plastic free july Archives - Barefruit Marketing®

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:

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

Our rules:

1. Make sure everyone knows the rules of recycling
2. No single use plastics: NO disposable coffee cups — only keep-cups to be used, reuse coffee carrying trays, take own bowls/crockery to get food from local cafe’s
3. Bring your own lunch/meal- share lunch program — cutting down on takeaway containers
4. In-office swaps including clothes, books, unwanted gifts, etc
5.Sustainable switches: reusable rags instead of paper towels, keep cups, reusable shopping bags, metal straws, reusable cutlery and plates over take-away versions.
6. Compost food scraps
7. Office plants to detox the air
8. Natural, toxin-free cleaning products
9. Open windows and encouraging natural light. This saves energy and is better for overall wellbeing
10. Promote sustainable and healthy food (Food Challenges encouraged)
11. Adopt a ‘Double Sided’ policy when using the printer
12. Car sharing/pooling to meetings
13. Dropbox filing system instead of paper filing
14. Purchase recycled paper

If you offend twice in a week your penalty is to shout the team coffee (keep cups, of course) wearing the orange suit to the coffee shop through the Main Street (River St, Ballina)

The Plastic Free July Foundation's mission

Build a global movement that dramatically reduces plastic use and improves recycling. Their vision is a world without plastic waste. Over 2 million people from 159 countries are choosing to be part of our annual Plastic Free July challenge, reducing their consumption of single-use plastics in July and beyond. This July, they’re calling for all global citizens to collectively address on of the world’s greatest environmental challenges, plastic waste.

Join the global movement by taking up the challenge to #choosetorefuse and go #plasticfreejuly. The Plastic Free July campaign raises awareness of our growing plastic waste problem and supports behaviour change by helping people to avoid single-use (disposable) plastic. But it's not just about changing our own behaviour, we want to scale our impact by sharing solutions and be part of a wider movement for change. Community groups, businesses, schools and other organisations can also participate in Plastic Free July - get started with our handy toolbox of resources.

Tag: plastic free july