5 Ways To Quit Plastic

The best way to start culling this environmental problem is to begin small

Plastic was heralded as the ultimate in convenience when it became widely used 70 years ago. But the tide has turned on our attitudes towards single-use plastic items because of the damage they cause to wildlife and the environment.

The Queen recognises how important the issue is – she has banned plastic bottles and straws across her estates.

We may not be able to go back to the days of brown paper parcels tied up with string or leaving coins in glass bottles at the gate for the milkman, but there are small steps we can take to play our part in reducing plastic waste.

1 Start at the supermarket

Single-use plastic shopping bags only serve their purpose for a short time, yet they take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. This worldwide problem is being acknowledged with International Plastic Bag Free Day on Tuesday, July 3. Always remember to take your reusable shopping bags to buy groceries. Countdown, the first major supermarket chain to commit to phasing out single-use checkout bags, has teamed up with Forest & Bird to support Plastic Free July to help protect the environment.