The Raw Kitchen is one of many local businesses taking part in this month’s Plastic Free July, an awareness campaign created by Fremantle’s Rebecca Prince-Ruiz that encourages individuals, businesses and communities to reduce the plastic they use.
Raw Kitchen co-owner Heath Daly said they had been working hard to reduce single-use plastic packaging since the business opened eight years ago.
“We chose to use compostable packaging right from the start of our business. It was a personal choice as we have always had an eco-conscious persuasion,” he said.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOW“Having said that, it was the Plastic Free July movement that educated us on just how big the single-use plastic problem is and it was then that we changed our retail shop policy to only stocking items that come free of plastic packaging, as well as stocking all of the plastic-free living items we could find.
“We save 20,000 straws a year by refusing to offer them with our drinks, and of course takeaway containers and plastic packing of the food produce builds up to quite a lot over the course of a year if the proprietor is not conscious of the accumulative waste.
“We are a health-based business, so it would be a little hypocritical for us not to care, really.
“Once you become aware of the magnitude of the plastic problem, it becomes therapeutic to do your part.”
Ms Prince-Ruiz said Plastic Free July began in 2011 with just 40 participants and had now been adopted by more than a million people around the world.
“After a visit to a recycling facility where I saw firsthand the sheer volume of one suburb’s recycling being sorted, I knew something needed to change and it was after that visit that I made a pledge to avoid the purchase of any new single-use plastic for the next month, which happened to be July,” she said.
“Our use of plastic is growing rapidly and almost every piece of plastic that was ever made is still in existence.
“Recycling is important, but it’s never going to be enough – we need to reduce, reuse, refuse, rethink and repair.
“Plastic Free July has given householders the support they need to reduce their plastic use and in 2016 alone there was a reduction of 17 million kilograms of plastic waste avoided through the challenge.
“I certainly never expected it would get to this scale; my aim was to change what went into my own bin.”
Visit www.plasticfreejuly.org for more information.
MORE: Perth Mint’s $1.8m Australian Trilogy coin collection bought by Singapore-based company
MORE: Inglewood community group puts forward petition to slow traffic on Beaufort St
MORE: Ageing Disgracefully: entertainer Max Kay talks ageing