What Can You Do to Reduce Your Plastic?
We’re huge supporters of Plastic Free July here at Flora & Fauna, and we believe that we should all get involved in PFJ to make our world a cleaner, greener place. In July 2019, an estimated 250 million people took part in the challenge from 177 countries across the globe!
Plastic Free July participants:
- Reduce their household waste and recycling by 23kg per person per year
- Contribute to a total saving of 825 million kg of plastic waste each year
- Plus, 9 out of 10 people make positive changes that become new habits
Whether you’re a plastic-free newbie or a zero-waste veteran, we’ve put together 5 ways you can reduce plastic through the month of July and beyond.
1. First Reduce Food Waste
Wasted food contributes to approximately 11% of all carbon emissions and a third of all food produced goes to landfill. Not only is this a huge impact on our planet and animals, but we're also wasting money when we buy that food annd throw it away.
So think about what you buy and try and reduce that waste. If you have scraps of food definitely compost them and the Urban Composter is a great place to start.
You can also look at ways to keep your fruit and veg lasting longer. Using a damp towel and wrapping your veggies in these is a good place to start. Also, The Swag is another great option to keep food lasting longer.
2. Tackle Unnecessary Plastic In Your Home
The home is a great place to start thinking about plastic use. From the kitchen to the bathroom there are plenty of things we can think about. Our top 5 alternatives are below:
- Dish Brushes and Dish Soap
- Compostable Dish Cloths
- Reusable Food Wraps and Covers
- Reusable Food Storage Bags
- Reusable Straws
- Tuff Stuff Stain Remover - No plastic bottle required
- Ecostore Dishwasher Tabs
There are plenty of reusable, eco-friendly alternatives at F&F! Making the switch will stop the continuous cycle of disposable items being used once and then heading to landfill.
3. Convert Zero Waste Beauty
There are many plastic products that we rely on in our bathroom: disposable shampoo, conditioner and body wash, razors, toothbrushes, skincare and more. You can make a difference by making the switch to reusable or compostable items!
A few of our favourites... shampoo bars can provide the equivalent number of washes as three bottles of shampoo. A conditioner bar lasts a long time and is great for travel too. This one small swap can save countless shampoo and conditioner bottles heading to landfill!
A few easy swaps you can make are:
- Plastic toothbrush for a bamboo toothbrush
- Plastic razors for reusable safety razors and razor blades
- Plastic shampoo bottles for shampoo bars
- Plastic cotton buds for bamboo cotton buds
4. Recycle With Us!
We are conscious that at Flora & Fauna, although we have lots of products that are plastic-free, a lot of vegan and cruelty-free beauty products still do come in plastic. Product packaging is a challenge and a challenge lots of our brands are looking at. However, we don't want that packaging going to landfill so we have a recycling scheme. We have been recycling for three years and we have recycled tonnes of plastic beauty packaging so it doesn't end up in landfill.
You can send your beauty packaging (just plastic) back to us and you even earn $10 for doing so. More info here.
5. Think Big & Get Involved
Reducing waste has to be much bigger than us as a business or any of us as individuals. On July 1st 2020 we launched Take It Back where we can all say no to plastic delivery packaging. We'd love you all to follow us and get involved with this.
Think about the places where you spend the most time throughout the day — your workplace or university/school — and consider implementing less wasteful practices in these places.
On a broader scale, you can organise/join community events that promote Plastic Free July, or even make your voice heard in your local government!
The Plastic Free July website has some wonderful resources to help you along the way.
If we are going to drastically reduce our global plastic waste, we must all change the way that we consume and dispose of plastic. Download a copy of our poster for reducing plastic at home or at work.
Let us know how you’re going to get involved in Plastic Free July in the comments below!
If you're looking to shop plastic free we have a range of nearly 2000 plastic-free products at Flora & Fauna.
