Plastic Free Noosa: Reducing Single-Use Plastic
Becoming a plastic free community is a key goal for Noosa so the Plastic Free Noosa program is working with the community and local businesses to reduce its reliance on single-use plastic.
In 2017 Noosa was chosen as Queensland’s first pilot community for the Boomerang Alliance’s ‘Communities Taking Control’ campaign to show how a community could reduce its plastic footprint by inspiring, assisting and empowering the community and local businesses to reduce their use of disposable, single-use plastics, replacing with better environmental alternatives.
Noosa has been the most successful plastic-reduction implementation program in the country. More than 220 businesses and event organisers have eliminated more than 4.5 million single-use plastic items since the commencement of the program! That number looks set to rise with Noosa Council and Tourism Noosa signing a partnership with Plastic Free Noosa to ensure the region will continue to lead the way. The program has been empowering other communities and has now been successfully replicated through the Plastic Free Places program in other tourism towns in Australia.
Program Manager for Plastic Free Noosa Anita Butler explained that leadership from businesses would ultimately set the benchmark for locals and visitors to continue to lead the way as a sustainable destination into the future. Anita went on to say, “Change really begins with the local community and businesses, so we are focusing our efforts to provide hands-on assistance to local businesses who often aren’t quite sure how to implement changes or find the right products or suppliers to work with.
“We identify what plastic they are using, set them some achievable actions, help source and implement cost-effective solutions and reward them as they achieve goals with easily identifiable Plastic Free Noosa champion signage for their business.”
“Statistics from the Sustainable Travel Report 2019 from Booking.com have highlighted that 71% of global travellers state that sustainable choices impact their decision-making during the booking process, yet 46% admit they find it harder and often have less care factor to make any sustainable choices while actually on their holiday,” she said. “We are aiming to close this gap and make Noosa the easy choice for travellers wanting a sustainable guilt-free holiday by not giving them any single-use plastic options once they arrive.”
To engage and promote action within the community to eliminate single-use plastic, Plastic Free Noosa is working in collaboration with ‘Pottery For The Planet’
to run a Plastic Free campaign in July. Anita said that locally-based Pottery for the Planet created beautiful quality products making it easy for everyone to step away from the single-use culture.
“Check out their showroom, you won’t be able to walk away with just one item,” she said.
“This is a collaborative community effort for us to change the status quo and we need everyone to take action and support this initiative.
“Help us spread the word and champion single-use is ‘so yesterday’ and you could win yourself one of four Planet Cup and Planet Bowl Combo packs valued at $98.”
JOIN PLASTIC FREE NOOSA
Contact: Anita Butler
Email: anita@plasticfreenoosa.org
Phone: 0407 877 462
