Senior Care in Wake Forest NC

If you are like many shoppers, you do not think twice about those plastic bags that they hand you at the end of your transaction. They are a convenient way to carry your groceries and can even feel useful in that they help to keep your cold items colder. The truth, however, is that plastic bags are a tremendous source of pollution and strain on the natural environment. Avoiding using them is an important step in doing your parent to guard the environment and reduce pollution, as well as reduce costs by diminishing the need for bag production.

July 3 is International Plastic Bag Free Day. This is the perfect opportunity for you and your aging loved one to learn more about plastic bags and to adopt techniques to make your shopping habits greener. Some things that you should know about plastic bags include:

Approximately one million plastic shopping bags are used each minute throughout the world
Each year people throughout the United States through away approximately one billion plastic grocery bags
The average family in the United States uses approximately 1500 plastic grocery bags each year
At least 12 million barrels of oil are used each year just to produce the plastic grocery bags used in the United States
Plastic bags are treacherous to marine life and because they can take 1000 years to break down, they can reenter the environment posing further hazard even after an animal that ingests the bag dies.

There are many ways that you can encourage your parent to be a greener shopper. Some of these include:

Bring your own bags. Simply having bags with you will mean that you do not need to bring home the plastic bags from the grocery store. Making reusable totes is a simple and fun project that you can do with your elderly parent or that they can do with the help of a senior care provider. That way they can bring their own bags to the store and not walk out with plastic they will throw away.
Buy in bulk. When your parent purchases items in bulk sizes they are helping both the environment and their budget. Buying these large sizes means that they do not have to purchase several small sizes. This reduces packaging use and the number of bags that they would consume if they did not bring their own.
Reuse bags. If your parent does not use their own reusable grocery totes and ends up with plastic grocery bags in their house, encourage them to reuse them. They can replace small trash bags, make litter cleanup easier, or even act as a creative stuffing for decorative pillows and other items.

A senior care provider can be extremely beneficial in helping your aging parent to do their part to take care of the earth. Not only is this good for the environment and will help to preserve the beauty and health of nature for future generations, but it can be a powerful way to support your parent’s mental and emotional health as well. By feeling as though they are an active part of their community and that they are doing something that is truly beneficial, they feel accomplished and relevant, which can encourage them to live a higher quality of life as they age in place.