“The most environmentally friendly product is the one you didn’t buy.”- Joshua Beck

By: Leslie Phillips, Alternative Medicine Practitioner, Founder of Lifey.Me

Did you know the majority of plastic use is for packaging? According to the EPA, (2024, April 2), 14.5 million tons of plastics in 2018 alone was used for packaging. Let’s put that in perspective- one ton is equal to the size of a large commercial truck, now take that truck of plastic and multiply by 14.5 million and you have ONE year of plastic packaging.

Not to mention all the plastic used for construction, automotive, household items, agriculture, electrical, and more.

Why Does That Matter To You?

We live in a society, where unless a problem directly impacts us, we hear it through one ear and out the other it goes. So let’s take a closer look.

Proverbs 13:22-24 “When a good man dies, he leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren; but when a sinner dies, his wealth is stored up for the godly.”

Many of us will die and some of us will have much to leave for our offspring, some of us will seemingly have little- yet, without an Earth, there is nothing to leave as there is no one to leave it to. Sure, we may create a life in space- but what shall we say, ‘We destroyed a planet so we came to space’.

Yes, NASA is looking to create life in space as we are running out of resources on earth. In fact, we are looking to mine resources from other planets in order to try and sustain life instead of putting our attention to preserving life.

Science has proven that microplastics has become infused in the water to the point that they are dangerously getting into bloodstreams of humans and animals, through water, (2023, March 24). Let me say this again, microplastics are in our blood.

This very real occurrence is linked to cancer and heart disease:

Tiny flecks of plastic inside in the arteries may ramp up the risks of cardiovascular disease.

An analysis of artery-clogging plaques in 257 patients found that the presence of these microplastics was associated with a roughly quadrupled risk of heart attack, stroke or death, researchers report March 7 in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

You may think, ‘oh I will just buy the cleaner water,’ listen friend, the microplastics is coming through the toys, the food, the laundry detergent, the clothes, the makeup, the hair products, the bottles that hold this ‘cleaner water’, it is so rampant that we are committing genocide against ourselves.

The Ecosystem is struggling to adapt. In a very real sense, humanity is collapsing.

Unless we truly want to wipe ourselves out and become the legends of how there once was a species of human that roamed the earth, then we better do something.

As human beings, as beings called to leave an inheritance, as people who’ve been gifted with earth that has been entrusted under our care, we MUST do something.

Many of us believe that ‘recycling’ plastic is the solution but please understand, the creation of plastic in itself is the damage. The truth behind recycling is that only a small fraction of plastic is ultimately recycled.

“A recent Greenpeace report found that people may be putting plastic into recycling bins — but the amount of plastic transformed into new items in the U.S. is at a new roughly 5-6% low”, (2022, December 12), “The plastic industry has spent tens of millions of dollars promoting the benefits of plastic, a product that, for the most part, was buried, was burned or, in some cases, wound up in the ocean.”

What YOU Can DO…..

1. Stop buying single-use plastic, or any plastic for that matter.
2. Don’t buy clothes with synthetic materials as clothes contribute to plastic pollution too.
3. Buy products packaged in natural material.
4. Put pressure on manufactures who create and use plastic.
5. Bring your own reusable shopping bags.
6. Become aware and raise awareness.
7. Vote with your dollar.

At Lifey.Me, we not only sell our own organically made products, but we partner with and support the sales of other companies and organizations dedicated to making a difference, even though it is not the ‘cheaper’ option for anyone- like our Neem Soap which is created by The Plastic Soap Foundation that fights to clean up the ocean and cut down on plastic consumerism.

Orange Beeswax Soap Bundle

Research

1. Environmental Protection Agency. (2024, April 2). Plastics: Material-Specific Data. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data
2. Pinto-Rodrigues, A. (2023, March 24). Microplastics are in our bodies. Here’s why we don’t know the health risks. Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/microplastics-human-bodies-health-risks‌
3. The Myth of Plastic Recycling : Short Wave. (2022, December 12). NPR. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/08/1141601301/the-myth-of-plastic-recycling#:~:text=But%20the%20reality%20is%20that%20only%20a%20small.

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