By Mandi Cragg, Sustainability Programme Manager, NHS Cheshire and Merseyside
Earth Day takes place every year on 22 April and seeks to raise awareness of the environmental problems our planet is facing and promote efforts to tackle them.
This year’s theme is ‘planet vs plastics’, and calls on individuals, businesses and governments to unite in combating plastic pollution and protecting our health.
Globally the production of plastic has soared from 1.5 million metric tons in the 1950’s to 200 million metric tons by 2002, with 2022 figures rising to a staggering 400.3 million metric tons.
But this long-lasting wonder material is not as fantastic as first imagined. Single-use plastics are choking our seas, impacting our health and damaging the environment and, because of the longevity of plastic, every single piece of plastic ever produced still exists today in some form.
In the UK we throw out 1.7 billion pieces of plastic per week and only 17% of this is recycled. A huge 58% is incinerated, and the remainder ends up in waste exports, landfill and in our rivers and oceans.
Microplastics are fragments of any type of plastic less than 5mm in length and are either produced intentionally for use in products such as nappies, cosmetics, toothpaste, paint and so on (the list is almost endless) or are produced via degradation (larger plastics naturally breaking down), or by wear and tear such as debris from car tyres. Once in the environment they are almost impossible to get rid of and scientists have found them in the ocean, in Arctic sea ice, in drinking water, food, in animals and marine life, the air and breast milk. Indeed, it has been estimated that we eat, drink, and breathe 5g of microplastic every week – the weight of a credit card.
The NHS is the largest user of single-use plastics in Europe, with services across the NHS in England using more than 600 million disposable cups and millions of disposable cutlery pieces as well as other avoidable single-use clinical and non-clinical plastic items between 2013-2018. In 2020 almost one quarter of the NHS’ waste in England and Wales was plastic.
In 2019 the NHS Long Term Plan called for a reduction in single-use plastics throughout the NHS supply chain and asked providers, retailers, and suppliers to the NHS to sign up to a plastics reduction pledge where signatories committed to:
There are lots of things you can do to reduce your single-use plastic consumption, and in most cases, you’ll also save money! Here are some easy plastic swaps:
Swap this… | …for this |
One water bottle takes around 450 years to break down in landfill… | Choose a BPA-free option – there are lots on the market with prices to suit all budgets!
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Plastic wrap takes hundreds of years to decompose in landfill, turning into microplastics when it breaks down. If incinerated PVC/ PVDC can release dioxins. | Reusable beeswax wrap, Tupperware, ceramic and glass containers are all good alternatives (or just pop a plate over a bowl the old-fashioned way!) |
Currently only 19% of fruit and veg are sold loose in supermarkets in the UK … | Buy loose where you can |
552 million empty shampoo bottles are thrown away every year in the UK and end up in landfill… | Shampoo and conditioner bars save water, are easy to store, perfect for travelling and totally plastic-free! |