Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already in the oceans, and by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Some 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually, and it's getting worse every year. Americans are said to use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. -- CNN
This preys on me, and I do everything I can to minimize my contribution to this mess. But it feels woefully inadequate.
- Recycle everything my town recycles: paper, plastic marked recyclable, foil...
- Drink my water from the tap
- I won't purchase one of those (Keurig) one-serving hot drinks gadgets until they figure out how to make the containers recyclable
Boycott restaurants that use unrecyclable plastic or styrofoam takeout containers
- Bury as much organic waste as I can in a makeshift compost pit in my backyard
- Buy products with eco-friendly packaging (if I'm splurging for gourmet ice cream, I spring for Lizzy's or Haggen Daz (paper packaging) over Talenti (plastic container)
- Of course bring cloth shopping bags to the grocery store
- Recycle dead lightbulbs at Home Depot, dead electronics to Staples, and plastic bags at my supermarket
In a world in which there are so many scary things going on and so little sanity, is this something you worry about? What else can I be doing? And what can I do with all the bubble wrap and styrofoam I end up with much as I try not to?
JENN MCKINLAY: My parents raised me to be a hardcore environmentalist so, yes, this preys on me as well.
I recycle everything I possibly can. I compost. I buy things with as little packaging as possible. And I limit the amount of water my shower-loving Hooligans are allowed to use. They have been hearing, "Shut off the water, we live in a desert!" since they were old enough to reach the tap by themselves. We are pretty good about not making extra garbage. For four of us, we usually only have to take out one bag of garbage per week. That being said, I have no idea what more can be done. It never seems like enough.
As for the styrofoam and bubble wrap - I try very hard to reuse it all.
LUCY BURDETTE: yes yes yes! We do our best as well, and when I slip up (as in wanting to turn on the AC,) John reminds me that I am the environmentalist LOL.
We have a vegetable garden, we don't allow pesticides there or on our lawn, we recycle like mad, we compost. In fact I've been composting for 40 years. Our daughter Molly likes to razz me out how I made them take the guinea pig litter and dump it out in a pit in the yard, rather than throw it out.
But I too hate seeing those stories about the floating islands of plastic out in the ocean. And things like the coral reef dying off.
RHYS BOWEN: I have taken the granddaughters to visit the local
seal sanctuary and it's heartbreaking to see sea creatures who have become caught up with plastic floating in the ocean. I just read that a big threat is the micro plastic particles that break off from synthetic clothing during washing and wind up in our oceans. We recycle and can dispose of food waste in our green bin. And no 
plastic bags at the stores!INGRID THOFT: We live in Seattle, which tends to be ahead of the curve in terms of recycling and eco-friendly practices. The city banned plastic bags some time ago, and I'm always amazed when I travel to find stores still using them!
We live in a high rise, but have access to recycling and composting barrels, so we try to make the most of them. We recently had our lightbulbs swapped for LEDs, which the city utility company did for free. One of my quandaries is that I love to take baths, which I know uses a lot of water. Is a bathless future the only responsible option? I hope not!
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, sigh. I recycle like mad, plastic and
There are boxes of used bubble wrap from stuff that was sent to us in our basement which I reuse (and feel so virtuous, plus that I don't have to buy it) And I hold back on dry cleaning.
We turn off the lights like crazy, do not have AC except for one window unit and in the winter our house is RIDICULOUSLY cold. But I miss plastic bags. I know--I'll get used to it.
The thing that makes me the angriest--wasting food. You cannot believe what I do to not throw food away. But that may be another blog.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Yes, I recycle like mad. Our city does bin recycle pick-up, thank goodness, and we have a separate container in the kitchen. We had a party recently and afterwards I was digging glass beer bottles out of the regular trash!
A couple of years ago, we invested in replacing all our light bulbs (which is A LOT. Big house, and I'm a lamp fanatic) with LEDs. It was huge investment but I'm glad we did it. We don't do as well as some of you on the AC, because this is Texas, and our house is old and leaky. But we have programmable thermostats and I think that's been a big improvement.
However, I get a big X on the composting. Hubby has never wanted me to compost, because we--how do I say this delicately--have a big problem with RODENTS in our neighborhood. Our property was so infested when we bought it that we called our shed (the old garage) the Rat House. Now, I think I'm going to insist on a rotating composter, which should be varmit proof, AND one of those fermenting bucket systems. So cool.
Has anyone tried those? Sort of pre-composti
HALLIE: I have a compost bucket on my kitchen counter. I toss all manner of vegetable waste in it, take it out and bury it in my backyard. I monitor for rodents. If I put it deep enough and cover with grass clippings they seem not to know it's there. I'm not clever enough to garden with it.
More tips for being a good citizen of planet Earth? Pet peeves? Share!
