Plastic Free July

1st July 2018 Family Life, Personal

Plastic free July is basically a month-long challenge to try and either cut plastic completely from your lives, significantly reduce your use of it or as a minimum to become more aware of their consumption. The idea is to become more mindful of the plastic we use and do what we can to do our bit.

Governments may be (finally!) talking about it but at the end of the day, commerce is a consumer led industry therefore if all of us make very small chances such as using our own shopping bags and re-usable it can go a long way to telling companies what it is that we want from them. The simple fact is that if we keep continuing to use single use plastics, companies will continue to use it. As let’s face it, they care more about the £££ than our planet.

So, why not take the challenge? For me it’s not about cutting it out completely, as that’s almost impossible these days, but if everyone made a handful of small changes then that can make such a big difference. At the end of the day it’s our responsibility, no one else’s.

we don’t inherit this land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our grandchildren

Native American Proverb

STARTING SMALL

Any small change you are able to make will all add up and make a difference. Here are some suggestions of what you could do this July.

• Use bags for life
• Stop using single use straws
• Use re-usable drinks bottles
• Ensure you separate your waste to recycle it
• Invest in a re-usable coffee cup for outside the home
• Purchase loose fruit and veg in your weekly shop
• Switch to shampoo / conditioner / shower wash bars instead of bottles

If everyone chose only 1 or 2 items from this list, then it will start to make a difference. For us, we already do many of these things but there is always room for improvement. We already use bags for life and use re-usable drinks bottles. We have travel picnic sets which we keep in the kids bag so we never have to use convenience items such as single use plastic straws and cutlery. We recycle our waste where ever possible and upcycle donate anything we can. However, this month we are looking to take that one step further.

WHAT PLASTIC FREE JULY LOOKS LIKE FOR US

We still do not do anywhere near as much as we could. So, we are using plastic free July as an excuse to take a closer look at what we already do and take it one step further where we can. So, our pledges for the next month are to:

• Ensure we use re-usable coffee cups when we’re outside the house
• To ensure we do not use any plastic shopping bags for the whole month – we’re great for the food shop, but not so great with other kinds of shopping
• To switch to shampoo / conditioner bars once our current bottles run out
• To make better choices when shopping to ensure we choose items that do not use unnecessary packaging

You will notice that our challenge is about cutting out single use plastic as much as we can and taking our attempts at being plastic free to the next level and putting in a little more effort. For us, it’s not about cutting out all plastic as this is not feasible for us. Especially as Henry has a birthday in July and I have no doubt many of his toys will be plastic. Therefore, for us it’s about making sure that we get as much use of them as possible, and when he’s finished with them in a few years, making sure they are passed on rather than ending up in landfill.

So, there we have it. That’s what plastic free July will look like at Tippytupps HQ. Do you fancy joining in? What would your pledges be?