Athlone man's start up aims to challenge households to reduce plastic packaging
A recent study by Newcastle University in New South Wales Australia has found that we are each ingesting up to 2,000 microplastic particles each week, or five grammes, which is equivalent to eating your credit card weekly.
The impacts of single-use plastic pollution have now moved far beyond those distressing images we have all become accustomed to; sea mammals or birds dying or dead, having become entangled-in or accidentally ingesting items of discarded single-use plastic packaging; or tropical beaches strewn with plastic packaging waste.
Microplastic particles are now entering the human food chain at an alarming rate with scientist increasingly concerned about the long-term impacts for human health.
Over 4,000 different chemicals are used in plastic packaging production, with 35 of these chemicals regarded as EDCs (Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals), such as Bisphenol A (BPA) and Phthalates. EDCs can disrupt many different hormones and have been linked to fertility issues and certain types of cancers, including breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men.
Separately, the trillions upon trillions of microplastic particles building-up in our oceans over the past three or four decades are absorbing increasing amounts of sunlight, heating-up the surface layers of our oceans, which is significantly altering the scale and patterns of precipitation, resulting in increasingly ferocious weather events; tropical storms, cyclones and tornadoes, wreaking havoc on coastal communities in some of the world’s poorest regions.
Irish start-up CUSP (Cease Using Single-Use Plastic) has developed a novel approach to tackling household single-use plastic packaging waste. "We want consumers to approach single-use plastic packaging waste in the same way a person would approach going on a diet," according to CUSP founder Athlone native Simon Ruddy.
With 171kgs as its starting point, which is the current annual average of single use plastic packaging per household in Ireland, CUSP is asking Irish households to target just a monthly reduction of just one kilogramme.
“To put this in perspective," Simon continued, "171kgs of single-use plastic packaging is equivalent to approximately 3,000 empty two-litre single-use plastic drinks bottles. 1 kilogramme is equivalent to just 18 of those same bottles. "
“It’s not unreasonable therefore I believe for households to consider reducing by just 1kg monthly.”
Participants simply download the free CUSP app to identify their initial 1kg reduction; then, repeat that same 1kg reduction each month for 12 months (12kgs annually); year two, identify a further 1kg reduction and repeat again for 12 months, and so on, each year through 2030.
Weights for 22 of the more common items of single-use plastic packaging found in Irish homes are preloaded to the app.
Participants simply tap-in their estimated number-of-units day 1; then, after 30 days and following CUSP ‘hints & tips’ for reducing, participants tap-in their new reduced volume to see if they’ve hit that important 1kg reduction target.
All calculations and conversions-to-kilograms happen automatically.
“While developing the app in 2019 I tested it in my own home. We found our initial 1kg reduction by simply eliminating plastic egg cartons and plastic orange juice bottles and repeated those reductions for the remainder of the year until the habit was broken! Those items are now gone from our home and we’re now targeting plastic butter/spread tubs and plastic ready-to-eat salad containers,” added Simon.