Plastic Free July is a challenge to refuse one single use plastic item for the month of July. The movement began in Western Australia and has grown to inspiring millions of people across more than 190 countries.
Plastic Free July aims to reduce plastic pollution so we can all enjoy cleaner parks, rivers, oceans and more beautiful communities.
This year we celebrated with soft plastic crafting, tea blending workshops and a keep cup and coffee deal at the Dandenong Market.
We would like to say a big thank you to Federation University for bringing microscopes and plastic samples for curious minds to experiment with at the Springvale Community Hub. There were many opportunities for community members to learn simple swaps, such as choosing to buy dissolvable tablets to refill their multipurpose cleaners or dissolvable dishwasher tablets that don’t use plastic wrapping.
We also visited the Dandenong Market to hand out mesh produce bags and smarties to people shopping with reusables such as mesh produce bags, fabric tote bags and reusable drink bottles. Did you know that a plastic bag takes 20 years to break down in ideal conditions and longer in landfill? Yet, every time you choose to reuse a bag or bring your own drink bottle, you are avoiding plastic entering our landfills, waterways and environment.
Greater Dandenong City Council received a certificate of achievement for reducing our plastic and carbon footprint.
Across five events during the 2024-25 financial year, Council provided 965L of free drinkable water. With the help of those that used the hydration stations and remembered to bring their reusable water bottles to Council events, we have saved the equivalent of 1,912 plastic bottles from landfill or the ocean, and reduced pollution in the manufacturing and transport process.
By saving 1,912 bottles from being manufactured, we have avoided using:
- 239L of oil
- 1,243Kg of Carbon Dioxide
- 2,868L of water
Keep up the great work by remembering to choose re-usable water bottles.