Welcome to my experiment of trying to live a single-use plastic-free life in the District/Virginia/Maryland area of the US!
Welcome to my very first blog post ever! And, in light of that previous statement, please be gentle. I started this site because I am trying to reduce the use of single-use plastic in my life and in my home, and I wanted to have a platform where I can share what I've been learning and a also learn from others.
Though I've moved around quite a bit in my various phases of life, I have currently landed in the Washington DC area of the US, which is part of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The watershed itself stretches 524 miles from Cooperstown NY to Norfolk VA and is home to over 18 million people (and counting) across 6 states. That means that if a piece of trash ends up in a waterway in most parts of Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington DC, it is likely to end up flowing into the Chesapeake Bay and may ultimately end up in the Atlantic Ocean. Thats pretty alarming, especially when you consider that over 9 billion tons of plastic has been created since 1950, and around 80% of that has ended up in a landfill/dump or in the environment and may never actually degrade.
Plastic itself isn't inherently bad - it has revolutionized economies, healthcare, food security, travel - but more than 40% of plastic created is in products that are used only once and are then discarded, and those are ending up in all the wrong places. It has also come to include a wide range of additives and toxins and is a tremendous vector for persistent organic pollutants, making it potentially even more dangerous to humans and the environment. Since it never properly breaks down, bits of plastic have been found at the deepest parts of the ocean and the highest peaks on the planet, and literally everywhere in between.
A few years ago I took part in a cleanup of the Anacostia River with an organization called Anacostia Riverkeeper, where we collected nearly 500 lbs of trash from the area around Kingman Island in DC over a couple hours. For the cleanup the following year, they pulled out nearly 1,300 lbs from the river, and consistently over 60% of the waste collected is plastic, mostly plastic bottles. Its interesting to note, however, that it appears the percentage of waste collected that comprises plastic bags has gone down significantly since the DC bag fee went into place.
Now, why does all of this matter? Because, if you live in the DMV area like I do, this is your backyard. If you don't dispose of your waste properly, it could very well end up getting collected in one of these clean-ups - or it could end up in the Anacostia, out to the Chesapeake Bay, and ultimately in the ocean. Our throw-away lifestyle and the "out of sight out of mind" concept for waste has led us to take many disposable products for granted. We need to start realizing that there is no "away" when it comes to plastic waste, especially products that aren't reusable, recyclable, or compostable.
Humans survived for centuries without single-use plastics. When you consider that they have really only existed for the last 60 years, there is no reason why we can't transition back to living more waste-free lifestyles that reduce our footprint on the planet, and keep waste where it belongs and out of the environment. I'm going to do my best to figure out the most impactful, environmentally-friendly, cost-effective way to get back to that waste-free and single-use plastic-free lifestyle, and I hope you'll join me! This is just the start, and its important to keep in mind that every little change, big or small, makes a difference.