My House is Infested with Plastic! (and yours probably is, too.)

As we walk around our houses on a daily basis, we don't really notice just how many plastic products we have. A toothbrush here, a bottle of OJ there, a stick of deodorant. etc. When its spread around like that it doesn't look like a whole lot. So today I decided I wanted to see in bulk just how many products that contained plastic I truly own. So for your viewing pleasure, I give you 'My Plastic House'!

This is my fridge, and this is what it looks like when I have 'no food.' It is still COMPLETELY full of plastic! Normally I would have even more food with more plastic bags/containers to keep everything fresh. I eat tons of fruits and veggies and so every time I go to the farmer's market or grocery store I come home with anywhere between 10-30 plastic bags. The most distressing part is that pretty soon Im going to have to go shopping again, and probably %90 of what you see here will be tossed by the end of the week... Sad face.

Ok so these are all the plastic items I had lying around my house. These are most of them, but not all. I have all kinds of things like garbage bags, shampoo bottles, tupperware, a toaster, food containers, a dust pan, cleaning supplies, even my juicer is plactic. I personally don't think that I 'consume' a whole lot of 'stuff.' Hell, what other girl do you know that only has ONE shower item? Head&Shoulders baby, lather, rinse and repeat. And I can count the amout of toileties I own on 2 hands, which I have to believe is a lot less than the average person. Even so, just like with my plastic food bags, %80 of this stuff will be thrown away in the next month or less to go sit in some garbage dump or end up floating around the ocean for the rest of eternity, all to just so I can go out shopping again and buy even more plastic products to replace the old ones. YAY! I just love consumerism.

And here is my pantry. Im starting to see a trend that one of the main reasons for my plastic consumption is due to food. Again, more plastic that will soon be tossed away. Unless you have a bulk section at the grocery store, its going to be pretty hard to stay away from plastic all together. But there are small and easy steps that can be taken to dramatically reduce our plastic use when it comes to shopping. And lets not forget one more crucial point, ALL OF OUR ELECTRONICS ARE FROM PLASTIC, TOO!

Seeing all this plastic really helped me understand a few things:

1 - I AM RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, TOO! Not just environmental organizations that are supposed to clean up after all my messes. They can't handle 7 billion messy people all by themselves. 
2 - I used to consider myself to be pretty evironmentally friendly, but in reality, there are a LOT of things that I need to do to reduce my carbon footprint. 
3 - I need to be more conscious of the waste that I am producing and the things that I buy. Because ultimately, what I choose will play a major role in the fate of our beautiful planet. 
4 - I cant expect anyone else to clean up my mess. If I want change and if I want a brighter, cleaner future, its going to have to start with me, not matter how impossible of a task it may see. 

As Nelson Mandela famously said, "It always seems impossible until its done."



-Julianne xo