Eco-tip: Plastic Free July targets single-use items
Founders of Plastic Free July, an initiative of the nonprofit Plastic Free Foundation, have been trying since 2011 to “work towards our vision of seeing a world free of plastic waste.”
Perhaps the phrasing of this vision statement on their website, at plasticfreejuly.org, is idiomatic to Western Australia, where they launched the organization in cooperation with local governments. But it seems to also express appropriate modesty about the probability of significantly reducing worldwide dependence on plastic anytime soon.
Organizers are working toward elimination of plastic rather than defining success as eliminating it. Moreover, they work toward seeing the possibility of such a world sometime in the future. Currently, "free plastic" seems more realistic than “plastic free.”
We rely on plastic for everything from medical devices and drip irrigation tubes to electric wire insulation, but this reliance has allowed plastic to “contaminate every corner of the Earth,” as pointed out by Matt Simon in his book published last year, “A Poison Like No Other: How Microplastics Corrupted Our Planet and Our Bodies.” According to Simon, plastics break down into microplastics, which end up in everyone’s bodies. These plastics contain benzene, vinyl chloride, a group of synthetic chemicals known as PFAS and other known and suspected carcinogens.
The foundation said more than 140 million people are likely to participate in this year’s Plastic Free July campaign. This year’s theme, "Small steps make a big difference," explains why so many participants are unintimidated by the scope of the challenge.
The key action called for is to “choose to refuse" single-use plastic. The foundation doesn't expect participants to live without any plastic for an entire month, or even for a day.
Instead, during the month, they promote a few specific actions and hope the campaign will “show business and governments they need to step up too,” said Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, the group's executive director, in a statement.
Locally, the Ventura County Sustainability Division, operating within the county executive office, is guiding county employees’ participation in Plastic Free July and broadening the campaign to include actions for reducing other waste, including paper and food. The division is offering “sustainability SWAG prizes,” such as reusable metal straws, to the first 10 employees who, on Aug. 1, document three actions taken as part of the campaign.
While many of the proposed actions target plastics, the Plastic Free July challenge is part of a larger online platform where the general public can also participate through actions such as going paperless. For example, the website, at climateresilientvc.org, challenges participants to sign up for electronic bank statements.
Other organizations using July to encourage plastic reduction include the Community Environmental Council, an environmental nonprofit working primarily in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The council will host its second annual Plastic Free July Expo on July 27 at 5:30 p.m. at their new Environmental Hub in Santa Barbara. The city of Ventura’s Environmental Sustainability Division is educating the public on reducing plastic waste with tips on their Instagram and Facebook pages.
For my own “take the challenge” action, I pledged to substitute a reusable water bottle for a single-use cup and eliminate a straw. Readers of this column may wonder why I was not already doing this. The answer illustrates how easy it is to resort to convenience.
I regularly bring my kids to the Sky Zone trampoline park in Ventura. There, the drinking fountain has been broken for months. Twice, when my kids were thirsty, I got them drinks, in plastic cups, from the refreshments counter. To avoid spills, I even gave them straws. Last week, with Plastic Free July in mind, I instead brought their reusable water bottles, with built in spouts, filled with filtered water from home.
Incidentally, the bodies of the reusable water bottles are metal, but the lids and spouts are plastic.
David Goldstein, an environmental resource analyst with the Ventura County Public Works Agency, can be reached at 805-658-4312 or david.goldstein@ventura.org.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Eco-tip: Plastic Free July targets single-use items
