Rethinking The Way We Consume Plastic With Rethink Campaign
Plastic pollution We can all agree that disposable plastic is bad for the environment. However, it is undeniable that we became reliant to it. Plastic has offered us with numerous benefits. It is lightweight, flexible, water resistant and most importantly, cheap. Due to these strengths, plastics are literally everywhere. If you pause reading and look around, there is probably some kind of plastic material on your sight. While making your life extra convenient, plastic becomes problematic at the end of its useful life. Disposable plastics are only useful within minutes, but can persist on this planet for centuries, long after your own lifespan. This clearly shows that the environmental impact plastic causes outweigh the convenience it offers. Out of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste that were produced since 1950, only 9 per cent are recycled and around 60 per cent end up in the landfill and natural environment (source: Great Britain’s Royal Statistical Society). In the long run, humans, being at the top of the food-chain, will be imperilled by plastic contamination in our water and food. In the midst of a global plastic crisis, a lot of attention has been placed towards individual-level plastic consumption. On average, individual Indonesian would use 700 plastic bags each year (source: Greeneration). Over 20 years, that person would have already generate 14,000 plastic waste, which is already significant enough without adding the other plastic items that are commonly used, such as plastic straws, cutlery and bottles. What we do about it? Rethink Plastic is one of the six topics relating to consumption that are raised by Rethink Campaign, a collaborative campaign initiated Evoware and Campaign. As part Rethink Campaign’s collaborative movement of individuals, communities, brands, retailers and companies, Rethink Plastic is targeting people to evaluate their habits in terms of their plastic consumption. Our mission is to get 1,000,000 people to reduce their plastic consumption by using sustainable alternatives by 2020. In order to achieve this goal, we provide a set of reusable products that we proudly call the Rethink Kit. While assisting people in implementing a new lifestyle with less plastic, Rethink Kit also serves as a tool to measure our achievement. For each Rethink Kit that is given means one person has switched to sustainable alternatives, hence reduced their plastic consumption. The alternatives inside our Rethink Kit includes bamboo straw, brush, bamboo cutlery, cutlery pouch, tumbler and produce bag. By using one Rethink Kit, a person can reduce 362 plastic straws, 107 plastic cutlery, 1277 plastic bottles and 700 plastic bags within a year. How to join Rethink Plastic? We are open for collaboration with individuals, communities, brands, retailers and companies. You can purchase our Rethink Kit as an individual, or you can collaborate with us to distribute our Rethink Kit to the wider community. We have collaborated with numerous companies, brands and events, including DBS Bank, Boga Group, World Resources Institute, Gigi Art of Dance, Red Planet, Happiness Festivals, Departemen Lingkungan Hidup, GandengTangan, Campaign, Aliansi Zero Waste Indonesia, Etmico, Coaction and Nara Bepro. Through intensive collaborations, so far we have helped 18,755 people to reduce their plastic consumption.
01 Sep 2022
