In July I took part in The Everyday Plastic Project Survey: Lockdown Edition, which involved 178 households collecting all household plastic waste for a week, and then categorising it and submitting the data. The results from the whole lockdown survey, showing a typical household’s plastic waste footprint, are below.
About Everyday Plastic Project
Dan, the founder of Everyday Plastic Project, came to national attention by collecting his personal plastic for a year and creating a mural in Margate (blog feature image). It’s an example of a phenomenally successful campaign, which has attracted national media and government attention – The Times, Sky News, The Telegraph, i news, Independent, Daily Mail, The Ecologist and Circular. He intends to take the mural on tour to UK festivals in the future.
And what about my plastic footprint?
Well, here it is (image above and graphic left). One weeks worth of plastic waste for a family of four – 139 pieces, mostly from food and drink, and of which 60% is non-recyclable! And worse, my results are above the survey average of 119 pieces per week! I can partly explain this by a glut of buying essential items for camping that week, but there is work to do and as a family we have committed to massively reducing single-use plastic in our home over the coming months.
It has been really valuable exercise to do as a family and for the children – it has made our waste really present and real and motivated us to take action to do better. If you fancy having a go or learning more, check out and the resources section of the Everyday Plastic Project for loads of great ideas an delinks to videos and solutions here.
