MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – For most of us, July means fireworks, barbecues, beach days and vacation, but it’s also the month in which everyone around the world is called on to reduce our plastic footprint.
Plastic Free July has grown into a global movement, engaging over 100 million people in 190 countries to reduce their use of plastic.
If you’ve been following Local 10’s Louis Aguirre’s five-year journey on Don’t Trash Our Treasure, you know he’s declared a personal war on plastic pollution.
From social media videos to countless stories we’ve aired on Local 10, he keeps challenging viewers and followers to stop using single use plastics.
Well, it’s July, so that means it’s game on for everybody.
Plastic Free July is a month-long campaign that encourages everyone to do what they can to reduce as many plastics as possible,” said Maddie Kaufman, program director for Debris Free Oceans.
This is not a drill. Our planet is literally drowning in plastic pollution.
Roughly 8 million metric tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, and that’s on top of the over 171 trillion particles of plastic that are there right now.
Making matters worse, plastic production is projected to double in the next 25 years.
“We pick up 20,000-plus pounds of trash per day on international Coastal Cleanup Day,” said Kaufman. “Our landfills are filling up with plastic, our bodies are filling up with plastic.”
And we cannot recycle our way out this.
Less than 9% of all global plastics are ever recycled.
The only way out this mess is to stop using plastic.
“We don’t need a few people doing this perfectly, we need a lot of people trying, and that’s how we will actually start to have this ripple effect impact,” said Kaufman.
It can seem overwhelming. Walking into any grocery store and you see that most everything is packaged in plastic, but there are ways to reduce your use.
Here are Aguirre’s Top 3 tips.
- Stop buying water in plastic bottles. Invest in a thermos, it’ll save you money in the long run. Our tap water in South Florida is some of the best and safest to drink. Plus, there now free filtered water stations everywhere: at the beach, even at airports across the world.
“Studies have found if you drink out of a plastic bottle for a year, you’ll ingest 90,000 microplastic particles, compared to like 4000 if you use a reusable bottle,” said Kaufman.
- Stop using plastic bags. Don’t believe what stores are telling you, they’re not being recycled. They are everywhere, polluting our environment. Instead of plastic bags, invest in canvas bags. They are easy to keep in your care and use over and over again.
- Cleaning products and detergents can be challenging, but not impossible. Aguirre’s ultimate plastic-free hack is Verde Market, a zero-waste grocery store and sustainable lifestyle store.
At Verde, you buy only the product, not the packaging.
Customers bring their own containers and refill them with laundry detergent, shower gel, hand soap, even olive oil, without creating more waste. When products run out at home, you can bring the same containers back to the store and refill them all over again.
“We have everything that you can imagine, plastic free, from oils to laundry, detergent, spices, teas, super foods, you name it,” said Verde Market co-founder Martha Balaguer. “You’re just going to pay for what you exactly need at that moment, and you’re getting an excellent product because we also focus on having clean products.”
Verde has three stores, two in Miami-Dade County ― at 395 NE 59th St. in Miami and 7304 SW 57th Ave. in South Miami ― and one at 2102 E. Oakland Park Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. There are also “eco pods” – vending kiosks – that also offer refillable products at different locations throughout South Florida.
There are three easy tips to reduce your plastic footprint. It’s that not hard, as where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Aguirre encourages people to just pick one thing to start. It takes around two weeks to build a habit, so take two weeks to try to build a habit with one item.
“Every choice you make makes a difference,” said Balaguer. “It’s time for you to make the decision take your power back as individuals and start the plastic free journey.”
Because the state of Florida has preempted local cities and counties from passing any laws to regulate single-use plastics, it’s now more incumbent than ever that we, the people, step up and vote with our wallets and make better choices.
We all have agency here. We all have skin in the game. We must do what we can to protect our planet.
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