Plastic Free July 2021
I got friends that loathe the month and folks that love the month, in eternal Marisa fashion I ruggedly take what’s “good” and bend it around the realities of money, access, and time.
Plastic Free July ® was started in Australia in 2011 and now has millions of people participating in this movement worldwide, and even beyond July. I love grassroots movements so damn much but let’s make sure it’s not co-opted by capitalism, ya?
All of us can get on board with the reality that single use plastics is among the top in Goliaths to topple, in terms of CO2, extraction & exploitation, and our seemingly unstoppable over consumption.
Where plastics are made, how plastics are made, what it makes cheaper, who it impacts negatively and the few who it impacts positively. All questions to percolate on this month.
The first PFJ for me was 2016, two weeks post life changing head injury. I think I wanted something to control and I was going towards ZW as it was just much slower. A note, we did not have much money at this time, I was unemployed which was a bit of a blessing post head injury.
I legitimately got rid of our trash, I cried in the grocery store, and said no to absolutely everything. It was fucking awful and hilarious to look back at now.
However doing it wrong with the cold turkey quit of plastics was also one of the biggest factors that got me to where I am today. I essentially boiled the entire ZW movement into less than 9 months and immediately understood who was getting left behind.
Join me as I endeavor to highlight actions and faults to give you a #zerowasteirl version.