February zero plastic challenge
Plastic is everywhere.
Every second, 10 tonnes of plastic are produced worldwide. In France, packaging is the primary outlet for these products, followed by construction, electricity and transport. The rest is distributed across the textile, toy, sanitary equipment and energy sectors. In 2015, 6.3 billion tonnes of waste were generated, of which only 9% is recycled worldwide. This means that 12% is incinerated and 79% is stored in landfills or dumped in the environment.
In France in 2019, 26% of plastic packaging waste was recycled. This is much lower than the European average of 42%! Suffice to say that there is considerable room for improvement…
For those of us who love God and want to preserve life, we want to take action. In 2023, we invited you to participate in the Zero Plastic February challenge. This challenge can be repeated every year and become a daily habit.
The goal is to challenge our lifestyles to produce less plastic waste.
CHALLENGE #1
This week, we are focusing on single-use items.
Most of the time, they are packaged or made of plastic. Although anti-waste legislation has addressed this issue, there is still much to be done!
THE CHALLENGE: replace a single-use plastic item
- Kitchen roll or cleaning wipes → sponge, cloth
- Cellophane → fabric food cover, pot lid, box, towel or tea towel
- Plastic cutlery and glasses → stainless steel cutlery and glasses (there are even foldable versions like a Swiss Army knife, suitable for rucksacks)
- Plastic bottles → stainless steel water bottle
- Disposable razors → stainless steel razors with interchangeable blades
- Shampoo and shower gel bottles → reuse and refill them using a bulk dispenser or switch to solid versions
- Paper tissues (and their plastic bags) → washable fabric tissues
For this challenge, you can choose a specific item to replace or review all the disposable plastic items you have. However, this does not mean wasting unused items… Finding a stainless steel razor does not prevent you from using and emptying your stock of disposable razors.
CHALLENGE #2
This week, we are going to reduce plastic waste from food packaging.
THE CHALLENGE: shopping in bulk
Gather reusable containers such as jars, food boxes and cloth bags. Don’t hesitate to recycle – you probably already have everything you need.
👉 Glass jars: these are perfect for dry goods such as rice, lentils, sugar, flour, or biscuits. These jars can be reused after consuming compote in glass jars or jam for smaller jars. Homemade preserve jars are also very suitable.
👉 Glass food containers: you can put cheese, deli food, and meat in them.
👉 Cloth bags: these can be used alongside jars to store larger quantities of dry goods (such as certain types of pasta that take up a lot of space); they can also be used to store fruit or vegetables. Some cloth bags are large enough to be perfect for bread. You can make these bags yourself using recycled fabric, buy them, or use tote bags for vegetables or bread.
Find out where to shop for bulk goods. The website cartovrac.fr can help you with this. Don’t hesitate to ask your retailers if they can put your food in your own containers: this works very well for fresh products such as cheese, meat, delicatessen items or small treats from the bakery. For fruit and vegetables bought from greengrocers, farms or markets, sellers are often used to putting them in bulk in crates that they provide or in bags brought by their customers.
Weigh the container! Before filling your jars with all sorts of goodies, don’t forget to weigh the container, i.e. weigh your empty container. Otherwise, you will also pay for the weight of your container! The method for weighing the container varies depending on the retailer, so ask them directly. Fabric bags can also be weighed.
This challenge can seem quite daunting at first, so I recommend starting off simple: for example, by filling a few jars with pulses and pasta. Next time, you can bring more containers and jars!
CHALLENGE #3
Here we are in the third week of the February Zero Plastic Challenge!
I hope you did well with the previous two challenges. If you haven’t completed them yet, there’s still time. This week, I suggest you go on a clean-up walk, also known as a cleanwalk!
THE CHALLENGE: go on a cleanwalk
This challenge is carried out several times a year by cleanwalk enthusiasts and during World Cleanup Day, which takes place annually in September. There are two types of cleanwalks:
- The simple walk: this is informal, requires little organisation and has up to 10 participants.
- The civic cleanwalk: this is more ‘official’, open to the public, has more than 10 participants and must be announced in advance.
Just grab your gloves, a few bin bags, and go for a walk wherever you like. Strategically, it’s best to choose a place where you often find litter. Be careful where you choose: follow safety rules and avoid roads. If there are more than 10 participants, there are a few restrictions to follow, as your walk becomes a community cleanwalk.
For groups of 10 or more participants, you must contact the town hall of the town concerned to request authorisation to organise this cleanwalk.
You will therefore need to plan ahead:
- Identify the location.
- Notify the local council, and even ask them for waste collection equipment.
- Provide equipment for participants or advise them to bring their own (reusable gloves, allow for around two bags per person).
- Consider promoting your event by registering it on a website such as cleanwalk.org.
During the clean-up, you must follow a few safety rules: for example, be careful with sharp or potentially dangerous waste, and avoid the edges of roads. At the end of the clean-up, all full bags of waste must be taken to the nearest waste collection centre. In some cases, the local council may take care of collecting the bags (this should be arranged in advance of the event).
For more details on organising a cleanwalk, visit cleanwalk.org.
CHALLENGE #4
For this fourth challenge, we will extend our actions to other areas of our daily lives: at work, at church or in a community group.
THE CHALLENGE: identify what can be replaced at the office or in your favourite places.
This challenge is quite broad: you spot plastic waste that could have been avoided, you find alternatives and you suggest them to your colleagues, church members, association leaders, etc.
De multiples actions peuvent être mises en place, par exemple :
- réduire les fournitures de bureau jetables ou en plastique par l’utilisation de fournitures rechargeables : stylos à cartouches, cartouches d’imprimantes, préférer les crayons à papier en bois aux critériums
- trouver des alternatives en cuisine et salle de pause : mugs et tasses, vaisselle lavable, capsules Senso rechargeables, prêt de boîtes à lunch pour aller chercher son plat à emporter…
- améliorer la durée de vie du matériel en proposant des solutions de réparation
- achats en vrac lorsque cela est possible
To learn more about waste in the office, I recommend this excellent zero waste guide from Zero Waste France. It contains lots of ideas that can be applied in the office and even in churches, homes, and communal spaces!
Do you work for a local authority? There are also things you can do there. Here are a few ideas.