THE PLASTIC FREE JULY PLEDGE

THE PLASTIC FREE JULY PLEDGE

We pursue plastic free beauty and celebrate Mother Earth all year long but plastic free July is a great time to share and pledge across all areas of our lives #nosingleuseplastics #plasticfree. Plastic Free July was founded by the Plastic Free Foundation. They have empowered over 326 million people to pledge reduced consumption and habit changes globally that adds up to avoiding 900M kg of plastic. See their impact report HERE

            You may be asking yourself, Why is the emphasis on reduction of plastic? Is it dangerous? Is it bad for the planet? The simple answer would be that plastic is made from petroleum-based feedstock and contain many different chemicals that will live in our environment for hundreds and possibly thousands of years. Some plastics have advanced health and science to add benefits into our society, but within the last 50 years much of plastic has been single use and not made for durability in packaging. There was also a push to increasing “convenience” and safety by choosing single use plastics (or at least what we are led to believe). The fork and the takeaway cup you use today will outlive your lifetime and accumulate in our environment since it only breaks down into confetti like pieces of microplastics and never incorporates back into soil as a nutrient. We made a handy guide if you are interested to learn more about what is considered plastic. PLASTIC GUIDE

           Plastic is a big business. Fossil fuel companies have invested more than $180 billion into building plastic production facilities since 2010 and creation is estimated at over 380M tons per year (or the weight of 95M elephants).  Many countries are banning the use of products like single use service items and bags but with recycling of this material at a 9% success rate this may not be enough of an impact without further examination and regulation of the companies who make plastic.

            Beauty packaging is estimated at 120B units yearly and counting. Much of this packaging is mixed plastic materials and will end up in landfills. It is our mission to offer high performing skincare that is always plastic free and refillable. Our skincare is not only solid bar forms and compact, by removing the need to ship water, it lowers the resource intensity of traditional beauty products by over 95%.  Because in the words of Maya Angelou “when you know better, you do better.”
 

Great Additional Reads & References:

https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/about-us/

https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/plastic-production-increase-pollution-ocean-waste/?template=next

https://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11735856/plastic-ocean

https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/containers-and-packaging-product-specific-data

http://www.allure.com/story/beauty-industry-packaging-waste/amp

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1700782

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

https://www.worldwildlife.org/initiatives/plastics

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/plastic-pollution

https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/issues/fighting-plastic-pollution/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/28/a-million-a-minute-worlds-plastic-bottle-binge-as-dangerous-as-climate-change