We're on the 6th day of Plastic-Free July, the yearly campaign initiated by the Plastic Free Foundation working towards the vision of a world free of plastic waste. From humble beginnings in 2011, the award-winning Plastic Free July campaign is the result of years of hard work. If this is the first time you've heard of it or completely forgot until now, it's not too late to take action! Get involved for free and see what a difference you can make! It's just the beginning and I really hope you'll continue beyond July once you realise how good it feels!
Trouble is, I do think the name puts people off from taking part in this awesome world-wide challenge. Although things are improving in the design of products and packaging we produce and consume, it would still be difficult for some people to go 100% plastic free depending on location and situation. In my next Eco Blog post I will be giving you some suggestions on how you can reduce how much plastic you consume without it costing the Earth (both metaphorically and literally).
But this month is NOT about completely cutting out plastic.
It's impossible to fail this challenge!
What it is about is making improvements in your lifestyle and breaking those plastic habits that you've not thought about in day-to-day life. Such as single-use plastic - use durable, reusable items instead, it makes such a difference!
The aim is to encourage you to make small changes and realise for yourself that it's so easy to find and use plastic-free alternatives that do the same job just as well, if not better! Small swaps really add up and work towards cutting out a lot of plastic from your cupboards, bins and the world that we so love to explore!
As long as you're making those improvements and breaking those plastic habits, you're doing it!
If you have to buy something in plastic packaging this month, don't let it get to you and don't give up thinking that you've failed. It's not about being perfect; heck, do it badly! We just want people to make the effort and realise how easy it can be nowadays! Just raise the awareness of the problem of single-use plastics and change habits, because the solutions are out there and are being designed, we just need to make use of them! The bigger we make the demand for eco-friendly alternatives, the more easily available and affordable they will be. We just need people to take the step and act on wanting to protect the planet we live on. I for one am done with going to beautiful places and finding it ruined by trash.
Solutions are out there and are being designed, we just need to make use of them!
Plastic Free Foundation have some great resources to get you started and you can even find events near you and quite often they're online now so you could even attend those in other countries! Or even start your own event if you want to bring something different to the table!
Below you can download a free PDF of their Action Picker to give you some ideas of what changes you can make this month and give you an idea of what impact you're making by doing it.
Thank you for reading this post and taking a step in the right direction!
The idea is to work towards being 100% plastic free, you don't have to jump in head first. If you can then that's awesome though!