Occy’s Dunsborough has eliminated all their single-use plastics and would like other hospitality venues to know how easy it was to change.
Occy’s venue manager Maz Ellis said they signed up to the Responsible Cafes campaign which encouraged customers to bring their own reusable cups.
The campaign also encouraged hospitality venues to stop using single-use plastics such as bags, straws, takeaway cups and water bottles.
“I feel like venues should be doing that anyway, and they are not, Plastic Free July is the perfect opportunity,” she said.
As part of their effort to reduce plastic waste, Occy’s have not used plastic straws for more than 12 months and do not sell beverages with plastic packaging.
“We phased out our iced tea range and soft drinks and now make our own on site, which keeps it interesting for us, it is all house made and there is no plastic,” she said.
“There are so many single-use takeaway containers being offered by venues down here, we use paper boxes and the same with carry bags.”
Ms Ellis was also successful in getting Occy’s suppliers on board, who were all more than happy to make the transition.
They worked with their fruit and veg supplier to reduce all plastic packaging and have a system setup with their butcher so the meat they buy does not come in plastic.
“We have also negotiated with our coffee supplier, who is a local roaster, not to receive the single-use bags anymore, we are using airtight containers which we rotate with him.”
As society moves away from single-use plastics, Ms Ellis said it was the obvious thing to do with facts indicating there would be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050.
“We have seen all the images of turtles tangled up in plastic, but still there is little being done,” she said.
As part of the campaign businesses could signup online and every Saturday in July, have buckets for customers to pick up litter. Once the buckets were full customers could return and receive a free drink.
City of Busselton waste and fleet services manager Vitor Martins said in the Busselton district there was approximately 1400 tonnes of plastic thrown away each year.
Mr Martins said if other businesses and hospitality venues reduced their single-use plastics we could stop up to 150 tonnes of waste each year in the Busselton region.
Other organisations helping the community reduce waste include Cape to Cape Plastic Free, the Last Straw, Plastic Free July, Boomerang Bags and Take Three for the Sea.
Have your say: How do you reduce your plastic footprint? Email editorial.bdmail@fairfaxmedia.com.au.
