Take up the challenge and go plastic free this July

The City of Fremantle is encouraging residents to take up the challenge of going plastic free for a month by signing up for Plastic Free July.

Fremantle local Rebecca Prince-Ruiz founded the Plastic Free July campaign in 2011 after a visit to the Southern Metropolitan Regional Council’s (SMRC) Regional Resource Recovery Centre in Canning Vale left her shocked at how much plastic waste was being produced.

Ten years later, the campaign has evolved into a global movement that last year saw 250 million people across 177 countries commit to reducing the amount of single-use plastic in their lives.

Fremantle Mayor Brad Pettitt said the City of Fremantle and other SMRC member councils East Fremantle, Melville and Kwinana had embraced Plastic Free July as part of ongoing efforts to increase sustainability and protect our environment.

“Plastic Free July is an established and successful way for people to reduce single-use plastic waste every day at home, work and school,” Mayor Pettitt said.

“To begin with people can focus on eliminating the top four single-use plastics - takeaway coffee cups, plastic shopping bags, plastic straws and water bottles, and then for more of a challenge they can try to eliminate all single-use plastics for a month.

“By making just a few simple changes in their daily lives people can help to create cleaner communities, alleviate the recycling crisis, reduce landfill waste and mitigate the effects of climate change.”

People who sign up to the Plastic Free July challenge will receive weekly emails providing tips and tricks from participants around the world on how to help reduce single-use plastic waste.

Posting a favourite plastic-free tip to the City of Fremantle Facebook page will also automatically enter you into a competition to win a copy of the new book ‘Plastic Free’ by Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz and Joanna Atherfold Finn.

The City of Fremantle was at the forefront of the campaign to ban single-use plastic shopping bags in Western Australia, and in 2018 adopted a Sustainable Events Policy that prohibits the sale or distribution of single-use plastics at all City of Fremantle run events.

To sign up to the Plastic Free July challenge enter your details at plasticfreejuly.org and complete the Pesky Plastics Quiz, or visit the Plastic Free July page on the City of Fremantle website.