Plastic Free July

Are you joining the Plastic Free July challenge this year? We are.

We are absolutely delighted to have been invited by the Plastic Free July Foundation to participate in this years campaign as an example of what small businesses and families can do to minimise their use of plastic.

“We love Plastic Free July because it makes us reflect on our use of plastic and helps us to make changes in the workplace and at home”.

What is Plastic Free July?

Plastic Free July (PFJ) is a month dedicated each year to bringing awareness of our everyday use of plastic. From humble beginnings the initiative started in Perth in 2011 and has become a significant global event. In July 2018 alone, 120 million people across the globe took part in the challenge across 177 countries.

“Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?”

With waste becoming a huge burden on our health, environment and quality of life, it’s more important than ever to get on board this year.

What can I do to reduce my plastic use?

Check out the Plastic Free July Website for loads of ideas, inspirational stories and media releases.

When you start looking at being plastic free it’s easy to become immobilised by the burden of feeling overwhelmed with the amount of changes that you may need to make.

Some of the strategies that have helped us to be plastic free are:

1. Be SMART – Our biggest advice to get started is to choose one small achievable goal and focus on getting that set up before moving on to another goal. A SMART goal is specific, measurable, adaptive, realistic and timely.

2. Think Global Act Local – This is a global movement that needs to happen at a grass roots level. Check out the PFJ website to see what others are doing including what its ambassador Jack Johnson is doing this year.

3. ACT Mindfully – Being mindful is the opposite of living on auto-pilot. It’s about waking up and opening your eyes to plastic free opportunities and acting on them.

4. Build positive support networks – Educate your staff, family and friends and support each other in the process of change. Get your school, workplace, church or community organisation involved.

5. Have fun! – Be creative and find ways to make it a fun challenge. You’ll be surprised at the knock on effect it has on your life. For example, at Next Wave being plastic free has helped us further define our core value of sustainable health outcomes.

Plastic Free Initiatives at Next Wave Therapy in Hilton (Fremantle area)

We had a fun day filming with the Plastic Free July crew and Media on Mars a few weeks ago. We’ve always done what we can to minimise our plastic footprint and have started to set goals for what we will be doing this year.

Here’s some of the initiatives we have already introduced at Next Wave

1. We offer glasses and filtered water for drinks

2. All our staff use keep cups for the coffee run!

3. We have 4 bins to sort our waste

   • recycling is taken home as no commercial areas have a recycling bin

   • compostable rubbish is taken home or to our local waste recycling centre at Hilton Harvest Community Garden

   • landfill goes into the commercial skip bin

   • soft plastics are taken to a Redcycle centre

4. Our shredding is used in our worm fridge farm at home

5. We recently changed acupuncture needle packaging to multiple as opposed to single bundled.

Throughout July we’ll be posting tips and ideas on how we reduce single use plastic in the workplace and home. Please feel free to contact us if you want more information or support.