#WorldRefillDay with above & beyond

#WorldRefillDay with above & beyond

A little peep

Lil Peep told us ‘everything changes with time, you can’t predict where you’re gonna be next year.’ He’s not wrong, but I don't think he was talking about refills when he made this statement. In the past year, thanks to countless earthlings across our solar system, our political masters are (finally) acknowledging an alternative to plastic pollution through reusables, refillables and more responsibility. Refill and reuse models in particular are winning over their critics and adoption by startups and businesses across the globe is on the rise. But it’s days like today, when people are watching more pointedly, that we need to realise the need for a little speed.


Things are moving, but we need to go faster 

The perfect gear change analogy no longer exists thanks to our obsession with automatic vehicles. Just know that we’re stuck and need to break through the next ceiling. As we shared on our Instagram today, more than 300M tonnes of plastic are being created (still), with half of that ugly number still single-use waste. Not bad enough? We humans create packaging of which only 2% is reusable and less than 10% of the plastic we use has ever been recycled. Just think, of the next 10 bottles you see, 9 of them will end up in landfill. That still makes me vom.


Whilst the numbers and statistics are important, they rob our movement of the visceral suffering it inflicts. This is a real problem and although we don’t suffer as much in the West, the (single-use plastic) winter it’s coming. 

Photo by Meritt Thomas on Unsplash

 

I get the ‘re’ stuff, but why refill? 

It’s World Refill Day after all, so let’s talk about that. Put simply, plastic is the issue and recycling isn’t cutting it. We still create and buy too much plastic that never experiences reincarnation. It’s polluting the planet, accelerating our demise and (if that’s not bad enough), it’s making its way into our bodies and the air we breathe. The single-use plastic abuse is at fever pitch and it’s everywhere. Global plastic production is set to double (yes, double!), over the next 20 years and more than triple before 2050. ‘Giant energy corporations are reducing the amount of oil they burn… increasing the amount of oil they turn into plastic to keep their revenues flowing.’ (Refill.org)


We need to keep those fossil fuels in the ground. We need to tap into the circularity of products that reuse and refill to tackle single-use waste head on. The more we do this, the less need there is to produce more of it. 


Ok, so we at a&b are tiny and our impact is relative. But, with collective action from other small to medium sized brands we can raise our game and bring attention to the solution through days like today eventually bringing much larger companies onboard and making #WorldRefillDay less of a day and more of a daily occurrence. It’s like a really high stakes game of dominos. 


Act now

Supporting and elevating this movement helps us pack a bigger punch to show the world refilling and reusing is a simple and viable option. If this sounds like something you believe in, get involved using #WorldRefillDay and show the woken world how you’re making moves to end single-use waste in your own life. For all your lip balm needs, head to aandb.world


Sources

Refill Org

https://www.refill.org.uk/world-refill-day/ 

Greenpeace 

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/story/51843/plastics-reuse-and-refill-laws/ 



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