How to Start Reducing Plastics on World Ocean Day

World Ocean Day is on Wednesday, June 8. It’s a day to remind everyone of the major role the oceans have in everyday life. Not only do oceans covers over 70% of the planet, according to the United Nations, the ocean is our life source, supporting humanity and every organism on earth.

World Ocean Day

Not only does the ocean produce at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen, it is home to most of earth’s biodiversity, and is the main source of protein for more than a billion people around the world.

The ocean is key to our economy with an estimated 40 million people being employed by ocean-based industries by 2030. With all of its benefits, the ocean is now in need of support.

With 90% of big fish populations depleted, and 50% of coral reefs destroyed, we need to work together to recycle and reduce plastics to create a new balance with the ocean. Instead of depleting, we need to restore the ocean and bring it new life.

“Revitalization: collective action for the ocean” is the theme for World Oceans Day 2022, a year framed by the UN Decade of Ocean Sciences and the celebration of the Conference of the Oceans 2022. It’s been two years since they have had a conference, after being cancelled because of the pandemic.

The expert team at The Body Shop have a solution in reducing plastic beauty waste. They compiled data about the amount of plastic waste discovered monthly in the United States.

A staggering 384,899,983 plastic razors are thrown away every month. Followed by 369,092,688 empty plastic bottles of shampoo and 367,032,066 bottles of deodorant.

The Body Shop

A spokesperson at The Body Shop gave their expert tips on how to make your beauty routine greener and regularly recycle plastic waste. Here is a list of five top tips to create a more sustainable beauty regime and help save our ocean:

Ditch the disposables and reuse and refill – it reduces plastic use.

Check your products before recycling. Although pumps and some bottle caps can’t be recycled and need to be removed before being recycled; remember to always check the products can be recycled before disposing of them to avoid landfills.

Choose eco-friendly brands and products. Green flag words include natural and organic, biodegradable, ethically made, and fair trade.

LastObject

Swap out your beauty tools and invest in made-to-last products. LastObject makes made-to-last products that have reduced 3 billion single use items since 2019. They make reusable and sustainable alternative to LastSwabs. Their easy to use and clean Q-Tip-style beauty swabs is a sanitary alternative to cotton swabs and is specially designed for makeup touch-ups. They also make reusable round cotton pads, and tissues.

Reduce your water usage by turning off your faucet while brushing teeth and taking less time in the shower. When waiting for water to heat up, have the cool water fill up a bucket in your shower. Later take it out to your yard to water plants. This not only saves vital fresh water, but helps in preventing water wastage.

A number of The Body Shop stores have refill and recycle schemes to help recycle plastics. Bring your empty beauty bottles and disposable razors into one of the participating stores. When their recycling bins are full, the recycling partners TerraCycle® collect them and replace them with new ones. The empty packaging gets sorted by TerraCycle® before being repurposed and recycled into raw materials for new products.