Did you know that it can take up to 500 years for certain pieces of plastic to decompose (if it ever decomposes!). Specifically looking at polystyrene, the packing materials often used for poultry and meat packing, egg cartons, and for shipping (among other things) can be here for centuries. It gets washed into our water supplies and dumped into our streets. Even the pieces that are properly disposed of will not leave our environment. Man-made, chemically-engineered materials like polystyrene are convenient and yet incredible costly. 

As consumers, it’s about more than reading the data or hearing the facts. We need to know what’s happening in relation to our environment, our manufacturing standards, our recycling effort if we’re ever going to know our path forward. 

Education

It’s important that we be educated on many fronts in this discussion. An understanding of what’s happening in manufacturing standards, legislation efforts, and plastic pollution mitigation can help us make the right and necessary strides toward protecting our environment. 

The more you research, the more you’ll discover. More and more research has gone into the topic of plastic pollution over the past several years. The costly impacts on our ecosystem by manufacturing breakthroughs are beginning to be measured in very practical ways.

Action

Moving your efforts to understand plastic pollution should result in action at some point. Getting involved can mean volunteering for a local plastic pollution cause. It can mean pushing for tighter restrictions in the manufacturing of toxic products like polystyrene. It can also mean fundraising and giving to causes that are making a difference. 

Action can also be as simple by making small changes in your own life. Using less one-time use plastics and supporting plastic-free initiatives like bringing your own grocery bags take little effort but make a big difference. And while it may seem to make a microscopic impact on such a massive issue, that’s just fine. Because as we’ve learned from plastic pollution itself, that which is microscopic can have a massive impact! 

Installing a Filtrol is one great way to start making a difference with the amount of plastic that’s ending up in our environment. To get yours, click here.