The Big Plastic Count

Like many other households, between 16-22 May we took part in Greenpeace’s Big Plastic Count - the UK’s biggest investigation into household plastic waste. 

The goal of the project was to calculate UK households' plastic footprint. The results were going to be used for negotiations, nationally and internationally.

For a week we made a note of every piece of plastic we put in our bins - recycle and household waste equally. The list included bottles, tubs, bags etc..

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of our tally sheet but we submitted the result once the survey ended. Some time later Greenpeace emailed us our results:

In one week we used 41 pieces of plastic. Over a year that'd be equivalent to 2,132 pieces of plastic.100% of our plastic originated from food and drink (no “cleaning and toiletries” or “everything else”). 

63% of our plastic was hard plastic while 37% was soft.

If every household was like ours, the UK would use 59,909,200,000 pieces of plastic every year. That is an enormous number and that is us being a fairly conscious family. Change around plastic legislation can not wait any longer.

Greenpeaces' promotional video can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_gzSDySh5s