From 11-18 March 2024 Grange Soroptimists took part in the Big Plastic Count organised by Greenpeace counting all our single use plastic items thrown away during the week. On average each person threw away 23 items (food & drink 81%, cleaning & toiletries 8%, everything else 11%), and many of them unsuitable for kerb side recycling. Our results were very similar to the national results and highlighted that although we need to REUSE and RECYCLE the most important thing is to REDUCE plastic use.
Information from the National Survey showed 1 in 300 of the population had taken part and estimated that UK households throw away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic a week. The media interest in the results was considerable and got the problem noticed. Its known that the UK is second only to the US in the amount of plastic waste produced per person which is a horrifying statistic. What happens to our waste plastic?
So as a result of our participation we have acted to :
REDUCE our use of single use plastic and shared ideas at a club meeting with such varied suggestions as a scourer made of nut husks and recycled plastic bottles, water flosser ( rather than plastic interdental brushes) glass milk bottles, making your own yoghurt in glass jars, covering food with a plate , reusable lid, biodegradable film, beeswax wrapper or re use a plastic box, avoid plastic packaging by taking a box to butchers or bag to greengrocer or choosing to buy items like loo rolls with no plastic packaging.. There were many more suggestions.
REUSE items ( see above)
RECYCLE – we have produced a list of items which are difficult to recycle in our area ( Grange and surrounding district) and this was published in Grange Now and is also available on line on this Website
UN Member States said “yes” to ending plastics pollution in March 2022 and The UN Global Plastics Treaty is due to come into force by the end of 2024 with a meeting in South Korea. The UK needs to work hard to do our bit
Please sign the Global Plastics Treaty petition
If you are interested in finding out more about our Club please CONTACT US