EVERY BIT COUNTS TO REDUCE PLASTIC WASTE

Scientists believe the absorption of microplastics from our food and general lives is harming our health irrevocably. It’s been linked to everything from cancer to fertility problems. And it has to stop. We’re supporting Earth Day’s mission to reduce the production of all plastics by 60% by 2040.

Planet vs. Plastics is this year’s theme to help raise awareness of the global threat and reach that goal. There are several ways to get involved. You can send a letter to the CEO of Dow, the third largest plastic producer; sign the treaty petition; or even get your school involved by downloading educational toolkits.

One simple thing we can all do is to be more aware of our own plastic consumption and try to reduce it. It’s something we’ve always been conscious of here at The Foundry and so when we heard about the Big Plastic Count we just had to get involved.

This initiative, spearheaded by Green Peace and Everyday Plastic, invites schools, communities, and households across the UK to investigate their own plastic footprint.

For one week during March every member of the Foundry team counted their plastic waste to help gather evidence about the amount of plastic the UK uses and lobby the government.

We counted everything from cheese wrappers to yoghurt pots and were all surprised by the amount of plastic we used. It wasn’t about making people feel guilty - we have little control over how our food is packaged - but more about being more mindful of the waste we create. As an example, if one of us bins 91 pieces of plastic per week this is the equivalent of 4,732 pieces in a year!

The official results from the campaign were equally shocking. UK households are throwing away 1.7 billion pieces of plastic each week – that’s 90 billion per year! Only 17% of this is actually recycled. 14% is exported, 11% buried and 58% is burnt – further adding to toxins in the air we breathe. Greenpeace is encouraging everyone who took part to write to their MP and get the government to sit up and take notice.

Greenpeace release a promotional video on where the earth's plastic really ends up.

As well as making us all more aware of waste on an individual level, we’ll continue as a company to do our best to reduce, reuse and recycle. Stu weighs our plastic waste in the office every week to keep track of our usage and work on improvements. Recycling alone won’t fix the problem, but being more environmentally conscious in business can only be a good thing.