MALIBU, Calif. – The amount of single-use plastics used in everyday products like plastic cutlery, small plastic windows on pasta box packaging, and plastic water bottles is a concern for Julie Andersen.

“Even though it’s a small amount of plastic you don’t need the window, the plastic window here,” Andersen said.

Most cardboard-based product packaging would be more easily recycled, according to Andersen, if the packaging didn’t include a clear plastic window that is used to show potential buyers the product inside. For the last seven years, Andersen’s career with Plastic Oceans International helped her make strides in reducing the amount of plastic her family uses.

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“I had this impression that they were going somewhere and they were being managed and turned into something else. And then, when I realized that more than 50 percent of the plastic I use, the single-use plastic, those things were going straight into the landfill or being burnt,” Andersen said.

Now, she is hoping companies will do the same when it comes to their packaging by reducing the amount of plastic waste created. Currently, Plastic Oceans International has an Act on Plastic petition in support of Senate Bill 54 and Assembly Bill 1080.

If those bills are passed, it would require manufacturers to reduce 75 percent of their single-use packaging by 2030 in California and create new packaging that would result in less waste. It is a step Andersen believes will lead to less trash and plastic in our oceans and the environment.

“I was grateful when I learned about it and now I feel that it’s only appropriate to share that information with others and I think that’s what we all do. None of us are intentionally trying to hurt others or hurt the planet or the environment but it’s a lack of knowing that keeps us from changing our ways,” Andersen said.

Until then, she will continue to find ways to reduce her carbon footprint in hopes of inspiring others.