Take action
Start with the swap that matters most
For most households, a few everyday items make up much of the single-use plastic: bottles, bags, coffee cups, food wrap and bathroom products. Start there. Everything here is ranked by impact, cost and effort, with the evidence for each number.
Two minutes
Calculate your usage
Tell the calculator how many single-use items you get through in a week. It shows your plastic per year, what it weighs, and the single change that saves the most.
More in Tools: a cost calculator for organisations, a material swap finder and free printables. Changing things with children? See Families.
Everyday swaps
Beyond your home
Help the cause
Give money or time to the research and organisations doing the most good, and get hard-to-recycle items to the right place. Each entry in our directory links straight to the organisation, with its charity number where we could verify it.
Donate
Fund plastics research and established organisations, and learn how to check a charity before you give.
Volunteer
Beach and river clean-ups, and citizen science that feeds real studies.
Drop off
Soft plastics, batteries, containers for refund: where each one goes.
Campaign
Groups pushing for bans, deposit schemes and a strong global treaty.
For families
Make it a 30-day challenge
Habits stick when they are small, visible and shared. Print the 30-day swap tracker, put it on the fridge, and let the kids tick the days. Tracking your swaps makes them easier to see, and easier to keep. The schools section has conversation cards for children who want to convince the grown-ups.
Want company? Every July, people around the world take the Plastic Free July™ challenge. You choose what to cut, such as takeaway cups and bags, and for how long: a day, a week, the month or for good. It is free, and our swap tracker works for it too. It is run by the Plastic Free Foundation, a charity that began in Western Australia in 2011. Sign up on the Plastic Free July website.
Beyond your own bin
Ask where you shop
Businesses change when customers ask. Use our template letters to ask your supermarket, café or school canteen for refill options or less packaging, and attach the evidence.
Ask your representatives
Bans and deposit schemes are proven: England’s bag charge cut bag use by over 80%. See what your country has done and what is proposed, then write to the people who decide.
Community
Share your story
What worked for you, what did not, and what would you tell someone starting out? Stories, experiences, ideas and questions from readers are read by a person before they appear, and they help others find a way in.
For students and scientists
Students
Every statistic on this site is citable: the source, digital object identifier (DOI), year and confidence rating are on each page. Use the evidence search to filter by topic and strength for essays, debates and projects.
Scientists
If we have misread a paper, cited a superseded figure, or missed a study, tell us. Corrections are logged publicly. Everything we publish is also available through a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) application programming interface (API) for your own analyses.