What do you love about Australia? Is it the pristine white beaches, the call of the wildlife at dusk or dawn, the majestic bush or rainforests, the fresh air, or the picture-perfect blue waters? Well, whatever it is that you love, it needs your help to keep it that way!
It’s Keep Australia Beautiful Week, and this year the call is for all Australians to make a pledge to ditch a plastic, whether it’s a coffee cup, disposable masks, plastic cutlery, or drink bottles. Choose one and commit to ditching it for a week —hopefully, you can commit to ditching it forever, but we can start small!
Other plastics to consider ditching this week include cotton buds, packaged fruit and vegetables, takeaway packaging, and of course plastic bags.
Here are our fave eco-friendly products that may help you to decrease your plastics consumption:
Mesh Produce Bags: Not only will you be looking stylish, but you’ll be doing the world a whole lot of good! Say no to flimsy single use plastic bags in the fresh produce section of your supermarket or local grocer! Mesh bags won’t tear on you, they keep your produce fresher for longer, and you can pop them in the wash when needed. Seed & Sprout have a range of bags, many made from recycled materials like cotton or plastic bottles.
Reusable Coffee Cup: Placing the emphasis on CUP, because you only need one, so commit to buying a quality keep cup that will actually keep your hot beverage warm and won't end up rolling around in the bottom of a draw, and eventually... landfill. Our fave reusable cups are Frank Green, with the purpose of stopping single-use plastic, which we think is awesome, plus their coffee cups look great too! Fressko also have a great range of reusable cups, a Melbourne based brand that started off seller tea infuser drink bottles and now have a great eco range!
Reusable Drink Bottle: Finding the right drink bottle is hard, with sippy lids to open mouth, we all have a personal preference. But single use plastic drink bottles are not the answer... shop around and find a drink bottle that suits your wants and needs and commit to it! Like our keep cups we also love Frank greens and Fressko drink bottles, Yetti is also a big name in this department.
Wooden Cleaning Tools: Designed and made in Australia, Seed & Sprout have a great range of wooden cleaning tools, with dish brushes that have replaceable wooden heads. You’ll be doing the dishes in style, knowing your looking after your environment at the same time! Mint Eco also has a cute, “wombat 4-piece" eco brush set!
Bamboo Cutlery Set: Perfect for leaving in your handbag, desk draw, or car, this set is the answer to plastic cutlery when you're out grabbing food! With a knife, fork, spoon, chopsticks and a straw! Flora & Fauna win our hearts with their set! Bio Me also has a great little kit, that is easily transportable.
Bamboo Cotton Buds: Made from 100% biodegradable bamboo and natural cotton, unlike their plastic cousins they won’t be hanging around in our environment forever. So, if you must clean your ears, make sure you source bamboo or environmentally friendly cotton buds. We love Green + Kind’s cotton buds!
Last year, we committed to ditching one plastic, decreasing our plastic consumption by 92%, and saving 20 tonnes of plastic each year! How? We made the switch from plastic to eco-friendly Halo packs, which are made from recycled cardboard! Meaning when you choose Dineamic, you're choosing to ditch a plastic too, which is pretty cool right?
We hope these items inspire you to ditch a plastic this week, and long-term goal: FOREVER! As this world is too precious to take for granted. We need to help our environment whenever possible!
Alicia McIntyre
