Plastic is everywhere in the laundry detergent aisle at your local grocery store. Everywhere you look, big, colorful plastic jugs and bottle containers are begging for your attention and money. Not only are these containers hard to carry home and store once you get them to your laundry room, but they're also very side effects on the environment and make up a big part of the plastic pollution that comes from our homes. Surprisingly, 68% of high-density polyethylene plastic jugs like a dispenser for dishwashing liquid are not recycled properly after they are used. But the problem with a plastic jug doesn't start at the end of its life. It starts at the beginning. Plastic pollution is a problem that is getting worse quickly. Plastic bottles and jugs made of high-density polyethylene are common in grocery stores, but they are rarely recycled the right way. Plastic pollution has side effects that start before these plastic jugs are even made and continue long after they have been used and thrown away.
- Factories that make things
As soon as the plastic is made, its bad effects on the environment start. The first step in making plastic is usually to get the oil out. Crude oil is a nonrenewable resource, which means that there is a very limited amount of it and it is being used up much faster than it can be replaced. 
When petroleum is taken from between the layers of the Earth's crust to make plastic, there is a chance of oil spills or oil fires, which add to waste and pollution. Once the oil has been taken out, it is sent to a refinery to be distilled. Because there is a lot of demand for plastic, large amounts of oil have to be shipped all over the world, which takes a lot of transportation. This burns fossil fuels and releases greenhouse gases, making more waste and pollution before the plastic has even been made. In order to make high-density polyethylene, ethylene gas is made through a process called "cracking." The ethylene gas then binds together to form polymers, which make the strong polyethylene that can be shaped into a laundry detergent jug. After the HDPE plastic is made, it is sent to a factory that makes and packages bottles for a second time. Once the jugs are made, they are sent to be filled with laundry detergent. After that, they go to the grocery store shelves where we see them.
- Your Residence
Once you buy the HDPE plastic jug of detergent, you use it until it's empty and then throw it away so you can buy another one. Even though HDPE plastic is 100% recyclable and you might think that putting them in the recycling bin will solve the problem, only 30% of these jugs are actually recycled.
- Recycle
In 2018, 68,000 shipping containers full of recyclable plastics were sent to countries with poor waste management. Not only is it hard for these developing countries to handle their own recycling, but they also have to deal with more than a million tons of trash from the United States every year. 
In 2015, only 9% of the plastic in the U.S. was recycled the right way, and the rest was put in landfills to break down over hundreds of years.
- Garbage dumps, the oceans, and burning
If you don't recycle your jugs, they will end up in one of three places: the ocean, a landfill, or a furnace. Plastic in each of these three stops is a very big problem for the environment. Oceans: Each year, 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean, which is more than 80% of all the trash in the ocean. When people throw plastic into the ocean, it stays there for a very long time. Over time, the plastic jug will break up into tiny pieces of microplastics. When these tiny pieces of plastic get into the ocean, they hurt many species and make our food unsafe to eat. Covering our oceans with plastic also has a big effect on our climate, since plastic traps sunlight to make our oceans warmer and picks up toxic pollutants that stick to their surface. Landfills: Plastic jugs can take up to 500 years to break down when they end up in a landfill. That means there will be a lot of plastic jugs around for a very long time. Plastic jugs will leak pollutants into the soil and groundwater while they are in landfills. This could lead to contamination. Some of the plastic jugs will end up in incinerators where they will be burned. Even though this process is thought to release fewer greenhouse gases than landfills, it still releases toxic pollutants like carbon dioxide and mercury, and it uses energy that can't be replaced. 
What You Can Do? An HDPE laundry detergent jug has a long lifecycle for a product that is only used for a very small amount of its life. Also, it's clear that recycling isn't the solution. So, what can you do to cut back on plastic waste in your laundry room? Dropps is a way to do laundry in a more environmentally friendly way. Our packaging is made so that we use less single-use plastic. Our detergent pods are sent right to your door in boxes that can be recycled, broken down, or put back together again. Our packaging can also be used as a shipping box, so there is no waste. So far, we've helped keep over 1.2 million single-use plastic containers from going into our oceans. The best thing to do with the plastic jugs you already have at home is to find new uses for them. You can use these plastic jugs to make a lot of different things around your house so they don't end up in our oceans. Think of a watering can for a garden, a place to store leftover paint, or a scooper for pet food. This could be a fun way to get the whole family involved in do-it-yourself projects that make life easier and are better for the environment.