Plastic Free July

Plastic free!… now that is an idea I love!  What is it? How do you do it?

“The challenge is quite simple...attempt to refuse single-use plastic during July.

Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the amount of single-use disposable plastic in our lives and challenges people to do something about it. You can sign up for a day, a week or the whole month and try to refuse ALL single-use plastic or try the TOP 4: plastic bags, water bottles, takeaway coffee cups and straws.

Join thousands of people from over 70 countries saying NO to single-use plastic this July.”  From: Plastic Free July.  

"Think about it...why would you make something that you are going to use for a few minutes out of a material that's basically going to last forever. What's up with that?"  - Jeb Berrier, BagIt movie.

So why refuse, why not just recycle?

Currently only 5-10% of the plastics produced are recycled, 50% end up in landfill and a lot of the rest ends up in our waterways and oceans.  

“Every piece of plastic ever produced still remains somewhere in the earth today. In the last half of the 20th century over 1 billion tonnes of plastic was produced. This figure has already doubled in the first ten years of this century (Scientific American).”

But how? Here are some ideas I use in my own life.

1. Plastic Bags.  I use reusable shopping bags.  I have lots of them strategically located near my bike, near the car keys, in the car, in my bags.  I make sure I always have one with me by hanging one (which packs into it’s own little pocket) from the outside of my handbag.  That way it is ‘in sight and in mind’.  For grocery shopping I take my reusable bags with me.  For market/fresh produce shopping I take a stash of plastic fruit and vege bags with me and reuse them until they fall apart.  Once I’ve run out of those I will move to using lightweight fabric/net bags for my fruit and vege.  When I get home I unpack my fruit and vege and then put the bags back into the stash with my market basket, ready to use again.
2. Water Bottles.  I’m tight, I don’t like to buy water.  But I do like to drink a lot of it.  Solution: strategically located reusable water bottles: in my handbag, on my bikes, in the car, in my gym bag, in the kids lunchboxes, etc.
3. Takeaway coffee cups.  Drink mindfully! - try and make your coffee break a real break, sit in the cafe, take time to enjoy your coffee from a reusable cup.  If you have to grab and run, keep your own travel cup in the car (a stash of them if need be; you can nearly always find them at the salvos.  Many of them are thermal and will keep your hot drink warm too!  If you end up with disposable cups, then use them for planting seedlings ready for your spring garden.
4. Straws.  Yes these are fun, and my kids will tell you everything tastes better with a straw.  So here is how to kill two birds with one stone.  Get those reusable shaped crazy novelty straws.  Tell your kids the only way to keep them clean and healthy for reuse is to only drink water from them.  Voila, no plastic straw waste and kids are drinking the best drink of all!
5. ClingWrap, Food packets, Zip Lock Bags.  These often lurk in lunchboxes, then blow around the playground, then get washed down the drain, into the stream, then into the ocean.  But at least your kids get lunch treats that you missed out on right?  And you save at least two whole minutes every morning.  Yes, rant rant, I hate food in little packets, and next to that I hate glad wrap and plastic bags.  There is a whole world of ideas out there to help you achieve a rubbish free lunch box.  And whilst you are at it, you could knock a fair bit of sugar and salt out of their diets too.  Next year obesity is set to overtake smoking as the nation's biggest health problem.  Don’t set your kids up for a life of weight watching; get them used to healthy eating now!  Remember it was party/treat food for a reason - because it is lovely to have sometimes!  Check out this post for ideas.  And Eastern Hutt Schools EnviroKids have some great observations and suggestions also:

So whether it is islands of plastic trash in our oceans visible from space, beautiful sea creatures tangled in and poisoned by plastic, concern for renewable resources, or your own health concerns; you have plenty of reasons to nudge your comfort zone, stretch your convenience muscles and power up your positivity and try out a plastic free July.  And hopefully you will form a fabulous new habit or five!

And here is a school holiday idea: Grab some buckets or sacks and head for your local beach, park or riverbank.  Pick up us much rubbish as you can: maybe make it a race of contest with prizes.  Talk about where the rubbish comes from.