Earth Love Plastic Awareness
At Omo Mobi we are really excited about creating sustainably made and designed baby/toddler clothing. We know there is more we can do though... much much more. For our most recent collection we collaborated with our friend, Vancouver based stylist, Jessica Clark to bring awareness to plastic waste and raise donations for The Ocean Legacy Foundation, a Canadian based foundation is passionate about cleaning up our oceans. Honestly, the more we learn about our impact from plastic waste, it becomes more and more heavy on us that we need to take action on this issue now.
Here are the facts:
- Canadians throw away 3 million tonnes of plastic waste/year
- 9% of plastic is recycled, most of it ending up in landfills
- ~29,000 tonnes ends up in the natural environment
- up to 15 billion plastic bags are used every year, close to 57 million straws are used daily
(according to the government of Canada website)
So what can we do about it?! I am sure you have so many amazing ideas and we'd love to hear your thoughts and solutions. Here are just a few things we have been trying.
1. Reusable grocery bags. Pretty basic... but a tough habit to get into if you are used to using plastic grocery bags or are a bit forgetful (like me!). Let's be honest we all are at times. We like to leave one by the front door of the house, and in the car in case we are having one of those days.
2. Thinking about the packaging before we purchase groceries/items. We have tried to minimize plastic waste by buying groceries that come in bulk or paper packaging. Even glass jars get recycled at a higher percentage than plastic. (~80% in Canada) It became a bit more challenging during COVID since many bulk bins were not being filled at grocery stores and there could be issues with the safety of those items but we managed to find flours/oats/seeds in paper packaging that can easily be recycled.
3. Utilizing refill centres for cleaning products and soaps. There are so many amazing businesses offering products that are refillable and eliminate those extra plastic bottles from laundry, dish and hand soap. You can even buy beautiful jars for these items that you can bring back to the centre and refill when you are ready. Love this concept and it has cut down a great deal of plastic bottle waste in our house.
4. Using glass containers for storing food, or plates to cover dishes instead of plastic wrap and plastic food storage bags. Though the convenience of plastic wrap and bags is huge... surprisingly this was an easy habit to break. We bought one of those glass food container sets and it was a quick fix. Now for food prep or left overs we just pop the items in the glass container and are good to go! If there is a need for plastic wrap, we will just put a plate on top of the bowl, or larger plate to cover it as needed. That is a super simple alternative but there are also beautiful beeswax materials that are reusable to put over the top of plates and bowls as well. Maybe you have other alternatives?
5. Quality>quantity of clothing/accessories. For some reason I have always been programmed to buy a couple things I love rather than many items of clothing. Fast fashion wasn't really ever my jam. Over the years and more so as an adult, I have found I usually like wearing only a few of the items in my closest anyway. It turns out, this is actually a sustainable way of shopping and consumerism! If this isn't your thing I would definitely challenge you to try it! There is something really peaceful about a smaller closet, and the outfit decision making process gets easier! SO many pros to this! We have all seen those heaping piles of clothing in landfills around the world. That is just so overwhelming isn't it? Much of it won't even decompose in our lifetime, as it takes between 20 and 200 years.
I think all of us are on a journey with minimizing waste and so grace is definitely needed. It's funny though, starting small can really create a growing awareness. Small changes every day, each week and month can accumulate to some wonderful habits. All the best to you on your minimizing journey! It can be a fun ride and one well worth committing to.
Please share any of your ideas below! Would love to hear your thoughts on this subject and where you are at with it!
Sincerly,
-Andrea
Creator and Founder of Omo Mobi