START YOUR JOURNEY: The "Non-Plastic Maori", Tina Ngata, has been on a journey to cut down on plastic use for the past two and a half years. She says while trying to cut all plastic out of your life is near-impossible, cutting back on "unnecessary" plastic, such as plastic bags and coffee cups (and lids) are a great start. Picture by Liam Clayton
WITH Plastic-Free July kicking off in less than a week, Tina Ngata, who runs the blog “The Non-Plastic Maori”, says a few words about how she went nearly plastic-free, and some easy steps to reduce using “unnecessary” plastic.
Two and a half years ago Ms Ngata made a decision to
start living mostly free from plastic to raise awareness about global plastic pollution. She is realistic though, and says there is plastic in almost everything, including the paint you coat your house with.
“If you say you want to use ‘zero plastic’, you are setting yourself up to fail. But you can begin a journey by avoiding as much unnecessary plastic as possible.”
Damaging effects of plastic in the oceanIn terms of ocean pollution, cigarette butts, plastic bags, plastic bottles and straws are the most common. From her own beach clean-ups, Ms Ngata adds lollipop sticks to the list. She says she is often seen to be somewhat of a killjoy, especially when encouraging people to avoid balloons at parties. She finds people's responses tough at times.
“When you tell them everything about the oil used to make them and the environmental damage in producing them, then the damage to animals including seals, dolphins, turtles and birds that die with stomachs full of plastic, the ocean acidifying and fish dying from ingesting plastic, and then they say ‘Oh, but I like using plastic bags to line my bin or pick up dog poo’, I do not know what to say.”
