Plastic Free July: Personal and Systemic Actions To Take This Month
If I were alive 55 years ago in Canada, there’s a strong chance that plastic would be the apple of my eye. I’d be using single-use dishware for at home meals, and loving a disposable lifestyle to keep the home clean and family fed.
Today, a lot has changed.
Plastic is still everywhere, though. Heck, it’s even more ubiquitous now than when it first hit the market in the 1950s and 1960s. I’m touching plastic keys to write this blog on my laptop, and I’m wearing plastic blue-light blocking glasses to protect my computer-scorched retinas. When I close my laptop and turn off the lights to sleep, it’ll be facilitated by a plastic light switch. This is no surprise, global plastic production has exploded since the 1950s, with over 430 million tonnes produced annually as of the 2020s, and plastic is embedded in nearly every aspect of life.
In the last two decades, science has caught up to reveal just how far and wide plastics have spread. Scientific studies are finding plastic in the deepest parts of the ocean and Antarctica. Plastic is in our rain, with hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles worth of plastic raining down on the United States National Parks every year. We’ve even taken our plastic pollution into outer space, with our plastic litter on the moon. We’re also discovering how close to home plastic is: in our bloodstream, in our brains, lungs and reproductive organs.
The plastic crisis feels more dire by the day. If we could time travel to stop the inventors from first creating plastics, that would be ideal, but not possible. What we can do is limit our exposure to plastics and work to change the systems by cutting plastic production and shifting to systems for refill and reuse.
This Plastic Free July, there are numerous actions we can take to continue turning the tide on the plastics crisis:
On a personal level, we can protect ourselves from plastics by:
Eliminating reliance on single-use plastics. Every time we drink from a plastic bottle, we’re polluting the planet and ingesting microplastics. So, opting for our reusable mugs and bottles, and purchasing beverages in non-plastic containers (milks, juice, etc).
Switching off plastic cookware, and opting for wooden or metal utensils and metal, cast iron or ceramic frying pans and pots.
Casting out our plastic pillows and bedding, which we’re inhaling we sleep (and synthetic bedding creates conditions for dust mite build up). We can opt for natural fibres, including pillows from Avocado.
Opting for plastic-free food storage, like glass or metal containers.
Choose package-free and/or reusable body care and hygiene products. Buy from a bulk-supply store or make your own — from dental care and body wash to cloth diapers and reusable menstrual cups or pads. We also love Green Room Body Co. for plastic free haircare!
Making our own home cleaning supplies or buying in bulk from a refill shop where we can bring your own reusable containers. Most towns and cities have refill stores for personal and home care needs!
Overall, in Canada, we have massive rates of consumption and if we know we’re buying too much, we can cut down and instead rely on clothing swaps and repair cafes to keep our materials in use.
Lowering reliance on clothing with synthetic textiles, which leach plastic microfibres into waterways. We can also use microfibre filters to lower the amount of microfibres entering the wastewater stream.`
Plastic neoprene free wetsuits: we love Yulex wetsuits from Finisterre and Patagonia!
On a systemic level, we can protect ourselves, our communities and the planet from plastics though taking these actions:
Single-Use Plastic Bans
To turn the tide on plastics, we need to be creating systemic change in our communities, schools, workplaces and all levels of government. We can do this by advocating for single-use plastic bans with our local governments (with bans not covered by our federal or provincial governments, like coffee cups and plastic takeaway containers). If you’d like advice on leading campaigns, send us an email, or join one of our chapters. Our Pacific Rim Chapter is currently leading a campaign to get local bans on single-use plastic/bioplastic coffee cups and lids, which you can support here.
Workplace & School Audits
We can conduct a plastic audit in our workplace/school and advocate for our workplaces to eliminate plastics and adopt reusable systems, from reusable tea and coffee stations to reusable amenity dispensers. If you work in the hospitality industry, you can sign our Bye Bye Mini Bottles campaign petition, which is calling for a ban on single-use mini bottles of shampoo, conditioners, and soaps.
Supermarkets
Each year, Canada generates over 4 million tonnes of plastic waste and about half of that is packaging! So much of the plastic packaging and waste we generate comes from our weekly visits to supermarkets. So, we can bring our reusable bags, reusable produce bags, and opt for supermarkets that provide reusable packaging options. Canada’s major supermarkets aren’t taking any real action to address their massive plastic footprints, so you can sign Greenpeace Canada’s petition to call on them to ditch their erroneous plastic packaging.
#Reuseforthewin
The World Cup is coming to Toronto and Vancouver, with the potential to create mountains of waste. By eliminating single-use at stadiums and implementing reuse, Canada can reduce pollution threatening the oceans. You can sign Oceana’s petition calling for reusable cups, which can eliminate a hundred thousand single-use plastic items per game.
Tell Adidas, Amazon, Apple, H&M, Shein, & Unilever: Stop Trashing the Planet!
It’s time to hold big brands accountable for trashing the planet with plastic pollution and waste. Plastic Pollution Coalition is calling on some of the world's largest companies in their sectors—Adidas, Amazon, Apple, H&M, Shein, & Unilever—to immediately reduce their use and production of plastic packaging and cheap disposable products that are trashing the planet. Sign the petition here, and boycott these big brands and other fast fashion brands (we recommend reading the Fossil Free Fashion Scorecard by Stand.Earth to know which brands to avoid!)
Global Plastics Treaty
We also need to continue pushing the Canadian government to show leadership in the next round of Global Plastic Treaty Negotiations, taking place in Geneva, Switzerland in August. You can sign the Greenpeace Canada petition here, which is calling on Canada to support an ambitious Global Plastics Treaty. This treaty is a once in a generation chance to establish a cap on plastic production, which is what we need to
Of course, you can also support Surfrider Canada’s work, including eliminating polystyrene pollution from aquatic waters, by donating, becoming a member, and volunteering!
From lead to asbestos to CFCs and HCFCs, the world has come together to phase out chemicals that put humanity and the planet in danger. Our journey to cut plastic production and phase out dangerous chemicals in plastics is now at the centre stage, and we need as many people as possible to put their skills and resources towards making plastics a relic of the past.