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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]

Who Gives a Crap? We All Can!

5/16/2019

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“Trees are for hugging. And climbing. And for scared cats, kites, birds, treehouses, swings, snakes (gaaaah), and owls. But you should feel good knowing you’re not wiping your bum with trees.”  

​*Truth from the wrapper of a WHO GIVES A CRAP? roll


Before we began our family’s personal challenge to live more sustainably and give up single-use plastic, I honestly didn’t spend too much time thinking about toilet paper. Caring most about cost, our TP was just something we bought mindlessly in bulk, a few times a year. When we began to pay attention, we wondered how we could avoid the over-packaged rolls, wrapped with plastic in groups of 3, then wrapped AGAIN in plastic.

It wasn’t until we began to research alternatives that we realized conventional toilet paper is a doubly-offensive product; not only wrapped in plastic that isn’t likely to be recycled, but a non-recycled paper product made from virgin trees! Toilet paper alone wipes out 27,000 trees a day! Worldwide, the equivalent of almost 270,000 trees is either flushed or dumped in landfills EVERY DAY and roughly 10% of that total is attributable to toilet paper, according to World Watch magazine. Not only are we cutting virgin trees down, wrapping them in plastic, wiping our bums and flushing them down the toilet, we are consuming loads of energy and water along the way. There IS a better way!
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Unless you’re ready to go rogue and install a Bidet, know that there are multiple companies offering better choices. We’ve chosen WHO GIVES A CRAP, because they offer 100% recycled or bamboo toilet paper, and they are a company on a mission to help people with their profits, donating 50% to help build toilets and improve sanitation in the developing world. Delivered in a fully recycled cardboard box, void of any plastic coating, each roll comes in a colorful recycled paper (not plastic!) wrap, covered in cheeky humor. And it is pretty hilarious to watch the mail carrier haul a gigantic box advertising the sentiment WHO GIVES A CRAP across the yard every few months. It makes me want to shout: “WE DO! WE OFFICIALLY GIVE A CRAP!” In the harrowing fight against plastic pollution, and the battle to halt climate change, humor is our best medicine.
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For those extra-sensitive times, many of us have taken to purchasing “flushable wipes.” Hands down, they’re downright luxurious. But most wet wipes are made with plastic resins like polyester or polypropylene, and as such, they never fully biodegrade, they simply break into smaller and smaller pieces – releasing countless microscopic plastic fibers into the environment. So don’t believe everything you read! “Flushable” wipes are misleading, should not be flushed, cannot disintegrate in the sewerage system, and cause major blockages. If you must wet-wipe, consider these wipes trash, and dispose of them properly. Or, perhaps this is one luxury you’re willing to forego in the name of reducing single-use plastics? There’s always glass-bottled booty spray, or good ole’ fashioned wash-cloths like our grandmas used for those extra special days!
Sincerely,
Hilary Drake, Founder
Mind Your Plastic

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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
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    • Sponsorship
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    • 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 >
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  • Silent Auction
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