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Showing posts from October, 2020

Eliminating Plastics in the Bathroom

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Why zero plastic? Petroleum based plastics can take up to 1000 years to decompose, which means that the plastics that have ever been produced by humans all exist somewhere on the Earth ( source ). This is incredibly problematic since the plastics can fill up the landfills and the ocean, where they release toxic chemicals that harm plants and animals - including humans - for hundreds of years. And of course, extracting petroleum releases CO2 into the atmosphere.  "Compostable" plastics fare better but do require proper composting environments to completely decompose, which not all recycling centers currently have. There are also different types of "compostable" plastics where all nuances live ( source ). Seattle (where I live) is good in that "biodegradable" plastics can be put in the curbside compost bin, but "degradable" or "oxo-degradable" plastics cannot be in the compost bin and instead should be in the garbage ( source ).  Recyclin