This Plastic Free July I’m Focusing On Food Businesses In My Community

I’ve worked really hard on a range of personal and household solutions for plastic free food over the years but I still find it the hardest part of avoiding plastic and waste in my life. Sometimes I just want a break from having to do all the planning ahead and the work of shopping and making things from scratch for a family. Believe me, it gets stressful (although, I do love gardening and growing food) when you feel limited in variety, spontaneity and convenience.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important to slow down and to eat more homecooked meals – there’s lots of good reasons for that unrelated to waste, but it doesn’t change the fact that it is hard to live slow and low waste in a fast-paced, wasteful culture.

So what’s my next step?

I’m going to go back to something I focused on when I first started Gippsland Unwrapped. I want to help local food businesses find the information, tools and confidence they need to not only allow people to use their reusable containers but to encourage it. I want to make it more convenient for the business and the customer to get all kinds of food and drinks in reusable containers.

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The reason I feel ready to focus on this again is because the level of awareness of waste problems and waste solutions is much higher than it was five years ago, there are now other individuals and organisations around me willing to help, there’s more supporting resources available online, and I feel many local businesses are ready to lead the way (some already are, like The Borough Dept. Store in my feature photo).

I’m going to start by contacting relevant local government staff, local business associations, and individual local businesses with information, ideas, and resources, to see where that leads. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

I’m also going to share my tips for Bringing Your Own reusables on social media.

In the meantime, if you’re a food service business and want to make a start on allowing customers to use reusable containers, check out these resources:

• Trashless Takeaway
• BYO Containers
• Plastic Free July, Food service
• Gippsland Unwrapped, What The Law Says About Using Your Reusable Containers and Let’s Collaborate.

Please let me know if you’re a business who has made changes or are going to make changes. I’d also love to know if you’re going to work on this too. Always happy to receive extra ideas too. Thanks 🙂