Remember YoYo, Tamagotchi, Tetris machine, Barbie doll? Or my personal favorite, Beyblade? Why did we even watch that show? I guess they can truly sell anything to kids.
I guess I belong to some of the last generations that don’t have social media as part of their childhood memories. I remember I was the last one in my class to create a Facebook account, and now I’m a social media manager, what an irony right? No, I am not here to talk about how kids are only looking at their screens nowadays and how back in my days… I will leave this for another blog post.
I want to talk about certain something that was constantly present in my childhood and which I would like to keep only as part of my childhood memories. One and only shiny plastic. Do you know why I can still remember all these toys? Because, believe it or not, my Barbie dolls will hunt me for thousand years since it will take approximately that much time for them to decompose. Here is a fun fact: more than 1 billion Barbies have been sold since 1959. Placed head to toe, they would circle the Earth more than SEVEN times. I know that the famous Barbie Girl song will make you believe that life in plastic is fantastic, but maybe we should leave that phrase only for Karaoke bars.
Do you know what is truly fantastic? That one sentence, one single sentence, can inspire a global movement. “I’m going plastic-free next month, who wants to join me?” When Rebecca Prince-Ruiz asked her colleagues this question in 2011, she had no idea that less than a decade later a Plastic Free July would become a global movement that inspired 250 million people in 177 countries to reduce their plastic use. If you ask me she shouldn’t be so surprised, from a communication perspective, Rebecca knew what she was doing.
- Step 1: Set a clear goal: one month without plastic
- Step 2: Make your goal attainable, challenging enough but still possible to achieve
- Step 3: Target your colleague, just kidding have a clear call to action. Who wants to join me? The chances are that once one coworker says he or she will join, the rest will follow. Simply put, the magic of peer pressure.
Now since I gave you tips on how to start a global movement, use it only for good. A wise man, Uncle Ben from Spider-Man once said: with great power comes great responsibility.
And Plastic Free July is all about individual responsibility. It gives you time to reflect on how much single-use plastics you use in your everyday life. At home, work, or your local bar.
EMG group will participate in this challenge once again, and we are inviting you to join us.
If you would like to share your tips on how you tackle single-use plastics, you can do it by participating in AQUA-LIT campaign Helping Nemo.
Some studies say it takes you 21 days to develop a new habit, and we hope that going plastic-free for a month will lead to a plastic-free life. Don’t start tomorrow or on Monday as you do with your sugar-free diet, start now once you finish this blog post. Start both, why not?
I know it is hard. As I said, plastics were there since I put my hands on my first Barbie doll, but it is time to leave plastics in the past. Remember that shiny, plastic things stop many living creatures from creating their memories.
