World Ocean Day - 3 Ways To Reduce Ocean Plastic

Our ocean is something SO close to my heart. I get in it almost every single day, it's full of the most incredible wildlife and quite frankly, we couldn't survive without it!

Plastic in our oceans is now a critical problem and with global organisations doing everything they can to clean the oceans and change policies to stop plastic production (there is a new plastic TAX now in place woo!) there is some areas you can help as an individual...

I just want you to think for a moment about how the world works; if something is popular the companies/government change their products/policies to reflect that because let's be honest, we hold the power.

Example: If more people choose to buy a plastic free product over a plastic one, the sales of the plastic product will drop and that company will change their offering to meet the consumer demand. Because yes - they want more money.

Example: You will see the parties running for parliament each year have increasing number of promises about what they plan to do for the environment. This is due to what is on the public's agenda. 

Because yes - they need your vote.

Now with that in mind...

This can be a controversial one in the 'plastic free world' but the way I like to look at the plastic problem we have is that even if we cut out ALL plastic from being produced right now, we still have a problem on our hands.

I absolutely love that discarded plastic is now valuable, this is the best thing that could have happened over the years. That's all because of consumer demand.

 So yes, buying something plastic may seem a little strange, but if it's recycled then you're actually helping clean up what would have otherwise stayed as rubbish, potentially harming animals.

Plastic Freedom isn't just about providing plastic free alternatives, it's about trying to fix a problem that already exists.

Okay so first off, anything I ever say is never supposed to come across as judgement, I just like to make you think about things you may not know about so here goes...

It's no secret fishing is one of the main sources of plastic in our ocean so one way you can help this is by reducing your fish intake or stopping completely! 

It's the reason I cut it out 5 years ago and since then I've personally witnessed 100s of fishing nets washed up on beaches and my auntie even had fish with plastic INSIDE the fish she bought from the supermarket. 

Changing that demand can only have a knock on effect and even from my close friends and family there are at least 6 people who are now veggie/vegan from looking into where their food comes from!

I know recycling may seem like the answer, but unless someone has an in-house or closed loop recycling scheme the chances of something being recycled when you pop it outside for the bin men, isn't that high. 

A lot of our recycling gets shipped overseas to poor countries for them to 'sort' which ultimately ends up in landfill sites so big they end up blowing into our ocean too. And does anyone else think that surely as some point we're going to run out of room? It's like watching Wall-E happen in real life.

By making even one swap in your daily life to something that's plastic free, over your lifetime that will save SO much plastic from being wasted.

My fave suggestion is cleaning products as you can now get concentrated cleaning solution in soluble pouches you can pop in the bottles you already have! They are 100% plastic free from the product to the packaging and also cut down on co2 from transporting the weight of the mixed product!