“It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”
Unwanted Gifts – Waste Not, Want Not
Check these numbers out. Last year in the US, an estimated $13 billion was wasted on unwanted gifts over the holidays. In the UK £700 million and in Australia $400 million. Collectively, that’s an estimated $24 billion USD.
Take a moment to let that sink in…$24 billion US!
While some of you may choose to re-gift, sell, exchange or perhaps relegate the unwanted gift(s) to the bottom of your sock drawer (never to be seen again), realistically many of those items will end up in landfill. Take into account the additional cost of materials, resources and energy wasted in production and transportation, all for the chosen gifted items along with the accompanying packaging, wrapping paper and decorations to just end up in landfill! The actual cost of unwanted gifts goes well beyond the spent dollars. The impact is staggering and our environment is paying a heavy price.
Our Plastic Collective team cannot help but pause here to imagine the positive contribution stopping unwanted gifts could make towards achieving plastic free oceans or what even the smallest fraction of that staggering amountof wasted money could mean to our communities struggling to hold back the plastic tide.
With just 0.02% of the money wasted on unwanted gifts, our Plastic Neutral program could provide 100 remote and vulnerable communities with the machinery, tools and education required to build their own plastic recycling facility, creating local jobs and removing plastic from the environment and our oceans.
With the holiday gifting season upon us, we are asking for your help to support our program and our communities by sharing our #Wanted campaign. Instead of receiving more gift baskets of biscuits you’ll never eat, socks, fragrances or clothes that you’ll never use or wear, why not ask for something different – like Citizenship in a future with #PlasticFreeOceans. By giving the gift of #PlasticNeutralCitizenship, you’ll be bringing our communities one green step closer to realising that future.
Let’s use the momentum of the ever growing awareness around plastic and the urgent need to care for our environment and the oceans to start a holiday movement that ends unwanted gifts and all of the waste it creates!
So, if you want to live in a future with with plastic free oceans, or ensure that your children or grandchildren do, please share this post (simply click on the social share buttons on the left of the page) OR create your own using our easy Grab & Go Media kit and help us end unwanted gifts! Included in the media kit is an easy “How To” Guide, great images, messages and even #hashtags for you to use. All that’s left now is your help to get this #Wanted movement started!
#WANTED, #PLASTICFREEOCEANS
Our purpose at Plastic Collective is to show people how to find value in plastics as a resource, to understand which plastics can be recycled or recovered, and provide solutions to eliminate those which can’t be, thus preventing disposal of plastics. This will create sustainable circular economies which no longer rely on the ‘take-make-dispose’ attitude.
