How you can reduce your plastic waste - starting right now

It seems the world is finally waking up to the horror plastic is waging on the environment.

Scroll through social media and you’ll likely see countless figures pledging to use less of it this year.

Ealier this year microbeads were banned and shops such as Iceland, Wagamama and Pret pledged to reduce their plastic usage.

Now the EU has plans to end all non-recyclable plastic by 2030 but change can’t come soon enough.

Research, previously published in the Anthropocene journal, found that “if all the plastic made in the last few decades was cling film, there would be enough to put a layer around the whole Earth.”

Currently we make almost a billion tons of it every three years and the effects of it are horrifying.

Plastic is incredibly hard to decompose - it can actually take as long as 1000 years to degrade. There are over 50 types of it and most is recyclable but many municipal governments simply don’t have the infrastructure to do it and if they do, it takes vast quantities of energy and water. As it stands, only 9 per cent of plastic is successfully re-processed.

The outlook is bleak. Every day the majority of plastic ends up in landfills, waterways and ecosystems damaging not just the environment but the marine life hugely. As much as 100,000 marine creatures a year die from plastic entanglement and these are the ones that are counted. Annually, approximately one million seabirds alone die from the material.

So, what can be done? What can you and I do in our day-to-day life to make a difference to a problem that seems so overwhelming?

Below are five practical things anyone can do, today, to help reduce waste. If everyone addressed their personal plastic footprint - even on a minute scale - it could seriously make a real difference to this epidemic.

No straws

In January the Evening Standard launched The Last Straw initiative, calling on businesses and readers to stop using plastic straws. They are the fifth most common item of rubbish and are used for 20 minutes on average, but take up to 500 years to break down.

Only a tiny fraction of plastic straws habitually given out with soft drinks, cocktails, even cups of coffee, are recycled due their small size with the rest ending up in landfill, or in rivers and ultimately the sea, where they notoriously damage the marine life.

Say no, unless you absolutely need one. The ocean will thank you.

Use a reusable coffee cup

Only 1 in 400 coffee cups are recycled in the UK and many can’t be due to their inner plastic coating (designed to stop the liquid making the cardboard soggy).

How many times a day do you buy a coffee? Two? Three? Even four? Think how much waste that is.

You can change it by simply using a cup that won’t damage the environment. There’s no excuse not to - countless companies will even now reward you if you use a reusable cup.

Starbucks offer customers 25p off their beverage (and sells reusable cups for only £1), Pret will give you 50p off any hot drink, as will Costa.

Get a milkman

Yes, really - like your Granny used to. Perhaps surprisingly, there are plenty of milkmen (and women) still making the early morning rounds. Instead of buying a plastic pint, have a glass, reusable bottle delivered straight to your door. You can find your local milkman service here.

Replace your packaging

Ditch the sandwich bags and cling film and replace it with long-lasting containers. You can take a pack lunch tin to work and store leftovers, grains and ingredients in glass jars and boxes. No waste and no need to throw away your money by constantly having to re-buy disposable plastic.

No more single-use bottles

Plastic bottles are easily one of the biggest environmental offenders on the planet and nine times out of ten, they aren’t necessary.

The world uses on average a million plastic bottles a minute (horrifying, right?) and although the majority are technically ‘recyclable’, most of the don’t get that far. In the UK just over half of the country’s plastic bottles are recycled.

The problem is that plastic doesn’t biodegrade, it photodegrades meaning that it breaks down into smaller, toxic fragments which ultimately pollute the land and ocean. Often, these fragments will be digested by animals which will either contaminate them (which you could then eat) or kill them.

Invest in a bottle that you can take anywhere and if you like fizzy water, invest in a SodaStream - yes, they're back from the '90s. ​You can make as much carbonated water as you like without having to throwaway a single bottle.

Find out more about the Evening Standard's Last Straw campaign here.