Plastic Free July
Get involved and take action
Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution. You can take the Plastic Free July Challenge and choose to refuse single use plastics, now and in the future.
Two local workshops to help you go plastic free have been planned by Council teams:
Smarter Shopping for a Plastic-Free Home
Plastic-Free Bathroom Workshop
There's also the Green Caffeen Free Coffee and Hot Chocolate Day on 19 July 2023 to encourage people in Wingecarribee Shire to stop using single-use coffee cups ad sign up to the Green Caffeen movement by offering you a free cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
At any time this month you can sign up to the Plastic Free July cause whether it be for a day, a week or the whole month and try to refuse single-use plastic.
This means refusing plastic whenever you are presented with it such as:
- plastic bags - take your own re-usable bag
- plastic straws - just say no thank you or bring your own metal straw
- plastic water bottles - take your own re-usable water bottle
- plastic lined coffee cups - use a re-usable cup/mug
Try to remember to take your re-usable bags/bottles/coffee mugs with you when you go out. Keep some re-usable bags in your car and always keep your re-fillable water bottles handy.
Head to the Plastic Free July website for more information.
Why be plastic free?
Every day, each of us make a choice—we can choose to succumb to the throw-away convenience lifestyle of take-away coffee cups, plastic straws and cutlery, plastic bags and plastic drink bottles, OR, we can choose to take a step back and think consciously about what these ‘convenience’ items really mean for our environment, including our rivers, bushland, parks and wildlife. Those short-term conveniences are actually a very long-term inconvenience for the future of our planet.
The Bag It movie is a story of a man’s journey of discovery into plastic and just how much it consumes our lives and impacts the planet. You can watch the movie here:
More information
Tips on how to be plastic free
Learning how to live without single-use plastic means changing behaviours and habits, which can sometimes be difficult. There are lots of resources available to help you avoid or reduce the use of plastics in your life.
We are fortunate to have some inspiring residents who are achieving great things when it comes to reducing their reliance on plastic.
Read Claire's story, "My zero waste journey in the Southern Highlands(PDF, 105KB)" and discover how she overcame some of the challenges of reducing plastic in her life.
Council has purchased a number of plastic free themed books that you can borrow from our libraries.
There are so many resources out there on how to reduce our dependence on plastics, both single use and other types of plastics. The Plastic Free July team have done a great job in collating many of these resources under one website. So, visit Plastic Free July to discover how you can go beyond the month of July and live a life free of plastics.
Did you know?
- There is an estimated 500 million plastic straws used every day*
- In 2015, Australians consumed 726 million litres of bottled water*
- It takes 250ml of oil and three litres of water to make one litre of bottled water*
- Australia only recycled 36% of PET plastic drink bottles, meaning 373 million plastic water bottles end up as waste each year*
- Bottled water requires up to 2000 times more energy to produce than tap water*
- Australians consume an estimated 1 billion takeaway hot drink cups each year!*
References
- Clean Up Australia Day Bottled Water Fact Sheet 2015
When
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Saturday, 01 July 2023 | 12:00 AM
- Monday, 31 July 2023 | 11:59 PM
Location
Various locations.
Resource Recovery Centre, Moss Vale, 2577