This reusable bamboo cutlery lets you skip the single-use plastic

SeaLegacy sells kits containing bamboo cutlery, so you can skip the throw-away spork. Pam LeBlanc photo

Sometimes we pay too expensive a price for convenience.

Many of us rely on single-use plastics when we don’t really need them.

Do you really need that plastic bag at the store or can you just carry your purchases out in your hands? Do you really need that plastic straw or can you sip straight from the cup? Do you really need a disposable plastic bottle of water or can you fill a reusable container from the tap?

On my way back from a trip to the Dominican Republic to watch humpback whales recently, a fellow passenger pulled out a set of reusable bamboo utensils when we sat down for a snack at an airport café.

The kit, sold by SeaLegacy, comes with a knife, fork, spoon, chopsticks and straw made of bamboo and sells for $40. The company also sells sets of reusable six bamboo straws for $25, metal bento boxes and reusable water bottles. Proceeds from sales of the kits support the non-profit organization’s efforts to create healthy oceans.

The cutlery comes in this fabric pouch. Pam LeBlanc photo

Photographers Cristina Mittermeier and Paul Nicklen formed SeaLegacy in 2014 as a way to use their images to spur people to action. Today the non-profit organization is a collective of photographers, filmmakers and story tellers. You may have seen one of the collective’s images – a shot of a tiny seahorse, its tail wrapped around a pink plastic ear swab floating in the ocean.

It’s a reminder of how much of the single-use plastic we use in day-to-day life ultimately washes down rivers and into oceans, where it pollutes the environment and kills marine life that eats it or gets entangled in it.

By carrying reusable bamboo cutlery, you can skip the plastic disposable stuff handed out at fast food restaurants.

Check them out at www.sealegacy.org.