Join the Plastic Free July challenge

It’s Plastic Free July. Since its beginning in 2011, this growing global movement has challenged each of us to be part of the solution to plastic pollution.

Each year eight million tons of plastic pollution from coastal nations ends up in the oceans. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature estimates that more than 100,000 whales, seals, and sea turtles die every year as a result of eating or being entangled in plastic bags.

It’s important to note that about 40 percent of the plastic produced worldwide each year is used only once. For example, the average “working” life of a plastic bag is 15 minutes, and some 500 billion to 1 trillion are estimated to be used worldwide each year.

Plastic Free July challenges us to refuse single-use plastics this month and helps us discover alternatives to these items that can become part of our everyday lives.

Here are a few ideas:

• Avoid single-use plastic bags, bottles, straws, coffee cups and utensils and instead choose a reusable and sustainable alternative.
• Practice the three Rs — reduce, reuse, and recycle.
• Use bars of soap (and shampoo) instead of liquids that come in plastic bottles.
• Buy in bulk or buy fresh to reduce excess plastic packaging of food and other products. Choose products that come in cardboard boxes, which are more easily recycled.
• Skip the glitter and balloons for a plastic-free celebration.
• Skip the chewing gum, which is made of synthetic rubber – a plastic.

To take the Plastic Free July challenge or learn more about reducing plastic waste, go here.