Plastic
You’ve probably heard about the topic of our current times, Plastic! How can we reduce the use of plastic and what should we do with it when we no longer need it???
At Inspired Dental Care, Exeter we are doing our bit to help reduce plastic pollution. We pledge to replace a number of single use plastics every year for reusable items or items that that can be recycled or disposed of in an eco-friendly way in addition to our existing ethical recycling policy.
You will notice that we have introduced the new ‘Humble Bamboo’ Tepe range to replace the traditional plastic interdental brushes, 100% sustainably grown.
We have replaced the old plastic patient cups with paper ones that do not have plastic linings and removed all disposable cups from our patient lounge.
You won’t see any plastic bags at the practice, we have paper bags made from recycled paper.
More than 8 million tonnes of plastic ends up in our world’s oceans every year. That’s a truckload every minute!
Plastic on the most part isn’t biodegradable, it doesn’t rot like paper or food and can hang around in the environment for hundreds of years affecting our wildlife and marinelife.
A staggering 100,000 animals in the sea are killed by plastic each year! Every year, 400 million tonnes of plastic is produced and a massive 40% of that is single-use.
We can no longer sustain a future that sees the equivalent of a truckload of plastic entering our oceans every minute of every single day. Real change is going to require phasing out single-use plastics, for our environment and for people around the world who depend on clean water. Until the larger corporations lead toward the future we want to see, we can still continue to do our bit.
What can we do…?
Reduce
Reduce your own plastic waste. Think about how much you use and if its necessary— then you can take steps to reduce your use and waste.
Reuse
Take your own reusable shopping bags and avoid using single-use plastic bags.
Take your own reusable coffee cup when going out to get beverages. Some of the larger coffee shops will reduce the cost of your drink when using your own cup.
Like sipping through straws? Get a reusable stainless steel, glass, or bamboo one to use instead of wasteful plastic ones.
Instead of buying water in plastic bottles, invest in a water filter and reusable water bottle. The great bit about this is it’s cheaper in the long run.
Choose clothing and other personal items made from earth-friendly materials instead of microfibers and other synthetic fibres, which pollute our water.
Refuse
Refuse straws: It’s as simple as adding, “No straw, please” when requesting drinks at restaurants or cafes.
Refuse beverage tops. (Are you really going to spill?)
Remove
Pick up rubbish in your local area, parks and beaches.
Recycle
Recycle the plastics you use and no longer need.
Return single-use bags to grocery stores for them to recycle.
