Living by the ocean for most of my life and on the planet for all of my years, I have seen a lot of things end up at the beach that really don't belong there.

Yes, there are the styrofoam chunks and the occasional tennis shoe or foreign shampoo bottles mixed in with the rare and hard to find blue glass floats. However, the bulk of detritus circulating the sand is plastic; from shopping bags, food lids, and baggies to household garbage.

There are also little bits of blue and red- every color of plastic, really- washing up and nestling into the sand until the next tide flushes them out to sea. And they break into smaller and smaller pieces, but they always remain plastic.
It's these tiny fragments of petroleum that are eaten by birds and other wildlife (especially the red pieces because this color looks more like natural food sources than the other deceptive plastic colors).

Soda rings find their way around the necks and bodies of sea animals while fish and large swimming mammals mistake plastic baggies for food, eventually clogging their digestive systems and causing fatal starvation. Food webs are threatened and environments are littered and it's just not the way it should be.

Beyond this, there are problems with consuming so many disposable plastic bags. Did you know that the average family uses 500 plastic bags each year for lunches? Where do they all go? Overburdened disposal sites. But for baggies that don't make it into a trash receptacle, they may find their way into the environment and water sources (like our oceans!) creating hazards for wildlife.

What is more, links have been made between plastic food storage and endocrine disrupting chemicals such as BPA and phthalates. Wrapping food in plastic is risky for your health.

At Wild & Earthy, I see the need for change and I think tackling plastic head-on is a good place to start. Food storage should be about more than momentary convenience. Environmental and health impacts should definitely be a part of the shopping equation.

So this business was started to give people another choice for their lunchboxes, refrigerators, and food-keeping needs. Beeswax and organic cotton have become the materials of choice for an earth-conscious food storage solution. So ditch the plastic for some reusable, biodegradable beeswax; the earth-loving solution to plastic free food-keeping I thank you, and so does our Earth.