Lakewood is a walking community. This is very good for the environment by itself, but imagine if there were local plastic reducing grocery stores. Around 300 million tons of plastic are used each year worldwide; these numbers are scary and have a large impact on the environment and futures of the people. Lakewood could be a city trying to put their part in to help these numbers go down.
Using reusable bags such as tote bags more often for grocery shopping and starting more grocery stores with reusable containers in Lakewood could be the first step to make the world a cleaner and safer place. Most families go grocery shopping anywhere from 1-4 times a week; so much plastic could be avoided if stores have the option of using reusable containers. Stores such as Marc’s and Giant Eagle could have containers for things like vegetables, fruits, grains, spices and many more that people can go in and fill instead of getting a new plastic one each grocery trip.
Plastic doesn’t disintegrate very quickly; it can take up to 1000 years. This is a huge problem because plastic is harming people and the planet. It is disturbing the food chain, killing animals, producing toxic chemicals and polluting the air, not to mention it is very expensive to clean up. It may not seem like adding these features will make a huge difference on the increasing pollution problem, but every person who puts effort in to help makes an impact. Lakewood can make the world one step closer to being a cleaner and better place.