Single-use

Single-use plastic bags present a suffocation risk to marine animals just like humans:

Matthew Spiegl: Frivolous Challenge: Nation's Most Progressive Plastic Bag Ban in Peril Matthew Spiegl 2012

Single-use plastics are becoming recognized not only as an eyesore that litters our nation, but as threats to public health as they have entered our food chain both directly, through leaching their chemicals into food and drink, and indirectly, as plastic pollution is consumed by marine life in our lakes, rivers and oceans.

Lisa Kaas Boyle: Move Over Joe Camel -- Plastics Lobby Targets Kids in Textbooks Lisa Kaas Boyle 2011

Single-use plastic bags present a suffocation risk to marine animals just like humans:

Matthew Spiegl: Frivolous Challenge: Nation's Most Progressive Plastic Bag Ban in Peril Matthew Spiegl 2012

Single-use plastic bags have been documented by deep sea submersibles floating like ghosts under the ocean and are a staple source of pollution in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch 1,000 miles off the coast of California.

Lisa Kaas Boyle: 25-Foot Turtle Stumps for Plastic Bag Ban 2010

Single-use plastic bottles are convenient, and that convenience has come with some pretty hefty downsides.

Graham Hill: Ode to a (Reusable) Water Bottle 2009

Single-use, alkaline batteries are harder to recycle.

Robyn Griggs Lawrence: Five Items You Should Always Recycle 2009

Single-use cameras are a particularly good example of the practice: Not only are they cheap to spruce up, they can be rebuilt as many as 10 times after customers drop them off.

In With the Old John A. Pearce II 2008

Single-use items such as tongue depressors, bandages, adhesive tape, urinary catheters and breathing tubes are discarded after one use.

Hospitals Reuse 2008

"Single-use labeling is a real scam for a lot of devices, and by not using reprocessed devices where possible it is wasteful and not environmentally responsive, since these items have to be disposed of as biomedical waste," says Kenneth Kizer,

Hospitals Reuse 2008

Single-use cards themed to an event (think a backyard grill for Memorial Day) cost $20, while an annual subscription with unlimited use of all the cards is $150.

Technology That Can Help With a Home Sale 2008