How much is enough?

The mounting campaign against plastic is not just good news for the environment, it will also help reduce climate pollutions. Why? Seven of the 10 largest plastic producers are still oil and natural gas companies. As long as we continue to extract fossil fuels, there will be a huge incentive to make plastic. “The story of plastic is the story of the fossil fuel industry—and the oil-fuelled boom in consumer culture that followed the second world war” (The Guardian, Buranyi, November 13, 2018). So, if we decrease our demand for plastic products, we will at the same time reduce our need for fossil fuels.

I have started to seriously think about my day to day habits and purchasing, asking how much of my consumption is really necessary and what can I do differently? Something I never thought about is bringing my own containers to restaurants for my left-overs rather than using unnecessary packaging—such a simple idea and yet it never entered my mind, until I read the CBC’s newsletter on waste.