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Seaspiracy: Does it help or hinder
The fight against plastic pollution? When I initially saw the trailer for Seaspiracy it piqued my interest. It highlighted all the important environmental issues surrounding our oceans; interviews with well-known environmentalists; Paul Watson, Sylvia Earle and snippets from Rick O’Barry’s documentary The Cove along with scenes of plastic washing up onto our shores. Overfishing, saving our coral reefs, and cetacean captivity are all issues that are close to my heart, but closer yet is combating the use of single use plastic. The trailer for Seaspiracy definitely got my attention. Seaspiracy and Plastic Pollution After the initial documentary intro, Seaspiracy begins with scenes of whales cruising majestically through the ocean, while videographer Ali Tabrizi watches from the shore. It talks about this love of the ocean and his desire to learn about the beauty beneath the sea. It doesn’t take long before the documentary switches from beautiful ocean scenes to images of whales washing up on the shore. “Pregnant whale died with 50 pounds of plastic in her stomach.” “Baby dolphin found dead with stomach full of plastic trash.” Over and over again the screen is filled with headlines from news outlets depicting stories of whales and dolphins, filled with plastic, washing ashore. “The equivalent of a garbage truck load of plastic is dumped in the sea every single minute. Joining the over 150 million tonnes already floating there.” - Ali Tabrizi, Seaspiracy While the world is well aware of plastic pollution, the message about reducing single use plastic is still not making much of an impact. We continue to choose our convenience of plastic over the knowledge that using plastic at an alarming rate is causing harm to both the oceans and our land. With images depicting take away containers and plastic drink bottles being thrown into the garbage, Tabrizi comes to the realisation that he was a massive part of the problem. In order to do his part to curb plastic pollution he “became the plastic police.” His mission was simple, and involved steps we all can, and should, implement on a day-to-day basis: Carry a reusuable water bottle Stop using plastic toothbrushes and straws Take your own bags to the store Carry a reusable coffee cup Pick up single use plastic when you see it It was a soft intro into the harm that single use plastic is causing. Seaspiracy then takes a swift turn. Ali along with wife Lucy pack their bags and head to Japan to find out how big of a threat Japan’s whaling practices were compared to plastic. Plastic and Dolphin Drive Hunts We are now catapulted into Rick O’Barry’s domain, exposing the horrors of the Taiji dolphin hunts. For those unaware, the dolphin drive hunts are a means of capturing dolphins, placing them into tiny enclosures, training them and selling them globally to marine parks as a means of entertainment. It’s argued that dolphins used in many marine parks today don’t come from these dolphin hunts, but rather from breeding of dolphins that are already in captivity. However, it’s undeniable that dolphins in marine parks came from the ocean to start with. Captivity leads us back to single use plastic. Keeping these animals captive requires a ton of plastic: fish caught from the ocean — frozen and packaged in single use plastic as well as all the plastic required for medical treatments and breeding these animals. We get a short glimpse of a crowd at a marine park and it's safe to assume that at some stage the crowds were hungry and thirsty. What are the majority of the food and beverages consumed at these venues packaged in? Single use plastic. There’s always a plastic connection. While O’Barry's reference to dolphin drive hunts and saving the ocean may not have been directly related to ocean plastic, plastic pollution isn’t just the size of a football field. Plastic is used by every single person on this planet, both on land and on the sea. I’d wager a bet that even the North Sentinelese Tribes that have no contact with the outside world encounter plastic on a regular basis, with it being washed up on their shores. Overfishing and the Plastic Connection The documentary shifts its focus to overfishing blue fin tuna and shark finning. Apart from the appalling number of shark fin products being sold in the markets, the other glaring problem was all the single use plastic these products were packaged in. Rows and rows of dehydrated fins, packaged in single use plastic. Over 94% of which will make its way to either landfill or the ocean. Seabirds and the Plastic Connection The documentary now moves to professor Callum Roberts, a Marine Scientist, who notes that the abundance of seabirds has decreased by about 70 per cent over the past 70 years. Roberts goes on to explain that the birds lightly dip into the ocean to feed off small fish on the surface, and as there are less fish for them to feed from, the seabird numbers are seeing a decline. What’s the plastic connection that’s missing from this story? Often those pickings are not little fish at all — but instead, bits of plastic. This too, is killing birds that feed from the ocean. Labels, Sustainability and the Plastic Connection The documentary moves to product labels and specifically targets the Dolphin Safe label in regards to dolphin protection. The film argues that consumers have being purchasing products specifically due to this labelling, trusting that the logo meant no dolphins were harmed during the tuna fishing process. It’s emphasised that labels are purchased and there’s no guarantee that the products labelled “Dolphin Safe” means that no dolphins were killed while harvesting the tuna. “Follow the money” Tabrizi says. He then pulls up a website that states: “The Marine Stewardship Council was founded in 1995 by the World Wildlife Fund and Unilever.” However, the film only highlights Unilever as a problem. WWF’s logo flashed briefly on screen prior to talking about fish farms, there was no mention of their label support, and money making ventures. The WWF are also funded by labels for “sustainable” farmed salmon in Australia. And just like Unilever, to quote Tabrizi, “the more blue ticks they hand out — the more money (WWF) make.” What’s the plastic connection? Products marked with both “Dolphin Safe” and “Sustainable Seafood” labels are often packaged in single use plastic, of which very little will be recycled. The other missing plastic link: producing feed for these fish farms and keeping them medicated and coloured requires, yet again, more plastic. Plastic Fishing Nets “Even the groups that are talking about marine plastic are highly reluctant to talk about what a lot of that plastic is. Which is fishing nets and fishing gear.” - George Monbiot, Environmentalist Are they really reluctant to talk about fishing nets? Ocean Cleanup talks about fishing nets, Parley for the Ocean talks about fishing nets (ironically Cyrill Gutsch, founder of Parley for the Oceans was interviewed in the documentary — yet he is not questioned on the apparent reluctance to discuss fishing nets as a problem), Greenpeace talks about fishing nets. Monbiot states that 46 per cent of ocean plastic comes from fishing nets. Even if this statistic is correct, there’s still 54 per cent of plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch coming from other plastic. However, I would agree with Monbiot when he asks: “Isn’t it terrible, all our cotton buds and plastic bags are swirling around in the great pacific garbage patch?” Yes it is! Plastic Straws Plastic straws may only account for 0.03% of plastics entering the ocean. However, if it wasn't for this viral video of one single plastic straw entering the nose of one turtle, we likely wouldn't have seen the outpouring of campaigns against plastic straws. Therefore, I would deem the video a success. Since watching the 8-minute clip many people got behind these campaigns and vowed to stop using not only plastic straws, but other single use takeaway items. In fact, without the awareness that plastic straws pollute our oceans, many people would not be watching the Seaspiracy documentary today. Gaining awareness about what may seem like a small issue (turtles dying due to plastic) and in turn reducing your use of certain single use plastic items, isn't a bad thing. In fact it’s a damn good place to start. Recreational Fisherman “I have a hard time accepting that a fisherman on his little fishing boat could be causing all this damage, so what’s the deal?”, Tabrizi asks Monbiot. Monbiot takes us off to another place, one that doesn’t address recreational fishing, suddenly we are propelled back to commercial fishing. Most recreational fisherman would agree there needs to be greater restrictions placed on large commercial fishing vessels. If the main agenda for this film is to get people to stop eating fish and adopt a vegan lifestyle, it’s very unlikely to happen. Which is possibly why the Plastic Pollution Coalition became defensive when asked why “stop eating fish” was not listed on their website. That isn’t the agenda of the Plastic Pollution Coalition — their agenda is for their message to reach the masses. The message: “To work towards a world free of plastic pollution and its toxic impact on humans, animals, waterways, the ocean, and the environment.” Plant Based Alternatives Seaspiracy ends with a segment on plant based alternatives. They sound and look delicious. There was only one problem — many of those options presented were, you guessed it, packaged in plastic. Yes, the packaging stated it was packaged in compostable plastic, but when it comes to vegan food that’s not always the case, and as I always say. “It won’t compost if you don't compost it.” — Catherine Earle While I admire Ali and his wife Lucy for having the courage and tenacity to dig deep into these topics, I feel it missed the mark on really telling the story about how the oceans work, why it’s important for us to protect them and shine a brighter light on the issues surrounding commercial fishing. If the film’s mission was to encourage more people to go vegan, it hit its mark. Almost every comment on social media regarding Seaspiracy is related to veganism — not about the issues surrounding plastic pollution or around commercial fishing and fishing nets. However, Seaspiracy didn’t provide a solution to the problem of overfishing, aside from adopting a vegan diet. A better solution? Ask people to make conscious decisions and question their food supply — including those that are already vegan. Where has your food originated from? What is your food packaged in? Is that packaging sustainable? Is it recyclable or compostable? If it’s recyclable, will it actually get recycled? If it’s compostable, are you going to compost it? These questions can, and should be applied to all our purchasing decisions. When we start making conscious choices, our options start shrinking and the reality of sustainability at the rate we are currently consuming, will be a wake-up call in itself. I believe Seaspiracy would have been more compelling if it stuck to the issues surrounding commercial fishing or actually followed the connection between fishing and plastic pollution, rather than a documentary of fishing versus plastic, and which one is a bigger problem. It was unnecessary to point fingers at organisations that also are working hard at trying to curb plastic pollution and in turn help save our oceans. Plastic pollution and overfishing are both important issues, one does not override the other. A final word from the inspirational Sylvia Earle: “Most of the positive and negative things that bring about change in human civilisation, start with someone. Some-one. No-one can do everything, but everyone can do something. And sometimes big ideas, make a big difference. That’s what we can do, that’s what you can do right now.”
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Australian states forge ahead with single use plastic bans
Just over a year ago there was a strong movement towards removing single use plastic from our everyday use. The topic was dominating in headlines, progress towards removing single use plastics was at an all-time high. Then, as we all know just over a year ago the focus shifted to an invisible killer. Not only did this new life threat take over the headlines, it also saw a rewind in the way we viewed and used plastic. All the hard work that had been done to say no to single use plastics, quickly reversed. While we may have taken a few steps back, the awareness and education had already hit mainstream. And, the governments that were setting their sights on banning single use plastics pre-covid were still forging ahead with their plans. Let’s take a look at where each Australian state is at with their commitment to reducing Single Use Plastic (SUP), which states still have some work and where each of them rank: 1. South Australia It should come as no surprise to most Australian’s that follow waste streams that South Australia is once again the leader of the pack. This is a state that has had a cash refund for bottles and cans for over 40 years, while the rest of the country is just catching on to the concept. At the beginning of this month (March, 2021) South Australia implemented their ban on single use plastics. This ban includes the sale, supply or distribution of single use plastic straws, drink stirrers and cutlery. Importantly South Australia’s legislation prohibits the sale, supply and distribution of both fossil fuel derived plastic and plant-based plastics, this means both industrial and home compostable plastics are also banned. Alternatives such as wood and paper products are allowed. Why is South Australia the only state that has taken this hard approach to banning both fossil fuel and plant based plastics? Compostable plastics are a great alternative to fossil fuel based plastics — however they must be composted and not just added to landfill. As Australia has very few industrial composting facilities available, and most industrial composting facilities do not accept compostable plastics, these plastics remain a problem. Hopefully South Australia and other states and territory's will work towards introducing more composting education and facilities in the future. Beginning next year (March 1, 2022) polystyrene cups, bowls, plates and clamshell containers will also be prohibited. And again importantly oxo-degradable* plastics will not only be prohibited from sale, manufacturing of oxo-degradable products will also be banned. * Oxo-degradable plastic products have additives which enable the plastic to break down into tiny fragments (‘microplastics’) which do not completely decompose. 2. Queensland While Queensland’s ban on plastic bags was a bit of a let down (it really wasn’t a ban but rather an introduction to how to take your own bags to the supermarket) the new single use plastic ban has a little bit more teeth. Queensland’s ban on single use plastic items will commence on 1 September, 2021. The ban prohibits the supply of plastic straws, cutlery, bowls and plates, stirrers and expanded polystyrene takeaway food containers and cups: straws: regular straws, flexible straws, straws with a scoop, cocktail straws and bubble tea straws cutlery: knives, forks, spoons, teaspoons, sample tasting spoons, soup spoons, chopsticks and sporks bowls and plates stirrers: hot or cold drink stirrers, swizzle sticks and hot or cold food stirrers expanded polystyrene takeaway food containers and cups, for example ‘clamshell’ style containers. While we give kudos to the Queensland government for stepping up to the plate, it would be great if they took a more proactive step and either banned compostable plastics altogether (like South Australia has), or including more education on composting and/or composting services within the state. Although noted on the “potentially next to ban stage” oxo-degradable products are still permitted for sale in Queensland. 3. Australian Capital Territory Coming in third on the list is the ACT. While the ACT were faster to act on banning plastic bags than Queensland were, they are still in the planning stages of introducing a SUP (Single Use Plastic) ban. What should we expect to see? ACT’s legislation is set to come into effect from July, 2021. The first stage of the ban will include cutlery, drink stirrers and expanded polystyrene food and drink containers. There’s really not a lot to see in this ban, however it appears they do plan on a second phase next year which will ban straws, barrier bags for fruit and vegetables, as well as all products made from oxo-degradable plastic. This will be a much welcome change. A third phase is set to get a little tougher but the current plan is not to implement these changes until 2023. Why wait? Why not include it in next years plan? There was unfortunately no mention about compostable plastics any phases of these proposed bans. 4. Victoria Although Victoria was the 5th state to announce a future ban, they’ve landed at number 4 on the list as their plans to implement change are faster moving than those of WA. Victoria’s proposed ban on the sale or supply of the following items is to be introduced by February 2023 and includes; Single-use plastic straws, cutlery, plates & drink-stirrers Expanded polystyrene food and drink containers Plastic cotton bud sticks. According to the Australian Marine Conversation Society the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has confirmed oxo-degradable plastics will also be included in the ban. There is no mention in the ban in regards to compostable plastics. 5. Western Australia Beautiful remote Western Australia — a state that we’d expect to have seen higher up the list. However WA’s SUP plan disappoints. According to the Western Australian government’s own website 98 per cent of the community support taking strong action to reduce Single Use Plastics. The Plastic Free July campaign was born in WA. Spearheaded by Rebecca Prince-Ruiz the Author of Plastic Free, the Plastic Free July campaign is one of the biggest plastic reduction campaigns in the world. They have a champion of change at their fingertips. Why the wait? WA’s “Plan for Plastics” appears to be well thought out, yet long and drawn out. Phase 1 — 2020-21: Engage with community and key stakeholders. Establish a plastic straws working group to inform future actions Develop targeted education programs Introducing Plastic Free Places trails with community partners Phase 2— 2021-23: According to the plan this is where we are today. Although they note several times in “The Plan” that was released in 2020, that “the community want strong action” the legislation to be developed is not slated for implementation until late 2023 this will include the phase-out of: plastic plates, cutlery, stirrers & straws thick plastic bags polystyrene food containers and helium balloon releases. Phase 3— 2024-26: The last phase which is not set to be legislated for well into the future is to phase out produce bags, polystyrene packaging, plastic stick cotton buds, microbeads and oxo-degradable plastics. Again there was no mention in this 12 page document regarding compostable plastics or education around composting. The WA Government has missed its mark on what the community meant when they gave the feedback that they'd like to see “strong action on the reduction of plastics”. 6. Tasmania & Northern Territory As neither state have announced any future plans to tackle Single Use Plastics they have been placed in an equal tie at 6th place. They have nudged out New South Wales due to the fact that both the City of Darwin and the City of Hobart have introduced their own laws regarding single use plastics. The City of Hobart introduced a by-law that is set to be enforceable by July 1, 2021 banning Single Use Plastics at take-away food retailers. The ban was originally scheduled to be implemented in 2020 however it was moved forward to 2021 due to COVID-19. The single-use plastic items banned are: plastic cutlery sauce sachets (such as tomato, soy or tartare) plastic takeaway hot food containers and lids takeaway plastic straws plastic lined noodle boxes plastic lined coffee cups plastic lids on takeaway cups plastic sandwich wedges. Certified compostable bioplastics (cold drink cups, bowls, cutlery, lids, sandwich wedges, noodle boxes, coffee cups, hot chip boxes) are allowed under the current city by-law. Much like Hobart the City of Darwin went out on its own and made changes to the types of disposable items that can be used at events. Unlike Hobart this is not a city-wide ban, as the ban only applies to council land and at markets. Darwin’s ban came into effect in January, 2019 and also includes the deliberate release of helium balloons — a ban that should be implemented across the country. The Single Use Plastic ban includes: disposable coffee & smoothie cups plastic lids, straws, stirrers & cutlery stirrers, plates, bowls, and takeaway containers 7. New South Wales It should really come as no surprise that New South Wales is at the bottom of the list. They were the last state to come on board with a plastic bag ban, so I wouldn’t expect them to be leaders in the pack when it came to banning Single Use Plastics. While predictable it’s still incredibly disappointing — New South Wales is the most populated state in Australia, they should really be the champions on change in this area. “Cleaning up Our Act” is a 20 year strategy that tackles managing plastic waste in the state of NSW. In this plan they state: NSW consumed approximately 1.1 million tonnes of plastic in 2017–18. Most of which was used for packaging and household items like furniture, clothing and footwear. Plastic makes up 45% of household recycling bin collections. Plastic recycling rates are typically low, with only an estimated 10% of the plastic consumed every year being recycled. More than half the littered items in NSW are plastic, and plastic makes up 34% of total littered items. From these points alone it’s clear that NSW have identified single use plastics as an issue, so why is it not at the top of their agenda for change? The paper also shows a progression chart noting a final NSW Plastics Plan would be ready by the end of 2020, yet no final Plastic Plan has been announced. The NSW Plastics Plan discussion paper proposes targeting a few items relating to plastics: phasing out nominated single-use plastics by 2022 tripling the proportion of plastic recycled in NSW across all sectors and streams by 2030 reducing plastic litter by 25% by 2025 mandating the use of 30% minimum recycled content in plastic packaging in NSW by 2025 While it’s great they have these goals, they are incredibly long term and there doesn’t appear to be any clear direction on what their Single Use Plastic ban entails, or if they have made progress on this at all. Our message to state governments across Australia and most notably to New South Wales: “pay attention to what South Australia are doing — they are certainly leaders when it comes to implementing bans on Single Use Plastics and waste reduction.”
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Plastic Collection Challenge - Results
Lessons Learnt Last month we suggested taking part in a Plastic Collection Challenge, collect all your household plastic for a one month duration. What's the point of storing a months worth of plastic? If your goal is to reduce plastic, why would you want to keep it? Wouldn't it be better if you sent it off to recycling every week? The answer is simple: keeping a collection of what you have used over a period of one month highlights just how much you actually use, it's no longer out of sight, out of mind. Creating feel good moments:Just because we put something in the recycling bin, doesn't guarantee it's going to get recycled. But it does make us feel as if we've done our part to reduce plastic waste. A few years back (when international travel was a thing) I collected all the plastic I was given on a return flight to Australia. It was an eye opening experience, and collecting household waste was no different. HOUSEHOLD PLASTIC COLLECTION: Household plastic collected during the month of August Creating this monthly plastic collection definitely highlighted the fact that we're a long way off fixing the plastic pollution problem. So what lessons did I learn by storing a months worth of plastic? In my initial post last month I detailed my first week of collecting plastic and it turns out this was the week that generated the most plastic. The majority of the plastic collected that week was from online clothing purchases. Lesson 1: Don't buy clothes online in August when you are doing a plastic collection. Just kidding . . . not all these clothes were for myself, I just kept the wrappers as they ended up in my home — for me to dispose of. Even if you buy online and your clothes don't come packaged in plastic — it's highly likely the plastic has simply been removed before putting it in your parcel. Reality is whether you purchased the clothing in-store or online you would be faced with the same problem. It would just be plastic you don't see. You can't always avoid plastic, especially if you don't know it's coming to you via post. Nor can you avoid it if you don't see it before it is removed from the item you are purchasing. If you truly want to buy clothing that's packaged plastic free you can: buy secondhand, if you have deep pockets — have your clothes tailored especially for you, don't have deep pockets — make your own, and if those options don't work then spend some time researching the company you're purchasing from to see what their stance is on plastic pollution. In summary . . . simply do your best! So aside from the online shopping purchases what else ended up in the plastic collection? One item that I've struggled to eliminate is the plastic bag that contains my beloved Bokashi mix. It's an essential item in my household, I'm an avid Boksahi composter. I've tried many other methods of composting and Bokashi is the easiest I've used to date. There are ways to avoid the plastic bag, one involves a spray bottle — I don't find the spray as effective, as well it's just another spray bottle going to landfill, and the plastic bag is more likely to get recycled than the bottle. I could make my own mix, but that's just crazy time-consuming and being plastic free involves a lot of making your own so adding another DIY to my list isn't going to work.In an ideal world Bokashi mix would be provided by local council as a “refill your container” type option, also at a reduced price. Why the council? Because they should be providing incentives for people to compost at home. It's a win-win situation for them. Less waste going to landfill, less cost for them. Just putting that idea out there to all local councils! Also in the collection was a bag of Salt and Vinegar Chips. I have no excuses and have yet to find chips that come in compostable bags .... but I know they are out there! Lesson 2: There are some bits of plastic that are out of your control . . . and some you can control, however it would mean drastically changing your lifestyle. Living life plastic free doesn't mean you need to take it literally. The goal is to always do the very best you can to reduce your plastic footprint. If we, (the human collective) gave some thought to our purchases, asking do I need this? Bokashi mix - yes, salt and vinegar chips - no. We'd make better decisions that would allow us to further reduce our reliance on plastic. The last item in the collection that was not plastic bags and is unlikely to get recycled is a used bottle of toilet cleaner. Yes its #2 plastic (the most commonly recycled plastic), however it's white plastic with an additional plastic wrap and a red lid on top (coloured plastic is less desirable). This aside, it's still plastic and we know recycling is not the answer. So why is it even in my house? I didn't, and wouldn't purchase this type of product. Our neighbours were relocating/downsizing and they were planning on throwing it in the garbage. It's better to use something that already exists than simply throw it away. It will be placed in the wishcycling pile (the pile of plastics that you are not sure if they recycle, but wished they did). Lesson 3: If you're collecting other people's plastic waste, whether that be on the side of the road, or by items left from neighbours — then pat yourself on the back. You aren't contributing to the problem. You're doing your best to make sure it doesn't end up in landfill or worse — the ocean. Collecting a month's worth of plastic was a very different experience than collecting the plastic from one international airline flight, however they were both enlightening. One I had very little control over as travelling for 24 hours makes your options for saying no to plastic very limited, the other is a continual work in progress. I'll be taking on the challenge again next year to see if I have better luck with avoiding single use plastic in my home — and encourage you to do the same!
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The Plastic Collection Challenge
HOW MUCH DO YOU WASTE? If you follow EORTH on social media you would've seen our suggestion for taking the next step after you've completed the Plastic Free July challenge — our suggestion? During the month of August participate in the Plastic Collection Challenge. You may be reading this and thinking: "I've missed the August 1 start date so there's no point in participating in this challenge now." Here's some good news . . . you can begin the challenge any day, of any month! The goal while participating in the Plastic Collection Challenge: collect all your household plastic waste for 30 (or 31) days. What's the reason for doing this? When you take the time to collect every piece of plastic for a full month — you soon realise how quickly it accumulates, which brings greater awareness to the amount of plastic waste just one household generates during one month. After collecting all your plastic waste for one month you may realise: If this is just the plastic waste generated in my home, on my street — what if I were to multiply that by the amount of homes on my street, in my suburb, in my state, in my country . . . you soon get the picture of how big the plastic pollution problem really is. And let's face the facts: over 90% of that plastic is headed for landfill whether you add it to your recycling bin or not! I applied this same concept to one of my long haul flights returning from Australia to Canada, collecting all the plastic waste that the airline provided to me (just one passenger) on that flight. It was a lot of plastic for just one person, however when you start to multiply that plastic waste by the amount of people on the flight, by the amount of flights that travel that route daily, monthly, yearly ... and start to think about all those flights (that were prior to covid) taking place daily across the globe — you soon realise [if you haven't already] . . . that we really have a problem with the amount of plastic we, as a global entity, use on a daily basis. You can read more about the Airline Plastic Collection. HOUSEHOLD PLASTIC COLLECTION TALLY — 1 WEEK IN: After seven days of collecting the plastic waste that made its way into our household, I've so far ended up with several plastic bags and some unexpected pieces of plastic. All of this plastic was was from new products that were purchased, a couple of the bags were completely unavoidable — when you need a tent for a market display you can't simply ask the store to not sell you the tent in a plastic bag! The other bags and bits and pieces of plastic came from online shirt purchases. What I've learnt so far from this first week? Sometimes you just can't avoid that plastic entering your home, so there's no point in beating yourself up about it. The best course of action is to put those items aside and take them to a Redcycle bin the next time you're taking a trip to the store. When we purchase clothing either in store or online, we don't see the amount of plastic that being used in the background. This particular purchase made online. Had I purchased these clothes at a retail location, it's unlikely I would have seen all the additional plastic waste.The bags would have been removed and the bits of plastic holding the shirts together would have been removed before being placed on a hanger. I would have popped that shirt into my reusable bag and left the store thinking I did a good job with not purchasing any plastic. How wrong I would have been! A few weeks ago I wrote about the Plastic You Don't See when purchasing take-away. When we become more aware of the amount of plastic being used every day to protect our clothes, our online orders, our electronic equipment (the list goes on) we are once again reminded: We can't recycle our way out of the plastic pollution problem. We can't control every single piece of plastic that ends up in our homes, but what we can do is make conscious daily decisions to reduce the amount of plastic we use. Ie. say no to plastic straws, plastic takeaway cups, plastic coffee cups and lids, plastic bags ... you get the picture! Now you know why you should participate, don't wait — start the Plastic Collection Challenge today!
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Plastic Free July: The challenge and the journey
July has arrived, which means it's time to get started on the challenge — The Plastic Free July Challenge. Not familiar with Plastic Free July? It’s an awareness campaign that started in Perth, Australia and has now transformed into a world-wide challenge that takes place during the entire month of July. The aim of the campaign is not only to raise awareness around the growing problem of plastic waste, the campaign challenges participants to say no to single use plastic reduce their use of single use plastic throughout the entire month of July. That’s 31 days of living life with less plastic!!! If this is the first time you’re participating in Plastic Free July, you’re in for a great challenge, as well as an amazing journey. When first participating in the challenge and learning about the issues surrounding plastic pollution it can be incredibly overwhelming. Instead of getting overwhelmed at all the changes, simply do the best you can. As you continue throughout the journey, you’ll learn there are many alternatives to single use plastic. Once you’re familiar with those “better” alternative options — always opt for the better way. This “Plastic Free July” strive to do your best at eliminating as much single use plastic from your daily life as you can. But remember not to get disheartened when you slip up. If you accidentally order take-away coffee in a single use cup, just remember there's always tomorrow, and the next day, and every day after, that you can work on accomplishing one day without plastic! Forgot to take your keep cup to the shops? Skip the plastic lid on the take-away cup. It might not eliminate all the plastic, but that's one less piece that's headed for landfill. The point of the month-long challenge is to have you to consciously thinking about the choices you make. They say it takes 30 days of repetition to make major changes in your life. Starting a new exercise program? Give it 30 days and you’ll be hooked. Quitting smoking? Give it 30 days and you’ll be on the path to a living a healthier lifestyle (Cigarette butts also contain plastic, so this is a great challenge to undertake during the month of July!) Plastic Free July is no different — give it 30 days (okay 31) and you’ll be on a new lifelong journey that'll have you saying no to plastic and yes to reusables! Get more tips on: Getting Started on your Plastic Free July Journey.
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Plastic Free July: Getting Started
Have you heard about the Plastic Free July challenge? The initiative started in 2001 by the WMRC Earth Carers in Perth and has now transformed into the Plastic Free July Foundation, an independent not-for profit Foundation. The foundation’s mission is to build a global movement aimed at reducing plastic use and improving recycling. #PlasticFreeJuly is not just a challenge but also an awareness campaign to highlight the growing waste problem. It supports behaviour change by helping people to avoid single-use (disposable) plastics. So how do you participate? If you accept the challenge your mission is to 'Choose To Refuse' single-use plastic during July. Are you ready to Choose to refuse? Starting your first Plastic Free journey can be a daunting task. Here are some tips that will help make your first 30 days a little easier. 1. Don't be hard on yourself It's a journey. As we learn more about the journey it becomes a process of discovery. We start to discover more and more items in our everyday lives that we didn't realise were part of the plastic problem. The fact that you're taking the time to read this article means you're likely already aware of the problem and are looking at ways to reduce your impact. Know you are doing your best to reduce the effects of plastic pollution and although it's easy to get discouraged, there are thousands of other people just like you, all over the world, trying to reduce their impact too. 2. Going Plastic Free requires baby steps You won't be able to remove all single use plastic from your household right away. Focus on what you can replace today that will make a difference. It can be just one item. One of the easiest products to start with is replacing your plastic cling wrap with Bees Wax Wraps or Home Compostable Cling Wrap to wrap your lunches or leftovers. Just remember that any compostable plastics will need to be composted in order for them to break down. So if you opt for compostable or bio-plastic options make sure you have a means of disposing them correctly. You don't have to throw your traditional plastic cling wrap way. Keep it in your cupboard and only use it for those rare occasions when you don't have enough beeswax wraps or the item is something that's not suitable for a wrap or reusable container. You'll find that box of cling wrap will stay in the cupboard or draw for a lot longer than you'd expect. 3. Seek out alternatives or go DIY EORTH'S online shop is full of great zero waste, plastic free alternatives to many household and day-to-day items. If you already have a toothbrush that you recently purchased, don't rush out to buy a Bamboo Toothbrush, wait until your current brush is ready to be disposed of. You can also go the DIY method. Don't have any more plastic bags under the kitchen sink and are wondering what you're going to use to put your garbage in? Use a paper bread bag or try making a bin liner out of newspaper, there's a plethora of websites and YouTube videos that will show you how it's done. 4. Check your garbage Looking at what you're throwing away is a great way to discover items that can be replaced with more eco-friendly, zero waste alternatives. Can those items be 100% recycled? Can the packaging be reused or repurposed? Can the packaging or item be composted, or are they destined to end up in the landfill? You'd be surprised how much you can compost: your hair, dryer lint, vacuum dust. Items like dental floss you'll want to eliminate. This doesn't mean throwing away the container and floss you're currently using, but rather replacing it with more eco friendly options once the container is empty. Plastic Free Silk Dental Floss is a great alternative to regular dental floss. 5. Be kind, we're all in this together We are all on different paths in our journey. Some people may simply be unaware of the global problem we are facing. Some may have recently come to the realisation that single use plastics are a problem and are just beginning their journey. The only actions we can control are our own. Do the best you can while encouraging and supporting others, regardless of what stage they are at in their journey. It doesn't matter how far along on the journey we are, we are all working towards the same goal. Eliminating single use plastics from our homes and lives. Going zero waste won't happen overnight, and it probably won't happen within a year. Do what you can to reduce your use. You'll be surprised how easy some changes are to make, an in turn how much less waste you'll be contributing to the landfill. Need some inspiration? Check out our Eorth's Plastic Free shopping selection, you can also find some great gift sets for that eco-warrior friend.
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Swedish Dishcloths — Biodegradable or simply greenwash?
We put Swedish Dishcloths to the test Have you tried wiping your kitchen surfaces with a Swedish Dishcloth? I’ll let you in on a little secret . . . once you’ve tried a Swedish Dishcloth, it’s unlikely you go back to cleaning with a regular cloth again! What the heck is a Swedish Dishcloth you ask — and what makes this cloth so special? Swedish Dishcloths were invented in the mid-1900’s by Swedish engineer, Curt Lindquist. Lindquist discovered that when you mix natural cellulose and cotton, the material can absorb an incredible amount of weight — up to 15 times its own weight! Swedish Dishcloths are like a regular reusable dishcloth. You can wash the cloths up to 200 times, just place them in the washing machine with your regular load of clothes. It's not necessary to hang these on the line, as they dry very quickly. We don’t recommend placing Swedish dishcloths in the dryer, however should they accidentally end up in the dryer — they won’t be ruined. Simply add water to activate them again. Unlike many dishcloths on the market today, Swedish Dishcloths are 100% free from microfibres (plastic), so when the cloth is starting to deteriorate, it’s safe to discard it into your home compost system. That's as zero waste as you hope for! WHAT IS A SWEDISH DISHCLOTH MADE FROM? Swedish kitchen cloth material is made from 70% wood cellulose from FSC certified forests and 30% cotton. They are biodegradable, compostable and microfibre free! And one more bonus — Swedish Dishcloths won’t leave streaks on your kitchen countertops. DO SWEDISH DISHCLOTH PASS THE BIODEGRADABILITY TEST? Okay so we’ve established they're great for cleaning, they are reusable, now what we really want to know is — do they live up to their “biodegradable” and “compostable” reputation, or are they simply another greenwashing product? If you're not familiar with the term greenwashing, it's when manufacturers and marketers use terms like biodegradable and eco-friendly, when in fact the product may take hundreds of years to biodegrade, therefore not making them very eco-friendly at all. There’s only one way to find if they're truly biodegradable, and that’s to put them into the bio-test patch and wait for the results. If you’re not familiar with EORTH’s bio-test patch. It’s a small patch of dirt we use specifically for testing the biodegradability of products. It’s non-scientific . . . it's simply a test to see how a well a product breaks down if it had been littered in the environment. Hence, simply tossing it on top of the soil. We’ve put several products to the test, some came up with a big fail and others went missing without a trace. So how did our Swedish Dishcloths fare in the bio-test patch? Based on our test results a Swedish Dishcloth will take approximately 10 months to fully biodegrade and return back to nature. If placed in a home composting system they will likely be gone within a few weeks. How do we know? We’ve added several to our home composting (Bokashi) system and have never seen a trace of them since! There you have it, we can confirm this product is definitely not greenwash and lives up to it's biodegradable and compostable reputation! Check out the Swedish dishcloth biodegradable results below: We added the Swedish Dishcloth to our test patch in May, 2019 and it had completely biodegraded by February, 2020. May 9, 2019 January 19, 2020 February 20, 2020 Swedish Dishcloths can be used for more than just cleaning the counter tops. Use to clean dishes or for pre-dishwashing Use instead of paper towels Use to clean glass and stainless steel surfaces Great for cleaning glass cooktops Add to the bottom of cut flowers to keep them hydrated when gifting Add to be bottom of a reusable container to keep your herbs and vegetables fresher, longer! Swedish Dishcloths are: Reusable & quick drying Biodegradable & Compostable Machine washable
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Made from Ocean Plastic
What exactly is Ocean Plastic? A lot of products are currently being marketed as made from ocean plastics, which has many people asking, “what exactly is ocean plastic?” The term ocean plastics refers to discarded plastics that have been recovered from either the ocean or the shoreline, and recycled into new plastic products. The products may be made from 100 per cent of plastic recovered from the ocean or a combination of ocean plastic and recycled or virgin plastic. Ocean plastic is recovered by clean up groups such as Parley for the Oceans, and in December, 2019 The Ocean Cleanup announced they’ll also be creating new products from their recent plastic harvest conducted in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Parley for the Oceans source plastic waste from the shoreline as well as ghost fishing nets from the high-seas. Parley have teamed up with sportswear giant Adidas to produce running shoes and athletic wear that is made with a percentage of plastic Parley have collected from ocean and beach clean ups. Another organisation that’s doing their part to clean up the ocean’s plastics is The Ocean Cleanup spearheaded by Dutch inventor Boyan Slat. To date they have only recovered a small amount of plastic from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch an area that’s been dubbed as “an island of floating plastic.” However after landing in Vancouver, Canada in December 2019 with their first “ocean plastic catch” Slat wanted to stress the importance of The Ocean Cleanups project was never to “maximize their harvest” but rather to ensure the system they had in place could indeed collect plastics from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Although Slat stated that the majority of the plastics collected were in fact “complete garbage” he believes this ocean plastic holds more value due to it being from a renowned area, likening it to “a normal rock and a rock from the moon, it’s still a rock but it has a story behind it.” The Ocean Cleanup also confirmed that the plastics they collected will be recycled into new products, with the material for those products containing 100 per cent Great Pacific Garbage Patch ocean plastic, and 100 per cent of the proceeds from sale of the products will go to the Ocean Cleanup project. Although Slat believes that the task of creating new products from this plastic “garbage” will be quite challenging, they’re looking at bringing transparency to the market in regards to marketing products as “ocean plastic”. “When we say these products are made from ocean plastic what we mean is that the plastic is actually coming from the ocean. Because right now the definition of ocean plastic is really shady it could come from anywhere. It’s defined as plastic collected near the ocean, and we really want to bring the truth to the market. We really want to guarantee to the people that support us, that this plastic coming from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Slat. The Ocean Cleanup has collaborated with DNV GL, an international classification society to certify that the plastic is actually coming from the ocean. The plastic will be tracked from the collection point to the point of being turned into new products. “Every step is being tracked to ensure that we can really promise that this material has come from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” said Slat. ARE MORE OCEAN PLASTIC PRODUCTS IN OUR FUTURE? If it’s possible to recover plastic from the ocean why then aren’t we seeing more ocean plastic being fished out of the sea and recycled into new products? Well there’s an issue of cost of extracting the plastics as well as recycling the extracted plastic. Plastic sourced from the ocean can be eight to 10 times more expensive than using virgin plastic. Along with the issue of costs, ocean plastics need to be cleaned after recovery and when they are exposed to saltwater they degrade, making them less valuable to recyclers. Plastics when placed into a marine environment act like a sponge, absorbing other chemicals which may allow them to only be downcycled into lesser plastic products. One of the problems with relying on either ocean plastics or land based recycled plastics is that it brings the false sense of “if I purchase this plastic product it’s okay it will be recycled over and over again.” Continuing on the path that we are already on — producing more plastic rather than facing the reality that not all plastic can be recycled over and over again like materials such as glass and metal. A solution would be to place heavy taxes on companies using virgin plastic, just like we do with other products that are causing harm to human health — such as alcohol and cigarettes. The reality is we need to turn off the tap on producing more plastic made from virgin material and work with what we already have floating around in the ocean or on land. Ultimately the best solution to the tackle the plastic pollution problem is to reduce our reliance on plastic and source out alternative materials where possible — in cases where using another material is not possible then recycled plastics or in some cases bioplastics are currently the best options.
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Biodegradable Dental Floss - Missing without a trace
Dental Floss, it's used in households across the world every day, but did you know most dental floss is not biodegradable? When we think of single use plastic, dental floss is not usually something that comes to mind. However, your standard dental floss purchased from the supermarket is just that — plastic on the inside and out, and not biodegradable. The floss itself is used once and tossed into the garbage. Although the plastic packaging may get placed into your recycle bin, let's face it, it's highly unlikely that floss packaging is getting recycled. Both the floss and the packaging will end up in landfill where it will remain for well past your lifetime. So what's the solution? You'll be happy to know there are a few types of biodegradable dental floss on the market that contain no plastic, are safe to place in your home composting system and are not packaged in plastic. Silk dental floss is packaged in a glass jar with a metal lid. The container is refillable, so when you have used your dental floss you simply purchase silk refills and add them to your glass jar. Vegan dental floss is packaged in a metal jar, making it super sturdy for travel. Vegan dental floss also has floss refills. You may have heard of Eorth's [non-scientific] biodegradable test patch. It's a patch of dirt we use in the back garden to, quite literally, toss products into. We say toss because these products are added to the bio test patch on top of the soil. The idea is to emulate what would happen to a biodegradable product if it was thrown on the ground in nature. And we say non-scientific because these results are not in conducted in scientific nature; the soil is not tested after it's broken down, there's no analysis of how well they have broken down after one week or two etc. It's simply a test to see if a product will in fact break down over a period of time and how long will that process take? Back to our biodegradable dental floss results. We added Silk and Vegan Dental Floss to the test patch. The vegan dental floss is a bio-based floss that is made from corn. The silk floss broke down faster than the bio-based floss but they both vanished over a period of time. Although neither the silk floss or the vegan dental floss are certified home compostable they have been added to our personal compost many times, and they have disappeared without a trace. Testing stages: We added our silk and bio-based vegan dental floss to the test patch on April 1. The silk dental floss was tied to a wood skewer and the vegan floss tied to a bamboo toothbrush, simply so they would not blow away in the wind. The biodegradability tests were run in the tropics, so it's highly likely that different results would occur in different parts of the world, during different seasons. The results would also likely be very different if they were run during the hot, rainy season of the Far North Queensland (FNQ) tropics. However, the tests were simply to determine if they would break down or not, and in roughly what timeframe. In this case the dental floss test was conducted during the dry cool season in FNQ. Although we checked on the floss almost weekly over the course of a few months, and unfortunately failed to take some photos during that period. May 9th the floss was still holding strong. (We would give it a little tug during the testing stage to see where it was at). On July 3, the bamboo toothbrush was removed from the test patch as there were no traces of the silk floss left. Yes we failed to take a photo during this period, so you'll just have to trust us on this one! The vegan bio based dental floss was still holding tight to the wooden stick. When checking in early September the floss was gone, missing without a trace. Silk Floss - May 9 Vegan Floss - July 3 No Floss - September 3 Take away: Both the silk and the vegan dental floss will completely biodegrade and return back to nature leaving no trace of their existence. An excellent result. The silk floss did break down quicker than the bio-based floss, by a few months. However if using silk is a problem for you and you'd prefer the vegan option then you can rest easy, as it's also plastic free and will cause no harm to the environment. Result: Biodegradable Dental Floss Passed The Test It's important to mention that just because a product states it's biodegradable it doesn't mean that it's going to simply return to nature in a short time frame like an apple, orange or banana peel would for example. In a previous article we covered the difference between biodegradable and compostable along with a breakdown of the logos used for certification of compostable plastics. It should also be noted that some dental floss on the market contain bamboo fibre, although the bamboo itself is biodegradable the fibre is usually a mix of bamboo and nylon. This floss is not biodegradable. Always check your labels! We've previously tested biodegradable/compostable straws — they received a big fail, and after over a year the straw is still sitting in the bio test patch. It's still intact, you could drink from it, it's not breaking down any time soon.
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