Plastic Free July - 5 things you didn't know contained plastic

5 things you didn’t know contained plastic

On 3rd July 2021 the EU has banned the below single use plastics in it’s 27 countries…

Cutlery, Plates, Straws and stirrers, Cotton bud sticks, Balloons and sticks for balloons, Food containers, Cups for beverages / beverage containers, Cigarette butts, Plastic bags, Packets and wrappers

We love to see moves towards a more sustainable planet BUT why stop at those ?

Here are 5 things you didn’t know had plastic in…

 Receipts – The same chemicals used in single use plastics are used in receipts. They are printed on thermal paper which contains bisphenol A (BPA) and cannot be recycled.

Chewing gum – Not just the packaging but the actual gum itself. The gum base contains the same materials used in plastic bottles, bags and tyres. This means it can’t biodegrade or decompose. Meaning the gum you chew for 5 minutes could be around forever. 

Tea bags – More often than not tea bags contain polypropylene which is used to seal the tea bag during manufacture. So when thrown on the compost they are leaving microplastics in the soil.

Canned / tinned food Nearly all tin cans are lined with BPA resins aka plastic to prevent the metal from contaminating the food. You can still recycle them, because the lining gets burnt off in the recycling process. However it is worryingly not good for our health. BPA is  estimated to be present in between 93-99.5% of the population. It’s been detected in sweat, breast milk etc

ClothesThe fast fashion industry / over consumption of clothes has caused has caused the use of synthetic fibres to double in the past 20 years. Majority of these will likely end up in landfill and before then will already have reached our environment in the form of microplastics.

It’s scary just how much these plastic chemicals are used. It can feel overwhelming when we are literally surrounded by plastic to try and avoid it. This plastic free July we urge you (and ourselves) to KEEP CARING