In this week’s video, I talked about why I am pursuing 1 Million Subscribers for Conservation on my YouTube Channel.
In that video, I gave the example of what would happen if 1,000,000 people in the United States stopped using plastic straws. It was a huge positive impact to say the least. In this video, I am going to show you 3 more items that are super simple to replace with reusable items. Doing this will save the environment and save you some money.
In addition, I’ll show you 4 more items that you can easily replace to help make even more of a positive impact and save you even more money.
Ok, here is the first item:
1. The Plastic Bag
In the United States alone, there are 102 Billion plastic bags used every year. It takes ~12 Million barrels of oil to produce that amount of plastic bags. There are approximately 329 Million people in the United States. That means that each person – assuming that everyone uses plastic bags instead of reusable bags – which we know is not true luckily – that’s ~310 bags used per person per year. If 1,000,000 people in the United States stopped using plastic bags for just 1 year, that would be 310,000,000 Million plastic bags less. That’s a lot of plastic bags!
Not to mention that in some states here in the US, you get charged on average $0.10 per plastic bag. That’s $31 per year. So if you switch to reusable plastic bags you are saving the environment and money.
2. Plastic Water Bottles
Americans throw away over 38 Billion water bottles each year. That’s the equivalent of ~912 Million gallons of oil. While lots of people use reusable water bottles as often as they can, let’s use the 329 Million number again to get a starting number: That’s ~116 plastic bottles used per person per year. If 1,000,000 people in the United States stopped using plastic water bottles for just 1 year, that would be 116,000,000 Million plastic bottles less. That’s a lot of plastic bottles!
On average a plastic water bottle costs $1.45 which would save each person $168.20 per year.
3. K-Cups
Approximately 20 Million Households in the US have a Keurig machine. On average let’s say that at least 2 people live in these homes and each person brews 2 cups of coffee per day. That’s ~40,000,000 people who use ~80,000,000 K-Cups per day in the United States. That’s ~29,200,000,000 K-Cups per year. If 1,000,000 people in the United States used a reusable K-Cup for just 1 year, that would be 1,460,000,000 Billion K-Cups less. That’s a lot of K-Cups!
On average a K-Cup costs $1 a piece which would save each person $730 per year.
Here are a few more items that you can replace and how much money they will save you per year:
Let me know in the comments below what ways that you personally save money while saving the environment. Feel free to leave links to your favorite, sustainable products.