Earth Day 2024 – Planet vs Plastics

Earth Day 2024 – Planet vs plastics

A Global Action team sorting plastic waste in Costa Rica

The theme for Earth Day 2024 is Planet vs Plastics. Plastic waste is a global issue that affects humans, wildlife and environment the world over. You certainly don’t need to go to the other side of the world to find examples of severe plastic pollution. The world produces over 400 million metric tonnes of plastic every year, and the numbers are going up – more plastic was produced in the last ten years than the whole of the last century. Many of those plastics, such as shopping bags, might be in use for just minutes but can have an afterlife of centuries, with harmful effects on marine and terrestrial wildlife and even humans, as microplastics enter the food chain.

So, what can we do about it? There are countless inspiring initiatives going on all around the world to reduce plastic production, improve recycling practices and move towards a more ‘circular economy’, including the key goal of ‘60×40’ – achieving a 60% reduction in plastic waste by 2040. You can read more about it on the Earth Day website.

Here at Global Action, we partner with amazing organisations working on this problem in many of the countries we travel to, including Waterways in Costa Rica and 2 Winds in Zanzibar. These initiatives focus on prevention, raising awareness amongst local community and tourists alike about the risks from plastic pollution.  And, they get their hands dirty too – our teams have helped to collect plastic litter from beaches and mangroves – in the case of mangroves in Zanzibar, it’s easiest to do it from a stand-up paddleboard!

A Global Action team with the plastic collected at low tide in a mangrove forest in Zanzibar

But the story of the plastic doesn’t end there – rather than simply move the problem from one place to another, this waste is reused in innovative ways. Our partners such as Bionic in Costa Rica and Chako in Zanzibar are great examples, who recycle and upcycle plastic waste which washes up on their beaches. These organisations create useful and beautiful items from plastic waste destined for landfill or the ocean, and create jobs for the local community.

These initiatives do amazing work, and make a real difference to their local areas. But we all need to do our bit to reduce the amount of plastic we consume, especially when travelling to new places.

A Global Action student helping in a community clean-up in Nepal

With that in mind, here are Global Actions top 5 trips to reduce your plastic usage while on trip:

1. Take a reusable water bottle. It’s normal in many countries to drink water exclusively from plastic bottles where the local tap water isn’t potable. We are constantly working with ground partners to reduce the amount of bottled water our teams drink. Take a reusable bottle, we provide the water purification, and cut down on the bottles you need to buy!
2. Switch your toothbrush. Toothbrushes made of materials other than plastic are easily available now, many of which are compostable.
3. Avoid travel miniatures. It’s always tempting to stock up on these to save space, but there is so much plastic! Decant shampoo and shower gel from a larger container into smaller reusable bottles, or make the switch to shampoo and soap bars.
4. Say no to straws. Politely decline a plastic straw if you’re offered one – pack a metal straw if you want one, or just go without.
5. Ditch fast fashion. We buy 60% more clothing than we did 10 years ago, but only keep it half as long. Most clothing contains plastics such as nylon and polyester and which will eventually break down into microplastics. Spend more on fewer items of better quality clothing for your expedition, which will last longer. And if your trip wardrobe needs a refresh, buy second hand locally or on apps like Vinted and Depop, and sell on what you don’t wear any more – a great way to earn some extra money towards your trip!

With these tips in mind we can minimise the amount of plastic we leave behind. And we can apply many of the ideas to our lives at home as well and become advocates for a plastic-free world, so that beaches and beauty spots in Costa Rica, Zanzibar and countless other places can be enjoyed for years to come.