Take action
Taking responsibility and setting a good example can be amazingly positive and have knock-on affects which help us towards ending plastic pollution. The following guide is modelled on the simple waste hierarchy: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Reduce
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Guides
- Everyday Plastic have provided this excellent guide: 52 Ways to Reduce Your Plastic.
- City to Sea's Plastic Free Living guide.
- Jen Gale's Sustainable(ish).
- Friends of the Earth's 'Living Without Plastic'.
- One Green Planet's '10 Life Hacks to Help You Cut Plastic Out The Picture'
- Plastic Free Swindon blogs for the new year 2019.
- Get inspiration, ask for advice and share ideas in an online or offline group.
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Take a challenge
- Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Waste Free February
- Plastic Free July
- Go on a plastic diet.
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Sustainable businesses
- "The world’s 60 biggest banks committed $6,900,000,000,000 ($6.9 trillion) over 8 years to the fossil fuel industry, driving climate chaos & causing deadly local community impacts." - Banking on Climate Chaos report. Almost all high street banks are funding fossil fuels. One of the most powerful things we can do to reduce plastic production and deal with ecological crisis is by using ethical banks and building societies. Learn more with Ethical Consumer.
- Encourage businesses to reduce their plastic use.
- Support businesses offering plastic-free options. For example, Swindon's Refill / zero waste champions or an online business such as Peace With The Wild.
- There are many good reasons to avoid Amazon, including that they won't share information about their plastic usage. Instead, buy from a socially and environmentally responsible business such as Bookshop.org and Ethical Shop.
- For deliveries, send / ask to receive items in sustainable packaging such as brown paper, paper tape, string, cardboard, recycled materials. Or reuse packaging, saving resources and money.
- Give companies their plastic back, as we did at Sainsbury's.
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Reduce packaging
- Support the Refill scheme. Carry a reusable water bottle and food container. Use the Refill app, our local stations list, or look out for Refill stickers to find local Refill stations.
- Does a spud need another jacket? Buy loose items locally or from a market.
- Grow your own food. It requires no packaging. Fresh, local, organic food is beneficial for the environment and health. Nowhere to grow food? Join a local growers group.
- Take a reusable bag(s) when shopping rather than asking for a plastic bag.
- For deliveries, send / ask to receive items in sustainable packaging such as brown paper, paper tape, string, cardboard, recycled materials. Or reuse packaging, saving resources and money.
- When is a treat not a treat? Crisps, sweets, and biscuits rot our teeth and make us fat. The wrappers add to plastic waste. Bags and bags and bags....
- Wiltshire Wildlife Trust's Real Nappy Network aims to help reduce the 8 million nappies that are thrown away each day. The scheme is good for the environment and good financially, with estimated savings of up to £500 per child.
- Make your own products. There are a huge number of resources available on the internet.
- Buy wholefoods. It often costs less and is healthier than processed foods.
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Use better materials
- Compostable carrier and dog poo bags. Don't mix them up!
- How is something made? What is it made from? Vital questions to ask. Choose natural materials free from nasty synthetic chemicals, such as FSC certified (sustainable forestry) paper and wood.
- Carry a reusable container for take-away food.
- Choose sustainable packaging. Cardboard or paper instead of polypropylene or polystyrene, for example.
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Share
- Join or start a toy library. They can reduce our carbon footprints in many ways including a reduction in plastic. A toy libarary recently started in Wootton Bassett. They used to be more common; there used to be one at Eastcott Community Centre, for example.
- Why buy when you can borrow? Introducing the Library of Things.
- Hire instead of buying.
- Lend to or borrow from a friend, family member, neighbour...
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Represent
- Contact your MP. Ask them to implement the strong legislation that is needed. See our government section for further info.
- Share information with friends and family. Encourage them to make changes.
- Find a positive aspect to tackle plastic pollution such as creating a blog, making some art, handing out leaflets... The list's as long as your imagination.
- Get involved with Plastic Free Swindon! Check out our voluntary roles.
Reuse
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Second hand
- Take unwanted things that can be reused to a charity shop.
- Give and get stuff for free on Freecycle.
- "Find what you need and share what you don't with local people" by using Olio.
- Buy from a clothes fair such as Lou Lou's Vintage Fair.
- Go to a car boot sale.
- Fight fast fashion with Worth the Wait.
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Create
- Upcycle Swindon is a charity who receive donations and upcycle them. They provide skills for young and vulnerable people to help them into work.
- Join a local art group who reuse materials such as Artsite or Ipsum.
- Make ecobricks, building blocks made from reused plastic-filled bottles.
- There are a huge amount of online resources for upcycling all kinds of items. Pinterest, for example.
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Repair
- How well designed is a product? Is it repairable? Will it last? Are parts available? If so, are they affordable? The Fairphone is a great example of a product which is easily repaired due to its modular design. This saves resources and money.
- Renew Swindon are an organisation who refurbish and repair, teaching valuable skills, and providing a friendly space to commune. It includes the Men's Shed in Penhill, which is open to all, part of the UK Men's Shed Association.
- Repair Cafes have sprung up around the world in the last few years. Items are repaired for free with demonstrations so that people learn and pass on new skills. Swindon is blessed with a Repair Cafe and Free Shop, a very popular community event with local live music, food and a good atmosphere. Interestingly, the free shop in Swindon came about, in part, because of Food Not Bombs.
- Use a local repair service such as Grace Electrical or SP Computers.
- "iFixit is a global community of people helping each other repair things. Let's fix the world, one device at a time." Includes manuals, guides, parts, and tools. Plenty of other repair tutorials out there!
- Find places to repair electricals with Recycle Your Electricals.
- Software obsolescence is responsible for a huge amount of WEEE waste and (plastic) pollution. One solution is to use free / libre software instead of proprietary software. For example, GNU / Linux can be used as an alternative operating system for computers.
- There are local craft groups to learn and hone skills such as Knit and Natter and Swindon Big Knit.
- Swindon Makerspace has excellent facilities to repair all kinds of items.
Recycle
- Swindon Borough Council have a Waste Wizard and recycling guide.
- Recycle Your Electricals shows where electrical items can be recycled locally.
- Here's a guide to understand recycling symbols.
- Pick up and recycle discarded vapes. They contain the valuable metal lithium, as well as poisonous nicotine. Reusable vapes = less plastic and is cheaper. If you're trying to give up fags, stick with it! You smell sweeter already!
- Wiltshire Air Ambulance work with Terracycle to recycle commonly used types of plastic packaging.
"We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a person changes their own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards them. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do."
– Mahatma Gandhi