Earth Day 2024 will take place on Monday 22nd April, and this year, the organisation is committed to raising awareness around ending plastic use, demanding a 60% reduction in global use by 2040.
But with the most common recycling symbol actually meaning that at least 75% of local authorities will collect and recycle that item, and 84%* of us contaminating our recycling with things that should not be there, the first place to start is learning what can and can’t be recycled.
As such, the team at 100Green have created a quiz to give Brits the opportunity to brush up on and test their knowledge on the most common recycling labels they’ll find on their packaging to aid the nation on their plastic reduction journey.
The team have also pulled together their 5 top tips for reducing plastic consumption altogether, with the average recycling rate of household waste by local authorities in the UK sitting at just 44.4% – a figure down 0.7% points in the past year.
While a plastic-free world is the ideal, 100Green knows going cold-turkey on plastic isn’t realistic just yet. See below 100Green’s 5 top everyday changes people can make to try to reduce their plastic consumption:
- Get to know your recycling labels
Sixteen. That’s the number of recycling symbols available, which means there are sixteen ways to recycle something. Now, be honest with yourself: if we asked you to name and know the meaning of them all, could you? By understanding what our recycling symbols mean, you’ll soon realise that the UK’s recycling system is not perfect, and that’s why it’s crucial to consider reducing your single use plastics in the first place.
In 100Green’s quiz, they put the nation’s knowledge of recycling labels and symbols to the test, but it’s so important to ensure that we recycle as much as possible. But if we’re going to make the effort of recycling, we need to make sure we’re doing it correctly.
If you recycle incorrectly, the item will eventually end up in a landfill. This is a bigger concern than you may think because every recyclable item that gets wrongly added to landfill takes up valuable space—which is running out – with the UK being warned that it could run out of landfill capacity in the next eight years.
- Use refillable stations at the supermarket
Refillable stations and aisles have been popping up in supermarkets across the UK for the past couple of years, and they can be an excellent way to reduce your everyday plastic waste.
A study from Greenpeace found that a staggering two billion units of single-use packaging are thrown away in the UK each week, and 99% of this plastic packaging is made from environmentally damaging fossil fuels.
The organisation estimates that if every household in the UK refilled just one item in their weekly shop each week – for example, instead of purchasing a new bottle of dishwashing liquid, using the same bottle and buying refillable sachets or filling up at a refill station – we’d be able to eliminate over 1.4 billion items of plastic packaging waste each year!
To find out which stores near you have refill stations and plastic-free stations, use the Refill app.
- Use beeswax food wraps instead of cling-film
A worrying (or rather unbelievable) 1.2 billion metres of cling film are used in the UK each year – the equivalent of 745,000 miles – enough to wrap around the world 30 times – and that’s just for the UK!
Even though cling film is a type of plastic waste, it can’t be recycled at home. Instead, it has to be taken to a specialist facility. But if it’s put in the general waste (which most people do), it may be sent to a landfill site where it can take up to 1,000 years to decompose naturally. So, what’s the alternative?
In the past few years, beeswax wraps have become increasingly popular, and they’re great alternatives to cling film for wrapping food.
They’re made out of pieces of fabric, with a layer of beeswax to form a waxy, grippy coating. They’re super easy to make if you have any old clothes or fabric lying around. The Natural History Museum has a great tutorial on DIY beeswax wraps on their website.
- Don’t forget your reusable bag for the supermarket!
In the UK, it’s estimated that the average person now buys around three single-use carrier bags a year – a figure down from a staggering 140 in 2014, which is when the plastic bag charges came into place in stores. However, Greenpeace research shows that British supermarkets sold 1.58 billion ‘bags for life’ in 2019 – the equivalent of 57 per household and more than one bag purchased every week.
No one needs 57 bags for life, but we know how easy it is to forget bags for your shopping, especially if you’ve had an unplanned trip to the supermarket. So, to ensure you’re not buying plastic bags in surplus every time you go shopping, try moving bags closer to a nook near the front door, or into the boot of your car.
Alternatively, why not invest in a packable bag you can always keep in your jacket pocket or bag in case of any spontaneous trips to the shop?
- Get a reusable coffee cup or water bottle
Just like food, drinks have a lot to answer for when it comes to contributing to plastic waste. It’s estimated that each year in the UK, 2.5 billion coffee cups are used and thrown away – that’s enough to stretch around the world roughly five and a half times!
It’s also estimated that using a reusable hot drinks cup saves 10.32kg of CO2e, with one reusable coffee cup being equal to around 500 reusable ones. For perspective, if the UK switched from disposable cups to reusable cups, we could curb overall CO2 emissions by a whopping 52,000 tonnes each year.
Not only does using a reusable hot drinks cup massively reduce your plastic consumption, but it also saves you money, with many coffee shops offering discounted coffee to those with reusable cups. Similarly, plastic bottles take anywhere from 75 to 450 years to break down, so switching to using a refillable water bottle is undoubtedly a great way to reduce your plastic waste.
The Refill app can also show you free water refill stations near you. To do this, they partner with over 80+ councils across the UK. You can find your nearest Scheme on their app, or start your own and create a lasting change where you live!
