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What if there were businesses out there that were putting people and planet before profit: supporting people through the cost-of-living crisis, employing and empowering minority groups, reinvesting in their communities, tackling environmental issues and improving health and wellbeing?

You may not know it but you're probably buying products from them, getting fit and healthy with them, enjoying arts and culture with them and getting support or working with them on causes you care about right now.

There are now more than 100,000 social enterprises in the UK, contributing £60 billion to the economy and employing about two million people.

Four years ago in July, my husband Dominic and I decided to try going plastic free for the month. From getting milk delivered in reusable glass bottles to switching to reusable coffee cups and water bottles, we haven't looked back.

We're lucky enough to live in Margate where we can buy a lot of things plastic free from the International Food Centre and the Grain Grocer, get our veg from Windmill Community Garden and take our reusable pint-sized tankards to the Sundeck. It's fair to say we're still going and I'd encourage everyone to try it - even just for Plastic Free July - to see how you can reduce the amount of single-use plastic in your life.