July 2019 - Environmental Highlights
We're well into the summer and with the warmer, brighter weather we've saw excellent new across the environmental front this month.
Here's our roundup of the top 10 environmental highlights for July.
1. Millions of people around the world join Plastic Free July
Plastic Free July is a global initiative where participants sign up to try and avoid single-use plastic during July.
A record breaking 230 MILLION people worldwide participated in the Plastic Free July challenge 2019, to help create a world without plastic waste! Thanks to everyone who is part of the solution #PlasticFreeJuly pic.twitter.com/UEWAbf8KWv
— Plastic Free July (@PlasticFreeJuly) August 1, 2019
The all-female crew will take on a 2-year round-the-world voyage to collect samples of some of the planet's most important and diverse marine environments to build a picture of the state of the ocean.
3. Ocean activists remove 80,000 pounds of plastic waste from the Pacific Ocean
A group of ocean activists removed 80,000 pounds or 40 tonnes of plastic waste from the Great Pacific Garbage patch.
A growing number of UK festivals are working hard on they environmental impact and sustainability. Glastonbury paved the way this year by banning plastic bottles, preventing more than 1 million bottles going to landfill. Leeds Festival also announced that they plan to ban single-use plastics by 2021.
5. Wimbledon ditches plastic racket covers and top tennis players wear kits made from old clothes and plastic waste
A review on the use of plastics by the All England Lawn Tennis Club saw plastic bags for tennis rackets removed. In addition to this some of the biggest names in tennis wore a specially designed kit made from old clothing and plastic rubbish.
6. UK government confirms its intention to introduce a "world-leading" plastic tax before 2022
It is expected that plastic packaging with insufficient recycled content will be hit with a tax. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality highlighted that if businesses are required to separate waste materials as part of this, a higher level of waste collection would be required.
7. Earth overshoot day is marked earlier than ever before
Earth overshoot day is the day where humanity has used more natural resources than we can renew in one year. This year, earth overshoot day was marked on 29th July, which was marked on 1st August in 2018.
8. Tesco is removing plastic bags from its online shopping service
Tesco has announced that products from online grocery shopping orders will be transported by delivery drivers in reusable green trays instead of plastic carrier bags. It's estimated this will save around 250 million plastic bags per year.
9. Top South African tourist destination has found a solution to plastic pollution
Gansbaai, an idyllic harbour town on South Africa's Western Cape was plagued with plastic pollution causing real problems for wildlife.
To help combat the problem, drainage nets were installed four months ago to filter waste. The nets have already stopped 370kg of litter floating into the river (and ultimately the sea).
It has been proposed that if successful, the litter-grabbing project will be implemented in other areas.
10. City of London Corporation announces policy to ban unnecessary plastic waste
The City of London Corporation is to eliminate unnecessary plastic waste such as disposable plastic cups, cutlery, cling film & plastic packaging as well as multi-use packaging waste.
