Plastic Free July is here!
Plastic Free July is a movement that started in Australia but has moved to become a global movement and is now in its 12th year!
For the month of July, we will be sharing plastic stats and plastic reduction tips on social media! As well as some fun giveaways from us and Planet Pantry to help you get motivated to reduce your plastic use! Follow along with us! ♻️
Here are some reusable switches you can make to help get you started:
- use a reusable water bottle
- bring cutlery from home (or invest in a reusable cutlery set) instead of single-use takeout cutlery
- use reusable shopping bags
- bring your lunch from home instead of buying takeout
- use a multi-use mason jar! can be used for drinks on the go or takeout food
You can join the challenge, and learn more about Plastic Free July here: https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/
Join the millions of people around the globe working towards a more sustainable future! ♻️
I feel similar to Helene Warkentin. I’ve already been doing all this my whole life; every list of tips is old news. What we need is to get everyone ELSE doing these things. What will accomplish that the quickest is for PRODUCERs/VENDORs to begin facilitating this so that reuse is NORMAL and single use convenience is WEIRD and COSTLY. Discounts (instead of premium pricing) for those who bring their own containers. Punitive pricing on convenience take-away containers. A deposit fee that gets returned when you bring the product back (thank you, ChaeBan for showing how this can be done right here in Manitoba despite whatever MMSM says!) Health inspectors need to reconcile themselves with reuse and figure out how to make rules to help it be done safely (instead of banning or discouraging it). We need to stop messing around with trying to convince a few individuals to opt out at great effort and instead get grocery stores and restaurants to opt IN to the low-waste life by making their systems facilitate rather than hinder reused packaging.
Please suggest something we don’t already know and do! By the way, a mason jar or any glass container is breakable. Buying the veggies not wrapped in plastic is something I already do, but what about buying chicken at the grocery store? It comes either on styrofoam or in plastic! I have spoken with the staff at the meat counter and nothing changes. Also, what about all the yogurt, sour cream, etc. containers?! Where can we bring them for the companies to re-use–and don’t suggest these be recycled, since the market or plastics is so low most of it ends up in the ocean. Present some more solid and earth-shattering ideas, pease!
Hi Helene,
If you are interested in some more hard hitting ideas, please feel free to reach out to compost@greenactioncentre.ca for some more advice from our Green Living Team. We often start off with simple ideas to get people inspired!
I do all these things, but I feel that I still need some plastic bags for my garbage, for bones and incontinence products.
Carolyn, most Canadians are swimming in plastic bags. Do you buy bread? Do you you ever buy frozen things? chips? Your garbage can is likely full of plastic bags. Instead of tossing into the garbage the dozens of single-use plastic bags that pass through your hands every week, set some aside to BE the bag. As for bones, if you have Compost Winnipeg, you can give it to them. If you live close to one of several farmer’s markets, you can drop it by there once a week. (store them in those problematic yogurt containers until then). And if all this is impossible due to your life circumstances, lobby your city councillor to get residential compost pick up citywide like every other city in Canada.