Start with Plastic

We hear people telling us that it is very important to recycle, live greener lives and be more eco-friendly. We also hear that it is better for the environment to recycle and not just put it all in a landfill. All of these things are true. For example, plastic is an extremely useful material and can be reused.

However, even if you don’t care about the environment, you probably care about driving your car, heating your house or cooking your dinner. Confused? Simply put, petrol, oil and gas. Still confused?

Well, plastics are made from the same thing that is used to run your car, heat your house and cook your dinner which are called fossil fuels, like crude oil and natural gas. We are using them in such great amounts that some experts say we will run out of crude oil in just over 40 years if we continue to use it at the present rate.

Fossil fuels are more important for our everyday lives than you would think. The worst thing is, the world is using them faster every year. Much of it just gets burned for power, so when that is used, it’s gone. However, the fossil fuels that get turned into one of the many types of plastic can be reused and recycled.

If we recycle things like our plastic water bottles, food containers and bags, it might get turned back into plastic bottles and food containers or maybe into something like a fleece sweater or traffic cones. This way, we can stop using fossil fuels to make new bottles and reuse the ones by recycling and minimizing the present rates of consumption.