Plastic Free July starts with you!

This July, millions of people around the world will challenge themselves to refuse single-use plastics during Plastic Free July.

This movement began in 2011 in Western Australia, and today people from across 177 countries are participating in the Plastic-Free July Pledge. While single-use plastic is ubiquitous, ranging from shopping bags to plastic wrap, straws to disposable plastic utensils, it’s important not to let that paralyze you into inaction. Just start, and see where the challenge takes you. It may even prove to be fun!

To help with ideas about how to reduce your plastic consumption, take advantage of the Plastic Free July activities happening in Grand Marais. And if you want to learn more about how plastic is affecting our Great Lakes, then be sure to join Cindy Hagley from MN Sea Grant on July 13th at 7:30 p.m. See visitcookcounty.com or look for the Plastic Free July posters around town for more information on Hagley’s presentation and other plastic free events. Everyone is welcome. No registration is required, and activities are free.

To learn about plastic alternatives and to take the pledge to reduce your use of plastic go to www.plasticfreejuly.org. And remember, this isn’t about guilt. It’s about all of us working to be part of the solution to the plastic pollution.