Join the campaign and pledge a plastic-free day or more at the ‘Unpackage me’ website
Unpackage me: Exeter researchers go plastic-free for a month
Researchers from the University of Exeter will attempt to live a life free from plastic during October and are calling for others to follow suit. Dr Jennifer Sanderson and Miss Lindsay Walker are undertaking the month-long challenge to help raise awareness of our dependency on plastic packaging.
Members of the public are invited to join the initiative by visiting the ‘Unpackage me’ website and pledging to not purchase any products that contain or use plastic for a day or more during October.
Miss Walker and Dr Sanderson, who are based at the Penryn Campus in Cornwall, will showcase the ‘Unpackage me’ campaign around Falmouth and the rest of Cornwall with interactive information stands, posters and a display of the plastic saved.
In the UK alone 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year, which equates to about 15 million bottles per day. Most UK households throw away about 40kg of recyclable plastic per year.
Current global consumption of plastic has drastic consequences for global energy consumption, for our economy, and for the health of both marine and terrestrial wildlife.
Miss Walker said: “Plastic packaging has become so ubiquitous that people use and throw away several tonnes of plastic every day without any thought to the consequences of their actions.
“We have been shocked by the statistics on plastic waste and decided that we wanted to try to do something to build community awareness about the environmental and economic costs of living in a world reliant on plastic.”
Dr. Sanderson said: “We use so much plastic in our everyday life, it is often impossible to escape it. Whenever I go to a supermarket I am always shocked by how much plastic packaging there is everywhere and I am constantly worried about the impact that this is having on the environment.”
The researchers will write a daily blog and there will be a Twitter-based weekly photo competition to find the product with the most pointless plastic packaging [#pointlessplastic].
The website also includes information about plastics, as well as initiatives to reduce, re-use, and recycle plastics. Together with dedicated Twitter (@UnpackageMe) and Facebook pages, the website will provide a forum for the general public to gain and exchange information of plastic re-use and explore the wider effects of our daily plastic choices.
Date: 1 October 2014
