Singe-use plastic!
Sea creatures often mistake plastic for food. It accumulates in their stomachs, making them feel full. They then stop eating, which can have dramatic consequences for them, such as starvation.
'Over 1 million seabirds and 100.000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year.'
'Right now there are as many as 51 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean.
That's 51 trillion deadly hazards that animals need to avoid.'
1, 2, 3, Who's Cleaning the Sea?: A Counting Picture Book About Protecting Our Planet in my educational tool to teach kids about plastic pollution without making them upset or scared.
~ In the USA, about 100 million plastic utensils are used every single day.
~ Over 1 million seabirds and 100.000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year.
~ More than 3 million children under the age of five die annually from environmental factors.
~ The average person eats 70.000 microplastics each year.
~ Since the 1950s, around 8.3 billion tons of plastic have been produced worldwide.
...
These are all facts that made me very upset. I wondered what else I could do to make a difference. What personally hit me the most is how many products are available and how much we waste. Especially how much single-use plastic products we use on a daily basis: for take-away food, school parties, work events, concerts.
I decided to go to schools and raise awareness of plastic polllution, to make people understand the problems we are facing and that things have to change.
#takeactionnow
I'm happy to come to schools and give talks and do book readings of my book on plastic pollution "1,2,3, who's cleaning the sea?", to help raise awareness of ocean pollution and discuss ways in which we can all reduce our waste.
Please feel free to get in touch.
Challenge
Can you think of more items that is #singleuse or short term use that you could replace with a #sustainable solution and therefore lower our waste/resources impact on our planet?
Zero waste school parties. School parties can create a lot of waste due to single-use party equipment such as cups, plates, cutlery and decoration, most of which won’t get recycled. To reduce waste at your school party, ask your school to invest in reusable party equipment. It’s not only ecological, but it could also be economical for the school as well, by lending the equipment to other schools or municipal events for a fee.
A very effective way to reduce waste on big events is to ask people to 'bring their own'. It means people use already existing products. But people can only bring their own if they know they are supposed to. This is easy to solve. Just communicate a few weeks before the event: hang up posters or send out social media announcements.
'We Must Reduce Single-Use' sticker: Please feel free to use my communication design. I created it to help schools to reduce waste. Send me an email to request a printing file. Please just credit me @janinarossiter and then it's free for you to use.
'So bring your own-Just like we've shown' poster: I created this poster to motivate people to bring their own and therefore to reduce our waste. Feel free to use it for communication purposes. Please just credit me with @janinarossiter if you use it on your website or in emails.
How can YOU make a difference?
Also:
- Stay away from single use plastic products and products with a lot of packaging.
- Make smart choices by choosing reusable products.
- Choose wool over synthetic clothes.
- Buy earth friendly cosmetic & cleaning products without microplastic particles.