One person consumes close to 1,500 bottles of shampoo and conditioner in their lifetime. And more than 7 billion people do this…
While you might think that these plastic bottles are recyclable and throw them in the yellow bin, the idea that all plastic can be recycled is not true.
According to the data, only 9% of all plastic bottles are recycled. However, it takes about 500 years for a shampoo bottle to break down in nature.
The best way to keep non-recyclable plastic bottles out of nature is not to use them at all.
As part of the Plastic-Free July 2024 events, IMU Sustainability Student Club collaborated with Lole’s to encourage people to use more sustainable alternatives to the plastic packaged shampoo and conditioners they use for personal care. To this end, students from the Sustainability Student Club and our Sustainability Office team visited the offices and social spaces at Göztepe North Campus on July 26, 2024 to provide information about the resource use, water consumption and environmental pollution caused by the production and use of plastic packaged products and presented shampoo bars with natural ingredients to our campus community members. Thanks to this collaboration, a total of 25 campus communities stopped using plastic packaged shampoo and received shampoo bars free of charge. In addition to our campus community, in order to raise awareness in the public, 5 more people received natural shampoo bars as a result of the information and giveaway on the social media accounts of the IMU Sustainability Student Club and the Sustainability Office on the same day.
During the event, the academic advisors of the project emphasized to all participants that natural resources are consumed during the production of plastics and the consequences of this situation now and in the future. It was underlined that the vast majority of plastic bottles collected in plastic recycling bins are not recycled, so that the consumption of these products not only consumes resources but also generates a large amount of plastic waste. On the other hand, it was stated that these products may pose a health risk for people due to the harmful microplastics they contain.
Lole’s, which sponsored the event, stated that the use of plastic packaging is the source of many problems, especially environmental pollution. Company official Elizabet Miricanyan underlined that as a company that supports plastic-free living movement, they aim to enable people to lead a more sustainable lifestyle by eliminating single-use plastics and unnecessary chemicals and reducing carbon emissions while producing high quality innovative products containing natural and 100% biodegradable components with environmentally friendly materials.
With this social responsibility project carried out jointly by the IMU Sustainability Club and Lole’s, 3,2 kilograms of plastic waste was prevented from being generated and this waste from remaining in nature for 450 years. By preventing this amount of plastic waste, 8 kg of greenhouse gas was prevented from being released into the atmosphere. Thus, by reducing the amount of plastic waste in our campus areas, in addition to contributing to our University’s zero waste project, it also contributed to reducing people’s environmental footprint.
The “Plastic-Free July” social responsibility project, which has been managed by IMU Sustainability Office since 2022, was carried out by IMU Sustainability Club this year. The academic consultancy of the project was undertaken by Res.Asst. Ayça ÇELİKBİLEK from IMU Sustainability Office team, who is also the academic advisor of IMU Sustainability Club, the club president Res.Asst. Furkan ERUÇAR and Lect. Zehra SAVAN.
Within the scope of the 2024 activities of the “Plastic-Free July” project, IMU Sustainability Club (IMUSUS) invited people to challenge them to remove a single-use plastic product they use in their daily lives every day for a month and step into a plastic-free life. During the challenge, environmental awareness was raised by providing information about the waste generation and environmental pollution caused by these plastic products every day through social media accounts. Following each of these informative social media posts, people were presented with sustainable alternatives with natural ingredients and packaging that do not produce plastic waste, which they could use instead of that plastic-containing product. IMUSUS also collaborated with 18 companies in Turkey and the world that are pioneers in sustainability and have sustainability labels in order to carry this awareness to consumer behavior. Thanks to this cooperation, on certain days of the challenge, with the sponsorship support provided by the companies, sustainable products were presented to both our students and staff and the public in order to create a new behavioral change in their daily lives. Thus, while enabling people to take the first step towards a plastic-free life, it also contributed to reducing the amount of single-use plastic waste and the environmental footprint of our campus community.
“Plastic-Free July” movement has been celebrated around the world since 2011, challenging people to eliminate single-use plastic products from their lives by raising awareness about plastic pollution and the amount of plastic they use.
