The fight against plastic waste starts with individual action. These are some simple steps to seriously reduce your plastic use right now.

In the UK we use over 35 million plastic bottles every day! Carrying a reusable bottle is a great way to cut your plastic use and save money too! There’s even an app that tells you where you can refill your bottle for free!


2. Say no to plastic straws

Plastic straws are bad news for our oceans. Next time you order a drink, think about whether you need a straw – and if you don’t, just say no! You can also ask your local pub to stop adding straws to drinks as standard and offer paper straws to those who want one

3. Take a reusable coffee cup

2.5 billion coffee cups are thrown away every year in the UK – and less than 1 in 400 are recycled. Carry a reusable cup with you – some cafes even offer a small discount if you use your own cup (and if they don’t ask them why not!)

Whether it’s making different choices in the supermarket or choosing a different place to shop, we can all try and cut down the plastic we buy. And as an added bonus, loose fruit and veg is often cheaper than pre-packaged alternatives! (https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/news/9-ways-reduce-plastic-use/, 2017)

From the amount of oil used its manufacture, the toxic leachate produced when plastic is buried, to the millions of tonnes of plastic entering our oceans per year – single-use plastic is misused and abused with severe consequences.

We’ve compiled some resources to promote discussion and raise awareness of just what the issues and concerns regarding plastic are.

In numbers, that’s: 2.5,000,000,000,000

Single-use plastics, or disposable plastics, are used only once before they are thrown away or recycled. These items are things like plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, soda and water bottles and most food packaging. 

We produce roughly 300 million tons of plastic each year and half of it is disposable! World-wide only 10-13% of plastic items are recycled. 

The nature of petroleum based disposable plastic makes it difficult to recycle and they have to add new virgin materials and chemicals to it to do so. Additionally there are a limited number of items that recycled plastic can be used.

Petroleum based plastic is not biodegradable and usually goes into a landfill where it is buried or it gets into the water and finds it’s way into the ocean. 

Although plastic will not biodegrade (decompose into natural substance like soil,) it will degrade (break down) into tiny particles after many years. In the process of breaking down, it releases toxic chemicals (additives that were used to shape and harden the plastic) which make their way into our food and water supply.

These toxic chemicals are now being found in our bloodstream and the latest research has found them to disrupt the Endocrine system  which can cause cancer, infertility, birth defects, impaired immunity and many other ailments.

What is single use plastic? — Plastic Free Challenge