Plastic Free July - Who's in?

It's Plastic Free July this month and here at Soap Folk we are each pledging to find an alternative to swap away from one piece of regularly bought single-use plastic. We hope you'll find some ideas here to inspire you to take a pledge

 

What is Plastic Free July?

Plastic Free July is a global initative to encourage people around the world to find alternatives to single-use plastics throughout July (and beyond). In 2021, over 326 million have pledged their support.

 

Why caring about single use plastic is important

It's been a difficult year for so many of us, but the plastic problem hasn't gone anywhere. It's just as important to stop the pernicious use of plastic from slipping under the radar. Here are just a few reminders of the scale of plastic pollution collected from campaigning group, Surfers Against Sewage:

- 12 million tonnes of plastic are poured into the ocean every year. (Eunomia, 2016)
- 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually (UK Government, 2018)
- Approx 5,000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach in the UK. 
(Marine Conservation Society, 2016)

What can we do about it?

 

Not all plastic is bad - think of all the life saving equipment it's enabled us to have access to this past year from PPE, lateral flow tests and ventilators. The problem is unecessary single use plastics and the sheer volume produced.

We can all make a difference by cutting down on our general consumption and choosing to swap away from single use plastic wherever possible, one swap at a time.

What are WE doing about it?

As a company we are using as little plastic as possible, have made enough swaps to become a Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Business Champion and have no plastic packaging in our products.

Even though all of us who work at Soap Folk have already made a lot of swaps away from plastic in our homes, there is always more we can do.

Knowing what and how to swap can be really overwhelming and is best approached in steps,  so we are all challenging ourselves to take another small step this July: 

 

• Jess is swapping away from shop bought smoothies

• Becky is swapping her plastic bags of pasta
• Fiona is swapping her deodorant
• Danny is swapping her dishwasher tablets
• Katy is swapping her plastic-wrapped strawberries
  

We'll be reporting back to show how we all get on, hopefully with good news!

 

Don't forget to follow our plastic-free challenges on Instagram and Facebook and more importantly tag us in your own swaps @soapfolk