WASTE BUSTERS

If I was going to pinpoint one image that led me to significantly cut our family’s single-use waste and live more sustainably, it was a photo of a turtle with a straw stuck in its nose. The constant media images of the devastation of our beautiful animal life as a result of plastic pollution had hit peak outrage for me.

I know I’m not alone. People are deeply affected by these images, and there are so many: the beached whale with a stomach full of plastic, the heron with a plastic bag wrapped around its face.

If the world doesn’t get its act together, by the time my two-year-old son is 35 – in 2050 – there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. A truckload of plastic enters the ocean every minute. And the petrochemical industry is poised to invest billions to expand plastic production by 40% in the next decade, according to the Centre for