OK, you made it through Plastic Free July - good job!
What did you give up? What did you find was hard about this challenge? Or was it easier than you thought?
But what's next?
That's up to you, of course. You may choose to do something you didn't get to do for the month of July, or you may choose to continue to do something you started during PFJ. If you are planning to continue on the Plastic Free journey, here are five ideas to try next:
-Give up single use plastic water bottles
This is a tough one for a lot of people. Maybe you still buy bottled water. Now is the time to get a reusable water bottle and never look back!
-Have a trash audit
Save your trash for a week or some period of time and see what you are throwing away. Once you see what you are wasting, you can see where to reduce your waste.
-Have a recycling audit
Same idea as above but with your recycling. A good thing to keep in mind is that glass and metal can be recycled almost an infinite amount of time, but plastic can only be recycled once or twice before they go to the landfill.
-Pick a disposable plastic to give up forever
Maybe you gave up plastic straws for Plastic Free July, go ahead and give them up forever! Or if you already integrated giving up plastic straws already, pick plastic bags to give up next, etc..
-Choose food not packaged in plastic
Hopefully, if nothing else, PFJ made you more aware of all the plastic that is used in daily life. Once I started thinking about plastic, I realized it was everywhere!! An easy start to refusing disposable plastics is to pick unpackaged foods. Skip the cauliflower in a plastic bag and buy unpackaged broccoli instead. (or find cauliflower unpackaged at a different store).
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Now that you are thinking about the plastic and the waste in your life, there’s so many little steps you can take to reduce. Plastic Free July is a great start, but don’t stop there, the sky is the limit!
For more inspiration, check out our 6 More Months to Zero Waste Series!
