Earth Day is This Sunday!

It’s the world's largest environmental movement and the campaign this year is "A World Without Plastic Pollution".

Plastic, plastic everywhere. It's the lament of our modern times and is one of the biggest environmental problems we face. Plastics are a problem mainly because they are not biodegradable; they are produced from oil and natural gas extraction; and it is challenging to discard them properly. 

A really sobering prediction I read was that if nothing changes in our plastic consumption habits, by 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than there are fish (by weight) (New Plastics Economy Report, 2016). 

And the real blow is that it's something we - often unwittingly - contribute to and perpetuate. But herein lies the solution: we can be the change we want to see. Stay with me... 

It can seem all doom and gloom, but there are small changes we can all make that, little by little, accumulate to have a positive impact. The Earth Day Network have an action toolkit to help us make these better choices.

Image copyright © 2018 Earth Day Network

At BY SARAH, we want to help you reduce your plastic usage when buying your skin care and here's how:

• Reduce. When shopping for your skin care, avoid brands that use plastic containers or cartons. We use amber glass (to protect the integrity of the oils inside) and clear glass jars for all our product packing which is fully recyclable - check out our natural and organic skincare collection! The cardboard postal boxes and paper wrapping that we use to deliver our customer orders can be reused and recycled too.

• Refuse. Feel empowered when you shop and refuse to buy from brands that use microbeads. These seemingly innocuous tiny pieces of manufactured polyethylene plastic are added as exfoliants to health and beauty products, such as cleansers and facewash. We're pleased to support the UK's ban of microbeads in cosmetics and personal care products that came into effect earlier this year and will only ever use natural exfoliators in our skin care collection.

• Reuse. Plastic bags are one of the biggest sources of plastic pollution. Don't have a reusable non-plastic bag to use? Why not try our 100% cotton BY SARAH Tote Bag to carry a few light, every-day essentials. Wear the hashtag with pride: #IAmEverythingISayIAm.

• Recycle. Our amber glass and clear glass jars can be recycled at your local recycling centre or, even better, you could upcycle them in to beautiful vases. You can’t do that with plastic!

• Remove. The final step is to remove plastic from your current skin care and what better way to do that than making the switch to natural and organic skin care with BY SARAH - explore our collection! We don't use plastic containers and with no microbeads in sight, you're on your way to achieving your Earth Day 2018 goals!

Be curious, ask questions and discuss with your friends: what is important to you in the skin care choices you make and the environmental consequences of those choices.

We'll be supporting the movement with the hashtags #EarthDay2018 #EndPlasticPollution #lessplastic #plasticless and encourage you to do the same! 

Learn more about the Earth Day Network here, the Action Toolkit here and the New Plastics Economy Report here.

UPDATE - 3 May 2018: Amy Taylor from SLO active, a social enterprise dedicated to cleaning up our oceans, kindly got in touch to let me know about their guide, Plastic Pollution: Single Use Plastic Impact on our Oceans. It's very comprehensive and carefully details the (often scary) facts and figures of plastic pollution, the impact on our oceans and marine life. I highly recommend that you read more here.

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Written by: Lauren, COO, BY SARAH

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