How Thirroul co-op could hit zero waste target
Mark Fetterplace of Thirroul's Flame Tree Community Food Co-op shares practical steps to reduce waste
Flame Tree Community Food Co-op in Thirroul is stepping up its efforts to be part of the solution for a world with less waste. Our aim is to produce no waste. This is ambitious and difficult.
However, at the Flame Tree Co-op we are constantly asking: “What can we do to eliminate this waste?” every time the staff or volunteers put anything in the red bin. It’s a question we should all ask at home too, and we are open to suggestions on how to achieve this.
Behind the scenes we are prioritising re-use with our suppliers. The Co-op is able to return some containers to our suppliers for reuse eg egg crates, some drums and all waxed cardboard, and are always looking for more ways to do this. When supplier re-use is not possible, we encourage the community to take and use anything that is useful to them. If you need 20-litre plastic buckets or drums, come and get them!
Almost everything else is recycled, and very little goes to landfill. Food waste is put in the fogo bin. Cardboard is collected by Flagstaff for recycling. Polystyrene is taken to the Whyte’s Gully waste collection centre. We separate all soft plastics at the back of the store and take to Circular Plastics Illawarra/Council soft plastics drop off points when they occur or to Flagstaff.
As a bulk food store, our customers constantly give us feedback that one of the main reasons they shop there is because they can buy almost everything without packaging. There no plastic stickers on the fruit and vegetables, the bread is not in bags, the Kangaroo Valley eggs can be bought by the egg, spices and grains, even dishwashing powder, can be measured out to exactly what is needed into jars or bags which customers either bring from home or there are jars and egg cartons available for re-use in store. And food scraps go to the manager Dean’s very happy chooks.
Just like in our parents’ and grandparents’ day before the introduction of plastics, it is possible to shop without creating waste! Some of our customers tell us that they hardly need to put out their red bins at all.
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