Surf Waves Not Plastic

Have you felt a burning desire lately to lower your environmental impact and make some real changes toward a more sustainable future? Have you also thought, man it’s a big problem, surely I can’t make a difference?

We hear you and your intuition is on the money because we need to individually and collectively make some big changes. In the next 10 years, the plastic waste that slides into waterways, and ultimately the oceans will reach between 22 and 58 million tonnes a year. We are already surfing invisible plastic but soon we will literally be surfing plastic we see in our “recycle” bins. 

Outside of environmental issues, a sigh of relief feels like it is genuinely a possibility in the coming months, after what for all of us has been the most disruptive two years we have ever experienced through this pandemic. Sparks of ideas are beginning to make their way into the conscious mind to replace the consistent worry and actions required to help survive this relentless disruption. 

Prior to the pandemic, the main focus, at least from GoodFor’s perspective, was to provide the most appealing way for people to reduce plastic consumption when shopping for food. Those fundamentals have stayed with us but our ability to voice those same ideals has taken a back seat. People and organizations have had enough on their plate without having the environmental issues also creating pressure.  

We started GoodFor with the theory that plastic pollution is the most tangible way the everyday person can make a positive impact on the environment with little effort. We know reducing plastic is a gateway into understanding and tackling the larger problems at hand. In other words, starting to eliminate plastic out of your life has an amazing flow on effect leading to a significantly smaller emissions footprint. We are not talking about beach clean ups, we are talking about actually eliminating the need for plastic production. 

This month, we wanted to show what just one week's worth of household plastic actually looks like, because thinking of things in micros rather than macros gives us the ability to comprehend and make a real change. The image below shows a 4 person household's plastic consumption in just one week. This doesn’t even include plastic consumed outside of the home. 

Seeing is believing and we know there is no sound human out there that thinks it is okay to be producing this level of plastic in a week. We are also aware that it’s currently unreasonable to think we can eliminate plastic consumption altogether. It is however, straightforward to reduce 50% with not alot of effort.

Imagine that, everyone reduces plastic consumption by half! The effect being that it drives refilling and packaging innovation toward plant-based, compostable alternatives. Our landfills accumulate half as fast, fossil oil requirements for packaging reduce by half. Our food sitting in synthetic oil based packaging reduces by half. Our kitchens and rubbish bins become less cluttered and life becomes more simplified. The list goes on and on…

We have said this from the very inception of GoodFor, building a pantry infrastructure of glass jars or reusable containers, identifying your core products that you consume regularly and beginning to refill these products is the ultimate way to reduce your plastic packaging by 50%. It also leads to less food waste which has its own long set of benefits. Once you get in a flow with your pantry, this opens the floor to other areas that can be worked on. 

We really want our kids to be surfing waves, not plastic and we are sure you do too. 

We encourage you to give refilling a go by grabbing some jars and starting your refilling journey. Shop in-store or online today.