastic, start with learning about how to recycle (there is indeed a “right” way and a “wrong” way). If you recycle everything you can, try some of the suggestions for reusing and reducing plastic. If all of these suggestions are already a part of your life, woohoo! Please share any plastic-fighting hacks you’ve discovered with the rest of us!
Recycling in Tucson: What Goes Where
Inside your city-provided blue recycling bin:
Plastics labelled 1, 2, & 5 (leave caps and labels ON)
Aluminum and tin cans
Non-waxed cardboard and non-laminated paper
NOTE: Do not recycle food-contaminated or dirty plastic!! Most food containers can be recycled after a light rinse, but if it’s really dirty, throw it out!
Follow the motto, “When in doubt, throw it out.” Better to throw a questionable item away than risk contaminating a whole batch of recycling. When a batch has too much contamination, everything in it goes to the landfill!
Inside purple bins at one of many drop off locations
Glass
Inside an orange Hefty-Renew bag (available at some Walmarts) and into an orange bin at a neighborhood recycling center (view recycling location map here):
Bubble wrap
Styrofoam
Plastic bags
Many more items listed here!
The City of Tucson also has cool programs to help you dispose of certain non-recyclable items, including food and clothing, responsibly. Learn more here!
Tips for Reusing and Reducing Plastic:
Use a reusable stainless steel water bottle
Say no to plastic straws
Use reusable grocery bags–keep one in your car at all times so you don’t forget them at home!
Use a reusable produce bag instead of the plastic ones at the grocery store
Pack and store food in reusable glass containers rather than Ziploc bags
Keep a set of reusable cutlery in your car so you don’t need plastic cutlery
Try to avoid buying individually wrapped items. Maybe replace a plastic-wrapped snack bar with your favorite snack nut from a bulk container.
Try buying bulk food items. Ask your grocery store staff if you can put bulk items in your own reusable containers.
I hope you’ve found something here you’re excited to try. Remember, when it comes to sustainable living, it’s not about being perfect. Our society is not structured in a way that allows us to be perfectly sustainable. What it’s about is committing to the next small step, to your values, and to showing the world there’s a better way.