Hi Folks,

As you may have seen on our Facebook page, we have been participating in a Plastic-free July Celebration along with our fellow Mercer County Sustainability Coalition (MCSC) members.   As we wind down, and with our usual timeliness, we would just like to speak a little bit about the movement.

Plastic Free July is a movement that spans over 177 countries and 250 million participants.  For more information we encourage you to go to https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/.

Thru the movement we encourage you to explore ways to cut down on plastic waste from bags, balloons, packaging, dental floss, and more. The posts on our Facebook page, along with the images, we hope will inspire you to break free of plastic waste.  Along with our partners in the MCSC, we have been and will be posting a different tip or thought provoking concept that challenges you to do more for the environment.

July is a month filled with barbecues and picnics and outdoor dining. And as a result, July is filled with plastic waste. The Coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the amount of plastic waste being littered and disposed of all over the State (gloves, masks, etc). Plastic Free July is the antidote! Now is a great time to adopt new habits that can reduce your plastic footprint and help you to live more harmoniously with the environment.

On both our Website and our Facebook page, our volunteers share ways of combatting the tidal wave of plastic trash in our lives. They will suggest inventive ways to reduce our plastic footprint: everything from little tricks for remembering to bring your own reusable shopping bag and your own water bottle, to how to do a waste audit of your house to figure out your real plastic footprint (tip: include the recycling bucket). Posts and information will also explore how refusing and reducing plastic waste beats recycling as a strategy.

#PlasticFreeJuly will save you money as well, because you are charged for all the little plastic things you use and throw away. You are charged twice: once when you buy it (the cost is hidden in the price of your purchase) and once when you throw it away (in your municipal disposal fees).

Waste reduction is the wave of the future as landfill space shrinks. So the households and municipalities that figure out how to cut down on waste going to landfills will be better prepared. And the Ewing Green Team is making this preparation fun.

The EGT and the MCSC believe that it takes residents from all over Mercer County working together to make a difference in our world. Join us for #PlasticFreeJuly !