In case you haven’t heard, humans have a bit of an issue with overusing plastic. From plastic bags to plastic straws, the world uses an estimated 260 million tons of plastic per year.
Some people have invested in reusable bags, and others in stainless steel straws, which is wonderful if you are able to.
I strongly disagree with people who say, “one person doing it is not going to make a difference.” It ALWAYS starts with one person willing to spark a change. While some stick to simply changing 1 or 2 things about their routine, others look for broader solutions to our plastic problem. Environmentalist and entrepreneur Lauren Singer, is one of the people who is willing to do more.
When Singer began her zero waste journey, she started by identifying all her beauty, hygiene, and foods products that were utilizing plastic and realized just how much plastic was being wasted. While it wasn’t easy to find things like shampoo in a non-plastic packaging, she looked for alternatives like like shampoo bars to lead an honest zero waste lifestyle.
She soon got the hang of it, and the photo below is an image of all the waste she accumulated in four years that isn’t recyclable. And yes. It all fit into that mason jar.
Her adorable and 100% waste free store called, Package Free Shop, is open in Brooklyn and provides an easy start for people who want make simple changes by utilizing less plastic to improve the environment. In an interview, Singer says “packaging is antiquated” and “investing in multi-use alternatives as opposed to single use packaging would help us eliminate a lot of waste.”
There are a few other stores like this and after digging deeper into this topic I’ve realized that a business model like this would highly improve the world’s plastic waste all while transforming the way in with we purchase hygiene products.