Plastic Swear Jar Challenge

I started my touch-and-go attempts at a plastic-free lifestyle a couple of years ago when I spent the summer in the ocean with a women's surf therapy group started by a woman-founded nonprofit, Groundswell Community Project. 

In the years since my summer getting stoked and woke, the push for plastic alternatives, bans on different types of single-use plastic and public awareness of the harm that single-use plastic is wreaking on our oceans has become (blissfully) omnipresent in businesses, advertising, community initiatives, Hollywood, influencer communities, government, and the surf and yoga communities. It's created incredible momentum...

...but we still have a long way to go.

Which is why I wanted you to join me and share this cool Earth Day challenge that Changing Tides Foundation (another incredible women-founded nonprofit) has created: The Plastic Swear Jar Challenge.

You've probably heard of the concept of a "swear jar": if you use a swear word, you have to put a dollar in a jar. Parents use it a lot with their kids, there was a spinoff of the concept on New Girl and now Changing Tides Foundation is putting their own amazing twist on it: starting tomorrow, April 22nd, for every piece of single-use plastic you use next week, put a dollar in the jar.

Not only will this bring awareness to just how much single-use plastic you use, but at the end of the 7-day challenge you can donate the funds to CTF or use it to purchase one of their awesome plastic-free bundles full of sustainable products for your new reduced-plastic or plastic-free lifestyle!

Even more awesome? There's some great eco-friendly giveaways for everyone who participates. Share your Plastic Swear Jar photos and videos promising "I Swear" and tag @CHANGINGTIDESFOUNDATION & #PLASTICSWEARJAR & #ISWEARTOBEAWARE for your chance to be featured and win a GoPro Hero 6 and other cool prizes! 

So if you're feeling a little crafty like I was this morning, head outside and get creative with your own Plastic Swear Jar! Here's how I created mine...

Plastic Swear Jar DIY

1. Find a container to function as your jar. It can be a mason jar, a just-finished oatmeal canister, or some other repurposed container. I used a pasta sauce jar from Trader's Joes that I washed out. If you're reusing a glass jar like I was, you may want to use Goo Gone to get rid of the gunk from the label and scratch off the the expiration dates. 
2. Prep your space. I decided to spend some time outside while I made mine. I laid down a cut-up Trader Joe's bag as my surface, grabbed my paints, brushes, mod podge, scissors and some catalogs and magazines. 
3. Design your jar! I got inspired to make an ocean-themed collage on the back side of my jar, with the images facing in and the front of the jar clear so I could see how much money was in there. I searched some magazines and catalogs for images, cut them out and painted the fronts of them with mod podge, then stuck them to the back of the jar. If you do this, let the jar sit for 2 hours then seal it once more with the mod podge.  Then I painted my "Plastic Swear Jar" name on the front and painted the lid blue... voila!

I hope you'll join in on the Plastic Swear Jar challenge! Share your jars with me and Happy Earth Day everyone!