PLASTIC FREE JULY - AND BEYOND

If you're interested in reducing the amount of trash - and particularly plastic - that you and/or your household produces and you're not quite sure where to start, it can seem like a daunting task.  Once you stop, look around, and tune into the problem, it suddenly seems like plastic is simply everywhere - from tea bags to tracksuit pants, to those tiny but annoying stickers on the fruit you buy or the straw that you asked them to leave out that still turns up in your drink anyway.

MIDWAY

One word that ties together two parallel subjects, 'Midway' is the title of a Chris Jordan film about the devastating effects that plastic pollution is having on albatrosses nesting in the Midway Atoll of the North Pacific ocean. I saw the trailer late last year, utterly devastating and a well past due wake up call. The full film is scheduled for release in late 2013. Here in Australia I've been reading up on our own 'Midway situation'. The remote and pristine paradise of Lord Howe Island is yet another distressing case study for marine plastic pollution and its devastating effects on bird life - namely shearwaters. Learning about both of these situations within a short period, as well as the alarming microplastics statistics from recent surveys, was the jump-start that put me onto a path to concerted plastic reduction.

PLASTIC LITE PROGRESS

There are certainly challenges to living a plastic-free life in Darwin, some can be solved with a bit of effort while others either remain on either a 'deal with it later' list or the too hard basket.

First things first. Despite Darwin's distance from other population centres, our local Shoal Bay Recycling Centre takes all recyclable plastics

Another recent recycling initiative worth mentioning is courtesy of Coles supermarket, who are rolling out a nationwide soft plastics collection. I'll pause here to say I won't give my opinion for or against shopping at one of Australia's major food suppliers as it's up to the individual to decide how they shop, but either way I think this is a positive step in removing a large part of what is often unavoidable plastic from landfill. It hasn't rolled out in Darwin yet but for now I'm saving all my soft plastics until such time as it does.

2013 - THE YEAR OF PLASTIC 'LITE'

2012 was the first year I can remember that had such a major theme for me. Towards the end of 2011 I decided to move from my somewhat quiet rural life in England, where I'd been living for 5 years, and head back home to Australia. Of course with great moving, comes great sorting. I gave myself 6 months to sift through my houseful of possessions, and decide what was making the journey over with me.

A funny thing happened; the more I sorted, and the more I sold or donated, the more I realised that there was a hell of a lot of 'stuff' in my life. Probably slightly less than the average Westerner as I don't own many gadgets, but still I'd somehow gathered what seemed like a lot of moss. This was surprising as I've always considered myself as not owning that much. There's nothing like packing it down into a few boxes to challenge that perception.