PLASTIC FREE YOUR BUSINESS
I looked at a local cafe to give thumbs up or down to their sustainable efforts! Hope you can apply some of this to your business or to your interaction with businesses.
Going Plastic Free as an individual is tough. Trying to de-waste an entire restaurant with heaps of needy humans coming & going all day would be a nightmare! Hats off to the business owners experimenting and getting creative to reduce their impact. Like this awesome water refill station!
Many cafes have disposable plastic cups, but here there are reusable cups with the water runoff ending up in a pot plant! 🌿
Creating sustainable systems is not always obvious or easy and it won’t happen over night. I so encourage sharing things that work for your business with other like businesses. This is for the future, for the planet, the air, the water, the good stuff, the IMPORTANT stuff.
Share your “secrets!” Living in the land of scarcity is gross and leads to nothing positive. Abundance never comes from scarcity. In fact from the opposite! Abundance flows where generosity flows! Don’t fear sharing information, instead fear keeping it to yourself. Imagine if all the wisdom you love was kept inside?? Give away all you learn ! Be generous! Let’s share these hacks and ideas to help each other be earthier humans! 🌿💪🏽✨
I did a casual plastic audit for the lovelies at the Byron General Store because they genuinely want to reduce their impact. They know it’s super important; it’s also a huge challenge to pile on top of the rest of cafe-owning stresses.
Here is some sustainable practices to participate in on your next visit to the @byron_general_store :
- You can bring your own cup to get 50cents off your coffee! They also have a box of ceramic cups to use, so avoid creating takeaway waste & ask to use one of their mugs! If you get your coffee takeaway it’s served topless without a plastic lid. Hope that humans step up & start bringing their own mug so we can phase OUT the takeaway phenomena that is currently the norm!
- Açai & smoothie bowls come in a reusable coconut shell! Instead of the often used plastic bowl or plastic lined cardboard bowl, these guys urge customers to have it here in a bowl.
- There is wooden AND metal cutlery available for your eating delights! No forks shall break cutting your morning toast at this establishment. Wooden is best if you have to go disposable, but hello!! Wood is trees!! Trees are for hugging, so if you’re eating out, avoid killing trees & use metal.
- There are paper or “biodegradable” straws available. Props to the owners for going to effort to make TWO options available for their customers, they must really love you! Try to ask for your drinks without a straw to save the staff & the Earth the drama!
- They have large sauce bottles instead of individual sauce packets for pies and burgers. HOW GOOD! It is so frustrating to order some delicious food only to have to refuse a yummy sauce because it's single-use plastic packaged. These sauce containers are refillable and you can indulge in as much as you want.
- You can purchase loaves of bread here! Not packed in plastic, but fresh in their crusty skin! There are paper bags available to take it home.
- You get 10% off if you WALK or RIDE anything without a motor! Awesome.
- They have THREE bins! They separate out recyclables, landfill, and GREEN WASTE! That’s food scraps and means that anything compostable will make it to the green compost bin at the recycling centre. Help separate out your cardboard, glass, tin cans into recycling bin. Food scraps & soiled paper go into the green bin. Bio straws and biodegradable plastics unfortunately go into landfill here in Byron.
When purchasing alternatives, try to avoid the word “biodegradable” and always opt for the word “compostable”. It could take 100 years to eventually biodegrade, so it is not invited to the local compost system. It is instead sent to landfill, where it will slowly break down over a century and emit greenhouse gases whilst it does so! Dang.
Customer participation is KEY. I know we get a lot of out of towners here in Byron, but they will just go with OUR flow. If we locals set the tone of always bringing our own cup & then rinsing it at the water station. Or only having things HERE in the coconut bowls with metal cutlery, others will follow suit. If no one uses the straws, the cafe will respond to “demand” and lower their supply of bio-straws! Or takeaway cups! Or takeaway boxes.
WE have the power as the customer. So change your vibe from feeling like a pain in the ass and rise to the empowered state of caring for the planet. It’s up to us. Don’t be lazy. Be responsible for your impact. Once you have zero waste happenign in your personal life, thne you can point the finger at businesses, companies, politicians and ask Excuse me, can you please do better? Walk the walk, and talk the talk.
It’s not ‘hard.’ It’s a change in attitude, perspective, and your view on convenience or sacrifice.
Support sustainable business, support business' sustainable efforts, lead with personal sustainability!