Pareto Plastic-Free Living

The Pareto principle—or 80 ⁄ 20 rule—states that roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. So if you are just starting out on your exciting plastic-free journey and currently living a lifestyle that includes a lot of disposable single-use plastic items, then the simple actions in the table below (the “20 percent”) could have the potential to reduce your plastic consumption and waste by a lot, maybe even 80 percent.

These listed items are among the most common forms of plastic waste pollution, so removing them from your life will make a huge dent in the plastic pollution problem at the source. Go for it! 

Here are six of the absolute worst plastic pollution culprits, and simple actions you can take to replace them right now with non-plastic alternatives.

 

Single-Use Disposable Plastic Culprit	Action You Can Take RIGHT NOW	The Culprit
Plastic Bags	Refuse plastic bags and shop with reusable bags you carry with you:  use cloth bags or at least thick, durable plastic ones that will last indefinitely	Image Credit: Anastasiia Romashina
Plastic Water Bottles	Refuse disposable plastic bottles of water and carry a filled reusable water bottle with you:  glass, stainless steel	Image Credit: Caleb Oquendo
Plastic Coffee and Tea Cups and Lids (or plastic-lined cups)	Refuse disposable cups and lids and carry your own mug with you:  glass, ceramic, stainless steel	Image Credit: Katrin Bolovtsova
Plastic food Containers	Refuse plastic food containers and carry a reusable non-plastic food container with you while on the go:  glass, stainless steel, wood	Image credit: Rachel Claire
Plastic Utensils	Refuse plastic utensils and switch to reusable non-plastic alternatives:  bamboo, stainless steel, wood	Image credit: Paper kites
Plastic Straws	Refuse plastic straws that are offered to you and carry your own reusable straw:  bamboo, glass, stainless steel	Image credit: Tara Winstead

 

Don’t worry if that felt challenging. That’s normal. You’re in the process of changing ingrained habits and it will take time. But if that felt easy to you, try to go one step further; a step that perhaps seems simple, but, in reality, is enormously difficult: Try avoiding all single-use disposable plastics.

Try it for just one day at first, to get a taste of what it involves. We don’t want you to get overwhelmed, feel discouraged and risk giving up plastic-free living altogether. But trying this out now will open your eyes wide to all the plastic in your life. It is much more difficult than it might sound to avoid single-use disposable plastics because of the biggest culprit of all:  packaging.

Plastic packaging makes us want to scream! It constitutes over a quarter of all plastic produced. We compost our organic waste and recycle as much as we can, so that means that the bulk of our garbage is . . . you guessed it: plastic. And practically all of that plastic waste is packaging. Avoid it and you’re making a huge plastic reduction impact.