15 Ways to Detox Plastic from Your Life
In this day and age, we’re surrounded by plastic. It’s nearly impossible to live without it; our food and other consumables are packed in plastic, many products are made of plastic, we use plastic cups, cutlery and plates for “convenience.” While many food products tout themselves as organic, they still have plastic packaging. Some plastic is obvious, other plastic is disguised; for example, we have micro-plastics in our personal care products, like exfoliating scrubs or tooth paste, which end up in the rivers and oceans, as sewage treatment facilities are not designed to filter micro-plastic beads.
Why should we start to de-plasticize our lives? Plastic lasts nearly forever and only a tiny little part gets recycled. Animals and sea life get entangled in plastic bags. Its additives mimic hormones like phthalates and BPA, both of which are well-known to cause serious health problems, like infertility, cancer and brain damage.
It is time to take action and decrease our plastic consumption. Even the small things count! Ready to decrease your plastic footprint? Here are 15 ways you can reduce your daily use of plastic:
Shopping? Plan ahead.
Take reusable bags to the supermarket and other shops (I always have some bags in the car) or use cardboard boxes for your shopping. Forget your bags? Think twice about using the store’s one-use plastic bags. Opt for paper instead, and be sure to recycle it.
Cookware & Housekeeping
Use wooden spoons and other kitchen gadgets. Clean your home with wooden brushes.
Skip the Straw
Take you coffee mug with you to the coffee shop, and do not use straws.
Watering Plants
A metal watering is so much more attractive and decorative than the ones made of plastic.
Eat with Your Hands!
Prepare your party with finger food and say no to plastic plates, cutlery and cups. If you need cutlery, buy wooden cutlery you can personalize and decorate with masking tape.
Wear All-Natural
Buy clothes made of natural fibers (preferably organic), like cotton, wool, silk and hemp.
Buy in Bulk
Buy bulk and try to avoid individually wrapped products and snacks.
Baby Toys
Wooden toys are much more attractive than plastic toys and teething babies will not ingest all the unhealthy ingredients.
Drink It Up
Use glass or stainless steel bottles and drink filtered tap water, avoid beverages in PET bottles.
Mind the Produce
Forego the plastic produce bags and purchase fruit and vegetables in cardboard boxes. Need to weigh them individually? Use paper bags.
Refill It!
Some stores offer refills on products like detergents and household cleaners. Even better, use homemade household cleaners, like vinegar, baking soda and lemon.
Haircare
Use a comb made of horn or wood.
Skincare
Check the ingredients of your personal care products and avoid micro-plastics in scrubs, tooth paste and other cosmetics.
Make-Your-Own
Make your own yogurt and store it in glass jars.
Mindful Snacking
Need a nibble? Take your snacks in a metal or wooden lunch box.
BONUS FACT
Did you know that Bisphenol A and phthalates are obesogens, hormone disruptors that make you and the generations to come fat? Another well-know obesogen is nicotine. By detoxing your body, you’re helping to detox the environment!
About the Author
New Zealand Gives Maori Volcano Human Rights
In a move to honor its indigenous people and provide retribution for colonialist oppression, New Zealand is giving human rights to a Māori volcano on the country’s North Island. Mount Taranaki will now be afforded all the legal rights of a person and is the country’s third natural feature to be given this designation.
After Lonely Planet – the largest travel guide publisher in the world – named Mount Taranaki the second-best location to visit, officials in New Zealand decided to protect the dormant volcano in a way that honored their native people. The mountain’s entitlement comes after the country gave the same human rights protection to the Whanganui River earlier in 2017.
Mount Taranaki is a 120,000-year-old volcano that is New Zealand’s most frequently hiked mountain. Its new designation would make punishment for anyone who harms the mountain tantamount to harming a member of the Māori people. The local tribes will work in conjunction with New Zealand government to maintain the sacred feature and ensure its protection.
Māori natives hold the volcano to the same esteem as one of their own family members, or whanau, and consider it to be an ancestor. In Māori philosophy, humans are considered to be part of the universe and, rather than domineering the natural world, they consider humanity to be an extension of it like any other feature.
This seems to mirror the ideas of shamanism and many indigenous tribes whose spirituality and religion is based on the ideology of animism, the belief that all material things have a spirit. It is common for indigenous tribes and shamans to explain that all they know about our world came from conversations with plants, trees, and nature.
In western society, we give human rights to corporations in much the same way. Corporate personhood gives these entities names, legal rights, and the ability to spend money in political campaigns, all while remaining entirely separate from the individuals who work there. If we think this makes sense to provide privileges to what is essentially an immaterial concept, then it makes perfect sense that natural features should be given personhood with legal protections.
New Zealand is setting a precedent for the world to follow, and it’s doing it while acknowledging to its indigenous people that imperialism from the 19th century demands retribution. The act is part of an apology particularly for the British Crown’s lack of enforcement of the Treaty of Waitangi – a pact between the Māori and British government originally intended to protect native rights.
Could New Zealand’s example lead to similar actions in other nations with histories of oppression against native people? In the U.S. reparations are rarely made to Native American groups, while indigenous land and protections continue to diminish.
