Newsmakers: Hennepin County Starts ‘Plastic-Free Challenge’
During the month of February, Hennepin County will host the “Plastic-Free Challenge” to encourage people and businesses to develop low-waste habits.
“Start Small. Do what’s manageable in your life for your family and just start there. Try that and see how far you can get,” said Carolyn Collopy, with Hennepin County. “If you get one action done, pick another one.:
This is the second year that Hennepin County will host the challenge, and they have around 900 people signed up so far. More than 20 partners are also helping to promote the event. When you sign up, you can sign up as an individual on the County’s team or you can sign up with friends, family, coworkers or on a team that you’ve created.
“As you go through the challenge, all the impacts tied to the actions you take are being calculated,” explained Collopy. “You can see what your personal impact is and you can also see what the impact of the entire challenge is. It’s kind of fun to see the little things you can do in your life that can add up to a big impact.”
Carolyn Callopy works in the Dept. of Environment and Energy in Hennepin County.
The Hennepin County website has a plethora of information connected to the 100 different action items you can take.
“There are about 100 different actions in the challenge you can take, but we don’t want you to take them all at once because we know they won’t be sustained,” explained Collopy.
One example of a specific action that you can take is trying to eliminate plastic waste associated with food in the kitchen that you purchase at the grocery store.
“No one intends on buying waste, but we end up buying a lot of waste. About a quarter of plastics are packaging and a lot of that we find in the grocery store,” explained Collopy. “So we have tips on how you can shop in bulk or make different choices to avoid that packaging.”
You can learn more about the plastic-free challenge here.
See also: Challenge Accepted: Maple Grove Lions Surge Ahead of 500 lb. Plastic Recycling Goal
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