These items have an average life span of 15 minutes before being thrown 'away.'
The hardest part of the single-use plastic battle is the magnitude of plastics we only use for a few minutes to eat, carry stuff, or package things. These items have an average life span of 15 minutes before being thrown 'away.' Only for plastics, there is no such thing as 'away.' Plastics can take 500 + years to degrade. Even then, they are not 'away'; they break down into microplastics which we end up ingesting through our food, water, and air. 50% of the plastic problem in the ocean is disposable plastic like plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway containers, cups, and straws. Single-use plastics are a relatively easy problem to combat. Proactively say NO.