From busy city streets to remote coastlines, waste is piling up faster than we can manage. Each year, the world produces more than two billion tons of household waste, a number expected to nearly double by 2050. The impacts of waste are not shared equally: marginalized communities are often located near landfills, incinerators, and toxic dumping sites, while high-income countries export waste to nations with fewer resources, deepening global environmental injustice.
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There is no such thing as ‘away’. When we throw anything away, it must go somewhere.“
– Annie Leonard, Environmental Activist and Strategist
Plastics are among the most harmful forms of waste. Despite decades of recycling efforts, only about nine percent of all plastic ever produced has been recycled. The rest is buried, burned, or broken down into microplastics that infiltrate food, water, air, and even human bloodstreams. These particles persist for centuries, releasing toxins, disrupting ecosystems, and threatening human health.
I challenge you to reduce your trash. The easiest way is to eliminate single use plastic–No plastic bags, No plastic cups, utensils, straws or pouches. Good Luck!
Happy fall! After such a hot summer many are welcoming the cooler days, but not the shorter daylight. I love this post from the Carbon Almanac. Many are talking about working on a climate goal for the new season. I recommend using less single use plastic.
Today is the equinox when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are approximately equal in length. It happens twice a year, in March and September, and marks a transition from one season to the next season.
It can be a good time to think about what you want to transition to (or away from). Is there a change you have been wanting to make?
In the context of helping our planet, that could be setting up a regular walk with friends to talk about ideas, donating an hour to an environmental group, reading about your local government policies on climate adaptation or eating less meat one night a week.
Refill your own container with bulk items. It reduces plastic and I think it saves you money, too!
Join the #5DayChallenge to reuse. World Refill Day is June 16, but let’s make reuse a habit all week long and beyond.
Choose a new reusable plastic-free swap each day or stick with one that works for you. Whether it’s refilling your coffee cup, reusing containers for takeaway food, or shopping packaging-free options—every swap counts.
What is World Refill Day? World Refill Day is a global awareness day spearheaded by City to Sea, an award-winning UK-based environmental charity working to stop plastic pollution at source. The day asks individuals, businesses, and policymakers to choose reuse over single-use, whether that means refilling a water bottle, bringing a reusable cup to the coffee shop, or shopping at a packaging-free store. It sits alongside the Refill app, which now lists hundreds of thousands of free water refill points across more than 30 countries.
Below is from the Plastic Pollution Coalition: Plastic “recycling” is a false solution to plastic pollution. How do we know this? Since the 1970s, businesses making and selling plastic, governments, and some organizations have overwhelmingly told the public that it is essential to recycle plastic. Recycling messages have been communicated to us across all types of media and in many different ways: in advertising campaigns, imprinted recycling symbols on plastic products, and much more. Yet, despite this major push for recycling plastic, plastic pollution and its toxic impacts continue to grow. There is plenty of evidence that plastic recycling is not only failing to live up to its promises, it is also making plastic pollution worse. In contrast, by focusing on plastic-free reuse, we can tap into a solution that ends wastefulness at the source.
Recycled Plastics Are Toxic
How can an activity we’ve been told is right actually be wrong? Turns out, plastics were never designed to be recycled. “The future of plastic is in the trash can,” one packaging industry executive said at a plastic industry meeting in 1956—not in the recycling bin. In other words, plastic was designed to be wasted, despite the heavy toll that its full existence—from the extraction of fossil fuels to plastic’s eventual disposal in landfills, incinerators, or the environment—has on people and the planet.
Plastics are Not “Circular”
Today, the plastic and fossil fuel industries continue to perpetuate the myth that plastics are recyclable by promoting the idea of “plastics circularity”—that plastics can somehow be reused endlessly without creating harmful costs. But this idea is false: Plastic recycling as it is today is harmful and cannot be considered “circular,” because plastic recycling processes continue to drive plastic pollution and its dangerous and toxic impacts—including the climate crisis, environmental injustice, chemical pollution, and more. And while we may need to engage in some kinds of recycling of the less toxic plastics we already have in order to mitigate plastic pollution, recycling on its own cannot be seen as the sole solution to plastic pollution. Instead, recycling must be coupled with a drastic reduction in plastic production in order to be more helpful than harmful.
“Recycled” Plastics are Actually Downcycled
Additionally, even when plastics are recycled, they are most often “downcycled,” or made into items of lesser value and quality (like turning plastic water bottles into plastic fleece jackets or carpet fiber), and continue to cause considerable pollution. When collected for traditional “mechanical” recycling, plastics must be sorted by color and type, washed, and shredded up. These processes burn large amounts of fossil fuel energy–emitting chemicals and greenhouse gases, waste and contaminate water, and create microplastics and nanoplastics. The small plastic particles are then melted down, and manufacturers must mix in a large amount of newly made (virgin) plastic and/or toxic additives to restore some of its useful properties. Recycling increases the toxicity of plastic; there are hundreds of additional toxic chemicals, including pesticides and pharmaceuticals, in recycled plastic. And that’s in addition to the mix of more than 16,000 chemicals in newly made plastic.
“Recycled” Plastic is Not Suitable for Food and Beverage Packaging
The toxicity of plastic and recycled plastic presents serious dangers to the environment and public health, and drives environmental injustices. Research has indicated that recycled plastic is not suitable for many uses, particularly when it comes to packaging of food and beverages, as it contains a wide range of dangerous chemicals. Drink bottles made of recycled plastic are even more contaminated than drink bottles made of virgin (new) plastic, and these chemicals easily leach into the beverages they contain.
Plastics Create Environmental Injustice
Today, most plastic that is discarded as “waste” is never recycled. The global waste industry is more likely to landfill, incinerate, or ship plastic—often to the Global South—where plastic is dumped and sometimes open-burned, driving pollution and injustice as waste colonialism. Meanwhile, these industries only continue to increase plastic production, worsening plastic pollution.
Communities near plastic recycling sorting centers, often called materials recovery facilities (MRFs), and recycling plants are often the most underserved, and face increased risks to their health. People who find employment by picking through plastic pollution as part of the informal waste sector, who often live in the Global South, face serious health hazards and poor working conditions. Plastic recycling infrastructure and activities can cause polluted air, soil, and drinking water; bring constant truck, train, or barge traffic as well as scavenger animals who are attracted to eating waste; and there are often fires or intake of radioactive and other hazardous materials.
We need to do more to protect our beautiful planet!
Mother Earth, we love you.
Our Earth is so beautiful, especially in May! On Mother’s day we should be thankful for our mothers’, but also for our Mother Earth
Mother Earth is clearly urging a call to action. Nature is suffering. Oceans filling with plastic and turning more acidic. Extreme heat, wildfires and floods, have affected millions of people. If we all do one thing like stop idling our cars or driving less, we can make a difference!
There are so many wars going on. We need to stop all this destruction which has such a negative effect of people and planet!
Climate change, man-made changes to nature as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, such as deforestation, land-use change, intensified agriculture and livestock production or the growing illegal wildlife trade, can accelerate the speed of destruction of the planet.
Everyone needs to play a part in protecting our planet. We need to buy less plastic junk, we need to drive less, and plant native plants. We need to expose ourselves and our Earth to less harmful chemicals. These things protect our health and the health of our planet. Protecting clean water and clean air need to be priorities. Everything else relates to that!
Plant bee balm, purple cone flowers, blazing star and rudbeckia. They attract pollinators and need no chemicals!
Choose your climate challenge for the month of May. They left out plastic reduction which is also important. Plastic reduction should fit into every week
Preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we have ever known! Carl Sagan
Can’t wait to see the first butterfly. This is the mourning cloak, usually the earliest butterfly
Be kind to our Earth and to all people and all life!
Yay, April, the best month of the year. It is a month of Hope and Joy. It is Earth Month, calling us to action to protect our Earth. It is native plant month and Arbor Day and Earth Day. It is a month to watch for migrating birds, clean up our yard and finally ride our bikes. April is a month to spend outside!
The theme for this year’s Earth Day is ‘Our Power, Our Planet’. This theme is a reminder that we all have the power to make a difference where we live and work.
Unfortunately, my country is at war. We need to be concerned and speak out against killing people, wasting money, and harming our earth, but we can’t allow a few silly men to destroy our joy.
More than ever we all need to make a difference. ‘Our Power, Our Planet’ is Earth Days’s theme, get put there and make a difference.
Every day I spend time outside; I look for new spring happenings, I look for new buds, new birds, new sounds, and new life. I focus on what is joyful and good and spend time with good people. I work daily on reducing the plastic we use in our home, we drive minimally, clean storm drains, and strive for creating zero waste.
What is good today? The New York Times has a new, “Look for the Good newsletter sign up to get next week’s sent to your inbox.
Important: The Earth is not merely a resource to be exploited; it is sacred ground, our shared home. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves and to all of those who come after us. What exactly do religions teach us about Earth Stewardship? Read more: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/…/sacred…
Be kind, be safe and enjoy your time outside. And remember, what is good? PEACE on EARTH
This is from the Story of Stuff. I hope you will give it some thought and make thoughtful purchases for the holidays and all year. “This time of year, the pressure to buy more — and waste more — is everywhere. Black Friday doorbusters, holiday flash sales, limited-time offers: overconsumption during the holidays isn’t an accident. It’s by design.
And the consequences are massive. Americans generate 25% more waste between Thanksgiving and New Year’s — an extra one million tons of trash every week. From impulse purchases tossed by January, to mountains of packaging, the holiday season has become a pipeline of extraction, production, shipping, and disposal.
What we rarely see are the impacts hidden upstream. Most of a product’s environmental footprint happens long before it reaches your door — through rapid mining of raw materials, energy-intensive manufacturing, and global shipping emissions that fuel the climate crisis.
Fast fashion hauls and holiday overbuying only accelerate the damage. Every second, a garbage truck’s worth of clothing is landfilled or burned. Electronics, toys, gadgets, and seasonal “stuff” flood into toxic e-waste dumps around the world.” Story of Stuff
Trying to be more climate friendly with gift giving this year? This holiday gifting guide will help you get in the spirit while saving you money and deepening the meaningfulness of your holiday season.
I wanted to share an invite to Zero Waste Fest on Saturday, October 11 at Burroughs Community School in Minneapolis. It’s a free, all-day community event with panels, food, music, kid’s activities, and lots of hands-on ways to get involved in building a future without waste. Zero Waste Fest — MN Zero Waste Coalition
The day runs from 10am to 4pm and includes:
Inspiring panels on:
Building a Zero Waste Future in Minnesota
Plastic is a Justice Issue: Fighting Pollution from Production to Disposal
From Throwaway to Reuse: Reclaiming Culture, Creating Systems
Tabling from organizations around MN supporting zero waste
Clothing swaps and mending
Food, art, and music!
It’s free and open to everyone. I’d love for you to join us and help spread the word!
Choose a new reusable plastic-free swap each day or stick with one that works for you. Whether it’s refilling your coffee cup, reusing containers for takeaway food, or shopping packaging-free options—every swap counts.
Read more: 
