Summertime and the living’s easy… Days are hot, skin is tan, the air is salty, and your garden is blooming. You know what doesn’t belong in this picture? Plastic.

Not that any season nor any month should excuse excessive use of single use plastic anyway, but a month like Plastic-Free July might be the perfect time to take in just how grave the matter is. Approximately 12 million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the ocean every year, at a rate of eight million pieces of plastic a day, according to statistics provided by Surfers Against Sewage, a marine conservation and campaign charity. In addition to spoiling the beauty of beach days and directly killing over a million sea animals per year, one in three fish caught for human consumption contains plastic now. We are in a place where plastic permeates our lives and all living beings on the planet. So what do we do with that?

As we know all too well, the burden of the world’s biggest polluters falls on the shoulders of individuals. It can feel like a lost cause to reduce, reuse, recycle when corporations large and small are contributing the most to pollution, not to mention the 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide generated from producing one ton of plastic alone. Do the little choices we make every day even count?

Yes, they do. If an ocean is all the drops of water, our efforts are all the strokes in painting the planet back to being, well, our planet. From individual habits grow larger waves of change. This month, we encourage you to start a new change.

The Plastic Free Foundation has taken on the Plastic Free July initiative since 2011, garnering participation from 190 countries, and successfully changing wasteful habits of millions worldwide. A snapshot of the campaign’s success from 2023, as reported by the Foundation, include 89 million participants reducing their household’s:

• Non-recoverable waste by 900 million kg.
• Recyclable waste by 700 million kg.
• Plastic consumption by 240 million kg.

But how did they do it? Well, step by step.

Inspiring people to care and raising awareness to the issues posed by plastic is a start. The biggest change consumers are making is refusing to  buy single use plastic and opting for longer use or more sustainable items instead. Another impactful change you can make is leaving behind products that sneak in plastic, and supporting the brands who go the extra mile in avoiding it. Thankfully, if you’re reading this email, then you already have.

If you didn’t know already, Vermouth Beauty is plastic-free all month, all year, and ever since we launched. Designed with both our lips and our ecosystems in mind, we borrow ingredients from nature, and make every effort to get you your lipstick as waste-lessly as possible. Our packaging, both directly holding the product and shipping it, are made from recycled materials.

Not only do you look amazing rocking our lipstick, but you’ve bought a product that has

• No harsh chemicals
• No unnatural dyes or scents
• Only the most nourishing, naturally derived blend of waxes and oils
• And not a hint of plastic!

You can get back to your lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer resting assured that Vermouth Beauty didn't have you contributing to the pollution. We want to thank you for being part of our community and in turn being part of a greater initiative for our planet.

Cites

https://www.sas.org.uk/plastic-pollution/plastic-pollution-facts-figures/#:~:text=12%20million%20tonnes%20of%20plastic%20finds%20its%20way%20into%20the,of%20plastic%2C%20weighing%20269%2C000%20tons.

https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/get-involved/what-you-can-do/

Mahnoor Ali is a production assistant at Vermouth Beauty. With a background in creative writing and raging intersectional feminism, she brings her passion for curating aesthetics and consideration for the Anthropocene to the team. Mahnoor enjoys films, poetry, good coffee, and being the cool aunt.