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5 Convenient Inventions That Are Killing the Planet
by Kate Good
One Green Planet
Do you ever wake up, get dressed, go to work and wonder what kind of impact the things you use every day have on the planet? Oh, you don’t? Weird.
Actually, that’s not strange at all because it is the reality for most Americans. The fact is, we live in a culture that values convenience and as a result we are willing to overlook all the sordid details of what makes our morning coffees and to-go containers possible. The only problem is, by doing this we can run ourselves into a serious trash problem.
To give you an idea of how serious, let’s consider this: Americans only represent five percent of the world’s population, but collectively, we generate 30 percent of the world’s trash. You know how they say that an ant can lift up to 5,000 times their body weight, that’s like Americans with garbage. Except if we were all tasked with holding the trash we generate, maybe we’d be inspired to create less!
We can all stand to be a little more mindful of how our consumptions habits impact others and the planet and rethink the choices we make congruently. So let’s take a look at some of the things we use every day and see if we can do better.
1. Microbeads
Do you use exfoliating face wash or extra whitening toothpaste? If you do, chances are these items contain plastic microbeads. These tiny beads are used in many consumer goods because they are relatively cheap and highly versatile. The only problem is that because these beads are so small (in fact, you probably never even noticed them in your toothpaste), that when they get washed down the drain and travel to water treatment facilities, they are can move right through the filters. From here, these beads travel into local waterways, polluting streams, rivers and eventually ending up in the ocean where they can be easily ingested by marine life.
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Every Day is Earth Day
Source: http://www.riseearth.com/2015/06/5-convenient-inventions-that-are.html
