Plastic Free July

Posted on by fruityadmin

In the Barefruit Office, we pride ourselves on being as plastic-free and minimal waste as possible. Since 2018 we have been participating in Plastic Free July, Clean up Australia day, and the local ‘Reduce Single Use’ initiative.

Recent health restrictions due to COVID has meant some of our good habits have slipped (e.g. the return of single-use coffee cups!), but this July we are ready to reset and form those good habits again. We might not be perfect, but if we all make small changes, we can make a big difference.

 “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly." - Anne Marie Bonneau

 Here are our top 5 tips for starting out the plastic-free journey in your office:
  1. Ditch takeaway coffee cups:

This is one of the easiest changes to make, and if you’re not already doing this – start NOW! To get everyone on board, we implemented a rule – if you get caught with a single-use coffee cup in the office, you have to do 10 burpees.

Go and buy yourself a keep cup to keep in the office. Forgot your keep cup? No worries…just use a mug from the kitchen, or ask your barista to make your coffee in one of their mugs and return it….most cafes will be more than willing to do this if you are a regular.

 

  1. BYO lunch

Bringing your own lunch is a great way to cut down on food packaging. Just remember to use reusable containers, and ditch the plastic wrap. We have invested in silicone food wraps which are reusable. We got ours from local company Seed & Sprout.

 

  1. BYO crockery

If you do buy lunch from a café, take a bowl or plate with you so that you don’t have to get it in a plastic container. Our local cafes are now on board with this!

 

  1. Upgrade your coffee pods

We now only use biodegradable coffee pods in the office kitchen, from Urban Brew.

These go into the general waste, but instead of taking 500 years to break down like some coffee pods, these take only 2 years.

 

  1. Say no to plastic bags

We have a supply of reusable shopping bags in our kitchen so we never get caught out when doing a lunch shop. We also ditched the bin liners from our desk bins (which saves money too!), and we use plant-based bin liners in our kitchen bin.

 

Follow us on Instagram for more tips throughout the month!

Are you ready? Join the Plastic Free July challenge now!