No Single-Use Plastic Challenge
November 26th to November 30th, 2012Use Less Plastic from TakePart on Vimeo.
Challenge:
Go an entire week without using any single-use plastics.
Why:
Well, first off, let's get one thing clear. Not all plastics are bad. In fact, they have drastically improved our lives in many ways. However, the use of cheap, single-use plastics, that we use daily, are greatly affecting our environment with catastrophic implications.
There is a section of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of the continental United States called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Within it, there are 100 million tons of plastics swirling in a vortex of currents.
The plastic ends up in the stomachs of marine birds and animals. In fact, one million seabirds and 100,000 marine animals die globally each year due to ingestion of, or enganglement in plastics.
Source: The Surfrider Foundaion, www.surfrider.org
Goal:
To examine the lifestyle changes, if any, that result from eliminating single-use plastics from our daily lives.
Common Single-Use Plastics:
- Shopping Bags
- Bottled Water and Drinks
- Coffee Lids
- Utensils
- Prepackaged Meals
At the beginning of the week each participant will start out with 15 points. Each time a participant uses a single-use plastic they will deduct one point from their total (we will be using the honor system folks!). At the end of the week the person with the most points will win a sustainable gift basket. All participants will be given cloth shopping bags at the beginning of the week for shopping.
Please sign-up at http://form.jotform.us/form/22995179941166 or email scnetimpact@gmail.com to get more details! When you sign up, include a fun photo of yourself.
Please join us in this initative and keep us posted on your progress. Any contributions to the blog would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to use the Twitter hashtag #plasticschallenge to tweet your amazing feats of plasticlessness!
Best of luck!
-The Net Impact Team
Resources:
www.riseaboveplastics.org
www.surfrider.org
Contestants:
Taylor Moss -- Points Remaining: 14
Liz Buncher -- Points Remaining: 13
Jeff Fralick -- Points Remaining: 15
Divyadeep Lolla -- Points Remaining: 14
Teresa Roche -- Points Remaining: 12
Matt Sierra -- Points Remaining: 13
Marc Young -- Points Remaining: 0
Katie Kutzli -- Points Remaining: 7
Travis Bjoklund -- Points Remaining: 12
Baldwin Hall -- Points Remaining: 15
Courtney Patterson -- Points Remaining: 9
Lavinia Hurley -- Points Remaining: 12
Jonathan Biddle -- Points Remaining: 12
Howard Glenn -- Points Remaining: 15
Kanwarjeet Tuli -- Points Remaining: 14
Hilary Harrison -- Points Remaining: 7
Caroline Osborne -- Points Remaining: 14
Justin Bailey -- Points Remaining: 15
