We're about half way through the year. It's a great time to look back at how we're doing with personal sustainability goals from January, and to get re-energized about reducing our individual carbon footprints.
Plastic Free July will help you to meet those resolutions and get excited about going green. PFJ is an organization dedicated to reducing the amount of single use plastic that we use. They work in 177 countries with millions of participants taking their challenge to refuse single-use plastics.
In this newsletter, we'll break down everything you need to know about plastic pollution. We'll also give you simple steps to recognize and reduce your plastic use. By the end of the month, we hope that you will have joined us and succeeded in cutting out single-use plastic products from one area of your life!
Let's get started.
What is single-use plastic?
Single-use plastic is exactly what it sounds like - it's plastic you only use once before throwing it away. Still, it can be hard to identify all of the places where you can find this plastic. Single-use plastic often comes in the form of packaging like for many food and hygiene products. Straws, bags, utensils, and bottles are very common plastic items many of us use every day.
Where can you reduce your plastic consumption?
Once you start to see it, plastic is part of almost every experience we have during the day. Cutting plastic cold turkey is nearly impossible. That's why we suggest you start by eliminating one kind of single-use plastic at a time. Maybe this month you try to by plastic free cleaning products. Maybe you only shop from stores that use recycled packaging. Try to identify a small goal to start. For example, eliminating groceries with plastic packaging is very difficult, but eliminating produce with plastic packaging is much easier.
How can we help?
Now that you've chosen what kind of plastic you want to ditch, you might be asking how. The best way to get over a bad habit is to replace it with a good one. Are you cutting back on paper towels? Invest in some reusable cloth ones. Losing plastic produce bags? Grab a shopping basket and a bowl for displaying your fruits at home. Done with plastic party decorations? Try accumulating a stock of festive décor. It will save you (and the earth) in the long run.
