Plastic Free July is here – Join millions of people across the globe reducing their plastic waste.
Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. The emphasis of the challenge is to encourage individuals, families, businesses and governments to choose to refuse single-use plastics.
About the challenge
Plastic Free July brings everyone together for a concerted effort each July, and provides resources and ideas to help us (and millions of others around the world) reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work, school, and even at our local cafés, bars and restaurants. So far, the Plastic Free July movement has inspired an estimated 326 million participants in 177 countries. Whilst much of the lobbying is of governments and manufacturers, us making a small change will collectively make a massive difference to our communities. Everyone is encouraged to choose to refuse single-use plastics in July and beyond, and best of all, being part of Plastic Free July will help us all to find great alternatives that can become new habits forever.
There are some really simple ways to have an instant personal impact on the amount of single use plastic in circulation, and as you can see from the graphics below, the following pledges are easy to both make and keep:
The Plastic Free July campaign is also stressing that whilst the recycling schemes available to us are becoming much more convenient and comprehensive than ever before – preventing millions more pieces of plastic going to landfill each year, recycling should be the LAST of the three R’s: REDUCE – RESUSE – RECYCLE. Reducing and reusing as our priorities are the best ways to lessen the need for the manufacture of plastic products in the first place. There are lots of free resources available on the Plastic Free July website, including an e-newsletter subscription that brings tips and ideas to your home, work, or school inbox: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/take-the-challenge/
Breaking the Circle
Whilst we are focusing on plastic in this article, please can we also take the opportunity to reinforce the ‘break the cycle’ message – this concerns ensuring we are cutting the rings on plastic six-pack packaging and on carrier bags before we put them for recycling. This makes sure that if these find their way into the environment due to wind etc, wildlife cannot become ensnared.