This week, Goodgymmers joined people from across the country to help Greenpeace with The Big Plastic Count 2022 . The task was simple: count all the plastic you throw away in a week (dividing into categories) so they can use this as evidence to pressure government and industry into creating reusable alternatives.

It is quite confronting to see when tallied up. I do try to use refills and choose things with less packaging where I can, but I soon realised that my penchant for snacking is my downfall... bad for the planet as well as my waistline.

Naomi felt similar:

It's been an interesting task ... we recycle everything we can, but seeing it laid out over such a short period is heart-breaking. I changed from vegetarian to vegan last year to try and do more for the planet, but even that diet comes with a lot of plastic (tofu packaging, salad bags, nut packets etc) and buying second hand clothes from eBay that arrive in plastic envelopes!

Tracey got all arty with her colouring pencils to colour code her tally chart each day. She also found that she could return plant pots to a local garden centre for reuse.

I hope it's been an interesting exercise and encourages people to look how they personally can reduce their plastic waste as well as encouraging global governmental change. Don't worry if you haven't managed to log your results yet, or you forgot to log every day! You have until the end of the month to log your count, so you could do this week instead and you can still submit your data if you didn't do the full week