How to Rev Up your 'Plastic Free July' Efforts in 5 small steps

Plastic Free July may be underway, but it is never too late to jump in and participate. Taking a few additional steps will help out, too! Here are 5 small steps you can take today to participate in Plastic Free July and lessen plastic waste.

#1) Simply go online to https://plasticfreejuly.org. You can sign up to take part in Plastic Free July or take the Pesky Plastics Quiz, which will help you determine what plastics to swap out for other alternatives. Alternatively, you can skip this step and go to #2.

#2) Choose to ‘Up Cup’ - Should you really walk into a coffee shop with your own mug? Why Yes! you should. Even paper cups may be lined with a thin layer of plastic, so ditch them. I am currently putting a bag in my car to carry around some extras. The “Up cup’ movement is the name for making better cup choices to reduce plastic waste. Maybe you can help your local coffee shop start a mug library for those who need a mug. You may be surprised at how many people will donate old mugs to the cause. This will help the coffee shop owner cut costs – and who doesn’t want a cost savings?

#3) Eliminate plastic straws. - You can start by not using one at all. If you are like me, sometimes you’d like a straw. I carry 4 washable, reuseable straws with me. I even have small ones for the kids. Don’t have any reusable or no time to wash them? I also have compostable straws on hand, which are better than plastic if the reuseable ones aren’t a practical option.

#4) No bags here - It is heartening to see so many reuseable bags in the grocery stores. This plastic reduction technique has become, dare we say it, ‘mainstream,’ since some stores stopped providing bags or now give a monetary credit to customers who bring their own. Time to up our game by ensuring to also bring reuseable bags for produce. I just bought a bunch of washable produce bags and use them at my local farmer’s market and grocery stores.

#5) Water-less bottles – I admit it, I am guilty of buying bottled water in airports. On my last trip I noticed water fill-up stations in the airport. Are those new, I wondered? I’m still not sure, but I do know they are free! I will now be bringing my empty, reusable water bottles when I travel. I’m adding one to the plastic alternative bag in my car.

If you feel overwhelmed and think making all these changes at once is too much to handle, I get it. Just start with one change and start today since July is underway. You will be amazed at how easy it is to make one small change and you may find you are looking around for others. Start small, just make sure you start.