PLASTIC FREE JULY

Imagine a world without plastic waste. Plastic Free July aims to raise awareness of the problems with single-use disposable plastic and challenges people to do something about it. The idea is to take small steps that could have a large impact, so start today as every little action helps.

Join the challenge and ‘Choose To Refuse’ single-use plastic during July. 

​You’ll be joining millions of people worldwide from 130 countries in making a difference.

The problem…
​Plastic bottles, bags and takeaway containers that we use just for a few minutes use a material that is designed to last forever. 

These plastics:

• Break up, not break down and become permanent pollution

• Are mostly downcycled (made into a low-grade product for just one more use) or sent to landfills

• ‘Escape’ from bins, trucks, events etc to become ‘accidental litter’

• End up in waterways and the ocean where scientists predict there will be more tonnes of plastic than tonnes of fish by 2050!

• Transfer to the food chain carrying pollutants with them

• Increase our eco-footprint, plastic manufacturing consumes 6% of the world’s fossil fuels

Every bit of plastic ever made still exists and in the first 10 years of this century, the world economy produced more plastic than the entire 1900s!

With solutions…
​​More than 6 out of 10 of us are already refusing plastic shopping bags, avoiding pre-packed fruit and veg, picking up other people’s litter and avoiding buying bottled water.

Choosing to be part of the solution, you can act by:

• Avoiding products in plastic packaging (choose alternatives)
• Reducing where possible (opt for refills, remember your reusable shopping bags)
• Refusing plastics that escape as litter (e.g. straws, takeaway cups, utensils, balloons)
• Recycling what cannot be avoided

Are you in for the Plastic Free July #choosetorefuse challenge? We hope so.