Plastic Free July: We can do something!

What plastic could you eliminate from your life: water bottles, coffee cups, food containers, straws, packaging, bags, restaurant leftover containers? It’s easy to get complacent and just accept the fact that plastic is everywhere in our lives – but we can start by eliminating at least one thing for one month.

👉 Go to plasticfreejuly.org, take the pledge, and (scroll down to) get ideas for other ways you could cut down on plastic. Whatever you do, it will help and it is important. Get creative – you may think of lots of ways.

For the last two years, lots of UUCC folks participated. Some figured out how to have picnics without plastics, others worked on less plastic at parties or remembering their durable water bottles or taking their shopping bags into the store with them. Still others worked on ways to cut down on plastics at work.

Why is this important?

Billions of tons of the plastic we’ve produced still exists somewhere in the world. Plastic pollution is building up in our oceans, throughout our natural environment and even in the stomachs of our precious wildlife. Recycling is not effective –  we can’t just recycle our way out of the plastic issue.

The growing rate of plastic production is contributing to waste and pollution issues, it’s impacting our health, and it’s threatening our oceans and wildlife and it’s greatly contributing to global warming as at every step of its lifecycle from fossil fuel to fork.

• We go through 10 billion plastic bags worldwide every week
• Plastics don’t break down, they break up, becoming a permanent pollutant in our environment
• Microplastics have been reported in food for human consumption. The average person could be eating up to 5 grams of plastic a week.
• Microplastics may also be inhaled and have been found in human organs and revealed in the placentas of unborn babies [3]
• Toxic chemicals such as phthalates and BPA are present in the plastic foods packaging

Threat to oceans and wildlife

• 8 million tonnes of plastic pollution enters our oceans each year
• It’s estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish
• More than 270 marine species are affected by marine debris [6] through ingestion, entanglement and chemical contamination
• In the next 30 years, 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastic
• Abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) represents a major sea-based source of marine debris in the worlds oceans

Recycling plastic is not enough

• Only 9% of our plastic has been recycled, and only 10% of that has been recycled more than once

For more information contact:
Dina Boogaard, dboogaard@outlook.com
Robin Hessey rmhessey@gmail.com