Between 15 November and 15 December 2018, more than 60 French YouTubers will share positive challenges and everyone in the world is invited to take part
and share actions and results online but also among local communities.
To support the project OUTSIDE THE BOX will be listing the suggested actions week after week, from French to English, to hopefully influence our readers all over the world to start small but eventually be part of a bigger movement.
Click on the picture on the left to see the original videos of each challenge (in French).
Do not hesitate to share your comments about these tasks and tell us how it has been going to move on!
Day 1
Delete all your old emails, useless files, unused apps, softwares or games in to reduce your digital footprint.
The reason behind: digital pollution (e.g. the amount of energz required to manage all the circulating and saved data in the world) is as bad as the pollution for civil aviation: "if internet were a country, it would be the 6th highest consumer of energy in the world".
CleanFox : https://www.cleanfox.io/fr-FR/
UnrollMe : https://gdpr-eu.unroll.me/
Me Desinscrire.fr : https://www.me-desinscrire.fr/
Day 2
Find yourself a reusable metal bottle instead of using and trashing plastic bottles, and extend this to platesm bowls, cuttlery, straws....whatever plastic items for daily use that can be replaced.
The reason behind: each year 348 million tons of plastic are produced, 4 billion plastic cups are produced, with half being used only to drink coffee.
Day 3
Do not use your car, especially for short trips. Instead, walk, bike, use public transports, look at car-sharing platforms, and engage your community and local government to develop cleaner transportation that are available and affordable for all.
The reason behind it: transports are responsible of more than a third of CO2 emissions, and in 3/4 of of the journeys, there is only one person in the car.
Day 4
Sort out clothes you do not wear anymore to give them away so that they get re-used or recycled.
The reason behind it: the textile industry produces more than 1,3 billion tons of greenhouse gases per year and is the 3rd biggest consumer of water yearly.
Day 5
Stop using the standby mode of your various machines (TV, computers, stereo etc...), or connect them to a timer or a multiple-entry cable that you can properly turn on and off.
The reason behind it: the energy still required on standby mode is wasted and can represent up to 1/10 of our requirements in electricity (which directly impacts our bills!). A household in average has 15 to 50 items that remain on standby.
Day 6
Place a "no advertizing" sticker on your mailbox to stop receiving unsollicited flyers and help reduce paper waste.
The reason behind it: in 2015 in France, more than 1,000,000 tons of random mails, catalogues, flyers, magazines etc... were printed and delivered in mailboxes. This represented in average 27 kg/year of printed advertizing per household or 11 kg per inhabitant.
Click here to access the article on OUTISDE THE BOX regarding paper waste in mailboxes.
Day 7
Sort out your waste in various categories that can be recycled (paper and cartons, plastic, glass, metal etc...), and separate harmful items (for example batteries, electronics, light bulbs...). If you can, work on food waste by placing into your neighbourhood's "green bins", or start a compost/earth-worm composting project.
The reason behind it: in France, 38 million tons are collected each year, which represents 573kg per person. Out of this, less than a third only is recycled.