Can you detox your plastic life and smash the Plastic Challenge?
MCS, Clare Fischer MCS launches its annual Plastic Challenge on July 1st. 9,000 people took up the challenge in 2018 – to try and live as single-use plastic free as possible for some or all of the month.
Now in its sixth year, the popularity of the Plastic Challenge is growing, but because Britain is still wedded to single-use plastic it won’t be an easy month for those taking part. Of the more than eight million tonnes of it that get dumped in our oceans every year, half of it comes from disposable plastics that are only used once before being thrown away. MCS runs hundreds of beach cleans annually and during last year’s Great British Beach Clean, 70% of the litter found on almost 500 UK beaches cleaned by MCS volunteers was made of plastic or polystyrene, posing a huge threat to wildlife and humans. Plastic bags, bottles and tiny plastic pieces are regularly found in the stomachs of turtles and other sea creatures and in some cases have caused their death from starvation or choking.
Erin O’Neill, MCS Digital Editor, is coordinating the Plastic Challenge for the charity: “We know that it’s pretty much impossible to live completely plastic-free, but there are ways to reduce your plastic footprint and we hope that by throwing down this challenge it will focus minds on trying to ditch as much of the single-use stuff as possible. “So, it’s time to think about all types of single-use plastic, much of which we don’t even recognise anymore as it’s become just everyday ‘stuff’. There’s food packaged in plastic, plastic water bottles, plastic milk bottles, shower gels, toothpaste to name but a very few to get you started!” Click here to read more
Actions you can take
Living without single use plastics guide (free)
Buy the book ‘How to Live Plastics Free’
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