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Plastic is everywhere. Take a look at the lunches you buy, day in, day out. Your sandwich will be wrapped in plastic, your coffee cup will contain plastic, and to round it up, all your items will be packaged in a plastic bag. It’s hard to avoid the stuff, but, the ‘plastic free Tuesday’ movement is growing – challenging individuals to go plastic-free for one day a week. Are you up to the challenge?
Plastic-free Tuesday is what it says on the tin. Every Tuesday, the aim is to go entirely without plastic. You are supposed to go without anything made of or containing plastic for the day.
It’s obvious why this movement has come about. People are growing increasingly aware of the effects of plastic on the environment. Social and environmental awareness is improving, and the more conscious among us have decided it’s time to make a change.
By cutting out plastic for one day, you are reducing your personal impact on the environment. By using less plastic, you are subsequently reducing the demand for plastic products. Therefore, if everybody took one plastic-free day a week, less plastic products would need to be manufactured, because of the lower demand for them.
So, how can you get started with Plastic Free Tuesday? The key to success here is planning. If you don’t plan ahead, it can be difficult to go a full day without plastic. That means preparing your lunch at home in advance, not purchasing any plastic bottles – so having a glass reusable one with you, and one in the office.
For the office, we would recommend our Billi glass bottles. You can top them up at the start of the day to ensure you stay hydrated all day, and it means you don’t need to purchase any single-use plastic ones! Helping you go one step further towards a plastic-free day.
Keep a plastic diary. Before you make the pledge to go plastic-free, keep a small plastic diary so you know how much plastic you are using each day. This will then help you move towards eliminating those plastics completely and finding alternatives.
Create a ‘plastic-free toolkit’. This toolkit will be your basics kit to going plastic free. In it, you should have non-plastic bags such as cotton totes, or other fabric bags. Alongside this you should also have a reusable coffee cup, and water bottle. It’s also a good idea to carry some reusable or metal cutlery with you, so you don’t have to use plastic cutlery if you’re eating on the go. A bamboo or metal straw can also be helpful, but not essential.
Finally, if you’re going food shopping on your plastic-free day, make sure to take reusable jars and containers and shop at a farmers market. This way you can fill your own jars with dry food such as coffee, pasta or rice, and pick up vegetables in paper bags, as opposed to plastic. Make sure you carry your shopping in reusable totes too!
Will you be joining the plastic-free Tuesday movement? We’d love to know. Let us know in the comments below if you and your workplace will be giving it a go!