MY PLASTIC TRANSITION

1^st May 2022 By Earl Lamont Montgomery

Each day I am thinking of ways to exchange my use of plastic with an alternative that is safer for future generations. I have never been one of those nature fanatics. Nothing against nature fanatics, but I was too busy running around having fun to be concerned about the environment. However, when I discovered how long it takes plastic to break down and return to nature, I knew that I had to be part of the solution instead of any alternatives.

When I wake up each morning I have my coffee that is in a plastic container. As I sit and sip my coffee, I think of ways to replace my coffee mug with something something more more environment friendly. When I replace this coffee cup it will not be for another plastic one, but possibly a metal one instead. After I get out the shower and dry off, I rub some Tom’s of Maine plastic free deodorant under my arms.

When I leave for work, sometimes I take my plastic tupperwear filled with food to heat up later and reuse. I have been known to not wash the containers out right afterwards and the food stains the plastic. Eventhough it could be clean, not many people want to keep eating from stained plastic containers. I began thinking of using glass containers with rubber lids. There are many brands out there and a Google search will show that to be the case.

Hemp to the rescue again
A friend and coworker has stock in hemp. I said imagine what his stock would do if they started using hemp to print houses. He said, "they print houses?". As I did a search I found that there are companies using hemp instead of sand. If a house could be made of hemp (hempcrete), surely furniture inside a house could be made of the same material, and in fact, it is. How about plastic products in and outside the house? Well, not only is hemp a replacement for wood, but also plastic.

Compostables
In my day to day travels, I think of ways replace my plastic consumption with more biodegradable options. When I came across compostables I thought this was a viable solution only to find that there are issues with this option. One obvious issue is that items made with compostables look and feel exactly like their plastic counterparts so how are the composters supposed to tell the difference? The less obvious issue, but equally or more severe issue is that some of these compostables contain what is called "forever chemicals". These are chemicals that stay in our bodies forever.

EPA
The EPA has ordered companies using over 100 lbs of the 160 isolated forever chemicals have to report it to the EPA. The issue with this is that there are over 4,000 forever chemicals in existance and the EPA is fighting just 0.04% of them. When I went to the EPA website