As July comes to a close it is a good opportunity to reflect on what, if anything, Plastic Free July means to you? Personally, it is an annual reminder that I want to reduce my reliance on single use plastics, I recommit to reducing what I buy and look at ways to be more sustainable moving forward. Our Oceans are straining under the weight of plastic waste.
Over 400 million tons of plastic are produced every year for use in a wide variety of applications.1
Sir David Attenborough has described plastic pollution as an “unfolding catastrophe” in support of a report that highlighted the devastating impact plastic pollution is having around the world.
The report, carried out by charities Tearfund, Fauna & Flora International and WasteAid, warned of a public health emergency, claiming that between 400,000 and one million people die each year due to preventable diseases linked to mismanaged plastic waste in developing countries.
So what can you as an individual do?
Some suggestions from what we’ve been doing here at DYNAMO:
- Bring in a reusable coffee cup to Reduce the number of coffee cups used & thrown away!
- Bring in a reusable water bottle to refill from our filter jug to Reduce the number of plastic bottles.
- Recycle Our plastics; paper & Cardboard are recycled through our office waste company.
- Reuse crockery and cutlery, in the office we have a cupboard which is accessible to all staff to cut down on the need for plastic forks or paper plates.
- Pack lunches, by bringing in food from home we are Reducing the waste produced from takeaways or food on the go.
Let us know what you’ve been doing.
Look out for our new Sustainable management courses which we are hoping to launch soon.
1 https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/marine-plastic-pollution