Join the world in celebrating International Plastic Bag Free Day on July 3 in an effort to promote the benefits of eliminating plastic bag usage to help combat pollution and litter buildup throughout the environment.
“Not only is it plastic bag free day on July 3 but the whole month typically is focused on plastic-free everything,” said Katie McKain, director of sustainability at Charleston’s Office for Resilience and Sustainability. “We call July ‘Plastic Free July,’ and this year we are really pushing community members to think hard about what they are using and to investigate what options are available in terms of alternative products to avoid that plastic use.”
According to photo agency Avalon, the world uses 2 million plastic bags every minute, only 3% of which are recycled. It takes up to 500 years for a plastic bag to decompose, making it the bulk of most landfills.
“It is estimated that the average person a year uses 365 plastic bags. So, if you have a household of three, that’s over 1,000 plastic bags a year,” said McKain. “Imagine if we were able to use a reusable bag instead of those 1,000, and that’s only one household. And that’s just bags, not all other single-use plastic products.”
How to help reduce plastic use in the Lowcountry
There are many ways to prevent plastic use and its effects in the Holy City.
“We partner with a few nonprofits that organize all kinds of litter sweeps and they track data very specifically and have data and information to show that there are less bags being picked up now then there were before,” McKain said.
The Office of Resilience and Sustainability also will host a booth at the West Ashley Farmers Market once a week throughout July. On Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., you can visit the booth to learn more about plastic use prevention.
“We will have a variety of plastic-free products for people to take home and test on their own and see if that works for them,” said McKain. Organizations including the S.C. Aquarium and the Surfrider Foundation also facilitate events to help remove plastic from our environment. In fact, Surfrider is coordinating a “Post-Fourth of July Beach Sweep” at Folly Beach on July 5. The clean-up will take place at the Folly Beach Pier from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Register here.
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