Meagan, Christina, and I decided to take the Plastic Free July Challenge. The goal of the Plastic Free July Challenge is to encourage people to stop single-use plastic product consumption and reduce plastic packaging (at least for the month of July). It’s also to help people become more aware of issues surrounding plastic use in our lives and to encourage new consumption habits moving forward.
Related: 10 Ways to Reuse Newspaper
The big 4 when it comes to single-use plastic product consumption are:
- Shopping bags
- Straws
- Bottles
- Coffee cups
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, as many as one trillion plastic bags are used each year. They also report that annually, Americans dispose of 25 billion cups a year. Americans use about 50 billion plastic water bottles a year and about 500 million straws daily. Less than 5 percent of plastic is recycled yearly and much of the plastic that has ever been created is still in existence.
Related: 9 Ways to Reduce Household Plastic Waste
In terms of energy consumption, our yearly use of throwaway cups alone translates into 9.4 million trees harvested; 363 million pounds of waste generated; 3,125,000 tons of CO2 emissions being created. Again, this is just for one year only of American’s use of disposable coffee cups.
Related: Eco-Friendly Gifts
I didn’t think the Plastic Free July Challenge would be too difficult for Meagan, Christina, or I since all of us are generally pretty good conservationists. Yet I know each of us does have our own weak spots. I am great when it comes to not consuming single-use plastic water bottles or shopping bags, but my weak spot is using throw away coffee cups. I love my Starbucks! I did buy one of their inexpensive reusable cups, but I only used it a few times. Somehow I never had it with me when I visited a shop. When I brought it into my house or office, it never made its way back into my car.
My solution: I need multiples. Just like I have tons of canvas or reusable shopping bags, I needed to buy a bunch of reusable coffee cups—which I did.
As I write this post and wonder about the solutions to reducing single-use plastic products, I keep coming back to that word: multiples. Multiples will facilitate convenience and convenience is why we like single-use plastic products in the first place. Most of us just aren’t willing to give up convenience so let’s not give it up, let’s just find new ways to create convenience.
I’m excited about taking the Plastic Free July Challenge. I think I’ll finally be able to kick my coffee cups habit. What about you? What plastic products would you like to finally give up?
Related: Zero-Waste Eco-Friendly Gifts
Are you taking the Plastic Free July Challenge? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section.
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Lisa is a mother of three lovely young women and is a new grandmother to a baby boy! She has been married to her high school sweetheart for more than thirty years. Lisa is originally from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, but has lived in the Tampa Bay area since 1984. Running a small business for over 25 years and raising a family has made for a busy, busy life with many ups and downs; it’s definitely been an adventure.
Lisa’s always involved in one project or another whether it’s work related or serving her community. She also recently went back to school to finish her bachelor’s degree in American Studies. Lisa tries to make every day a good day—that means learning something new, practicing kindness, and enjoying the present moment.
This is so great that you’re doing this! Thanks for sharing those statistics…I did not know it was that much! I really need to focus on decreasing my use of plastic shopping bags. I have a horrible habit of forgetting to grab my canvas/reusable bags when I grocery shop, even if I leave them in the car. I’m working on fixing that. If we all focus on one step at a time, it will make a huge difference!
I have reusable shopping bags but forget to use them🤦🏼♀️
I do however use the reusable Starbucks cups and bottles 😃
That’s a great attitude!
I set a similar target for myself to reduce my plastic waste. My solutions include packing my own lunch, having my own bags for shopping and recycle everything.
http://www.travelsofplushy.com/new-years-projects-after-6-months/
Keep up the good work and help save the planet!
Oh my goodness! I absolutely love this and need to join. I live in a community were recycling is almost non-existent and it drives me crazy. Thank you for sharing.
I love this challenge!! I have found that since I started shopping at Aldi that I use a lot less plastic bags!!
Love this idea. I always make sure I have my reusable bags when I head to the grocery store!
What a good idea! I so need to do this..we use to much plastic in the form of water bottles, which isn’t necessary at all 😞
What a great challenge! I wish you luck! Mother Earth will thank you!
We switched to reusable coffee cups about two years ago and we loved it! We just recently started with the reusable shopping bags. It’s hard to remember them sometimes but it’s worth it!