Does Plastic Free Living Still Matter in 2021? | One Small Step
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- Is it still worth it to live plastic free? Can individuals really make a difference when there’s so much plastic taking over our world? To find out, we spoke to Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz.
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Plastic production is expected to grow 40% by 2030. The petrochemical industry has invested $200 billion in plastics factories since 2010. One Small Step host Lucy Biggers began participating in Plastic Free July in 2018.
However, over the last year of the pandemic, Lucy saw PPE, plastic gloves, and more becoming waste and pollution. Nevertheless, some plastic was necessary to keep society safe during the health crisis. Now Lucy is reconnecting with Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz to find out if it's worth it to continue.
#PlasticWaste #Pollution #OneSmallStep #Earth #Environment #Science #NowThis
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It makes a difference in my own house, but it’s the corporations fault. They used to make items plastic free. Coke used to make only glass bottles, they have the ability to do that. Cleaning products used to come in glass too. We used to be able to live without plastic, we can literally do it again.
In 1960 the population of humans was around three billion, and now it is close to eight billion. Not only has the population grown, but so has consumption. Since the '60s consumption for the average consumer has grown about 3% each year, and just clothing consumption has grown 60% from 2000 to 2014.
Plastics are woven into our industries, cutting them out wont be easy. Back in the '60s when plastics were becoming popular, they replaced glass, natural fibers, metal etc. because they were more versatile and much cheaper. The systems, that were in place before plastics were in common use, most likely cannot be adapted to the much larger population and consumption. So much of today's goods are shipped around the world, plastics are more compact and lighter than the materials it replaced, if we were to give up just plastic packaging, fuel consumption would skyrocket.
Take your coke example. Sodas used to be manufactured locally, glass bottles are heavy and fragile, so they couldn't be moved long distances. Sodas were much more expensive and a rare treat people enjoyed occasionally, but nowadays some only drink sodas, and overall soda consumption per person has increased. To this day sodas can be bought in glass bottles, but most choose plastic, because it's cheaper and wont break as easily.
Both is needed, a change in manufacturing and in consumer habits, but going plastic free is a pipe dream.
The population of Europe is 746 million and the population of US is 328 million, they are approximately the same size, but US consumes more energy than Europe. Europe is not perfect, far from it, but at least countries in Europe are working towards more renewable energy and decreasing emission.
We used to live without phones and computers but no way we're going back, it's the same with plastic, it's too woven into society, it's not as simple as substituting glass bottles for plastic.
@@Luniel11 it's not impossible tho. In mexico glass bottles are used EVERYWHERE and recycled local. It does cost a little more bu for single use items and things like soda. It's not impossible
true, but if we wait for corporations or governments to act by themselves, we can wait for a loooong time. Customers need to show what they want to buy to influence the market. Corporations won't offer reusable/refillable/plastic-free packaging if they think it might hurt their ability to sell their products.
@@Sarahlenea I agree but I think most people are ready and conscious but ultimately we dont choose what big brands package their products in
When you are a teen, Its pretty hard to convince adults to give up on these things and take up newer sustainable ways, but anyway we gotta keep tryn right..
Thanks lucy! For keeping the awareness high🖤
They’re gonna die soon we most likely aren’t. 🥱
Yes adults are hard headed, I'm 30 and my 70 yr old mom claims I'm "too much" for saving plastics.
We need to have a plastic restriction across the board, not plastic free month. Make plastic iff you will collect and recycle, the manufacturers need to recycle, not the consumers.
I agree with what you're saying, but I think it misses the point of the video and a plastic free month, which is to try and get people to try it for a month, with the hopes they will continue to go plastic free, at least partially, after.
@@rgbii2 Unfortunately, it won’t help the situation. And because of the effort, like “we are doing it, so something must improve.” Then they let go the emergency mentality. Plus it takes a lot of effort. Why would you waste so much energy on something with such minimal impact?
This plastic thing is so urgent, it’s cutting our throats right now at this moment. Now it’s only cutting the skin, we feel the pain, but not really hurting that much. Next it will cut our muscles and nerve and blood vessels of our throat, we will not feel pain because we all died. If you have plastic free month for a month, how much plastic can you cut? 1 pound? We are talking like hundreds of millions of tons.
The main plastic waste is not even from people, it’s from all kinds over productions. We are persuaded to buy more, which in turn waste more. We only need the essential, probably some more, but we are persuaded to buy 10 times of what we need and want. See the waste? 9 times of what we need is wasted. It’s not just foods, everything is. If we need to do anything impactful, we need to cut the plastic production at the source. We need to move away from plastic as much as possible. We need to incinerate any plastic we can’t recycle.
But more importantly, we, as a whole, all humans, need degrowth, which requires government policies and extremely good planning in place. This is a shift from capitalism to socialism. This is the only way. Capitalism itself is the cancer of this world.
@@LittleRadicalThinker Well said. We shouldn't be placated and kept in apathy by thinking we're making a significant change by not using a plastic straw, or skipping that plastic bag offered to us at the checkout. Sadly, that is not nearly enough. It's barely skimming the surface. That plastic straw should not even be there in the first place, for us to buy and consume.
This idea of us, of people and individuals needing to change, not corporations, society and governments as a whole was pushed onto us by an oil and gas company (shell/bp if i recall) - the notion of a carbon footprint.
It's governments and corporations that need to be pushed into actually caring, not us. They will gladly line their pockets with corporation's money until the end of time without being held accountable, enforcing policies that create poverty and instability for the average person and make a very rich few even richer, and at the same time enabling companies to keep polluting the environment and carry on with what creates the most growth at the expense of basically everyone.
Yes!!!
Problem with recyling is it will always be way behind the extraction based economy, that can make new plastic cheaper due to FF subsidies and externalising indirect costs. Which is why even really easy to recycle materials such as Paper, Wood, Glass etc, are still wasted in vast quantities.
My husband and I go to restaurants with real dishes and silverware. We ask for aluminum or cardboard to take home leftovers. We don't use straws.
I limit myself to 5 new clothing/ accessory items per year. We are in our 70's. The whole fast food/ fast fashion model needs a reset. Tina
I am very pleased to see that older people are interested in this topic as well. Unfortunately, my grandmother does not care about the environment so much. She just claims that she is too old to change her behaviour. So she is not willing to change at all. She is in her 70's like you.
Yes. Plastic free July is still worth it. It's not about perfection. It's about awareness of each individuals consumption and doing the best that you can; cutting plastic where you can. The state of the world, this probably means that this year may mean that we wont be able to do as well compared to the pre-Covid era, but the idea is to do the best that you can with what we got.
I work at a hospital where each patient uses about 3 or 4 plastic cups/day to drink fluids. Times this by thousands and thousands.
It’s nothing, comparing to the true plastic users.
Our hospital (or the uniforms supplier) wraps hospital scrubs, tops and bottoms separately, in individual plastic bags. Nurses and doctors have no choice but to throw away hundreds of essentially clean plastic bags daily.
In my country not all but most of the hospital authority creates water fountain and everyone can fill their bottle.
@@qquartertonee I am not a doctor or nurse but I am sure they need utmost importance to hygiene in places like hospital.. and if am correct most of health center have their own incinerator to safely dispose bio hazard
@@apoorvagupta742 Hospital scrubs only need to be clean, not sterile. Wrapping clean scrubs in plastic is not necessary for general hygiene even during a pandemic unless doctors and nurses are grabbing the scrubs with filthy hands or licking the scrubs (we don't). Hospitals have incinerators for biohazardous waste, but burning plastic is no way to address the problem of wasteful plastic.
I'm obsessed with how this channel has gone from "how to compost your veg waste" to "how to lobby your government into banning single use plastics"
I had started Plastic Free July on Thursday and then on Friday ended up in the hospital from a car/bike accident. I write this from the hospital now as I sit next to my table with polystyrene cup, plastic straw, and plastic wrapped individual biscuits. It's a disappointing start to the month! I can only do what I can. I think the shifting focus from the responsibility of the individual consumer to the government and businesses is a good thing.
You did a good part from your behalf. Hope your disappointment from current situation will boost you more to zero waste life once you recovered and returned home. Don't give up and Get well soon. ❤️
It would be nice if those big plastic companies and/ or petroleum companies bought back the disposed plastics and recycled them
Need to change plastic free month, to some time during the school year.
I have eliminated a lot of single-plastic use in my home at this point, but I found one more plastic hurdle to overcome.....switching all the glass refillable soap dispensers (that I would refill from a large plastic bottle of soap, better but not a best practice) with bar soaps. I've also decided to spread the word with my social network community so that while there's less room for improvement on my end, maybe I can influence others who aren't as far along in the journey. So yeah, I think it matters!
Still worth it! It's one of the ways for us to send a message out to corporations and governments saying that we want change in the manufacturing process. And that if they want our money, they better keep up with the new consumer behaviour.
Reminder, The Disabled Community depends on plastic for their survival! While, we do need to reduce our use on plastic for the sake of the planet and the enviroment, never forget that there is a community that is dependent on Plastic because their very lives depend on it!
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Disabled can live without plastic as well. Don't over react.
Love your video's its inspiring! My wife and I take a lot less plastic in our home. We compost like your early video ;)
Thank you Lucy! Absolutely still worth it now more than ever. I talk to my friends and family all the time to start making changes for the environment and also their health. People need to know how it will affect them personally...for example drinking plastic water bottles leads to you ingesting particles of plastic that have leached into the water, thus harming your health and increasing risks like cancer and endocrine disruption.
It’s so hard to buy things without plastic and it’s the big companies that make them.
It's worth doing it the whole year.
I read messages from people who live in countries with good recycling systems. It's a great challenge in 3rd. world countries to reduce, reuse, and (most of all) recycle. At home we do our best not to consume plastic items, but, for example, solid shampoo is much more expensive than the regular one and it's difficult to get ingredients to make it at home.
Plastic free July is still worth it! I have been using small baskets to take my groceries back home in instead of the plastic bags at the store. Haven't gotten coffee for most of the month, but it really should be plastic free all year long and beyond that not just in July. :)
When Coke drinks are available only on glass bottles. But now in so many plastics bottles
In the Philippines, we can buy coke in glass bottles but its smaller than the usual size of coke. We have "sari-sari store" (various store), it is a small store built inside a house so its accessible to everyone. I only buy soda in glass bottle now because i can return it to the vendor :))
Buy the aluminum canned version.
If we get recycling infrastructure to be a fully circular process, plastic will never be wasted. Companies will save money by not having to produce as much. It will be a win-win. The best incentive for all this to get better is how is it going to save companies time and money.
In my locality the city Council partially sponsored by Nestle already launch the recycling truck service to collect recyclables from our houses once a week. The response went above than expected showing ppl wants to partake but they just seek assurance on it.
Plastic free July is more needed now, more than ever! Thanks for the great video!
I have been dedicated to reuse, reduce, recycle +replenish for decades. Single use plastic is a travesty.
We have a lot to rethink regarding manufacturing and using plastics as we proceed into the future.
Inspiring! ❤️
I didn’t know about Plastic Free July, but it is good to change the mind of people that can continue in little bits after the month.
Thanks for leading the way on waste reduction!! 💕💕🇨🇦🇨🇦
We should never give up no matter what. I’m giving up a lot of my plastic use so you can add one more person to the fight against plastic and corporations pushing for more plastic.
Absolutely still worth it!
Yes. It is worth it to be plastic free in July.
Agreed, one month is a start, but no reason not to go year round.
Your the first person I head say that about the covid lockdown waste. That was one of the first things I thought about.
Thanks everyone for your every tiny action towards saving Earth!💚🌿
Im saving money and space around my home! Ive only had to take out the trash 2x this month. Ive been composting, recycling, and bottle bricking! Im going plastic free wherever possible. And making better substitutes!
Would you maybe do a video about fishing nets? My understanding is that they're a HUGE problem for the oceans and I'd love to see a video about it so I can learn ore.
We need an alternative to plastic but everything considered sustainable packaging takes up more resources like water to make than it is to make plastic. I hope scientists are researching it now.
We are doing our best to reduce plastic waste in general and especially during July. Unfortunately, our local co-op has gotten worse, not better about using plastic. Changes they instituted during the height of the pandemic, have in a lot of items, become permanent. They justify this by saying it has reduced waste, especially in produce and baked goods. Guess fresh isn't as important as it used to be. We'll keep trying.
Yes, I think it is worthy to do the plastic free July! Why not also (single use) plastic free forever?
Yes. But make the companies and people responsible to.
Mainly the company. You can’t make 100m ppl responsible at the same time. You can make one company be responsible easily.
@@LittleRadicalThinker people in the sence, that they got trash outside trash cans, or dont know how to organise the trash in diferent components if the country has facilities to recicle or compost for example
Yes, plastic free July is still worth it. We live on a small island and the impact of plastic on our beaches and in the ocean is tremendous. It is really upsetting when we see tourists who come for vacation and they first stop at Costco to load their rental cars with cases of single use plastic bottles of water. Can we provide as a community more water stations/fountains where we can fill our re-usable bottles? I think if this was more readily available, as it is in some airports, people might choose differently to using single use plastic bottles. We can only hope that we as earth people would want to protect and preserve our planet.
In the 50s, there was little plastic in hospitals. It was introduced for reasons I cannot understand. Not only is it harder to store tens of thousands of plastic masks than cloth masks, but plastic is not as effective as cloth since microbes survive longer on those plastic stuffs.
That's not true unfortunately. Cloth masks repeatedly underperform paper masks. Multiple pubmed studies support this
Thank you ❤
Thanks. First time I've heard of plastic free July. We're in 2nd July. I'll see how I manage for the rest of the month.
You are an inspiration! I will try to make some changes to my lifestyle too.
I believe we CAN. still make a difference! Grateful for this message!
I collect litter data and all past year, PPE is nowhere near in numbers to plastic cups, containers and others. PPE is not even in the top ten items found. I think we notice them more because they are new: check "selective attention".
Most all vegetables can be bought without plastic, except spinach! Unfortunately though, you can't buy any spinach without plastic. That's a staple in my household and I'm not willing to give up spinach.
It looks like there has been a lot of progress and our understanding is progressingwhile the little things do count, we should be turning out attention to systemic change. Happy plastic free July, Lucy!
Love your videos.......they are very inspiring.....
YES!!!!! Still worth it. And . . . that's just the start. Corporations need to get in line. Our biggest power as individuals over corporations is in how we spend (or don't spend!) our money. Money is the main thing corporations care about. If we don't spend our money on their products, they'll stop producing them. Every dollar we spend is a choice about the kind of world we want to live in.
I think certain circumstances obviously should be exempt because we are all human things just happen the best we can do is just encourage who you can that are doing what they can
I always use reusable cups but during the pandemic barista wouldn't allow me to do so . So I was forced to use single use coffee cups .
This pandemic is where one use items Increases by 300%, speaking of face mask itself 🤦
Yes.
Wow, the numbers are amazing......
It’s worth it to me thanks 🙏 for your videos
I believe banning plastic isn't really the solution but better recylying practices are, that's where we should really be striking
I came to know about plastic free July only through your show .
1 strict rule maybe reduce these plastic, medical industry and food industry can only allows to use plastic so maybe 👍 other industries strictly not allowed to use plastic
Yes we never give up
High five if you do anything to reduce individual plastic although the root of the problem is corporations
Reduce plastic. Reuse same stuff like plastic jars, old clothes, etc for different purposes. Reduce red meat consumption. We are suffocating the future of our kids.
I think more than companies taking action, the consumer mindset must change only then there is a demand for eco friendly. And plastics are not okay if they save lives, they should not harm the environment and wildlife. Ecology is important not the cost of saving it.
when oil will finish then plastic production would be fked up
Corporations need to do better
Grocery stores take the packaging off in the back and the fruit and veg you see on the shelves were still shipped to you using oil and gas.
Also isn't this what used to be the SourceFed Channel?
I want to try this but I have medical stuff that I use (NEED) plastics for sadly
Plastic Free July and pretty much every sustainable "challenge" or movement (like zero waste) is about making better choices WITHIN your possibilities.
Maybe you need to use needles, or single used packaged meds or something... That's OK. It's for your own health. Literally, your life depends on it.
You can do other stuff to help reduce plastic waste and be a more conscious consumer. Maybe opt to support small local businesses, or cook more food from scrap to avoid plastic packaging, or do Meatless Mondays, use cloth napkins, or carry your own reusable bags, water bottle, cutlery and containers. Every action, however small it may be, is important.
Don't let something you can't control stop you from changing what you CAN control.
"We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly."- Mary Anne Bonneau. 💚
Hahaha, I meant "Cook from scratch"... Although, Marie Anne Bonneau does have a lot of recipes to cook with scraps, so... Yeah. xD
I hope you're doing well :)
It takes a lot of learning and change. Idk. I'm kinda lazy. Plus plastic is affordable.
If you go through a plastic free July do you just go back to normal come August? Why not continue? It seems like the right thing to do.
What's the point of giving up plastic if companies still manufacture polyester?
Making things out of paper, wood, glass and metal will make everything more expensive. Furthermore biodegradable materials rot in landfill, releasing greenhouse gases. Surely it's better to use plastic now and the biodegradable materials later, once emissions have been reduced and the planet can take the warming of methane emitting from landfill.
If plastic cutlery last hundreds of years and is basically free, just wash it and reuse it.
Had only plastic manufacturing made limited, there will be a price hike on plastic supplies and that's where everybody will miraculously learn to reuse. Sadly it didn't happen till this day.
Biodegradable plastic lids and cups are 5x the price disposable lids and cups are.
Omg, plastic-free everyday!
.Check out Gaia Guy's Bamboo and Boar Bristle Toothbrushes for a nylon-free and plastic-free toothbrush.
Every littel bit helps. But the real polutions stats white the production of the machines thath make the machinse and so on
Plastic everywhere even in our stomach like fish in water..
Well plastic is recyclable. Why don’t you do it? Just make garbage policies and enforce it. In Germany we have mandatory trash categories, bottles are charged with an extra amount of money that is returned if the bottle is returned. Sure the rest of the world can do the same.
💯
We need it to become cool, or people won't do it
Since China no longer recycles plastic, and few others do......too expensive.
Don't forget to abstain from fish if you're taking the challenge. The fishing industry is responsible for massive amounts of plastic waste in the ocean
We but fishes from small fishermen's market
@@sallylemon5835 and you think they don't contribute to overfishing, bycatch, and pollution?
Do fruit stickers count as plastic cause I’m about to fail on day 2…😔
They look more like papers.
@@sallylemon5835 looks can be deceiving... from what I found online they are covered in a layer of plastic/vinyl
More than plastic bottles, packing is more killing.
We need to tax single use plastic and make plastic companies pay for clean up.
Simple answer, yes it does. You can send a 2liter bottle back to Coke and Pepsi for free. Print out prepaid postage.
Ru-izz is actually pronounced Reece.
Just ban plastic bags and notice how everyone will not forget to bring shopping bags anymore
July only? Bah
There is nothing wrong with plastics. The problem is in regards to how stupid humans dispose of them.
Well I'm sorry to say I failed... I just purchased Styrofoam plates plastic cups forks knives spoons for our fourth of July get together... if this would have been on mainstream news outlets I might have done it differently
No it does not watch Seaspiracy on Netflix they give the real stats there!
There's nothing happening to clean up since Trp
Well if we just landfill plastic the wax worms eat it and their waste is biodegradable! If we switch to paper it all becomes methane in the landfill!
Bon Jovi :lipstick plastic and paint. Plastic is cool
Tehehe she said PP
Do your small part.
Cell Phones components are built into a plastic casing, and the people who produce these videos need to quit being a hypocrite and not to use cell phones or other types of video equipment since plastic is involved in the production of technology devices!
Don't pretend that you don't understand what 'single use plastic' means, you disingenuous lick-spittle.
Plastic doesn't serve any good purpose. Covid or not.
Vote Green 💚
Lol.
After I saw these covid deniers I’ve lost hope
Plastic is an amazing material and is indispensible for our society and quality of life. In order to "phase out" plastic you would have to define your ideal engineered material: fully biodegradeable, moldable, strong, etc and set the chemical/materials engineers to create such a material. Just trying to ban plastic outright is NOT a solution.
Are stupid? Haven't you heard about plastic toxicity? Plasti leaching toxic additives to food/drinks?
People been have been advocating and practicing Refill methode to phase out Single Use Plastic .. might wanna open your eyes a little bit more
I think if we didnt overconsume plastic in our daily lives single use plastic for medical and safety use (like in the pandemic example) wouldnt be a big issue. A lot of medical products are packaged or made of single use plastic for sanitary reasons and its unfair to place the plastic watse blame on people who need those products for their continued health and safety.