Rubbish Bin-go

We’re facing a global rubbish problem, and the rapid growth of single-use plastics has made this crisis worse. It’s fuelling our throwaway culture, threatening people’s health and making the climate emergency worse.

But we don’t have to ‘conform to the patterns of this world’: we can act now, change our habits and reduce our own waste.

This month, take action for Plastic Free July with our Rubbish Bin-go! With 16 challenges to help you reduce plastic, learn more about our world’s rubbish problem and share with others how we can all be part of the solution. How many can you do in a month?

How it works

Download the Rubbish Bin-go card and see how many you can tick off in July. You might go for four, eight, 12 or all 16 challenges.

You could print out the bingo card and stick it next to your bin as a reminder to slim down your plastic waste. Or you could save it to your phone’s camera roll, and use the pen tool in the edit settings on your device to mark the ones you’ve completed.

Download and print

Download and print off the bingo card below.

Save to your phone

Download a jpeg version of the bingo card to save to your device. Once the download opens, simply tap and hold the image, then tap ‘Save to Photos’. You can edit the photo in your camera roll and tick off your challenges on the go!

If you can, share your actions or completed Bin-go cards with us on social media using the hashtag #RubbishBingo or #TearfundPlasticFreeJuly, and tag @Tearfund on Instagram and Facebook, or @TearfundAct on Twitter. We want to see your selfies with your reusable coffee cup, or vlogs of your bin audit! Get creative and show us how you’re completing each challenge! You can also email us your plastic-free selfies on [email protected].

How many challenges can you do?

The Rubbish Bin-go card contains the following challenges:

• Go plastic-free for a day by using reusable items or avoiding buying or using products wrapped in plastic.
• Ask a company to reduce plastic on a favourite product – send them an email to say why using less plastic matters to you.
• Use your reusable coffee cup instead of buying coffee in a disposable takeaway cup.
• Make one permanent swap to cut out single-use plastic – it could be swapping to shampoo bars, reusable shopping bags or plastic-free detergent.
• Do a waste audit – check your bin and decide what to reduce. You might be surprised by how much you’re throwing away!
• Visit a refill shop – use this map to find your nearest shop, or if there are none in your area you could visit your local market and discover what plastic-free purchases you can make there.
• Prepare plastic-free lunches for a week by using loose vegetables to make a salad or bringing a reusable container to your favourite deli counter.
• Share Tearfund’s Rubbish Campaign on your social media or with friends – remind people to sign the Rubbish petition.
• Tell friends or family about the plastics crisis; how 2 billion people worldwide have no safe way to dispose of their rubbish and how plastic pollution is impacting people in poverty.
• Learn more about waste pickers who are the hidden heroes tackling the world’s rubbish problem. Visit wiego.org/waste-pickers.
• Go on a litter pick in your local area. You could do this with your church small group or others in your local community.
• Use your reusable water bottle instead of buying a drink in a plastic bottle. Make it a permanent switch if you can!
• Pray for those most affected by the waste crisis using our Rubbish Campaign prayer guide.
• Try cleaning without single-use plastics: many brands now come in plastic-free or reusable packaging.
• Host a rubbish event at your church (see tearfund.org/rubbishresources). We have resources to help you run a church talk, children’s talk or group event.
• Buy only plastic-free fruit and veg for a week by choosing loose products in your supermarket or visiting your local greengrocer with some reusable shopping bags.

More plastic-free ideas

If some of those challenges don’t suit you – for example, if you don’t have a refill shop or market in your area, or you cannot go fully plastic-free for a day – you can try these alternatives:

• Switch to plastic-free personal hygiene products (eg bamboo toothbrush)
• Choose a room in your house to to rid of single-use plastics
• Try plastic-free period products
• Avoid single-use plastic bottles for the month
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Cut down on plastic in craft activities

For more tips and inspiration read our blogs on plastic-free swaps and how to reduce your rubbish.

Your actions make a difference

By changing our lifestyles, praying and speaking up, we can love our global neighbours and put pressure on governments to listen to the voices of people suffering right now. So as well as taking action, sign our petition calling for a plastics treaty that ends plastic pollution and its impacts on those living in poverty.