Since COVID started, people have been using more single-use items like plastic bags, paper masks, and plastic water bottles. If you have no choice but to use a single-use mask or water bottle, that’s fine, but try and reuse them though if you can! By doing this you may be reducing the amount of plastic that can drift into the oceans or go into landfills. Some places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Hawaii¹ have banned the use of plastic bags. In Mashpee, Cape Cod, they have banned single-use plastic bottles. 

Where Does All the Plastic Go?

All this plastic has to go somewhere. It can go to many different places. It can A) go into a landfill, or B) Drift into the ocean. Both scenarios are equally bad. When it goes into a landfill, that can poison the soil and water. Also, plastics have chemicals in them that can be absorbed by the human body which can then alter your health². When plastic goes into the ocean, it can kill animals if they eat it, or trap them.

What Can We Do To Help? 

To help, we can stop buying single-use items. Instead, buy a reusable mask with fun fabric. Instead of a plastic water bottle, use an REI one. Instead of a plastic bag, use a container or a reusable bag. There are so many ways to help and to stop plastics from entering and hurting the Earth, so now we just have to do them. 🌎😀

1. State Plastic and Paper Bag Legislation 
2.  Plastic Not-So-Fantastic: How the Versatile Material Harms the Environment and Human Health 
3. thebrag.com/trash-island-is/