Why you should be eco-friendly about the small things

And so my friends, this is a picture of a toothbrush. But not just any tooth brush, because you know I wouldn’t do that.  This one serves as a symbol of our planet earth. It’s a reminder that we really, really, Really need to get our Sh*t together.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you would have noticed the increasing number of places on earth that are piling used pieces of plastic where they shouldn’t be. You’d be heartless to see that cute little seahorse with a Q tip or the turtle with the straw coming out of his nose, and not react. It sucks seeing these beautiful creatures having to deal with our crap.  The current rate of plastic consumption on this planet is getting out of hand.

According to this really cool and informative graph, the average person uses 350-500 plastic bags a year. Admittedly, I notice this simply by opening the draw in my kitchen, to find the hundreds of plastic bags stocked up from Wollies and Coles (in my defence, I have flatmates, so there not ALL mine).

I’ve written about plastic consumption a couple times, once for an article for Sporteluxe on why designers are “hitting the bottle”, another in an interview for the lovely crew over at Ethical Swim. I’ve even done a few uni pieces on it.  Sadly enough, we use enough plastic to circle the earth 4 times each year.  In Australia, something as simple as disregarding our used toothbrushes (and there are apparently 30 million of them) amounts to a whopping 4kgs of plastic per person, per lifetime. That’s a heavy load of plastic for you, and me, and everyone else on earth.

Truth is, I love the ocean, and our beaches, and chances are if you’re reading this, so do you.  Although I’m far from being the girl who could fit an entire year’s worth of waste in a glass jar – Kudos to you, chick, cause that is freaking amazing – I do feel we all play a small part in a very large, and very important, scale of earthly waste. 

When it comes to saving our planet, I’m fully aware that we can’t all individually take the “Go Big or Go Home”apporach, as per glass jar chick mentioned above. There are so many amazing, simple ways out there to contribute to the wellbeing of our planet, simply by making it local:  Grab your keep-cup for coffees (I use this one from JOCO everyday and don’t leave home without it), take three for the sea, say no to single use plastic, subscribe to sustainable toilet paper or toothbrushes. By using small items that are plastic free and biodegradable, you’re that tiny bit closer to cleaning up the only home we all have.  Baby steps. I’m not asking you to save the world, just to go to the toilet, brush your teeth and drink your coffee in a more sustainable way. 

That’s why I love businesses like SaSa Collective, helping us in a very simple, thoughtful way to make better choices (Plus their toothbrushes look way cooler then those plastic colgate ones). 100% biodegradable, Sustainably sourced, Carbon treated, Vegan friendly and BPA free. You can check out their site to learn lots of cool stuff about our envrionment and the way their subscription works to reduce carbon waste. 

It doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re from, or what your hobbies and life goals are: plastic sucks, guys, for all of us. Join the cool kids and start making those baby step changes.