11 Household Items that You Need to Stop Using Right Now
Every day we use disposable wet wipes, drink coffee from capsule coffee machines and encounter a lot of completely ordinary household items. At the same time, hardly any of us come up with thoughts about the harm of these things to health or the environment. Let's see which household items are better to stop using today.
Coffee capsules
Coffee capsules are a source of delicious coffee at home for relatively little money and in the complete absence of dirt. It is not surprising that capsule-type coffee machines have become so popular: according to the National Coffee Association of the USA, 29% of American families have them. But otherwise, you have to pay much more for these capsules, since plastic and aluminum capsules are difficult to recycle. Every year, billions of spent coffee capsules end up in a landfill. The former CEO of Nespresso, Jean-Paul Gaillard, said that they contribute to an environmental catastrophe, although this company claims that it is dealing with the issue of environmental friendliness of the production and processing of capsules. Recently, the German city of Hamburg introduced a ban on the use of coffee capsules in public institutions. It looks like the battles for coffee capsules are just beginning.
Cosmetics with plastic microgranules
Many toothpaste manufacturers add plastic microgranules to their products. This is one of the largest sources of plastic, which annually enters the World Ocean in volumes reaching 8 million tons. Getting plastic pellets into the ocean has terrible consequences for wildlife and marine ecology. They are not biodegradable and are too small to be captured by filtering devices, and as they move, they attract toxic chemicals. These microscopic pests are also found in various shower gels and scrubs. It remains to be hoped that this will end soon. Former US President Barack Obama has imposed a ban on the use of plastic microgranules in the production of cosmetics and household chemicals, and many European countries are following this example.
Disposable Chopsticks
Chinese disposable chopsticks leave Asia without forests. According to Greenpeace, almost 4 million trees are sacrificed every year to produce 57 billion pairs of sticks. In addition, the sticks are treated with chemicals that can cause diseases of the respiratory system. Disposable chopsticks are also a human rights issue, as they are sometimes produced in correctional labor camps, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International.
Disposable wet wipes
Disposable wet wipes are gaining popularity as a means of personal hygiene and a tool for cleaning rooms. Often they have a designation that they can be flushed down the toilet, but wet wipes contain plastic, and they do not dissolve as well as paper. When they are flushed into the sewer, they can cause clogging of sewage treatment plants and are brought ashore in large numbers on public beaches.
Plastic bags
Plastic bags are one of the most harmful sources of daily environmental pollution. According to some estimates, up to one trillion non-degradable bags are thrown out every year, and they end up in reservoirs, fill landfills and emit toxic chemical compounds during incineration. Initiatives to control the distribution of plastic bags, such as the introduction of fees for them in supermarkets, are beginning to have a positive effect.
Disposable batteries
Batteries, as a rule, contain a toxic cocktail of environmentally harmful elements, including cadmium, lead and mercury, which seep into the soil and underground water sources and cause dangerous environmental pollution. If they are burned, heavy metals get into the air, and this can negatively affect people's health. Battery recycling centers are gaining popularity, but it is better to use rechargeable batteries.
Tea bags
Traditional paper tea bags contain plastic elements, but manufacturers are increasingly using new formulas based on nylon or polyethylene terephthalate (PET). It is believed that the quality of tea bags in plastic tea bags is better, but they are not biodegradable and there are concerns that they release dangerous toxins into the soil.
Soap with triclosan
Many brands of hand soap contain a dubious component triclosan, which is associated with some serious diseases. It is also known to cause cancer in mice. In addition, triclosan is incredibly stable and may not dissolve during sanitary water treatment. This means that it gets into the ocean and destroys the bacteria that underlie the food chain. The movement to ban triclosan is gaining momentum, but for now it is best to carefully read the composition on the label.
Remnants of hormonal contraceptives
There is increasing evidence that hormonal contraceptives have an impact on the fish population in the ocean. How is this possible? According to research, some species have lost their ability to reproduce due to endocrine disruptors, which affected the population and the food chain as a whole. Of course, you should not stop using contraceptives, however, if you need to throw them away, please do not drain them into the sewer.
Polystyrene packaging materials
Disposable packaging is difficult to imagine without polystyrene-based materials, but it is not biodegradable and difficult to recycle. As a result, it ends up in landfills, litters forests and poisons small animal species. Several US cities have banned the use of this material. Fortunately, various alternatives to such packaging are now available.
Disposable shaving machines
Cheap shaving is expensive due to the production of steel, which requires large expenditures of coal and plastic, as well as the use of large amounts of water. In the USA alone, up to two billion disposable shaving machines are thrown out every year. For the sake of preserving the environment, it is better to use modern electric shavers or reusable shaving machines.
Keywords: Everyday life | Things | Pollution | Coffee | Environment | Objects | Tea