Free of Single-Use Plastics
A Wayra Community Challenge
New years are for new resolutions. Or at least that is what people say. Personally I find them stressful and intimidating. So what are we doing creating a challenge that reeks of New Year’s resolution? Only one answer comes to mind. Our idealism is stronger than my capacity to be annoyed or intimidated. Hence, I’m behind challenging not only myself but the entire Wayra community to live, starting January 21st and until February 28th, without using single-use plastics in the office. In this article, we will briefly explain what single-use plastics are, their effects in nature and our health, and of course, the rules of the Challenge and what you need to do to win it.
What are single-use plastics
Plastic surrounds our daily activities, from food packaging to many of the fibres in our clothes, pens in our desks, the monitors of our computers, etc. Almost everywhere we look, we see this material. Plastic is produced utilizing the remnants of the oil process, which is made from what remains of dinosaurs and plankton from millions of years ago.
Invented in the mid-90s, it wasn’t until the 70s that plastic became massively popular, replacing daily use articles like milk jugs, food packaging, and almost any container we can think of. Plastics are practical, durable and light, but we seem to love plastic a bit too much for our own good. At least that is what the over 300 million tons produced every year[1] seem to indicate. Much of that is used to produce items we will only use for a couple of minutes and then discard for nature to deal with it for the coming millennia. The focus of this challenge: the dreaded single-use plastics.
You might be wondering, what do we mean with this “single-use plastic” concept. So let’s put some scientific support to it. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has defined single-use plastics as “goods that are made primarily from fossil fuel–based chemicals (petrochemicals) and are meant to be disposed of right after use — often, in mere minutes. Single-use plastics are most commonly used for packaging and service ware, such as bottles, wrappers, straws, and bags.”
The impact
Using dead dinosaurs to wrap your lunch or to pour your morning coffee is not only sounds uncool, but it is also harmful to the environment and for yourself. Plastic does not biodegrade, meaning it will never integrate back into the soil. Instead, it breaks down into tiny particles: microplastics. Throughout this breaking process, plastic “releases the toxic chemical additives that were used to define, harden and shape it. These chemicals and small particles of plastic can be ingested or absorbed by wildlife and even humans. Our bodies confuse these chemicals for Estrogen (the hormone that determines feminine characteristics). An overabundance of “environmental estrogen” disrupts our endocrine systems and is suspected of causing severe health disorders.”
Microplastics travel everywhere, being found already in the Arctic and Antarctic Seas, in the French Pyrenees [2] and even in remote inhabited locations like the Henderson Islands[3]. Plastics can cause irreparable damage to wildlife when ingested. Plastics can accumulate in an animal’s body creating health issues that can, often, cause death. Research has shown, microplastics are also in the water of 90% of bottled water brands[4] posing a risk to our health that has not even been quantified yet.
Why do this challenge?
According to the UN, “we are already unable to cope with the amount of plastic waste we generate unless we rethink the way we manufacture, use and manage plastics.”[5] We produce roughly the same amount of tons of plastics as the weight of the whole population![6]
You might be thinking — No problem! We are in Germany all of the plastic is recycled here — Think again! Even though Germany is world renowned because of its trash separation policies and overall perception of high effectiveness in recycling, statistics have shown than only 15% of the plastic will actually be reused[7]. A large portion of the plastic that goes on the German yellow bins finds its way to Southeast Asia where only high-quality plastic is recycled while a large portion of it is incinerated in countries like Malaysia, releasing toxic fumes that quickly become a health hazard for residents. In the meantime, global statistics show that almost 91% of plastic is not recycled[8]. With numbers like this, no wonder our oceans are full of plastic.
It is also important to remember that waste management and recycling is just one part of the material’s cycle; the last resource if you will. We usually don’t take into consideration the material’s production carbon and water footprint or the amount of energy and greenhouse emissions generated during its transportation.
Knowing all of this, we thought we could give the office a push to focus on the most effective way of tackling this problem: reducing the amount of single-use plastic we use in the first place.
The challenge
So now for the challenge! Starting today, we dare all of you who call Wayra Germany home, to live each day at the office free of single-use plastics. What does that mean? If today you manage to do all of your daily activities in the office without using any items of single-use plastics (food wrapping, coffee cups, straws, food containers, etc.), you get to make a star on the tracking sheet in the office provided for the challenge. If you manage to survive tomorrow without using any single-use plastics you get to make another star, and so it goes until February 28th. We will tackle this one day at the time, so you don’t need to stress about being perfect!
On Friday, February 28th we will crown the office’s Single-use plastic Vanquisher, along with taking home the glory of this office prize we will prepare something special for you, so get ready to win.
Tips and resources
If you are looking for tips and inspiration on how to secure yourself that win we have found a few articles packed with useful ideas to get your creative juices going and help you win the title of Single-use Plastic Vanquisher:
4 ways to reduce your plastic use
If you wish to learn more about plastic waste and how to avoid it here are some resources you can check out:
Single-use plastics: a roadmap to sustainability
Plastic and Climate: The hidden cost of a plastic planet
[1] The world’s plastic problem in numbers (World Economic Forum, 2018)
[2] Microplastics have invaded some of the planet’s most remote places (Huffpost, 2019)
[3] This plastic-covered island may be the saddest place you’ll ever see (Huffpost, 2017)
[4] WHO launches health review after microplastics founds in 90% of bottled water (The Guardian, 2018)
[5] Single-use plastics: a road to sustainability (UN, 2018)
[6] Single-use plastics 101 (NRDC,2020)
[7] German Plastic Floods Southeast Asia (DW, 2019)
[8] Statistics of 2018: Winners Announced (Royal Statistical Society, 2018)
