How Can We Prevent Plastic Packaging?

Shopping is an experience many people relish. It’s exciting to queue up to purchase all your needs at your favorite store. But, behind the fun that comes with it lies the dangers that could lead to the deterioration of your health and that of the environment.

Why Should We Prevent Plastic Packaging?

It's sad to note that plastic packaging has done more harm than good to human life. For instance, a study pointed out that plastics have toxic pollutants that damage the environment, thereby causing air, water, and land pollution. The same applies to the dangers it poses for human health, such as cancers. There’s also the accumulation of wastes that in most cases, cause the death of animals through the ingestion of plastic objects.

On that note, many shoppers are already taking a cue from the paradigm shift to discover how to prevent plastic packaging, because the overt use is extremely harmful to both health and the environment. For instance, chemical additives used during the production of plastics triggers toxic chemicals that could result in impaired immunity, congenital disabilities, cancer, and other health defects.

So, without much ado, let’s now look at the steps you can take to actualize that.

Reduce Usage of Plastic to Prevent Plastic Packaging

As long as shoppers are yet to take a stance on the packaging solutions (mostly plastics) offered them, the continuity of plastic pollution would still be the order of the day. Therefore, the first step towards prevention is to reduce the number of items we buy using plastics.

If you’re ready to join the revolution, then the following tips would help you get started:

• Cook Your Meals

There’s no doubt that you may have the worms gnawing at your stomach after a hard day’s work, or even while at work. You would have no other choice than to buy some take-out meals. Most of these are enclosed in plastic packaging.

Therefore, you can start resisting that by cooking your meals. If need be, get a food container to take meals to work or use the same to purchase meals when necessary.

• Get a Reusable Water Bottle

It’s the perfect time to call it quits with bottled water cans that are often made from plastics. When getting a reusable water bottle, you may want to go for one with a built-in filter to take off germs.

• Choose Cardboard over Plastic Bags and Bottles
  

Indeed, plastics have done more harm than good. Nevertheless, you can still set the records straight with the use or preference of cardboard packaging over the plastic bottles and bags.

The rule to that is simple: paper products biodegrade faster than plastics do. Besides, they do not have much weight. Above all, you may want to start picking pasta in a box over pasta in a bag. It would make a lot of difference in that way.

• Re-Assess Your Food Storage

How have you been storing your foods all these while? It’s worth reevaluating because you could have been doing so in the wrong way.

As a rule, you should start considering the removal of plastic food containers from your list and replacing the same with glass containers. That way, you would be saving the environment and yourself from unnecessary problems.

• Shop in Bulk

Undoubtedly, it can be an arduous task to plough enough resources/finances to buy all your household needs at once. However, you should try your best to get enough finances to shop in bulk. That is essential when most of the bought products are packaged with plastics.

Bulk shopping helps to reduce the amount of plastic bags you have in your home. So, consider the option for your next shopping.

• Take A Shopping Bag

It’s time to give the plastic packaging a red card while sending a strong signal to manufacturers and merchants. Now, you can prevent plastic packaging by taking a shopping bag.

• Shop At the Local Market
  

If you’re passionate about discovering how we can prevent plastic packaging, then we implore you to visit your local market often. It has been affirmed that products and foods at the markets(s) are not only cheaper but are also free of the packaging brouhaha.

Recycle Plastic Packaging

Despite the massive drive to see to the end of plastic packaging, there remains more work to do, because many shoppers are already stuck to it.  On that note, recycling seems to be a way to reduce the effects that come with it.

In that instance, we’re looking at the collection of plastic wastes and reprocessing them into new products. That way, the toxic chemicals and the number of plastics in circulation would be reduced.

Reuse Plastics

Has it occurred to you that plastic packaging can be used for some other things? Now, look around your kitchen and other parts of the home. How many plastics are lying in the bin waiting for disposal? You may want to remove them and check if they can be used once more before disposal.

Education As A Way to Prevent Plastic Packaging

It's not surprising that a more significant percentage of shoppers are yet to discover the adverse effects of plastic packaging. That informs the reason why concise education and sensitization should be put in place to ensure that everyone understands the dangers ahead.

In the course of awareness, it's essential to point out the factors that could lead to the adverse effects of shopping with plastics.  For instance, the target audience (shoppers) should be made to understand the environmental challenges that arise because of the excessive disposal of plastics and household wastes in landfills. It should also be noted that the carriage of these wastes by wind and rain into streams and sewers give rise to more plastic pollution.

We Can Prevent Plastic Packaging

There’s no need to break a sweat over plastic pollution. Humans, especially shoppers, lead to such, and only the same persons can regulate it. So, it’s about time to start implementing the above tips and many others you can find out there to prevent plastic packaging.

Did you find the article helpful? You may want to share it with your friends and family. Together, we would keep our environment free of plastic pollution!