Welcome to the 31 day plastic free challenge! Each day for the following month, I’ll be sharing one actionable task. I will provide tips, tricks, and some information on a specific topic’s current state of affairs. And to this problem, a solution. Each day there is a little action item for you to implement.

Plastic Free Bingo

If you find that you already do most of the suggested items in the calendar anyway, you can play along as a bingo game. Circle or mark the items as you complete them throughout the month to see how fast you finish all 31 ideas.

Why reduce plastic?

Plastic is an extraordinary material used for a lot of good things. The trouble with it being convenient, cheap and lightweight is it’s used at an ever increasing volume. The issue with single use plastic, these are plastics that are only used one time before being thrown away, is that it lasts hundreds of years before it can degrade. In the meanwhile, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces, called microplastics.

There’s no such place as “away”

Our waste management cannot handle the amount of plastic rubbish that we are producing. Plastics are starting to show everywhere, from the depths of the ocean to plastic rain. Luckily for humans, we can distinguish between plastic and what is not; however, this is not always the case in the natural world. Many animals, birds and aquatic life are suffering. For example, a turtle might think a plastic bag is a jellyfish. But they’re not the only ones. Humans now eat up to a credit card size of plastic each week! Microplastic was found inside of pregnant women’s placenta. It is too early to know the effects of ingesting microplastics.

The good news is that we have the solution right in front of us, in our two hands. We can all take action to reduce our plastic waste.

Benefits of going plastic free

Going completely plastic free can be daunting, and it’s often nicer to do things with other people. The 31-Day plastic free challenge is a way to get started.

By going single use plastic free, you can save money, eat a healthier diet, and start to feel more connected to nature, even when living in an urban jungle. The challenge is not to encourage you to shop for lots of new things. If you don’t have any of the items on the list, no stress, it’s better to use things up, or, where possible I will offer a Do-It-Yourself way to create something with items you’ve already got at home.

The challenge is also a way to connect. 2020 has been a tough year on all of us. London, United Kingdom, where I am based, is in a strict lockdown, it would be nice to do something communal with other people even with all this distance. ⁠⠀

More ways to connect

There’s a newly setup private Facebook group, where I will be answering any questions and sharing plastic free related news from around the world. Be sure to tag me @aimplasticfree not only does it fill me with joy to know that you’re playing along. But it’s an excellent way for me to share actions from everyone around the world so that we can feel part of a global movement.

The bigger, the better

It would be fantastic to have more and more people to join this 31 day plastic free challenge. Then we can make a bigger impact. Please try to encourage anybody who might be up for trying this challenge to join. You can share the free materials.

31 day plastic free challenge

I will add in-depth details on the challenge below as it takes place below, so please come back to this page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. Feel free to ask any questions in the comments below. I wish you all a wonderful New Year’s Eve and a better 2023!