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As we are coming to the end of #PlasticFreeJuly, I wanted to take a moment to think about why the month is so important. Partly because, I was slightly taken aback about the fact that we need the month. It’s 2021, we are all very aware that plastic is seriously harming our planet, yet we still see it everywhere around us. Why?

Plastic is useful and so very versatile and its uses are almost endless.

The majority of the food we eat has come smothered in plastic. Whilst this does keep our food fresher for longer – reducing food waste – it does contribute to the 1.7 million tonnes of raw plastic produced annually in the UK. If my calculations are correct, with a UK population of 66.65 people - that is over 25 kilograms of plastic per person. One of plastics benefits is that it is so lightweight, so just imagine how big a pile of plastic weighing 25kg would be! And there’s one of those for every single person you know, every year. It’s a scary thought really.

One of the main facts we know about the harm of plastic lays within our oceans. Plastic is very harmful to our wonderful sea creatures. They can easily eat or get trapped in the rubbish – and no wonder with more than 8 million tonnes of the stuff heading for our oceans every year.

It is not only our water creatures suffering from the amount of plastic filling the oceans. It has been found that 90% of the worlds seabirds have plastic in their stomach. Does it stop at wildlife? Absolutely not. Think about the national favourite, fish & chips. Your piece of cod has been swimming around the ocean surrounded by plastic, and is likely to have mistaken a bit of plastic for food at some point. Now this means that the harmful toxins from plastics are also entering our own bodies through our diet. It has actually been found that one third of caught fish in the UK contains plastic.

Estimations predict that by 2050, less than 30 years away, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish. So yes, it’s 2021 and #PlasticFreeJuly is still very much needed. But so is plastic free January, February, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December.

At Quick Consign we love our planet, it is beautiful and incredible. We will always do what we can to protect it. Our software solution saves thousands of pieces of paper waste every month! During July we shifted our focus onto reducing plastic waste, and our small changes are here to stay. As a team we have decided to ban single use plastics in the office. Just imagine the overall reduction of plastics if every workforce took a step like this! We have also invested in some litter pickers, to help clear up our local area and make sure recyclables do get the chance to actually be recycled!

We know these are tiny steps to tackle a huge problem, but the more of us that take steps, the further we can travel. We have to work together on this one.

Our planet can live without us, but we can’t live without our planet!

Sources:
https://www.bpf.co.uk/industry/default.aspx
https://datacommons.org/place/country/GBR?utm_medium=explore&mprop=count&popt=Person&hl=en
https://www.forgerecycling.co.uk/blog/why-is-plastic-bad-for-the-planet/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/grrlscientist/2018/04/23/five-ways-that-plastics-harm-the-environment-and-one-way-they-may-help/?sh=31d5d45567a0
https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastics#:~:text=At%20least%208%20million%20tons,waters%20to%20deep%2Dsea%20sediments
https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/marine-plastics#:~:text=At%20least%208%20million%20tons,waters%20to%20deep%2Dsea%20sediments