Bonnie Wright Advocates for Eliminating Single-Use Plastics

Bonnie Wright, who has long identified as an activist, recently spoke with Shaman Durek of the lifestyle website mindbodygreen to talk about the connections between spirituality and environmental activism.

Wright talked about the relationship between human life and the four elements.

The four elements are air, fire, water, [and] earth. I find when discussing issues like this, it can sometimes get overcomplicated, but quite simply we all have a relationship and a connection to these elements. We walk on the earth; we breathe the air; we drink water; we light fire to cook our food. Without knowing it, we are in touch with the elements all the time. It doesn’t have to be this overly romantic relationship; it’s just part of our every day. From the beginning of time, we have taken joy from this interaction, too.

She also talked about societal emphasis on convenience, which prevents consumers from making environmentally conscious decisions.

To be conscious means that you have bothered to take a moment to think about something before doing it. But too often we don’t allow ourselves time to make informed choices. I get upset with myself when I realize I’ve made choices absent-mindedly. We live in a world where we can say to ourselves, ‘I’m thirsty, and I want a drink. OK, I’ve got my bottled water now; I’m good.’ We don’t maybe stop for a second to think, ‘I’m thirsty…but I’ll be home in 20 minutes. I’ll just drink some water when I get home.’ I think we have this ingrained thought process that anything we want we can have right now. And we don’t stop to think, do we actually need it? We have lost touch with how to distinguish needs from wants, which has sadly led us to abuse Earth for the sake of momentary convenience. It’s not sustainable. I guess that takes you back to the ego, really.

Wright asserted that making more conscious choices is a great way to support the issues most important to you.

We have lost touch with the fact that the choices we make are everything we have. We earn money, and no matter what that figure is, we all have the power daily to decide where we spend it. And if you are passionate about issues like the environment, your actions can reflect that.

One environmentally conscious action that Wright advocates is reducing single-use plastics. She believes keeping this issue at the forefront is crucial to changing the way people interact with plastics and harm the environment.

If we all considered single-use plastic uncool, then we would speak that into reality. If we make it very black and white and say NO to all single-use plastics, we turn the tide. I really do think it is shifting, but we do need to shift more and make sure our choices always reflect our beliefs.

One way Wright has cut back on single-use plastics is by using a toothpaste packaged in glass. How can you reduce your own consumption of single-use plastics?