I live in a household of 2, and we are throwing out an entire bad of garbage a day. That's a lot of garbage! That's also a whole lot of plastic that isn't being recycled. After paying attention to the massive amount of garbage produced by only 2 people, it makes me think about all plastic being tossed by families of 3, 4, 5, or more. No wonder that the earth is literally covered in micro-plastic.
Every year, humans produce nearly 280 million tons of plastic. 280 MILLION TONS!! Its an impossible number for me to wrap my head around. But why stop using plastic you use ask? Well, its not just a question of waste apparently. I did a little research because I had to know just what the risks were. After combing the internet here's what I found...
• Chemicals added to plastics are absorbed by human bodies and have been found to alter hormones or have other potential human health effects.
• These plastics have also been linked to infertility, diabetes, and even cancer!
• Only 1 to 2% of plastic bags in the USA end up getting recycled, leaving a whollllle lot of plastic free to float around the planet.
• Plastic buried deep in landfills can leach harmful chemicals that spread into groundwater.
• The average American uses about 500 plastic grocery bags per year.
• Plastic bags are often mistakenly ingested by animals, clogging their
intestines which results in death by starvation. Thousands of marine animals and more than 1 million birds die each year as a result of plastic pollution.
These were only a few of the laundry list of reasons why to give plastic the big FU! I highly recommend watching the award-winning film Trashed to really understand the dangers of our high plastic, high waste society.
Welcome to Living With Soul! My name is Julianne Bonasera and I want to invite you to join me in figuring out this crazy, beautiful thing we call life!
 |
| My Sister and I (right). |
My life a few years ago looked good on paper, but inside, I was hiding a big secret; I was suffering from a severe depression that had been going on for years. Although I had traveled all over the world, married the man of my dreams, and had friends and family who loved me, I was a person that was empty inside. I felt alone, confused, sad, and constantly found myself questioning the meaning of my life and of life in general. I wanted out. Life was a burden too big to bare. Just when I had lost all hope and was ready to accept my misery, I read a book called "The Power of Now". The experiences that immediately followed opened my eyes to a world I had never known existed. This was a world where worry didn't exist, stress was nothing but a 6-letter word, and love was boundless and present at all times. Everything had meaning again, and I was living a life of happiness that every single person on this planet deserves. Life was finally good :) The most amazing realization was that life had always been good! I just chose not to believe it.
After my spiritual experience, I continued to dig deeper to see what other tools and information I could find to help myself and others. There was so much more to life than I had allowed myself to see. I understood that I was the one ultimately in charge of my happiness, not the external world. I had become so comfortable with blaming everyone and everything else that I failed to see the true culprit.
I feel a compulsion to share what I have learned with anyone and everyone that will. So many of us walk around in a daze, asking ourselves, "Is this all there is"? From experience I can say that there is so much more to life than we can ever dream! Life is meant to be lived with soul, are you ready to start living?
Julianne xo
