Increased participation in Plastic Free July
Jurisdiction: International
People are increasingly aware of the problems with plastics and want to ‘do their bit’ but how do we increase engagement in Plastic Free July? Using data and IT-based solutions, how can we increase both geographical update and reach a wider demographic (particularly more men)?
There is increasing awareness around the issues relating to plastics in our oceans and also our air, water, soil and even our bodies. Tackling this issue will require a combination of approaches. Direct participation in reducing our own single-use plastic use not only adds up to make an impact and sends a message to manufacturers that we would prefer to buy less plastic as packaging but also creates a strong level of engagement and makes as a society able to drive change at a policy level in government and industry.
Plastic Free July has been found to be an effective way to engage people by setting themselves a challenge to give us as much or as little single-use plastic as they feel comfortable with for the month of July. Some of the changes that people make to their lives in July can become changes that they adopt for the rest of the year too.
Taking action for Plastic Free July is popular, yet less than 1% sign up through www.plasticfreejuly.org and social media channels.
The questions is: ‘how do we increase direct engagement in Plastic Free July’?
- A general population survey in WA shows 94% of people are concerned about plastic pollution (dataset attached)
- Globally, waste, water pollution and plastics are considered top environmental issues (Ipsos Earth Day results attached)
- Globally, an estimated 120 million people took action for Plastic Free July (Ipsos Global Advisor Results attached)
- In 2017, 100,000 people signed up to PFJ web or social media. So 1% of PFJ participants in Australia sign up, 0.1% in G7 nations and 1 in 100,000 participants in developing nations.
Supplementary issue:
One problem with engagement in environmental-positive behaviours is that they don’t manage to engage with men. Only 10% of PFJ participants are male.
How do we get more men to participate in Plastic Free July?
- PPQ Summary (attached) shows the uptake of plastic avoidance actions
- Media snapshot (attached) shows the public profile of Plastic Free July
There is some data and information provided, but please also use www.Plasticfreejuly.org to access more information and resources.
Attached Data and Files
External Links
Eligibility: Use any open dataset to support your entry.
Entry: Challenge entry is available to all teams in Competition 2021.