Plastic is everywhere. It’s in our shoes and our chewing gum. Look at all these items one Twitter user found that use plastic:
We all use plastic in so many parts of our daily lives. Unfortunately, that means plastic is also in our oceans. Plastic disturbs coral reefs, harms sea creatures, and clutters our planet.
So, what can we do to fix this problem with plastic?
Since nearly half of plastic floating in our oceans is single-use plastic, recycling doesn’t work. In fact, we only recycle an average of 9% of all plastic used in the United States. Even when people do recycle, the reused plastic becomes a lesser quality material. A water bottle, for example, becomes a straw instead of another water bottle. Eventually, all plastic just becomes waste. This means that in order to have less plastic, we must stop using it.
This is exactly why Australian-based non-profit The Plastic Free Foundation started Plastic-Free July.
Essentially, Plastic Free July is a “personal challenge that’s part of a global effort.” The goal of the challenge is to reduce or eliminate the amount of single-use plastic in our lives. This year, the campaign is urging people to join on the “choose to reuse” train.
Plastic Free July’s website provides excellent tips to help you find ways to make the difficult, but important, switch to reusable or plastic-free options. If you sign up to participate in the challenge, you receive motivational emails and additional resources to help your plastic-free efforts end successfully.
This year, 120 million people joined the Plastic Free July campaign, which means refusing plastic is not only the responsible thing to do, but everyone’s doing it!
Although the month is nearly over, it’s never too late to give the plastic-free lifestyle a try.
After all, just think of all the pretty instagrammable morning cups of coffee in mason jars you can snap!
Feature Image by Fernando Maté on Unsplash
