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Do you ever find yourself at the French Broad River staring at piles of plastic litter wondering what you can do to stop this?  Asheville GreenWorks and our sister page, Going Plastic Free, are here to help you make this happen! Mind Your Plastic May is a month-long campaign to inform you about the grave social and environmental harms that ensue from plastic waste and equip you with the knowledge to reduce plastic in your own life.  

All month long, we will be sharing plastic reduction tips, volunteer opportunities to address plastic waste, educational materials featuring local Asheville businesses, and much more. We aim to foster knowledge and encourage mindfulness around plastic consumption and disposal for individuals and business owners. This month, we hope you will follow us on Facebook and Instagram, where you will gain valuable knowledge about how to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics, as well as learn about local waste reduction efforts.

Join our 
Race2Reduce and commit to decreasing your plastic usage for the entire month of May. Sign up here to join the challenge and earn points to win a $25/$50/$75 gift card to Ware!

Many thanks to the businesses and restaurants who supported this effort and are working hard to reduce their own plastic waste. #goingplasticfree

Join us in our love for the planet as we
 address and defeat our global plastic addition.
Donate now for a plastic-free future
Mind Your Plastic May is meant to encourage and challenge us in our journey to live plastic free. These posts are created by GreenWorks staff. If you've found these posts helpful and encouraging, please consider making a donation to support this work. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Plastic Bags: The Bad and Good News

5/9/2019

1 Comment

 
Ok, the bad news first: In a relatively short amount of time, our socially normalized reliance on single-use plastic grocery bags has created a host of environmental issues including clogged drains and subsequent flooding, groundwater contamination, crowded landfills, and debris that threatens the ocean’s ecosystem (learn more about the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a plastic soup collection area in the ocean 3 times the size of Texas, here). Did you know that Americans alone use 2 million single-use plastic bags per minute? Use is up to 500 billion to 1 trillion per minute worldwide, with no plan to halt production any time soon! YIKES. The average use of a single plastic grocery bag lasts only for 12 minutes. Billions end up as trash. I used to think that plastic grocery store bags were recyclable. They are not. In fact, Curbie and other recycling facilities refer to plastic bags as “Tanglers” that, if caught up in their machinery, result in very costly repairs.

How can we know all of this, continue to consume, and/or turn a blind eye as grocers and retailers across the globe proliferate the earth with these freebies of the shopping world? In a sense, they’re free. Never has a free commodity been so costly.​

(For more info on the scope of the problem, check out this infographic. Then keep scrolling for the good news!)
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The good news: we don’t have any reason that we have to use these bags! Quitting the plastic grocery bags is one of the most straightforward, accessible, affordable steps we can all take to reduce the plastics that we consume day in and day out. I do understand the argument that many of us re-purpose these bags and use them again for something else – think poop bag or trash can liner. For these we now have truly biodegradable options. These days, I keep a stash of re-useable (mostly polyester, I hear they’re the most eco-friendly) bags in my pantry, in both cars, in my stroller, and re-use the same 10 bags over and over again until they fall apart. Then I make quilts out of them. Ha ha, just kidding. I’m sure that someone does, though, and we should meet that person!

I’m reminded of Maya Angelou, who wisely taught, "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”  Well, we indisputably know better. Let’s do better, friends.

​Hilary Drake, Founder
Mind Your Plastic
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1 Comment
williamscomfortair link
2/18/2022 04:59:07 am

thanks for sharing this! It's really important to know this.

Reply



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​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
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    • Staff/ Contact
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    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
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    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees