ZNET Uralla is supporting Plastic Free July. For the next month, we’ll be posting tips and conversation starters on social media ( Facebook and Twitter) to help get us all thinking about how we can reduce our reliance on plastic.
Why does it matter?
About 2.5 million tonnes of plastic waste is generated in Australia each year. Households are the largest single contributor, supplying 47% of all plastic waste.
Only around 9% of this plastic waste is recycled.
While improving our recycling habits can help, contamination of materials and the limited capacity that exists for plastic recycling, particularly in Australia, are significant challenges we will continue to face.
Reducing what we consume in the first instance, is one way to make an impact on this problem.
What are the other benefits?
Many of the most hazardous chemical families – including heavy metals, flame retardants, phthalates, bisphenols, and fluorinated compounds – are directly associated with plastic production. Cutting back can potentially improve your health as well as reduce toxic effects on the air, water and environment. Less plastic production also means fewer carbon emissions.
What can we do?
Please join us in July as we challenge ourselves to seek alternatives to plastic. Each day we’ll be posting an idea on Facebook and Twitter. We would love to hear your ideas, too! Email coordinator(Replace this parenthesis with the @ sign)zneturalla.org.au or add your comment to one of our plastic-free posts. You can also sign up to take the Plastic Free July challenge at plasticfreejuly.org
