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4 Jul 2025 13:00

Plastic Free July

This month we’re celebrating Plastic Free July!

As a Fair Trade business, the environment is largely at the heart of everything we do. Whether it’s keeping our shelves topped up, separating our rubbish or perfecting eco-friendly self-care routines, our journey towards a better world can’t come soon enough…

Plastic Free July is a reminder that we must always do our best to look after the planet, no matter how small our actions might seem. To celebrate and raise awareness of more sustainable and plastic-free practices this month, we thought we’d put together some little tips and tricks for everyone so that we can all work together to perfect our progress and fight against climate change!

The first step to creating your best Plastic Free July journey starts at home. I didn’t realise how many bottles and tubs we’re using in our kitchen and bathroom and then just dumping once they’re empty. My household has started a move towards re-using them as many times as possible before they go into recycling. Our hand soap, for example, can be easily refilled and there are lots of companies who are now supporting a move towards reusing and recycling their containers by selling cartons of product to refill them with, making things a lot easier! Our shops in York and Liverpool also have refill stations where you can bring old bottles to be reused as many times as they’ll last. By doing this, we stop ourselves from simply throwing away old bottles and replacing them with new ones. It’s so easy once you put your mind to it!

You can also massively reduce your intake by switching from bottled products to other alternatives. I, for example, bought a soap dish and a plastic-free soap for my showers, and even swapped my face wash for a bar of carbon soap (which I’ll admit has done my skin wonders over the cleanser I was using before!) – I was never really one for the feeling of a bar of soap in my hands, but now I think I prefer it. Not sure whether that’s because I know it’s better for the environment or I just like the instant gratification of the feeling of it making suds between my hands so much more! These small changes can make a big difference, even if it doesn’t feel like it at first.

Our fridges and freezers are also one of the most plastic-filled places in our home. By focusing on reducing our use of single-use plastics and embracing reusable alternatives when we shop and eat our favourite dishes, we can save a huge amount of waste going to landfill. Swapping carrier bags for reusable shopping bags or plastic straws for bamboo, for example, is a great starting point. When we’re out and about, we can always opt for alternatives like quirky reusable water bottles instead of single-use plastic ones, or using produce bags to hold vegetables instead of buying them in plastic packaging. Many big supermarkets are slowly moving towards plastic-free packaging, but this process is still very gradual. We can speed it up by choosing to opt for the alternative and do our bit for the planet as well as a move towards sustainable consumer culture!

Opting for eco-friendly packaging when you shop can be a huge contribution to a more plastic-free July, but also sets up sustainable habits and practices all year round. Simple changes make big differences, such as swapping your plastic toothbrush for a bamboo one - this doesn’t just help you reduce waste, but also lets your teeth benefit from more antibacterial and sustainable materials! Switching to food and cosmetic wraps also lets you reduce and reuse wherever possible, with many people now opting for beeswax wraps or taking their own containers when they know they’ll be taking leftovers home from their favourite restaurants. It’s simple changes like these that can have the biggest impact!

Even just showing your support and raising awareness of climate change and our plastic use is a major move towards more sustainable eco-friendly practices. Shared Earth works alongside many climate-based organisations and charities, for example Sungai Watch, a charity that helps to clean rivers in Bali and across Indonesia, with plans to expand their work into other countries. Their work takes waste out of our most vital natural spaces, with many volunteers working tirelessly to create a safe space for biodiversity and wildlife to thrive, as well as helping marginalised riverbank communities have access to clean rivers and streets. By supporting projects like this, we can not only raise awareness but actually help the journey towards a better world even if we aren’t directly involved in the clean up ourselves. For those of us who live along rivers and beaches like me, there are often a lot of litter-picking and clean up projects that advocate for this and are always looking for proactive people to volunteer - I know the beach near me often has days where the community will get together and take rubbish from the beach in summer when waste is rife but wildlife is also at a high, and a lot of us come together and have a laugh while also contributing to a more eco-friendly local (and global) environment.

This isn’t to say that everything will be fixed if we buy loose fruits and vegetables, or start using bars of soap – Plastic Free July is a movement that raises awareness of how much plastic we actually use (and probably don’t realise) throughout our day-to-day lives. It doesn’t mean we should instantly stop buying water in plastic bottles from the shop – sometimes you’ll leave your bottle at home and it’s the only option – but it just urges us to maybe refill that bottle a couple of times and then pop it in the recycling before you just drink from it once and throw it away. It doesn’t mean we should rifle through our bins for that one shred of cardboard you think you might have accidentally thrown away; it just means that we should make sure we’re recycling as best we can. If we can all make one or two simple changes this month, it sets us up for a better future on a planet that is in a healthier place. By raising awareness and supporting the people and places that need it the most, everyone can do their bit in the fight against climate change.

Maggie

Created On 4 Jul 2025 13:00 - >>