Ditch the Plastics, Save the Planet: Join Reid Park Zoo in the Plastic Free Ecochallenge
Plastic pollution is trashing the planet, but you can be part of the solution this July.
Reid Park Zoo is encouraging the community to join them in the Plastic Fee Ecochallenge: a month-long world-wide conservation initiative. The friendly competition encourages participants to build new habits to refuse and avoid single-use plastic, thereby reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in landfills.
Single-use plastics are products such as plastic bags, food containers and water bottles designed with the intention of only being used once, then thrown away.
“A plastic straw from a drive-thru will take 200 years to degrade, breaking up into tiny microscopic pieces. The plastics we use today will outlive us and affect future generations,” said Jennifer Stoddard, Director of Education and Conservation at Reid Park Zoo.
Reid Park Zoo is asking the public to join its team by signing up for the competition and making small changes in their daily lives. Participants choose which “actions” they want to take (ranging from refusing straws at restaurants to planting an at home vegetable garden) and gain points when they follow through.
As an incentive, Reid Park Zoo is offering the member of the public who joins their team and scores the highest on the team’s leaderboard during the challenge a behind-the-scenes tour.
“These changes produce a butterfly effect of sorts — when one individual starts reducing their plastic use, others in their life start to notice how much plastic they are consuming. The small changes one person makes ripple into larger impacts,” said Nancy Kluge, Reid Park Zoo’s President & CEO. “We hope our community joins the Zoo in this effort to treat the Earth kindly.”
This is the fifth year Reid Park Zoo has participated in the Plastic Fee Ecochallenge against other zoos and aquariums across the country. By joining the fun and ditching single-use plastics for the month, you could help the Zoo take home top honors and, most importantly, be a champion for the world and its animals.
For more information and to sign up, visit the Plasic Free Ecochallenge website.