3 easy ways to become more plasticwise

I have a friend, let's call her Amanda, although I should point out this is 100% not me. No, not me at all. But this 'friend' went into Plastic Free July last year, all guns blazing ready to remove all excess packaging and plastic from her life. Turns out, approaching plastic with an all or nothing attitude can be, ah, a little overwhelming; the stuff is everywhere! So I asked Nic Colquhoun of Plasticwise Thirroul for 3 easy ways to reduce plastic consumption, just to, you know, help my ‘friend’ get started.

Nic said, “Reducing plastic use is about making small changes that you and your family can live with and maintain long term. Start small. Pick one thing you can do and add more when you’re ready.”

1. Shopping – prepare to go nude!

Can you believe that even with the change to reusable bags, there’s still a major issue with single-use plastic bags?

"Every supermarket supplies almost a tonne of single-use plastic produce bags per year," Nic said. "Keep a little stuff sack full of reusable produce bags in your bag or car. They can either be the fine plastic mesh ones or avoid plastic all together and buy some thin cotton ones. If you forget them, go nude! Also make sure to choose loose produce over the pre-packed alternatives.”

2. Coffee cups – beg, borrow, steal (not really)

Grabbing a coffee on a walk or during lunch is one of those lovely little luxuries that many of us enjoy. But did you know that, in Australia, we send over one billion single-use coffee cups to landfill every single year! Plasticwise Thirroul points out that these disposable cups are plastic-lined, meaning they can’t be easily recycled.

Plastic Free July has a Bring, Borrow, Stay initiative this year.

• BRING – Keep your own cup in your car or bag so you’re ready when you need your coffee fix;
• BORROW – from a mug exchange (like Green Caffeen) or a mug library;
• STAY – How about putting aside 10 minutes out of your day so you can sit at your favourite cafe and savour your chai? It seems small but not only are you keeping a disposable cup out of landfill but you get that social hit that even the biggest introverts amongst us need.

3. Containers

Nic says, “You can take reusable containers to your local restaurant for takeaway, or to the butcher or deli for meats and deli goods. Most restaurants, butchers and delis are OK with this and can tare the container weight before filling."

Balinese Spice Magic has an option to purchase tiffin boxes which can be swapped each time you get takeaway – no more plastic takeaway rubbish!

"We used to think of the 3R’s of reducing waste – reduce, reuse, recycle," Nic said. "To really tackle the huge plastic problem we need to expand this to rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, refurbish, repair, repurpose, recycle on every item we think of buying.”

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