71% of consumers worldwide want to ban single-use plastics.

Just ordered some brass curtain rod hangers. Came in a plastic bag. Opened the plastic bag. 30 hangers in 10 plastic bags.

Just 10 years ago, they’d be in little brown paper bags, like at McGuckin, our local hardware store.

Big Oil is pushing to 10x plastic to make up for worldwide losses to solar and wind. Plastic *is* climate change. It *is* the cause of our planet heating, the planet our children need to be stable for the next generations. If you care about your children, move toward zero waste.

Easy quick wins: No “paper” (plastic-lined to stop leaks) coffee to go cups (drinking hot liquids out of ’em—not healthy anyways). No plastic bags. Instead of plastic or vinyl, shower in a glass or duck cotton-curtained shower (I get mine on Etsy or from Mountain Weavers via Vermont Country Store).

When you go to the grocery, just glass or at worst tin (plastic-lined, but actually-recyclable unlike plastic). Find a zero waste shop locally for toothpaste (conventional brans often put plastic *in* toothpaste to help with exfoliation and thickening), conditioner and shampoo, dishsoap, laundry soap. Cloth napkins and towels, make sure your TP is clean or better yet install a bidet. When you get bulk groceries, bring your own cloth bag (and get it weighed first or ask for paper bags). Get rid of poly clothing, and avoid “superwash” wool that’s actually all plastic-coated. Only buy natural, and/or secondhand.

Make sure your tea bags are cloth, not plastic, or go with loose leaf (which is often better anyways, and cheaper). Chew plastic-free gum. Don’t wear nail polish, it’s all plastic. Reusable menstrual cups over tampons. Car tires are actually plastic, reduce wear by walking, bussing, biking, carpooling more (does anyone actually carpool anymore?). Avoid plastic glitter and sequins.

Get a natural sponge—mine’s not plastic, it’s coconut husk and plant-based. Use reusable cloth wipes, instead of wet wipes. Quit smoking: that filter you’re sucking through is plastic. Most sunscreens have poly in ’em, so find a truly natural mineral one. Your walls are plastic and create plastic dust over time: find natural paints, lime-wash, or mineral-based paints. Use stainless steel, cast iron, or enamel pans and pots—not “non-stick.”

Refuse receipts, they’re nasty. Foil wrappers often have plastic on one side, so find products (like chocolate) without. Sheets, pillows, comforters…find natural options like delicious flannel or silky cotton. Drink out of water fountains, get your water for-here, decline straws and plastic lids.

On a macro level, boycott Amazon and others that push plastic. Advocate that your local grocery, or Costco, etc, gets rid of crap like this:

This is not a privileged “environmentalist” concern, alone, though poly pollution harms billionaire’s kids and families too:

On top of that, the petrochemical industry has a long history of environmental racism. Companies have often cited polluting plants near low-income communities and communities of color. In Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” dozens of petrochemical plants dapple the shores of the Mississippi for 80 miles. The emissions from those plants rain yellow droplets of pollution and kill birds mid-flight. The mostly black and brown residents in the region have some of the greatest risks for cancer in the country.

This is a fight for health and our children’s future for all of us.