Plastic Free July - What's Your Easy Swap Out?

Plastic Free July seems to come around faster than once a year, but we can assure you that it has been a year since we last saw it!  Another thing that we are certain on, is that while we still have a long way to go in our bid to be completely plastic free in this world, EVERY little bit that you can do along the way will add up to a big change!

Have a look around….no matter where you are when you’re reading this, there will be changes around you that can be made, and most likely they will be simple to achieve. We’ve done this in our beautiful shop here in Taupo….small conversations, and a little self-awareness, started the wheels turning and now we embrace Plastic Free July without even really realising that we are doing it.

Take the daily rubbish in our shop for example…and let me tell you – we have LOADS of it. Along with the day-to-day rubbish that every workplace has, we also have piles of packaging to sort through that comes from our suppliers. Whilst we actively encourage these companies to use recyclable packaging, there is inevitably paper and plastics that protect their goods…so we have taken it upon ourselves to sort and recycle it ourselves. Under our counter (which is made from recycled cardboard tubes) we have our very own Waste Management Station….in other words, we have 3 boxes so that we can separate all the waste that comes to us. We have a box for general rubbish, a box for paper and cardboard that can be reused in store or put out in our weekly recycling, and a box for soft plastics that are then taken to our local Countdown supermarket for recycling (and made into fence posts!).

A recent audit that was undertaken by Taupo District Council, as part of their Resource Wise Business Programme, shows that we now divert 98% of our waste from going to the landfill….and the best part is that we hardly even realise we are doing it!!

All our staff are committed to actively making changes in the way they live, implementing small steps that are easy to achieve. We reckon that with some simple swap outs you too can make easy changes every day.

Have a look at these 10 ideas that will make an impact before lunchtime!

Get yourself a bamboo toothbrush, use a Caliwoods razor, slap on your Raw Nature deodorant and lip balm and walk the dog taking with you a packet of recyclable doggy-do bags. Put your hot drink into a Joco or Frank Green coffee cup, pop your lunch into one of our amazing new paper reusable bags, or wrap it in Honeywraps, put a load of washing on with a Cora Ball in it to reduce the amount of micofibres entering our waterways, and head to work knowing that you’ve achieved SO much already! 

And, like us at Spacecraft, make active decisions to support business and manufacturers that follow plastic reducing practices. With such small changes, we can all make the world a better, cleaner, and healthier place for the next generation.

By Sarah Hetherington