CAN WE BE (SINGLE USE) PLASTIC FREE??
Image by Mandy Barker
When was the last time plastic played a part in your life? When did plastic last touch your lips? A bottle of water? A straw? The top of your coffee cup this morning on the way to work?
It’s everywhere, but until watching Drowning In Plastic on the BBC last week, amazingly, the true catastrophic impact hadn’t hit home. . How can we live in this urban, fast past life without it? It feels totally inescapable.
Now, from this newly informed place - we are forced to look clearly at our impact. How can we, as citizens of Hackney, of London, of the world, make a difference? How can we, as business operators make an impact that may have greater waves?
These questions must be answered by going back to the facts. So, we began to do a plastic audit. Step by step, we begin to dig - firstly at our own habits in house.
Plastic straws (we have stopped using these for almost a year now)
Eco take away cups are not a solution. Drinking coffee in is ideal, but if on the move, reusable coffee cups are the no brainer.
Filtered water in house is better than bottled
Sourcing our supplies locally and working seasonally is the way.
This is not going to be straight forward. In doing this audit, we already have come up with some larger questions about supply chain, and services that we don’t yet have an answer to. Some issues are going to take time, some will be dependent on suppliers or sourcing new ones. Most will be a dialogue to see if a solution can be found. It’s going to be difficult, some points met with resistance, and in some areas no improvements may be available. But we are going to give it a go.
Wish us luck. And please, do share what tips/ ideas you can. We are diving in to this and need all the help we can get :)