There are few images harder to forget than the image of a turtle with a straw up it’s nostril. A horrific visual of the impact our single-use-plastics society is having on our oceans and wildlife. Manta rays eating plastic bags that look like jelly fish, ocean birds with bottle caps in their stomachs – there’s no shortage of shocking footage. The good news though, is there’s a simple solution to prevent these tragedies. Stop using single-use plastics! At the very least, stop them from finding their way into our waterways, but eliminating the need for them all together is the ultimate remedy.

With a little forward planning, single-use plastics aren’t necessary at all. Here are 5 items we always carry with us so that we can always “Say No To Plastic”:

  • 1. Reusable take-away cup.  Whether we’re grabbing our morning brew on the run, or we want to sip on a juice at the beach, having a reusable cup with us makes it possible. The now popular “Keep Cup” brand is a great glass option for our coffee, but with summer here we’re finding taller vessels for juices come in handy too. A simple tall mason jar does the job, but using a durable plastic or stainless option helps cut down on weight if that’s an issue.

  • 2. Stainless steel straw. This can be a hard one to remember to use! We’ve had to train ourselves to be quick when ordering juices, smoothies or alcoholic drinks lest we end up with not one, but two straws in our drink! We don’t love using reusable straws for some beverages, so… we just go without and bring the glass right up to our mouth (shock horror)! 
  • 3. A simple re-usable bag. We often find ourselves picking up a few things on the way home, so keeping a bag stashed in our purse is a good way to avoid the unnecessary plastic. It beats juggling a handful of items several blocks too! We especially like the ones that stuff into a tiny zip-able pouch so you can forget it’s there until you need it.

  • 4. A fork. For those times when we grab a salad or pie to go and it comes in compostable paper packaging but with plastic cutlery. We just smile, hand the cutlery back, whip out our trusty durable fork and we’re good to chow down. Sometimes we carry a little lunch box too, if we know we’ll get take-away that usually comes in plastic. Or how about a little bottle of soy sauce for those midday sushi runs? No one likes the little plastic soy-sauce fish, least of all the fish in the sea!

  • And last but not least, the humble water bottle. This stainless steel vessel goes with us absolutely everywhere. Staying hydrated is so important, and buying a plastic water bottle that will last all of 10 minutes just seems so 1990’s. Plus, it looks like wood. We think that’s cool.

It’s a shocking thought that every single piece of plastic ever made is still around today. Our oceans are seeing the brunt of this abuse, and we need to all play our part in reducing plastic pollution. The first and simplest step is to eliminate the use of it where we can, and one-use-only plastic items are so easy to do without. At One Ocean Sailing we offer reusable glasses, cutlery, plates and decorations for all of our guests events and celebrations. So we can all party guilt-free and keep enjoying our harbour for generations to come!

 

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