Plastic Free July: The Summer Challenge Helping People Ditch Plastic for Good

Can you go for a month without plastic?

Figure 1: Plastic Bottles

What Is Plastic Free July?

You grab a sandwich wrapped in cellophane from the corner café, toss in a polypropylene packet of chips, and take a disposable fork just in case. The cashier hands it all to you in a plastic bag and a receipt coated in BPA. Although lunch may be over twenty minutes later, all those plastics stick around.

Plastic Free July is a global movement that has inspired over 100 million participants in 190 countries to reduce their personal consumption of single-use plastics. The answer to “What is Plastic Free July?” is simple: for the month of July, say NO to single-use plastic items.

While some people commit for the whole month, others start with just one swap. Both are OK! The point of Plastic Free July is not to remove all plastic from your life, but to become aware of how just how often we use plastic. By the end of July, the hope is that some of these changes feel less like a challenge and more like a habit.

How Did Plastic Free July Start?

Plastic Free July started in Western Australia as a small idea between a few coworkers in local government. When Rebecca Prince-Ruiz decided to challenge herself and her team to go one month without using single-use plastics in 2011, what was meant to be a personal experiment quickly caught on. As schools, businesses, and entire communities began to join in, it didn’t take long before the small challenge turned into something much bigger.

Today, Plastic Free July is led by the Plastic Free Foundation and has grown into one of the most influential environmental campaigns in the world with 191 million #plasticfreejuly posts on TikTok last year. According to a 2024 IPSOS survey of over 23,000 people across 30 countries, 29 percent of global consumers had heard of Plastic Free July and 13 percent had taken part.

What’s The Impact?

Plastic Free July is about changing habits, raising awareness, and proving that everyday choices can lead to global change. Since the campaign began, participants have avoided an estimated 12.8 million tons of waste, including 1.7 million tons of plastic. That’s more than what the largest cleanup efforts in the world have been able to remove! In 2024 alone, over 174 million people took part in the movement, making Plastic Free July the largest plastic waste avoidance campaign on the planet.

Additionally, many participants continue their new habits after finding that simple changes like using a reusable bottle or avoiding plastic packaging are easy to stick with. Over time, these choices add up and send a clear message that people want more sustainable options in daily products.

How You Can Help

Every year, Plastic Free July is a chance to try something new. It’s the perfect time to start bringing a reusable water bottle to work and skipping plastic straws. Maybe you start to notice how much plastic shows up in small moments, like that sandwich wrapped in cellophane, the packaging of those chips you tossed into your cart, or the to-go bag from the café. Since making simple swaps in everyday routines is where the change begins, here’s an easy 3-week Plastic Free July plan you can implement:

Week 1: Reusables Routine

Carry a reusable water bottle and coffee cup.

Pack snacks or meals in reusable containers.

Limit yourself to reusable utensils.
Week 2: Food Packaging Detox

Skip plastic-wrapped produce for loose fruits and veggies.

Bring reusable bags to the grocery store.

Choose products packaged in glass, cardboard, or metal.
Week 3: Home Habits Refresh

Use reusable cloths or rags instead of paper towels.

Store leftovers in glass or metal containers.

Replace plastic wrap with beeswax wraps or lids.

As we reduce visible plastics, it’s also important to look at the invisible ones, called microplastics. Microplastics are exactly what they sound like, microscopic plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size (smaller than the width of a human hair or a grain of salt). Released from synthetic particles in your clothes during the wash, research has already linked them to inflammation, hormone disruption, and the potential to carry toxic chemicals into the body.

One easy change you can make in your household this July is implementing CLEANR’s Premium Microplastic Filter for washing machines that captures 90%+ of microplastics from the largest source of microplastic pollution (the laundry), preventing them from entering our environment.

CLEANR’s Premium Microplastic Filter for washing machines captures 90%+ of microplastics from the largest source of microplastic pollution, preventing them from entering our environment.

Learn More!

About CLEANR

CLEANR builds best-in-class microplastic filters for washing machines that effortlessly remove the largest source of microplastics into the environment. Its technology, VORTX, represents a breakthrough in filtration, with a patent-pending design that is inspired by nature and proven to outperform conventional filtration technologies by over 300%. The company is building a platform filter technology that enables product manufacturers and business customers to materially reduce their microplastic emissions from impacted in-bound and out-bound fluid streams, including residential and commercial washing machine wastewater, in-home water systems, wastewater treatment, textile manufacturing effluents, industrial wastewater, and other sources. www.cleanr.life

Sources:

2024 Report - Plastic Free Foundation. (2024, December 5). Plastic Free Foundation. https://plasticfreefoundation.net/our-impact/impact-2024/
About. (n.d.). Plastic Free July. https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/about-us/
admppc. (2019, August 6). Q&A with Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, Founder of Plastic Free July. Plastic Pollution Coalition. https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/blog/2019/8/6/qampa-with-rebecca-prince-ruiz-founder-of-plastic-free-july
Plastic Free July worldwide uptake-Ipsos GA survey 2024 Executive Summary. (2024). https://plasticfreefoundation.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/20241121-PFJ_worldwide_uptake_Ipsos_Global_Advisor_Survey-1.pdf
Ullah, S., Ahmad, S., Guo, X., Ullah, S., Ullah, S., Nabi, G., & Wanghe, K. (2023, January 16). A review of the endocrine disrupting effects of micro and nano plastic and their associated chemicals in mammals. Frontiers in Endocrinology, 13, 1084236. https://doi.org/10.3389/fendo.2022.1084236