Plastic-free challenge gets underway

Choose plastic free alternatives this July.

Could you go a whole month without generating a single piece of wasted plastic? Plastic-free July begins this week and Mahurangi and Kaipara residents are invited to take the challenge.

To help on the journey, Sustainable Kaipara in Mangawhai will have a cup library on Wood Street so that shoppers can get a coffee without a takeaway cup.

There will also be a visual display showing what a year’s worth of disposable coffee cups generated by a typical consumer looks like.

Volunteers will be there to give advice on how to “break up” with disposable cups and packaging.
Leigh’s Lily Walkington is challenging locals to investigate alternatives to plastic packaged items.

She has been encouraged after successfully recycling 100kg of soft plastic from the community since setting up a collection point at Leigh Hall in December.

“Although having the option to recycle soft plastics prevents the scary things you hear about plastic in Plastic Free July began in 2011 in Australia and has grown in popularity in New Zealand as a way of taking stock of how much plastic waste an individual produces.

Organisers encourage challengers to start by eliminating takeaway coffee cups, buying fruit and veggies without plastic packaging, ditching plastic bottles and straws, and bringing containers to bakeries, butchers and delis.

Those looking to take their zero-wasting to the next level can use shampoo bars instead of bottles, reusable razors and wooden toothbrushes. They can also buy their food in bulk in their own jars from stores such as Bin Inn.

For more tips, see https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/