Plastic-Free Ecochallenge
The L.A. Zoo joined the annual Plastic-Free Ecochallenge as a contributing sponsor during the month of July 2024. The L.A. Zoo’s Team Angeleno Plastic Eliminators (Team APE) participated for the third consecutive year and won it for the first time — edging out the Maryland Zoo, which had won it for the past two years!
The challenge is organized by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and involves teams competing against each other to earn the most points by completing actions associated with using less plastic in their daily lives. This year’s challenge involved 4,173 participants on 144 teams from 72 organizations in 49 states and 11 countries.
Team APE had 273 members and achieved 129,840 total points with an average points-per-member value of 476 (our highest yet!). Team APE’s theme for this year’s challenge was “Togetherness” and that certainly showed in our collective success. Thanks to everyone who joined in, and congratulations on the win! Now, it’s time to take the actions that fueled our win beyond July to year-round.
Plastic-Free july
Plastic pollution is pervasive in our environment and particularly harmful to aquatic wildlife.
“By taking this opportunity to learn more about plastic and find alternatives to it, we can help improve conditions for wildlife and people,” says Director of Sustainability and Capital Programs Carol Armstrong.
We have 31 days during July to demonstrate our impact and take this year’s title, but we need YOU to sign up, choose some actions you want to take, and check in each day to mark your progress. You can get points for yourself and our team by recruiting others, commenting on the team feed, adding photos, and more. Every little action counts!
The small changes individual team members are making this month are the perfect way to tackle a problem that seems insurmountable. Tracking actions such as going strawless, switching to reusable containers, and swapping out packaged snacks with package-free ones helps teams across the country see firsthand how individual choices can add up to big change.