Plastic Free Sault Ste. Marie
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The City of Sault Ste. Marie is encouraging the community to reduce its plastics usage through the launch of its Choose to Refuse: Take the plastic-free Sault Ste. Marie pledge campaign. The City, in partnership with Clean North, has developed a campaign that will both educate and promote a lifestyle that is not reliant on single-use plastics.
Households, businesses, schools, community organizations and workplaces will be challenged to take the pledge. By taking part in this initiative, participants will make a pledge to audit their use of single-use plastics and set attainable goals to reduce and eliminate this waste by moving towards the use of eco-friendly alternatives.
Taking the Pledge
To take the pledge means a person, business, organization or institution resolves to stop buying and/or acquiring three, six, or 10 single - and/or short-term-use plastic items - these items should be ones that represent a major portion of their plastic waste. In other words, those taking the pledge are strongly encouraged to choose challenging targets.
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Step 1: Conduct a single-use plastic audit of your home, business, organization or institution (Clean North/the City will provide an audit checklist) to determine which single-use or short-term-use plastics make up a major portion of your waste stream. Performing a waste audit over time (1-4 weeks) is an optimal way to collect waste data but may not be feasible for everyone.
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Step 2: Choose your pledge level and register with Clean North online; your name, business, organization or institution and pledge level will be posted on a Clean North Plastic-Free Pledge page).
Gold: Pledge to stop buying/acquiring 10 plastics.
Silver: Pledge to stop buying/acquiring six plastics.
Bronze: Pledge to stop buying/acquiring three plastics (ideally those with the greatest impact).
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Step 3: Estimate quantity of each category of single-use plastics used/procured in the previous year (if possible; a shorter period is acceptable). For example: If you estimate that you take in and throw away 4 sets of plastic cutlery due to takeout meals per month, that would be 48 sets per year.
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Step 4: Over the next six months, track whether any single-use plastics you pledged to give up are used in your business/organization/household and if so, how much.
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Step 5: After six months, contact Clean North and report back on the amount of plastic reduction. You will receive a framable award certificate from Clean North and the City, and your achievement will be listed on the Clean North Plastic-Free Sault Hall of Fame page. Clean North will also profile various people, businesses, organizations and institutions that take the pledge and reduce plastic use via the Clean North blog, social media, webinars, etc. Businesses, organizations and institutions are encouraged to ask their staff to consider making individual pledges as well.