I feel like I'm pretty diligent when it comes to recycling, especially with plastic and cardboard. It has never been easier as we now have single stream recycling where I live. I make an effort to recycle everything that I use, even sometimes to the annoyance of my family members; but most weeks we have about twice the amount in the recycling bins as trash (by volume).

However, one area where I could certainly improve is consumption; I love frozen drinks, especially in the summer, but even in the winter. Frozen drinks, including coffee drinks have become my most major food weakness. There's something about the texture and the micro ice I can crunch. Unless I make them at home, which I rarely do, these drinks all come in single use plastic or paper cups and all come with straws. I didn't find out until just recently how hard it is to recycle plastic straws, and how many are used daily in the United States. Because they are hard to recycle, most recycling companies filter them back into landfills, where they contribute to a daily volume that would fill 127 school buses every day.

Today is the start of the One Less Straw pledge campaign. https://onelessstraw.org/ Check it out and consider reducing your impact by using re-useable straws and taking the pledge. I have heard good reviews of metal straws, especially for frozen drinks, so that is where I will be looking, but glass, bamboo and even paper are also friendlier alternatives to plastic.

In a perfect world I would make my frozen drinks at home where I can better control the ingredients and caloric value, but also eliminate the paper and plastic cups and straws I use. I pledge to work hard on this!