What is Plastic Free July?
- InspiringGreenLiving
- Aug 5, 2022
- 3 min read
Hi everyone, and welcome back to my blog. I hope you've had a great week this week. Today's blog post is about a zero-waste movement called, "Plastic Free July." I had never heard of it until recently, but, founded in 2011, it has since passed being 10 years old! So, in celebration of Plastic Free July, here is a little post to dip our toes into the water that is the zero-waste movement.
First, what is the "zero-waste movement?"
The zero-waste movement is a movement (duh) that encourages people to produce as little waste - preferably zero waste - as possible. A Zero Waste Blog - EcoRoots - explains the origin of the zero waste movement very well. I encourage you to follow this link and check out their blog post here.
To summarize: it concretely starts in the 19th century (the blog also claims it began in ancient Rome!). Throughout the colonization of the Americas, white people, as well as indigenous peoples, raised concerns for the natural environment. The zero waste movement all began because of environmentalists like indigenous peoples. Then, in the 1980s, people began to reconsider their post-war consumption. EcoRoots states, "This disastrous cycle became apparent to many people in the 1990s, and the term “zero waste” emerged as a concept for total recycling. This simply means zero landfilling, zero burning, and maximum materials recovery." They credit a significant chunk of the origin of the zero waste movement to "Daniel Knapp [who] was a huge initial contributor to the movement." EcoRoots goes on to state Knapp started Urban Ore, an organization aimed "to end the age of waste." Here is how EcoRoots describes how the company worked:
"Urban Ore emerged as a scavenger organization, picking through trash and selling usable items to the public. The community becoming increasingly interested in this operation, so the city incubated the company by giving them access to resources and by giving them the space rent-free. Urban Ore has been dubbed Berkley’s “eternal garage sale” because that is sort of what it feels like. When you arrive, you’ll find tons of perfectly fine discarded items. Holiday decorations, bathroom fixtures, furniture, and so much more." - EcoRoots
So, Urban Ore was a never-ending garage sale that plucked items that would have been thrown away out of said garbage pile and aimed to re-sell them. This company was a major contributor, as well as Dr. Knapp, to the creation of the zero-waste movement.
EcoRoots dives into much greater detail about Urban Ore, Dr. Knapp, and how those two things contributed to modern-day's zero-waste movement.
Okay, so what is Plastic-Free July?
Really, it's a promise. A challenge, as their site, https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/, describes it. It is aimed at helping you - yes, YOU - reduce your plastic use. There are lots of different tips and tricks available to reduce plastic waste and they provide a ton of different ideas for you. Some of these include refusing takeaway coffee cups, plastic-free toothbrushes, swapping out liquid hand soap for bar soaps, buying less, bulk food shopping, and much much more. They also have a quiz that can be filled out to help them collect data on recycling and garbage waste. I filled one out and it took approximately 5 minutes for me to do so.
Do I have to be zero waste in order to participate in Plastic Free July?
No, not at all! And you also don't have to do it only in July. You can start anytime with any item. Say you hate using straws at restaurants. There is a portable collapsible straw available for purchase, and you can bring that with you to a restaurant instead. Or, simply skip the straw. Boom. You have started your Plastic Free July journey. You could try changing one item, task, or habit per week. Or, if that's too much, do one per month. Making gradual changes is better than making no change at all.
I am Inspiring Green. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this post. I am so grateful that you are here! Have a great weekend, everyone. Enjoy the journey.
-Inspiring Green
Links:
1. Amazon Collapsible Straws
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Collapsible+reusable+straws&lo=grid&crid=3RCX7CMU3NUSG&nav_sdd=aps&pldnSite=1&sprefix=reusable+straw&ref=nb_sb_ss_w_sbl-t1_reusable-straws_k0_1_14_2
2. Plastic Free July
3. History of Zero Waste
Works Cited:
“Amazon.com: Collapsible Reusable Straws.” Amazon.com, https://www.amazon.com/collapsible-reusable-straws/s?k=collapsible+reusable+straws.
“Be Part of the Solution.” Plastic Free July, 9 June 2022, https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/.
P, Antonia. “Zero Waste Movement: The History & The Beginnings.” EcoRoots, EcoRoots, 22 Jan. 2020, https://ecoroots.us/blogs/blog/zero-waste-movement-the-history-the-beginnings?gclid=Cj0KCQjwz96WBhC8ARIsAATR250XkwQOvkAkJK06v7xGKhHgM_d273uSSzQJZx1dhEny4blXUFPsmEQaAtAfEALw_wcB.
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