#ygkChallenge: Reduce Your Plastic Waste

The #ygkchallenge is an ongoing series where we dare you to be different, resolve to be better, and or do something awesome in support of our beloved community. Each week, Kingstonist establishes a new, ambitious or quirky goal, encouraging you to step out of your comfort zone and do something great, and hopefully a little out of the ordinary. By taking part in this community-wide initiative, we hope to make Kingston (and the world) a slightly better place to live, work and play.

This week’s #ygkchallenge encourages you to:

Reduce Your Plastic Waste. It is estimated that the world uses as much as 200 billion pounds of plastic per year, and in spite of our best efforts to recycle, as much as 10 percent of that plastic ends up in the ocean. This depressing statistic is manifested by phenomenon such as the man-made Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a floating dump off the west coast that’s twice the size of the state of Texas. Considering the fact that 50 percent of the plastic we use, we use just once and then throw away, and that a single piece of plastic takes anywhere from 500 to 1,000 years to break down, it’s time we recognized that our plastic problem has reached epidemic proportions. With the first of the three R’s being “reduction”, here’s a quick list of helpful tips to reducing your plastic waste:

1. Bring your own reusable shopping bag.
2. Stop buying bottled water.
3. Bring your own thermos to the coffee shop.
4. Choose cardboard over plastic bottles and bags.
5. Say no to straws.
6. Get the plastic off your face.
7. Skip the disposable razor.
8. Switch from disposable diapers to cloth.
9. Re-think your food storage.
10. Shop in bulk.

Join us in completing this week’s #ygkchallenge by liking it on Facebook and/or re-Tweeting it on Twitter. By liking and sharing, you’re not only committing to doing something great, but you’re also helping us spread the word and hopefully encouraging others to participate.

Photo credit to Bo Eide for today’s pic.