Plastic Free July - How'd you go?

Plastic Free July has come to an end, at the beginning of the month, our marketing team set some goals:

Matt our Marketing Manager aimed to:

• Remember his reusable coffee cup
• Not purchase any produce in plastic
• Avoid plastic wrapping (Ie. Clingfilm)

Lee our Marketing Coordinator aimed to;

• Not use any form of soft plastic
• Not purchase any new plastic homewares
• Post about #plasticfreejuly on her social media and encourage others to join

Nikolai our Graphic Designer aimed to;

• Avoid soft plastics
• Remember to carry his reusable coffee cup so he isn’t caught out

Upon reflection, as a team, we all agreed there were some things we excelled on and some we could have done better on. No single-use coffee cups were used throughout the month, and this has become habitual. Lee has begun replacing plastic homewares with glass and stainless steel alternatives as needed.

The one place we all tripped up was soft plastic; while clingfilm is easy to avoid we all found ourselves with more soft plastic than we’d like. Particularly for items such as cheese, meat and confectionery. Countdown and New World are both working on rolling out BYO container services and with time the soft plastics scheme should return eventually; until then it’s a case by case assessment of what can be replaced with plastic-free alternatives.

At the end of the month, it’s bigger than us and between the tens of thousands of people around the world who participated, we've made a significant impact, built some new habits and created awareness.

Did you set any goals for Plastic Free July? How'd you go? Let us know on Facebook.