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The next step after knowing that plastics are not good for the environment and yourself is to start to avoid plastic products. So first of all it is almost impossible to avoid plastic hundred percent. Here are a few ideas how you can start having a plastic-free lifestyle.

The maybe easiest thing is to abstain from plastic bags. You don’t need to take every time you go shopping and in every shop a new plastic bags for your items. Just take your own bag with you. You may even save money because some shops require money for a bag.

Another easy thing is trying to avoid items which are packed in plastic. Sometimes there are different Options for the same product, some are packed in plastic, some aren’t. So just take the one without. Another advantage is that you are supporting those products without plastics.

Don’t use new plastic bottles. Don’t buy every time you go outside a new water bottle. Just have one consist out of glass or even out of non-toxic plastic and take it with you. And again you can even save money.

If you often go to Starbucks or to a similar coffee shop don’t take every time another plastic mug, but bring your own reusable mug with you. Starbucks for example has his own reusable mug that you can buy for little money and you can save 30 cents for every ordered drink. You would save tons of rubbish if you will do this a while.

As an alternative to the supermarket is buying your fruits and vegetables from your local farmers market. If berries, cherry tomatoes and Co. are still in packed in plastic boxes, just take you own reusable box with you or buy the products once in the plastic boxes and bring them every time again.

To avoid micro plastics, try to use only natural make up and care products. Micro plastics are especially often unnatural peeling products. Just check out different brands which produce natural make up and care products. It’s even better for your skin.

Those are only a few options to avoid plastics but they are probably the easiest one. So everyone could do something to reduce the amaount of plastic use.

There are many definitions about sustainability likewise with the definition of sustainable development. The most popular one is the Brundtland definition from 1987. It was made by a commission of the UN and was in the final report, which leaded to many international discussions: “Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Even if this definition refers to sustainable development, the message is very similar. Generalized we can say that sustainability is the ability to continue a habit defined behavior indefinitely. That means taking from the earth only what it can provide indefinitely and leaving the future generations no less than we have for ourselves.
The main difference between sustainability and sustainable development is that sustainability describes a goal in the future, for example a sustainable world. Sustainable development describes the steps we have to go to reach this goal, like education on this issue, sustainable forestry and agriculture.

Talking about a sustainability issue, we often only think about environmental problems. So if something is “green” or “bio”, it is automatically sustainable, because it is good for nature, isn´t it? But something sustainable has to combine three different factors. They are often called the three pillars of sustainability: The economic, social and environmental pillars. If one pillar is not working, the whole system is unsustainable. So when we are thinking about a solution for a sustainability issue, we have to ask ourselves, if it fits for the economic, social and the environmental needs.