Not a day passes without a new article on how much entire planet is suffocating under more and more plastic. Unfortunately our ‘out of sight, out of mind’ approach is very short sighted as all this plastic soon ends up in landfill, our oceans and ultimately in our own food chain! Did you know that actually ‘Humans are eating and drinking enough plastic to make a credit card every week’?
Plastic Free July on Koh Tao
In between all the negative headlines we sometimes find news articles that give us hope! There are now schools in developing countries, such as India or Nigeria, that accept plastic waste as school fees and more and more countries, like Canada or the United Kingdom for example, commit themselves to banning single use plastic products altogether.
Those are great steps into the right direction and should make us realize that we as consumers have the choice to make a difference! The more we refuse single-use plastic options that supermarkets, coffee shops and other businesses offer, the more we will contribute to a general change of mind.
One could argue that as individuals we don’t have a big impact, but it’s the volume of people and daily choices that can make a difference. It’s not just any government regulated plastic ban, also more and more corporations and private companies are actively looking for alternatives to single use plastics and quite often this is due to the pressure that we (as their customers) have been putting on them.
What we can do as individuals
If making thoughtful decisions as a consumer is the way to go forward, what is it that we can do exactly? It takes quite a bit of commitment to cutting out all plastic from our daily lives, but that’s not the point here. If you are curious and start questioning your daily habits you’ll soon find small things that are quite easy to change.
Last year the Master Divers was challenged to participate in the ‘Zero Plastic Week’ and we recorded our efforts and results in a diary. And in fact, once we took a closer look, we realized how much unnecessary single use plastics there is around us.
While the awareness for this problem might be a bit bigger in the Western world than it is in South East Asian countries, even on a tiny island in the tropics there are solutions and education is quite often the key to success. And when a lack of alternatives is part of the problem, creating those alternatives can only be the right step forward!
Last year we learned to make it a habit to bring a reusable bag when we go shopping, we offer reusable containers to all our guests for their take-away lunches and act as a retailer for plastic-free straw alternatives. And now we’re curious to continue this journey…
Remember it is a challenge, not a competition!
This year we will go one step further and join #plasticfreejuly (also know as the #plasticfreejulychallenge) and throughout the whole month of July we will update you on our struggles and success stories to become more plastic free and share our own tips & tricks with you…
‘Plastic Free July’ actually started in 2011 as a tiny initiative with only a handful of participants. It has since become a global movement with an ever-growing number of participants each year. And once you find how easy it is to reduce your plastic consumption, this will easily become a habit that can continue beyond the month of July.
Are you ready to join us for this challenge? Get registered today and download your personal challenge picker!
