Sodastream contacted me to do do a ‘Plastic Detox Challenge’ – which is, basically what it says, a challenge (to yourself) about recognising and noticing how much plastic you use throughout the day, and then afterwards, of course, cut the usage of plastic significantly in order to help save the environment, not only right at this moment, but more importantly, in the years to come.

Did you know this?

• Australians spend more than half a billion dollars a year on bottled water. Australia produced 582.9 million litres of bottled water in 2009-10
• Australia recycles only 36% of PET plastic drink bottles. Assuming the 582.9 million litres of bottled water produced in 2009-10 is in litre bottles, according to these figures, 373 million of those bottles will end up as waste.

Are you mind-blown yet? I am. And I often don’t give it a thought when I grab all my take-away coffees especially! I definitely need to get myself a ‘keep-cup’ for all my coffee-consumption (or better yet; stop drinking coffee!)

So, challenge accepted; just how much plastic do I use in a day? Here’s how much:

• 3 take-away cups of coffee
• 2 bottles of waters
• 2 coconut waters
• Take-away lunch salad in plastic container + plastic cutlery
• 3 x 1,25 litre sparkling water

The horrible thing is that when you’re grabbing a coffee or a take-away lunch, you don’t realise how much it all adds up to at the end of the day. At least that’s how I feel. What do you think?

My main area I need to improve at is take-away coffee and sparkling waters – I pick up 2-3 bottles of sparkling water at the end of each day on my way home from work, because I think still water is ‘boring’ and plain. But that adds up to 3 bottled sparkling waters x 356 days = 1095 bottles of water A YEAR! Wowzerz!

Sodastream so kindly sent me the new SodaStream Sparkling Water Maker that I can use conveniently at home. I save both plastic & time (from going to the supermarket), not to mention the dragging and bad back I get form carrying so many heavy items up to my 2nd floor apartment. WIN/WIN!

On my 2nd day I tried to cut down on my plastic consumption, both by being aware but also by using my SodaStream:

• 3 takeaway coffees BUT in my keep-cup.
• Bring my salad in to work in a Tupperware KEEP plastic container
• 2 bottles of water (because I forgot my drink bottle – silly)
• Using my SodaStream for dinner and serving delicious sparkling water for my friends at the dinner table
• = bought plastic on the day: 2 bottles of water

Hey, I say that’s an great improvement, and I can even cut down the waters as well if my brain will let me remember my drink-bottle moving forward! Here’s what I learnt on reducing your wastage.

My best advice and tips to reduce your plastic consumption:

• Avoid bottled water – bring your own reusable bottle – you can even use the Sodastream bottle to bring with you.
• Install a tap filter at home if you are concerned about the taste or quality of your local tap water or keep large water-cans with built-in filters in the fridge.
• Remember to dispose any plastic you do have in the right recycle-bin (YELLOW for president!)
• When shopping at the supermarket, bring your reusable shopping bags.
• Bring your own tupperware container to work, and if you have to get take-away lunch, bring that one and ask them kindly to fill that up instead of using one of their disposables.
• Get a Sodastream at home like me if you are buying a lot of sparkling water.
• Bring your own keep-cup when purchasing take-away coffees.
• Encourage your friends and family to take up the challenge too, and together help make this world a better place to live for our future generation.

Will you try to take up the Plastic Detox Challenge to help do your bit for the environment?

Check out SodaStream’s ‘SHAME OR GLORY’ Video below – it’s pretty hilarious, but sends a great message to keep in mind when you reach for that bottle of water..

And visit their site here.